The Song of Songs

Hosted by Chris Piuma and Suzanne Conklin Akbari

I come to my garden, my sister, my bride;
I gather my myrrh with my spice,
I eat my honeycomb with my honey,
I drink my wine with my milk.

Eat, friends, drink,
And be drunk with love.

The Song of Songs is a work of lyric poetry which is notably and undeniably erotic in focus. And yet it has also been a key religious text within both Judaism and Christianity, and has been read and commented upon for thousands of years within those contexts. Chris and Suzanne read this poetry both within and without these traditions of interpretations — and also luxuriate in its intensity (and spiciness).

67. The Song of Songs.

The Spouter-Inn The erotic/devotional poetry of The Song of Songs. More episodes

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Show Notes.

The Song of Songs is part of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible, and is available in many translations. Chris was primarily looking at the Jewish Publication Society translation; Suzanne at the Revised Standard Version.

Our episodes on Walt Whitman, the allegorical Conference of the Birds, and Times Square Red, Times Square Blue.

Bernard of Clairvaux: Commentary on the Song of Songs.

Alain of Lille’s commentary, Elucidatio in Cantica Canticorum, doesn’t seem to be easily available in English, but here’s the Latin.

Rupert of Deutz’s Commentaria in Cantica Canticorum also doesn’t seem to have been translated into English.

Next: Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy.