Translation
You are a garden
Go to footnote numberlocked up,
Go to footnote numbermy sister, my bride;
you are an enclosed
Go to footnote numberspring
Go to footnote numbera sealed
Go to footnote numberfountain.
Go to footnote numberParaphrase
Your natural beauty is protected,
my close and dearest companion,
you guard well your ability to refresh;
there is no danger of losing or contaminating your refreshing qualities.
Footnotes
1: “a garden”
The term refers to a variety of things – parks, orchards, vegetable gardens or flower gardens. It can also mean an enclosure, or an enclosed garden. Thus the phrase used here has a double emphasis on this garden being enclosed or locked up.
Re: the imagery: Since the people in the cities of those days did not have much space, what little area they did have around their house they used carefully and purposefully; they planted fruit-bearing trees and certain herbs or vegetables, or, if they had more space than most, flowers. Besides meeting a need for the family it helped make the house a very beautiful place –as if to naturally adorn it with color and beauty. It seems that this latter situation is the idea of garden in the Song. A garden was a place of natural beauty.
2: “locked up”
The word used here means a “bolt or a bar” for those were the common ways to secure a house. “Locked up” is a picture of “protection.” The word “garden” also meant “enclosure” because they were often enclosed to keep them safe from animals and thieves. Here we see the word “enclosure” and then the words “locked up” as a double emphasis on security and protection.
3
“Enclosed” has the same meaning as locked—“protected.” “you guard well your ability to refresh”
Implications for marriage: A wife cannot refresh everyone equally. Her focus must first be on her husband and then her children. In order to do that well she cannot offer her refreshing qualities to everyone that comes along, not in the same way as she does for her husband. Protecting that ability to refresh makes it a powerful tool in her husband’s life.
4
A spring was refreshing because it produced fresh clean water, and since it was coming from the earth it was cool. Spring was always contrasted with the stagnant water of a cistern.
5
“Sealed” is a third way to say protected.
6
A fountain had the same meaning as a spring, it was refreshing. In fact it probably referred to a natural spring. It was not like the fountains we know today because the kind of fountain we know requires a pump which is usually powered by electricity.