It is not only the woman’s overall beauty that sets the man’s heart beating wildly; her eyes also have that same kind of power over him.

Turn away your eyes from me begins with an imperative. The young man begs his lover to look away from him. Looking away can have several different meanings. People turn their eyes away because of shyness, shame, disgust, sadness, or even anger. We must be sure we understand what the young man is asking. In this context her eyes hold some power over him. His meaning is that, if she is facing him, he can see her enticing eyes; if she looks away from him, then he is no longer under their spell. We must also be sure we understand what this movement of the eyes means for the readers of our translation. If a literal rendering will be misunderstood, a substitute can be used. We may need to express the idea with a negative, “Don’t look at me like that!” or “Stop looking at me that way!”

For they disturb me is introduced by the relative marker in Hebrew. Revised Standard Version and many other versions render that marker with a conjunction for, indicating that this is the reason he wants her to turn her eyes away. Good News Translation and New International Version do not translate it but rather divide the clauses into two independent sentences. In English and other languages this may be an acceptable solution.

The pronoun they is masculine plural, whereas the word eyes in Hebrew is normally feminine. Though it is difficult to explain this unusual grammar, it does not need to affect our translation. It is often the case that grammatical rules of agreement are abandoned, especially in poetry. As for the verb disturb, we note that this Hebrew root means “to frighten.” Since the young man is hardly afraid of his lover, the word must have a more positive sense here. New English Bible suggests “dazzle,” and Jerusalem Bible “captivate me,” while New American Bible uses “torment.” Whether her eyes excite him sexually or more generally cannot be finally answered. What is certain is that her eyes have an unsettling effect upon him. We can also say “they overwhelm me” (New Revised Standard Version), or even perhaps “they’re driving me crazy!”

Good News Translation “turn your eyes away from me; they are holding me captive” is an acceptable model, or “Don’t look at me like that; I cannot resist you.” In some languages it may be more natural to put the reason clause before the imperative; so we can also say “Your eyes are driving me crazy. Stop looking at me that way!”

Your hair is like a flock of goats, moving down the slopes of Gilead: for comments and translation, refer to 4.1.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Zogbo, Lynell. A Handbook on the Book of Song of Songs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1998. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .