This verse presents many difficulties for interpretation and translation.

We identify the young man as the speaker here because of the use of a feminine participle to describe the one in the gardens, and the feminine suffix your on the noun voice.

O you who dwell in the gardens addresses the young woman who “dwells” or “sits” (New English Bible) in the gardens. On the noun gardens see comments on 6.2. However, here the gardens cannot refer to the young woman herself, since she is described as living or sitting there. On the other hand the full phrase does describe her. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible notes a comparison to a beautiful flower; in 2.1-2 similar metaphors are found. Bible en français courant tries to express this with “My beautiful one, who is [found] in the garden.” Good News Translation goes even further from the original, “Let me hear your voice from the garden, my love,” and so should probably not be followed.

My companions are listening for your voice: in 1.7 the word companions referred to the young man’s shepherd friends. There is no reason to think the meaning is any different here. Note, however, that New International Version and Contemporary English Version seem to consider these companions as friends of the young woman—perhaps even as the daughters of Jerusalem. However, since companions is masculine, this seems less likely. Several translations add the pronoun my to the noun companions, though the Hebrew merely has a simple noun form. “Friends” or “companions” is an acceptable rendering.

These friends are listening for the young woman to speak. Why they are listening, and what they might expect to hear, are both unanswered questions. Some translations render differently, suggesting that these friends are “in attendance” at the scene; for example, “Companions are attentive” (Pope), “[my] companions attend” (Fox).

Your voice may be the object of the participle are listening or of the following verb let me hear. Translations are divided on this matter; Jerusalem Bible agrees with Revised Standard Version, but New Jerusalem Bible and New International Version, along with a number of commentators, think voice is the object of hear. This gives a sense “Let me hear your voice.” The phrase your voice follows the preposition

Good News Translation seems to understand your voice as doing double duty in this verse, making it both the object of “hear” and the object of “listen”: “Let me hear your voice from the garden, my love; my companions are waiting to hear you speak.”

Let me hear it: the young man asks his lover to speak to him. We can render voice as the object here and say “Let me hear your voice” or “Say something to me.” In some languages this line may be more natural if placed before the previous one; this rearrangement is possible.

The entire verse can be rendered:

• You flower in the garden,
My companions are waiting,
Let me hear your voice!

• Speak to me,
You who dwell in the gardens.
My friends are waiting to hear your voice.

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 .