The Love of Loves

I am black, but beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem, As the tents of Kedar, As the curtains of Solomon.
                                                    Song of Solomon 1: 5

Genevieve Nnaji

               King Solomon sang to the most womanly of his women. He sang to her body and to the door and to the lushness of the shared bed.
                The  Song of Songs is not the least like the other books of the Bible of Jerusalem. Why is it there?
                According to the rabbis, it is an allegory of God's love for Israel. According to the priests,  a jubilant homage to Christ's marriage to the Church. But not a single verse mentions God, much less Christ or the Church, which emerged long after the Song was sung.
               It seems more likely that this encounter between a Jewish king and a black woman was a celebration of human passion and of the diversity of our colors.
               "Better than wine are the kisses of your lips,"  the woman sang.
               And in the version that has lasted to our days, she also sang: "I am black but I am beautiful,"
               and she excused herself, attributing her color to her work in the sun, in the vineyards.
               Other versions, however, insist the "but" was snuck in. She sang :
               " I am black and I am beautiful."
                                                      
                                          --Eduardo Galeano