1. Cantique des Cantiques 5:3 (NEG79)
  2. Explication du texte

Why does the young woman say that she has put off her garment and washed her feet?

Cantique des Cantiques 5:3 (NEG79)

3 J'ai ôté ma tunique; comment la remettrais-je? J'ai lavé mes pieds; comment les salirais-je?

The young woman is expressing her hesitancy to accept her husband’s request for sexual intimacy.

She has made all the usual preparations to go to bed and cannot be bothered to go through that routine again. The tragic opposite of burning love is not necessarily fierce hatred; it can be a simple bored indifference to the desires and needs of the loved one.1