Foxes in the Blossom

Spring arrives in Song of Songs with sound and scent. The beloved says, “The flowers have appeared in the countryside; the season of singing has come, and the cooing of turtledoves is heard in our land.” Then the image moves closer to fruit: “The fig tree ripens its figs; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.”

That is where the warning belongs. The lovers do not ask for walls against an army or prayers against hail. They say, “Catch for us the foxes” and name them “the little foxes that ruin the vineyards,” because “our vineyards are in bloom.”

The danger is scaled to the season. Blossoms are delicate. A small appetite, a quick trespass, a thing almost too minor to confront can do its work before fruit has had time to form.

Love needs ordinary attentiveness: small damage seen early, while the vineyard still smells of promise.