“Why do you scare your Sheshana, you wicked Zerubbabel? Picture me death and annihilation, speak to me of slavery and heavy chains; tell me that I shall grow ugly, with the face of a leper, and you will not frighten your Sheshana so much as with your talk of the king and his kingdom. How could you have spoken so? Tell me, how have I sinned to deserve it? Do you not yet know, then, how strong is my love for you? Tell me how to give you further proof of it and I will do so. Love speaks in various languages; have I not spoken to you in all of them? Have I not cooed to you like a dove, and have I not cried with passion’s fiery tongues? Have I not laughed in your embraces with my clearest laughter, and have I not wept for ecstasy in the sweetness of my love? You wicked Zerubbabel, my only one! My love is now like a stricken dove; it has lowered its wings and cast down its weary head in deep mourning, and it is you who have wounded it!” She pressed Zerubbabel tightly to her, and his heart shouted with delight. He did not interrupt her speech, and every word from her deep-red lips rendered his breathing more difficult. He was unable to speak; his breast heaved; he drank in her love with his glowing eyes which were like an ocean that cannot be filled. And Sheshana threw around his neck her bare white arms and whispered to him; her voice was like the voice of a distant violin. “You are my king, and my kingdom is your love. It is greater and wealthier than that of Ahasuerus. The sun never sets upon my kingdom, and my rulership over it is unlimited. Your powerful bosom is my firm land, and upon it I build my most glorious palaces. Your eyes are my seas; I sink into them even as the sinking sun, and like the rising sun I look out from them, and my world is bathed in splendour and in light. Your mighty arms are my armies, and I am secure beneath their protection. I desire no other kingdom, and the whole world without you would be too small and too forlorn. My beloved, my only one, my fortress and my sun, protect your Sheshana, guard well your queen!” More tightly than ever she pressed Zerubbabel to her, and his voice quivered with agitation, and yet it spoke of his great strength. “Zerubbabel is with you, and woe unto him that dares stretch out his arm toward you, even though it be the king himself. But speak to me, Sheshana, speak to me, my glorious maiden. Open up Paradise to me with your words, and I become the god who dwells therein. Coo to me, my little dove, and fill my heart with blessedness.” And Sheshana laughed with her clearest laughter, whispering then, “Small is Sheshana, but great is her love, boundless as the sea. But Sheshana asks for reward, and she languishes for a kiss!”