The Garden, the Chariots, and the Shulamite's Return

She goes down to see whether the garden has actually budded

I went down into the nut garden to look at the fruits of the valley, to see whether the vine had budded and the pomegranates were in bloom. Before any crowd speaks, she is the one inspecting growth. Then a hard line: before she knew it, her soul set her among the chariots of Amminadib. The Hebrew is famously unsettled. What is clear is sudden motion, public vehicles, and a self that is pulled into a scene she did not slowly choose.

Return, return, that we may look; she asks what they think they are seeing

Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon thee. The doubled call wants her body back in view. A voice answers: What will ye see in the Shulamite? as the dance of two camps, Mahanaim. The name Shulamite appears here, a feminine counterpart to Solomon's name, but the looking is not granted as a right. Dance, army-camp, and spectacle are placed under a question. Being gazed at is contested.