“Your hair is like a flock of goats”
Your eyes are like doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down Mount Gilead. (Song of Songs 4:1 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A bizarre, unflattering comparison of her hair to a herd of goats.
The cultural key
These strange-sounding lines open a wasf, the traditional Near Eastern love poem that praises the beloved feature by feature through vivid images. The trick is that each image names a quality, not a literal likeness. The goats of Gilead were a glossy black, and a whole flock streaming down the mountainside at evening is a rippling, flowing cascade of dark, shining movement, and that is the picture for her hair: long, thick, dark, and lustrous, tumbling in waves. 'Doves' for the eyes evokes softness, gentleness, and the flutter of the lids. Read as literal comparisons these compliments sound absurd or insulting; read as the imagery of the wasf, they are sensuous praise, prizing the movement, sheen, and abundance of what they describe.
Recovered meaning
In the wasf love-poem, each image praises a quality: a hillside of glossy black goats in motion pictures long, thick, gleaming, cascading hair. It is sensuous praise of her hair's sheen and abundance, not a comparison to livestock.