Who is this coming up from the desert leaning on her lover? Under the apple tree I roused you; there your mother conceived you, there she who was in labor gave you birth. (Song of Songs 8:5)

The Friends ask, the Beloved responds to her Lover.

The suggestion is that something connects the Beloved's rousing and the mother's birthing.

There, under the fruit tree, is something profoundly elemental.

The Hebrew - chabal - can mean conceived or in labor, as above, but there is a strong sense of the mother being in travail, writhing and twisting in pain.

From that pain the Lover was brought forth - yalad - born, delivered, given form.

Somehow the Beloved has resolved the elemental pain with elemental delight.