Song of Solomon 1:6

because Iam black The word for black here is a diminutive of the former word, and would be better translated swarthy.

the sun hath looked upon me Rather, hath scorched me (R.V.).

my mother's children Lit. sons. These are not, as Ewald and others conjecture, her step-brothers. They are rather her full brothers, and the pathos of her case is deepened by that fact. Even her own brothers, in their anger, set her menial tasks. From there being mention only of her mother and her brothers, and from the authority her brothers exercised over her, we may infer that her father was dead. This is one of the undesigned touches which compel us to assume a connected story of some kind as a background for the book. Those who deny any connexion between the songs and assert that they are only the fragments of a professional singer's répertoirecannot satisfactorily explain this reference,

but mine own vineyard have I not kept i.e. she did not take fitting care of her own beauty; or it may be that the reference is to the carelessness which had brought her into her present danger. The former is more probable since she affirms most strongly (cp. Song of Solomon 8:10; Song of Solomon 8:12) that in the sense of her person she has kept her -vineyard."