Garcilaso de la Vega, Si a vuestra voluntad yo soy de cera

Soneto
Si a vuestra voluntad yo soy de cera,
y por sol tengo sólo vuestra vista,
la cual a quien no inflama, o no conquista
con su mirar, es de sentido fuera;

de do viene una cosa, que si fuera
menos veces de mí probada y vista,
según parece que a razón resista,
a mi sentido mismo no creyera,

y es que yo soy de lejos inflamado
de vuestra ardiente vista y encendido
tanto, que en vida me sostengo apenas.

Mas si de cerca soy acometido
de vuestros ojos, luego siento helado
cuajárseme la sangre por las venas.

Sonnet
If I am wax submitting to your will,
and take to be the sun only your eyes,
which anyone their glance does not ignite
with their gaze surely is of sense deprived;

from which I can deduce that if I were
of seeing them and feeling them relieved,
as it appears that reason they resist,
my very senses I would not believe,

for I am from afar engulfed in flames
by your impassioned gaze, and I am so
burned up that my life is but scarce maintained.

But if from close up I am set upon
by your eyes, then I feel, in frozen state
my very blood congeal within my veins.

                     (©Alix Ingber, 1995)

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E-mail your comments and questions to:

Alix Ingber
Professor of Spanish
Sweet Briar College

ingber@sbc.edu

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