Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

En que da moral censura a una rosa,
y en ella a sus semejantes

Rosa divina que en gentil cultura
eres, con tu fragante sutileza,
magisterio purpúreo en la belleza,
enseñanza nevada a la hermosura;

amago de la humana arquitectura,
ejemplo de la vana gentileza,
en cuyo sér unió naturaleza
la cuna alegre y triste sepultura:

¡cuán altiva en tu pompa, presumida,
soberbia, el riesgo de morir desdeñas,
y luego desmayada y encogida

de tu caduco sér das mustias señas,
con que con docta muerte y necia vida,
viviendo engañas y muriendo enseñas.



In which she warns a rose,
and through the rose, people

Divine rose cultivated with such grace
you are, with all your fragrant subtlety,
a scarlet master class in loveliness,
a snowy course that beauty demonstrates;

of human architecture duplicate,
example of all vain gentility,
in whose existence nature aptly joined
the happy crib to sad sepulchre's gates:

how haughty in your pomp, presumptuously
and haughtily you scorn the risks of death,
and later faint, with shrivelled petals tucked,

of your declining state give withered signs,
whereby, by your wise death and foolish life,
alive you fool, and dying you instruct. 

                     (©Alix Ingber, 1995)



 E-mail your comments and questions to:

Alix Ingber
Professor of Spanish
Sweet Briar College

ingber@sbc.edu



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