Decimas By Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz
She Assures That She Will Hold a Secret
in Confidence
The page, discreetly, will relate
how, the moment it was read,
I tore your secret into shreds
that shreds not be the secret’s fate.
And something more, inviolate,
I swallowed what you had confessed,
the tiny fragments of your note,
to guard the secret that you wrote
and honor thus your confidence, lest
even one scrap escape my breast.
*
Asegura la confianza de que ocultura
de todo un secreto
El paje os dira, discreto,
como, luego que lei,
vuestro secreto rompi
por no romper el secreto.
Y aun hice mas, os prometo:
los fragmentos, sin desden,
del papel, trague tambien;
que secretos que venero,
aun en pedazos no quiero
que fuera del pecho esten.
*
A Modest Gift by Affection Made a Treat
Lysi: into your hands divine
I give two chestnuts with thorny spines,
because where roses bloom in number,
thorns will flowers’ stems encumber.
If to their spines you are inclined,
and so contrive to trick your taste,
forgive the shocking lack of grace
of one who sent you such a toy;
for if you would the meats enjoy,
then first you must the burr embrace.
Presente en que el carin~o hace regalo la llaneza
*
Lysi: a tus manos divinas
doy castanas espinosas,
porque donde sobran rosas
no pueden faltar espinas.
Si a su aspereza te inclinas
y con eso el gusto enganas,
perdona las malas manas
de quien tal regalo te hizo;
perdona, pues que un erizo
solo puede dar castanas.
*
She Describes in Detail--Not to Give the Last
Word to Painting--The Portrait of a Beauty
Smooth brow and golden hair,
sapphire eyes and temple fair,
glowing skin, with lips of rose,
ivory throat, a noble nose,
her form is graceful, proud her air;
and in her hands, pale and fine,
see Love’s scepter proudly shine:
Fili extolled, with--shod in gold--
a foot so comely it takes only
half a line.
*
Describe, con enfasis de no poder dar la ultima mano a la pintura, el retrato de una Belleza
Tersa frente, oro el cabello,
cejas arcos, zafir ojos,
brunida tez, labios rojos,
nariz recta, eburneo cuello;
talle airoso, cuerpo bello,
candidas manos en que
el cetro de Amor se ve,
tiene Fili; en oro engasta
pie tan breve, que no gasta
ni un pie.