She Answers Suspicions In the Rhetoric of Tears by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz

My love, this evening when I spoke with you,

and in your face and actions I could read

that arguments of words you would not heed,

my heart I longed to open to your view.

In this intention, Love my wishes knew

and, though they seemed impossible, achieved:

pouring in tears that sorrow had conceived,

with every beat my heart dissolved anew.

Enough of suffering, my love, enough:

let jealousy’s vile tyranny be banned,

let no suspicious thought your calm corrupt

with foolish gloom by futile doubt enhanced,

for now, this afternoon, you saw and touched

my heart, dissolved and liquid in your hands.

From “Poems, Protest, and a Dream: Selected Writing” by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, translated from the Spanish by Margaret Sayers Peden (Penguin Classics: 254 pp., $12.95 paper)