I reproduce here Sor Juana's most well-known poem and below, its English translation. Of course, it's on my reading list. In fact, it has pride of place as the first work on the list and this poet is exempt from alphabetization. I was too lazy just now to dig out the printed text of the poem so I thought I'd read it online. I found this site and I think that the translator, in choosing the adjective "silly", is a bit too easy on Sor Juana's intended audience. Other than that, it's actually an excellent translation! I wish I could find who did it, so I could credit her/him. The translation captures quite well the astute nun's ironic tone. Very little has changed since the siglo XVI in the sexual dynamic, though I think if it were to be written today, and a bit more honestly, the good sister couldn't really exempt a good many women from fitting into the category of
necios. We can be just as hard on each other. But then, that too could be men's fault. Come to think of it, Jimmy Buffett recognizes this, in "Margaritaville" - one less
hombre necio, then.
Hombres necios que acusáis
a la mujer sin razón,
sin ver que sois la ocasión
de lo mismo que culpáis:si con ansia sin igual
solicitáis su desdén,
¿por qué quereis que obren bien
si las incitáis al mal?Combatís su resistencia
y luego, con gravedad,
decís que fue liviandad
lo que hizo la diligencia.Parecer quiere el denuedo
de vuestro parecer loco,
al niño que pone el coco
y luego le tiene miedo.Queréis, con presunción necia,
hallar a la que buscáis,
para pretendida, Thais,
y en la posesión, Lucrecia¿Qué humor puede ser más raro
que el que, falto de consejo,
el mismo empaña el espejo
y siente que no esté claro?Con el favor y el desdén
tenéis condición igual,
quejándoos, si os tratan mal,
burlándoos, si os quieren bien.Opinión, ninguna gana:
pues la que más se recata,
si no os admite, es ingrata,
y si os admite, es livianaSiempre tan necios andáis
que, con desigual nivel,
a una culpáis por crüel
y a otra por fácil culpáis.¿Pues cómo ha de estar templada
la que vuestro amor pretende,
si la que es ingrata, ofende,
y la que es fácil, enfada?Mas, entre el enfado y pena
que vuestro gusto refiere,
bien haya la que no os quiere
y quejaos en hora buena.Dan vuestras amantes penas
a sus libertades alas,
y después de hacerlas malas
las queréis hallar muy buenas.¿Cuál mayor culpa ha tenido
en una pasión errada:
la que cae de rogada
o el que ruega de caído?¿O cuál es más de culpar,
aunque cualquiera mal haga:
la que peca por la paga
o el que paga por pecar?Pues ¿para quée os espantáis
de la culpa que tenéis?
Queredlas cual las hacéis
o hacedlas cual las buscáis.Dejad de solicitar,
y después, con más razón,
acusaréis la afición
de la que os fuere a rogar.Bien con muchas armas fundo
que lidia vuestra arrogancia,
pues en promesa e instancia
juntáis diablo, carne y mundo.
Silly, you men-so very adept
at wrongly faulting womankind,
not seeing you're alone to blame
for faults you plant in woman's mind.
After you've won by urgent plea
the right to tarnish her good name,
you still expect her to behave—
you, that coaxed her into shame.
You batter her resistance down
and then, all righteousness, proclaim
that feminine frivolity,
not your persistence, is to blame.
When it comes to bravely posturing,
your witlessness must take the prize:
you're the child that makes a bogeyman,
and then recoils in fear and cries.
Presumptuous beyond belief,
you'd have the woman you pursue
be Thais when you're courting her,
Lucretia once she falls to you.
For plain default of common sense,
could any action be so queer
as oneself to cloud the mirror,
then complain that it's not clear?
Whether you're favored or disdained,
nothing can leave you satisfied.
You whimper if you're turned away,
you sneer if you've been gratified.
With you, no woman can hope to score;
whichever way, she's bound to lose;
spurning you, she's ungrateful—
succumbing, you call her lewd.
Your folly is always the same:
you apply a single rule
to the one you accuse of looseness
and the one you brand as cruel.
What happy mean could there be
for the woman who catches your eye,
if, unresponsive, she offends,
yet whose complaisance you decry?
Still, whether it's torment or anger—
and both ways you've yourselves to blame—
God bless the woman who won't have you,
no matter how loud you complain.
It's your persistent entreaties
that change her from timid to bold.
Having made her thereby naughty,
you would have her good as gold.
So where does the greater guilt lie
for a passion that should not be:
with the man who pleads out of baseness
or the woman debased by his plea?
Or which is more to be blamed—
though both will have cause for chagrin:
the woman who sins for money
or the man who pays money to sin?
So why are you men all so stunned
at the thought you're all guilty alike?
Either like them for what you've made them
or make of them what you can like.
If you'd give up pursuing them,
you'd discover, without a doubt,
you've a stronger case to make
against those who seek you out.
I well know what powerful arms
you wield in pressing for evil:
your arrogance is allied
with the world, the flesh, and the devil!
I may be the "closest thing, but I'm a pretty far cry..."
* Watching the program just validated that I'm not mommy material. Or that I'm part dog. I realized that every time I've looked at a pregnant friend's ultrasound image, after a minute or so of trying to locate the baby, I've had to finally just pretend, "Oh, yeah, there's the little hand!" However, one of the pregnant canine subjects from Dogs in the Womb was a chihuahua on whom the scientists performed an ultrasound. I was immediately able to see the diminutive doggies on the ultrasound image with no problem whatsoever, discerning little paws and the beginnings a tail.
Andrea Palma interprete a Rosario en La mujer del puerto (dir. Arcady Boytler, 1934). Rosario es una de las prostitutas protagónicas del cine y de la narrativa mexicana de nombre que evoca la oración, la santidad, la iglesia católica junta con Santa y Mercedes de Santa (novela 1903 y primera película mexicana sonora, 1931) y Salón México (1949), respectivamente. Andrea Palma plays Rosario in director Arcady Boytler's 1934 Woman of the Port. Rosario is one of the protagonic prostitutes of the Mexican narrative and cinema whose name evokes prayer, saintliness, the Catholic Church, as do Santa and Mercedes ("mercies") in Santa (1903, novela and in 1931 the first "talkie" produced in Mexico) and in Salón México (1949), respectively.
