“Love Opened a Mortal Wound” – Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
by richibi
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651–1695)
___________
in both style and substance, the
following poem reminds me of
Emily Dickinson‘s wonderful stuff
the poet, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz,
1651–1695, was the illegitimate
daughter of a Spanish father and
a Creole mother, who chose to
follow her many intellectual pursuits
and become a nun rather than submit
to the rigours of love and a secular life
R ! chard
_________________
Love Opened a Mortal Wound
Love opened a mortal wound.
In agony, I worked the blade
to make it deeper. Please,
I begged, let death come quick.
Wild, distracted, sick,
I counted, counted
all the ways love hurt me.
One life, I thought—a thousand deaths.
Blow after blow, my heart
couldn’t survive this beating.
Then—how can I explain it?
I came to my senses. I said,
Why do I suffer? What lover
ever had so much pleasure?
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
(translated by Joan Larkin
and Jaime Manrique)
Con el Dolor de la Mortal Herida
Con el dolor de la mortal herida,
de un agravio de amor me lamentaba;
y por ver si la muerte se llegaba,
procuraba que fuese más crecida.
Toda en el mal el alma divertida,
pena por pena su dolor sumaba,
y en cada circunstancia ponderaba
que sobrarban mil muertes a una vida.
Y cuando, al golpe de uno y otro tiro,
rendido el corazón daba penoso
señas de dar el último suspiro,
no sé con qué destino prodigioso
volví en mi acuerdo y dije:—¿Qué me admiro?
¿Quién en amor ha sido más dichoso?
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