Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz -Finjamos que soy feliz...-

Finjamos que soy feliz...

(...)
Que loca ambición nos lleva
de nosotros olvidados?
si es para vivir tan poco
de que sirve saber tanto?

Oh, si como hay de saber,
hubiera algún seminario
o escuela donde a ignorar
se enseñaran los trabajos,

qué felizmente viviera
el que, flojamente cauto
burlara las amenazas
del influjo de los astros!


Let us pretend that I am happy...

(...)
What mad ambition drives us
to forget ourselves, to our grief?
What use is all our learning,
when human life is so brief?

What we need is a seminar
with no other aim than showing
not the ways of human learning
but the comforts of not knowing.

Exempt from need for caution,
taking pleasure in all things,
we'd scoff at whatever threats
the stars' influence brings.

Thought, lets learn not to know,
since so plainly it appears
that whatever we add to our minds
we take away from our years.

Translated by Alan S. Trueblood