Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz -Lámina sirva el cielo...-

Lámina sirva el cielo al retrato...

Lámina sirva el cielo al retrato,
Lísida, de su angélica forma:
cálamos forme el sol de sus luces;
sílabas las estrellas compongan.

Cárceles tu madeja fabrica:
Dédalo que sutilmente forma
vínculos de dorados Ofires,
Tíbares de prisiones gustosas.

(...)

Cátedras del abril, tus mejillas,
clásicas dan a mayo, estudiosas:
métodos a jazmines nevados,
fórmula rubicunda a las rosas.

Lágrimas del aurora congela,
búcaro de fragancias, tu boca:
rúbrica con carmines escrita,
cláusula de coral y de aljófar.

(...)


May Heaven serve as plate...

May Heaven serve as plate for the engraving
portraying, Lysis, your angelic figure;
may the sun turn its beams into quills,
may all the stars compose their syllables.

Your skein of locks is as a prison-house,
a Cretan labyrinth that twists and curls
in webbings of golden Ophirs,
in Tibbars of fair prison-cells.

(...)

Your cheeks are April's lecture halls,
with classic lessons to impart to May:
recipes for making jasmine snowy,
formulas for redness in the rose.

In your mouth Aurora's chill tears
are kept in a many-scented vase;
its rubric is written in carmine,
its clause penned in coral and pearl.

(...)

Translated by Alan Trueblood