Poem: “This That You See”

Sonnet: This That You See

A refutation of flatteries perceived as blind error;
inscribed by the truth on a portrait of the poet.

This that you see, this brightly-hued pretense,
here by the grace of art rendered appealing,
through specious feats of colorful deceiving
is cleverly deployed to cheat the sense;
this, in which flattery’s munificence
has sought to mask the blows the years are dealing
so as to conquer time, thereby concealing
the horrors wrought by age and negligence,
is effort undertaken for no gain,
is a frail flower in the windy squall,
is a defense from fate mounted in vain,
is labor mad and wasted, doomed to fall,
is a fool’s errand, and, regarded plain,
is corpse, is dust, is dark, is not at all.

Translation,Rhina P. Espaillat

Photograph by chrsjc

Este que ves, engaño colorido  …

Este que ves, engaño colorido,
que, del arte ostentando los primores,
con falsos silogismos de colores
es cauteloso engaño del sentido;

éste, en quien la lisonja ha pretendido
excusar de los años los horrores,
y venciendo del tiempo los rigores
triunfar de la vejez y del olvido,

es un vano artificio del cuidado,
es una flor al viento delicada,
es un resguardo inútil para el hado:

es una necia diligencia errada,
es un afán caduco y, bien mirado,
es cadáver, es polvo, es sombra, es nada.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648–1695)