She tries to refute the praises inscribed on her portrait by Truth, which she calls passion
This, that you see, this colored treachery,
which, by displaying all the charms of art,
with those false syllogisms of its hues
deceptively subverts the sense of sight;
this, in which false praise has vainly sought
to shun the horrors of the passing years,
and conquering of time the cruelty,
to overcome age and oblivion's might,
is a vain artifice cautiously wrought,
is a fragile bloom caught by the wind,
is, to ward off fate, pure uselessness;
is a foolish effort that's gone wrong,
is a weakened zeal, and, rightly seen,
is corpse, is dust, is gloom, is nothingness.
Translated by Alix Ingber
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Autres oeuvres par Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz...
Discurre con ingenuidad ingeniosa sobre la pasión de los celos. Muestra que su desorden es senda única para hallar el amor; y contradice un problema de don José Montoro, uno de los más célebres poetas de este siglo.
Si es causa amor productiva de diversidad de afectos, que, con producirlos todos, se perfecciona a sí mesmo; y si el uno de los más
