Poesía amorosa (Clásicos Castillo)

by Juana Inés de la Cruz

Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez tocó con su pluma las cumbres más altas del intelecto y los recintos más hondos del corazón humano. En esta muestra de su
obra retrata el anhelo, la felicidad y el sufrimiento comunes a quienes conocen los sentimientos amorosos. Hasta hoy se le considera la poeta más importante de toda Hispanoamérica, por su agudo ingenio y la calidad de sus textos que no sólo fueron importantes en su época, sino que han llegado a nuestro tiempo como ejemplo de estilo y profundidad.
Una muestra de la obra de la poeta más importante de Hispanoamérica por su agudo ingenio y la calidad de sus textos, que han llegado a nuestro tiempo como ejemplo de estilo y profundidad.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Lesbian, LGBT, Spanish Literature, Romance

180 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 1997

About the author

Juana Inés de la Cruz was born in a town in the Valley of Mexico to a Creole mother Isabel Ramírez and a Spanish military father, Pedro Manuel de Asbaje. As a child, she learned Nahuatl (Uto-Aztec language spoken in Mexico and Central America) and read and write Spanish in the middle of three years. Thanks to her grandfather's lush library, Juana Inés de la Cruz read the Greek and Roman classics and the theology of the time, she learned Latin in a self-taught way. In 1665, admired for her talent and precocity, she was lady-in-waiting to Leonor Carreto, wife of Viceroy Antonio Sebastián de Toledo. Sponsored by the Marquises of Mancera, she shone in the viceregal court of New Spain for her erudition and versifying ability. In 1667, Juana Inés de la Cruz entered a convent of the Discalced Carmelites of Mexico but soon had to leave due to health problems. Two years later she entered the Order of St. Jerome, remaining there for the rest of her life and being visited by the most illustrious personalities of the time. She had several drawbacks to her activity as a writer, a fact that was frowned upon at the time and that Juana Inés de la Cruz always defended, claiming the right of women to learn. Shortly before her death, she was forced by her confessor to get rid of her library and her collection of musical and scientific instruments so as not to have problems with the Holy Inquisition, very active at that time. She died of a cholera epidemic at the age of forty-three, while helping her sick companions. The emergence of Sor Juana De La Cruz in the late seventeenth century was a cultural miracle and her whole life was a constant effort of stubborn personal and intellectual improvement.

Reviews

[B. P. Rinehart · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Divina Lysi mía
perdona si me atrevo
a llamarte así, cuando
aun de ser tuya el nombre no merezco." - first stanza of the poem "My Divine Lysi"


This was a spare-of-the-moment read for me. I had heard this poet and when I saw the book laying around I decided to purchase it...but lets go back to the beginning. Sor Juana is the pen name of Juana Inés de la Cruz a famous intellectual and nun from Mexico who is generally recognized as that country's first poet. She was a part of the Spanish Golden Age of literature, but her perspective and boldness made her one of its rebels. This book is a small collection of her erotic/love poems. The poems in this book are interesting, both the translated ones and the ones actually by Sor Juana.

I should be placing this book above Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, but I can't on account of the translation. While the English "translation" is not bad...it's not faithful either. Because this is a bilingual book, I could compare the English translation to original Spanish. A lot of the lines and stanzas simply don't add up. I understand that the translators were going for a loose/creative translation, but I simply have more of a preference for the translation to match the original at least in some coherent sentiment. I would rather a translation of 17th century literature feel like it was written in the 17th century and not in the 1990s. Some of the liberties taken were ridiculous, some were not. I'm just happy that my Spanish has improved enough that I can tell these little discrepancies.

Besides all that the imagery of the poems are amazing and very lyrical and vivid. I see why she is so celebrated in certain circles and why she is so revered. I am only covering her poetry here, but she did much more as a writer and as a critic of the world she lived in.

[Regina · Rating 5 out of 5]

❝Hombres necios que acusáis
a la mujer sin razón,
sin ver que sois la ocasión
de lo mismo que culpáis:

si con ansia sin igual
solicitáis su desdén,
¿por qué queréis que obren bien
si las incitáis al mal? ❞



Translation: (I googled it because I wanted to post the most accurate one I could find, because even though I could try and translate it from Spanish I’d rather have you read a revised one)


❝You foolish men who lay
the guilt on women,
not seeing you're the cause
of the very thing you blame;

if you invite their disdain
with measureless desire
why wish they well behave
if you incite to ill?❞





All I’m going to say is that a lot of foreigners always look for Frida Kahlo when it comes to Mexican feminist icons (I personally feel kinda meh about Frida, I mean her museum is cool and all but...), but no one ever knows about Sor Juana, who in my humble opinion, was THE Mexican feminist icon.


#justsaying

[Jenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Too short.

[npc gr(an)dm(a) · Rating 4 out of 5]

8,5/10
en tiempos oscuros, nada es tan reconfortante como leer a la monja bisexual poliamorosa más icónica del barroco

(no le pongo más nota porque faltan poemas a la "lisi")

[Colin Flanigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This 17th century Mexican nun wrote some great love poetry! She garnered patronage from wealthy benefactors after rising from her origins of being an out of wedlock child. Her story, while amazing, is just prelude to the language of her writing which comes through even in translation.

[Sarah Hackley · Rating 4 out of 5]

English translations of Sor Juana's poems are just now becoming widely available. The more you know about this amazing poet from Mexico, the more vivid and intriguing her poems become.

[Sofia Vera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Esplendido

[Allie · Rating 5 out of 5]

did you know that to love another person is to see the face of god

[Gaby Piña · Rating 2 out of 5]

No logré conectar con su poesía, quizá fue por el lenguaje que es antiguo y no me facilitó la lectura, hay algunos poemas con los que sí me pude identificar pero no por completo.

[Maria Rosas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sin duda alguna es un importante acercamiento a la poesía de sor Juana además del contexto histórico que nos acerca a la vida de la poetisa

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

My publisher once told me that you need 40 poems to qualify as a bona fide poetry book (as opposed to a chapbook). Then later, he told me it's 44. Yet here we are with a collection of a mere 16 erotic verses (in the original Spanish with the translated English on the facing page) by Hieronymite nun / Baroque sonneteer / feminist icon Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez de Santillana and who would call the collected work anything but substantial? As someone who has tried to read Sor Juana before, this one is the first time I felt the dust was blown off the centuries old archive. As rendered in English by Joan Larkin and Jaime Manrique, these poems are electric, providing jolts of intensity through their use of direct language ("bitch," "shit," "pussy") as well as their sly metaphors ("your succulent worm"). For me, "Sir Juana's Love Poems" (1997) has ushered one of the great love poets into my 21st century. The title that Larkin and Manrique have given one of the poems, "Love Opened a Mortal Wound," could apply to everything herein. Sor Juana's passion is about extremes; would you have your love poetry any other way?

[Merla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dice Juana Inés en uno de sus poemas: "si no te agrada la pieza, no desenvuelvas el fardo". Y yo desenvuelvo pletórica cualquier obra suya que caiga en mis manos. Leer a esta autora es como recibir inesperadamente un regalo de otra época, sintiendo aún el frescor y musicalidad de sus versos.


"Mueran contigo, Laura, pues moriste,
los afectos que en vano te desean,
los ojos a quien privas de que vean
hermosa luz que un tiempo concediste.
[…] deseó tener ojos para verte,
ya le sirvieran sólo de llorarte"

"Qué humor puede ser más raro
que el que, falto de consejo,
él mismo empaña el espejo
y siente que no esté claro?"

**

Además de este libro he leído poemas sueltos (y los recomiendo también): La sentencia del justo, Nacimiento de cristo, Día de comunión, Letras para cantar, Finjamos que soy feliz, Esta tarde mi bien, Estos versos lector mío, Ya que para despedirme, Dime vencedor rapaz, Cogióme sin prevención, Este amoroso tormento y Verde embeleso.

[polina ★ · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Go ahead: reject those arms that wrapped you in sumptuous silk. Try to escape my arms, my breasts— I'll keep you prisoner in my poem.”

“Yes, I confess
to the crime of adoring you.
Punish me if you like—
punishment from you would be a joy.”

I love sapphic poetry so much and this was absolutely beautiful !!! 🥹 I definitely discovered a new favorite author for myself 🫶🏻

[Elidey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Desde pequeña sentí una cierta conexión con ella, me intrigaba mucho como una monja podía ser poeta. Y este libro me maravilló.

Llevaba tiempo queriéndole dar una oportunidad y me di cuenta que no importa la época o el siglo ella y yo solo somos dos chicas enamoradas de la vida, de dios y de la mujer que adoramos.

[Judy]

Sor Juana (1648/52-1695)
Pedirte ,senora, quiero
de mi silencio perdon
so lo que he sido atencion
le hace perecer grosero

Y si es culpable mi intento,
sera mi afecto precito;
porque es amarte un delito
de que nunca me arrepiento

Two verses from her poem. " Pedirte Senora, Quiero"

[Fabiola Moreno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hermoso. Una vez leí que Sor Juana Inés se hizo monja para escapar de las imposiciones de la sociedad en esa época pero que eso no impidió que se enamorara profunda y apasionadamente. Leer sus poemas de amor, lo comprueba.

[Neverland de Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

No hay nada mejor que leer Sor Juana con un cafecito

[Juniperus · Rating 3 out of 5]

too horny

[Elyse · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible feat of translation to capture the defiant tone and lyrical prose written not only in the 1600s but in another language

[Coralie Loon · Rating 4 out of 5]

just wish there was more to devour

[maria ☆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

many poems did hit me hard

[⋆ ˚｡⋆୨juno୧⋆ ˚｡⋆ · Rating 5 out of 5]

te amo mi monjita sáfica

[Karen Belmonte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Me ha volado la cabeza este poemario. Que excepcional y que grande. De los mejores poemarios que he leído en toda mi vida.

[Rosanna Diple]

Empezando por primera vez con esta reconocida autora y poeta. De momento va muy bien, en pocas líneas uno se va dando cuenta de la personalidad fuerte de esta mujer. Ya me está encantando.

[Sanni]

Ihmeellistä, että voin lukea meksikolaisen nunnan runoja keskiajalta ja ymmärtää niiden riettautta ja rakkautta.