Poems, Protest, and a Dream

A bilingual edition of writings by Latin America's finest baroque poet

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (1648-1695) wrote her most famous prose work, La Respuesta a Sor Filotea, in 1691 in response to her bishop's injunction against her intellectual pursuits. A passionate and subversive defense of the rights of women to study, to teach, and to write, it predates by almost a century and a half serious writings on any continent about the position and education of women.

Also included in this wide-ranging selection is a new translation of Sor Juana's masterpiece, the epistemological poem "Primero Sueno, " as well as revealing autobiographical sonnets, reverential religious poetry, secular love poems (which have excited speculation through three centuries), playful verses, and lyrical tributes to New World culture that are among the earliest writings celebrating the people and the customs of this hemisphere. 

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE

INTRODUCTION

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING

A NOTE ON THE TEXT

RESPONSE TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS POETESS SOR FILOTEA DE LA CRUZ

FIRST I DREAM

ROMANCES
Prologue to the Reader
In Reply to a Gentleman from Peru
While by Grace I Am Inspired

REDONDILLAS
A Philosophical Satire

EPIGRAMS
Satiric Reproach
Which Reveals
A Much-Needed Eyewash
A Bit of Moral Advice
Demonstration to a Sergeant

DECIMAS
She Assures that She Will Hold a Secret
Accompanying a Ring
A Modest Gift
She Describes in Detail

SONNETS
She Attempts to Minimize the Praise
She Laments Her Fortune
Better Death
Spiritedly, She Considers the Choice
She Distrusts, as Disguised Cruelty
One of Five Burlesque Sonnets
She Answers Suspicions
Which Recounts How Fantasy Contents Itself
She Resolves the Question

VILLANCICO
Fragment from "Santa Catarina"

THEATER, SACRED AND PROFANE
Loa for El Divino Narciso
Fragment from Los Empenos de Una Casa

NOTES

Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College and the author or editor of numerous books.