Sor Filotea’s Letter
Puebla, November 25, 1690 · Writing as a nun, the bishop of Puebla praises Sor Juana’s critique of a sermon and urges her to turn from secular study to sacred.
A bishop’s praise and counsel
Writing as a nun, the bishop praises her critique of Vieira and urges her toward sacred study.
Señora mia. He Visto la Carta de V. md. en que impugna las finezas, que de Christo discurriò el R. P. Antonio de Vieyra en el Sermon del Mandato, con tanta subtileza, que à los mas eruditos ha parecido que, como otra Aguila de Ezechiel, se auia remontado este singular talento sobre sì mismo, siguiendo la planta, que formò antes el Illustrissimo Cesar Meneses, Ingenio de los primeros de Portugal; pero à mi juizio, quien leyere su Apologia de V. md.
My lady. I have seen your letter in which you challenge the favors of Christ that the Reverend Father António Vieira reasoned out in the Maundy Thursday sermon. He did so with such subtlety that to the most erudite it has seemed that this singular talent, like another eagle of Ezekiel, had soared above itself, following the plan laid down earlier by the Most Illustrious César Meneses, one of the foremost minds of Portugal. But in my judgment, whoever reads your defense
no podrà negar, que cortò la pluma mas delgada, que ambos, y que pudieran gloriarse de veerse impugnados de vna Muger, que es honra de su sexo. Yo à lo menos he admirado la viueza de los conceptos, la discrecion de sus pruebas, y la energica claridad, con que convence el assumpto, compañera inseparable de la sabiduria: que por esso la primera voz, que pronunciò la Divina, fue luz, porque sin claridad, no ay voz de sabiduria.
will not be able to deny that you cut a finer pen than either of them, and that they might take pride in seeing themselves challenged by a woman who is the honor of her sex. I, at least, have admired the liveliness of your conceits, the discernment of your proofs, and the forceful clarity with which you prove your case. Clarity is the inseparable companion of wisdom. That is why the first word divine Wisdom spoke was “light”: without clarity there is no word of wisdom.
Aun la de Christo, quando hablaba altissimos mysterios entre los velos de las Parabolas, no se tuvo por admirable en el Mundo; solo quando hablò claro, mereciò la aclamacion de saberlo todo. Este es vno de los muchos beneficios, que debe V. md. à Dios, porque la claridad no se adquiere con el trabajo, è industria; es dòn que se infunde con el alma.
Even Christ’s word, when he spoke of the loftiest mysteries behind the veils of parables, was not held in wonder by the world. Only when he spoke plainly did he earn the acclaim of knowing all things. This is one of the many benefits you owe to God, for clarity is not acquired by labor and diligence; it is a gift infused with the soul.
Para que V. md. se vea en este Papel de mejor letra, le he impresso, y para que reconozca los tesoros, que Dios depositò en su alma, y le sea, como mas entendida, mas agradecida, que la gratitud, y el entendimiento nacieron siempre de vn mismo parto. Y si, como V. md. dize en su Carta, quien mas ha recibido de Dios, està mas obligado à la correspondencia, temo se halle V. md.
I have had this paper printed so that you may see yourself in a better hand. I have also done it so that you may recognize the treasures God placed in your soul and, understanding more, may be more grateful to him, for gratitude and understanding were always born twins. And if, as you say in your letter, whoever has received most from God is most obliged to repay him, I fear you may find yourself
alcançada en la cuenta; pues pocas criaturas deben à su Magestad mayores talentos en lo natural: con que executa al agradecimiento, para que si hasta aqui los ha empleado bien (que assi lo debo creer, de quien professa tal Religion) en adelante sea mejor.
in arrears in the accounts, for few creatures owe His Majesty greater natural talents. So he presses your gratitude for payment. If until now you have used those talents well (as I must believe of one who professes such a religious life), from now on may you use them better.
No es mi juizio tan austèro Censor, que estè mal con los versos, en que v. md. se ha visto tan celebrada, despues que Santa Teresa, el Nacianzeno, y otros Santos, canonizaron con los suyos esta habilidad; pero deseàra, que los imitàra, assi como en el metro, tambien en la eleccion de los assumptos.
My judgment is not so stern a censor that it finds fault with the verses for which you have been so celebrated, since St. Teresa, Gregory of Nazianzus and other saints canonized this skill with verses of their own. But I could wish that you imitated them in the choice of subjects as well as in meter.
No apruebo la vulgaridad, de los que reprueban en las mugeres el vso de las Letras, pues tantas se aplicaron à este estudio, no sin alabança de San Geronimo: es verdad que dize San Pablo, que las mugeres no enseñen; pero no manda, que las mugeres no estudien, para saber; porque solo quiso preuenir el riesgo de elacion en nuestro sexo, propenso siempre à la vanidad.
I do not approve of the vulgar opinion of those who condemn women’s use of letters, since so many women applied themselves to this study, and not without praise from St. Jerome. It is true that St. Paul says women should not teach. But he does not command that women should not study in order to know, for he meant only to forestall the risk of pride in our sex, which is always prone to vanity.
A Sarai la quitò vna letra la Sabiduria Diuina, y puso vna mas al nombre de Abrahan, no porque el varon ha de tener mas letras, que la muger, como sienten muchos, sino porque la i, añadida al nombre de Sara, explicaba tumor, y dominacion. Señora mia se interpreta Sarai, y no convenia, que fuesse en la casa de Abrahan señora, la que tenia empleo de subdita: Letras que engendran elacion, no las quiere Dios en la muger; pero no las reprueba el Apostol, quando no sacan à la muger del estado de obediente.
From Sarai divine Wisdom took away a letter, and it added one to Abraham’s name. This was not because a man must have more letters than a woman, as many think. It was because the i added to Sara’s name signified swelling and domination. Sarai is interpreted as my lady, and it was not fitting that she who held the office of a subject should be lady in Abraham’s house. Letters that breed pride God does not want in a woman. But the Apostle does not condemn them when they do not take a woman out of the state of obedience.
Notorio es à todos, que el estudio, y saber han contenido à v. md. en el estado de subdita, y que la han servido de perficionar primores de obediente; pues si las demàs Religiosas por la obediencia sacrifican la voluntad, v. md. cautiua el entendimiento, que es el mas arduo, y agradable holocausto, que puede ofrecerse en las Aras de la Religion.
It is well known to all that study and knowledge have kept you in the state of a subject, and have helped you perfect the refinements of obedience. Other nuns sacrifice their will through obedience, but you take your understanding captive, which is the hardest and most pleasing burnt offering that can be laid on the altars of religion.
No pretendo, segun este dictamen, que v. md. mude el genio, renunciando los Libros; sino que le mejore, leyendo alguna vez el de Jesu-Christo. Ninguno de los Euangelistas llamò Libro à la Genealogia de Christo, sino es San Matheo; porque en su conversion no quiso este Señor, mudarle la inclinacion, sino mejorarla; para que si antes, quando Publicano, se ocupaba en libros de sus tratos, è interesses; quando Apostol mejorasse el genio, mudando los libros de su ruìna en el Libro de Jesu Christo. Mucho tiempo ha gastado v. md.
By this judgment I do not mean that you should change your bent by renouncing books, but that you should improve it by reading now and then the book of Jesus Christ. None of the Evangelists called Christ’s genealogy a book except St. Matthew. The reason is that at his conversion the Lord did not wish to change Matthew’s inclination, but to improve it. As a tax collector he had busied himself with the books of his dealings and interests; as an apostle he would improve his bent by exchanging the books of his ruin for the Book of Jesus Christ. You have spent a great deal of time
en el estudio de Filosofos, y Poetas; ya serà razon que se perficionen los empleos, y que se mejoren los Libros. Què Pueblo huvo mas erudito, que el Egypcio? En èl empezaron las primeras letras del Mundo, y se admiraron los hieroglificos.
in the study of philosophers and poets. Now it would be right to perfect your occupations and improve your books. What people was ever more learned than the Egyptians? Among them the first letters of the world began, and hieroglyphics were admired.
Por grande ponderacion de la sabiduria de Joseph, le llama la Santa Escritura consumado en la erudicion de los Egypcios; y con todo esso, el Espiritu Santo dize abiertamente, que el Pueblo de los Egipcios es barbaro; porque toda su sabiduria, quando mas, penetraba los movimientos de las Estrellas, y Cielos; pero no seruia para enfrenar los desordenes de las passiones: toda su sciencia tenia por empleo perficionar al hombre en la vida politica; pero no ilustraba para conseguir la eterna: y sciencia que no alumbra para salvarse; Dios, que todo lo sabe, la califica por necedad.
To praise the greatness of Joseph’s wisdom, Holy Scripture calls him accomplished in the learning of the Egyptians. Even so, the Holy Spirit says openly that the Egyptians are an uncultivated people. All their wisdom, at most, penetrated the movements of the stars and the heavens, but it did not serve to curb the disorders of the passions. All their knowledge aimed at perfecting man in civil life, but it gave no light for attaining eternal life. And knowledge that gives no light for salvation, God, who knows all things, judges to be folly.
Assi lo sintiò Justo Lipsio, pasmo de la erudicion (estando vezino à la muerte, y à la cuenta, quando el entendimiento està ilustrado) que consolandole sus amigos, con los muchos libros que auia escrito de erudicion, dixo, señalando à vn Santo Christo: Sciencia, que no es del Crucificado, es necedad, y sola vanidad.
So thought Justus Lipsius, that marvel of erudition. He was near death and the final reckoning, when the understanding is enlightened, and his friends consoled him with the many learned books he had written. Pointing to a crucifix, he said: Knowledge that is not of the Crucified is folly, and mere vanity.
No repruebo por esto la leccion destos Autores; pero digo à v. md. lo que aconsejaba Gerson: prestese v. md. no se venda, ni se dexe robar destos estudios: esclauas son las letras humanas, y suelen aprouechar à las Diuinas; pero deben reprobarse, quando roban la possession del entendimiento humano à la Sabiduria Diuina, haziendose señoras las que se destinaron à la seruidumbre: commendables son, quando el motiuo de la curiosidad, que es vicio, se passa à la estudiosidad, que es virtud.
I do not, for all this, condemn the reading of these authors. But I tell you what Gerson advised: lend yourself to these studies, but do not sell yourself to them or let yourself be stolen away by them. Secular learning is a slave, and it often serves sacred letters well. But it must be condemned when it robs divine Wisdom of possession of the human understanding, making itself mistress when it was meant for servitude. It is commendable when the motive of curiosity, which is a vice, turns into studiousness, which is a virtue.
A San Geronimo le azotaron los Angeles, porque leìa en Ciceron, arrastrado, y casi no libre; prefiriendo el deleyte de su eloquencia à la solidèz de la Sagrada Escritura; pero loablemente se aprouechò este Santo Doctor de sus noticias, y de la erudicion profana, que adquiriò en semejantes Autores.
Angels flogged St. Jerome because he read Cicero as if dragged along, hardly free, and preferred the delight of his eloquence to the solidity of Holy Scripture. Yet this holy Doctor made praiseworthy use of what he knew of such authors and of the profane learning he acquired from them.
No es poco el tiempo, que ha empleado v. md. en estas sciencias curiosas; passe ya, como el Gran Boecio, à las prouechosas, juntando à las subtilezas de la natural, la vtilidad de vna Filosofia Moral.
You have spent no little time on these curious sciences. Pass on now, like the great Boethius, to the profitable ones, joining to the subtleties of natural philosophy the usefulness of a moral philosophy.
Lastima es, que vn tan grande entendimiento de tal manera se abàta à las rateras noticias de la Tierra, que no desee penetrar lo que passa en el Cielo: y ya que se humille al suelo, que no baxe mas abaxo, considerando lo que passa en el Infierno: y si gustare algunas vezes de inteligencias dulces, y tiernas, aplique su entendimiento al Monte Calvario, donde viendo finezas del Redemptor, y ingratitudes del redimido, hallarà gran campo, para ponderar excessos de vn amor infinito; y para formar Apologias, no sin lagrimas, contra la ingratitud, que llega à lo sumo.
It is a pity that so great an understanding should stoop so low to the paltry knowledge of the earth that it has no wish to penetrate what happens in heaven. And since it does humble itself to the ground, it is a pity that it does not go lower still and consider what happens in hell. If at times it should enjoy sweet and tender reflections, let it turn to Mount Calvary. There, seeing the favors of the Redeemer and the ingratitude of the redeemed, it will find a wide field for weighing the excesses of an infinite love, and for composing defenses, not without tears, against an ingratitude that reaches the utmost.
O què vtilmente otras vezes se engolfarà esse rico Galeon de su ingenio en la alta Mar de las perfecciones Diuinas! No dudo que le sucederia à v. md. lo que à Apeles, que copiando el retrato de Campaspe, quantas lineas corria con el pincel por el lienço, tantas heridas hazia en su coraçon la saeta del Amor: quedando al mismo tiempo perficionado el retrato, y herido mortalmente de amor del original el coraçon del Pintor.
Oh, how profitably would that rich galleon of your intelligence at other times sail out into the high sea of the divine perfections! I do not doubt that the same would happen to you as to Apelles. As he painted the portrait of Campaspe, Love’s arrow made as many wounds in his heart as the lines his brush drew across the canvas. So at one and the same time the portrait was perfected and the painter’s heart was mortally wounded with love for the original.
Estoy muy cierta, y segura, que si v. md. con los discursos viuos de su entendimiento, formasse, y pintasse vna idèa de las perfecciones Diuinas (qual se permite entre las tinieblas de la Fè) al mismo tiempo se verìa ilustrada de luzes su alma, y abrasada su voluntad, y dulcemente herida de amor de su Dios, para que este Señor, què ha llouido tan abundantemente beneficios possitiuos en lo natural sobre v. md. no se vea obligado à concederla beneficios solamente negatiuos en lo sobrenatural, que por mas que la discrecion de v. md.
I am very certain and sure that if, with the lively reasonings of your understanding, you were to form and paint an idea of the divine perfections (as far as is permitted amid the darkness of faith), your soul would at once be filled with light, and your will set on fire and sweetly wounded with love of your God. Then this Lord, who has rained such abundant positive benefits on you in the natural order, would not find himself obliged to grant you merely negative benefits in the supernatural order. However much your discernment
los llame finezas: yo los tengo por castigos, porque solo es beneficio el que Dios haze al coraçon humano, previniendole con su gracia, para que le corresponda agradecido; disponiendole con vn beneficio reconocido, para que no repressada la liberalidad Diuina, se los haga mayores. Esto desea à v. md.
may call them favors, I hold them to be punishments. For the only true benefit is the one God does the human heart when he goes before it with his grace so that it may respond with gratitude. He disposes it with a benefit it acknowledges, so that divine generosity, no longer held back, may grant it greater ones. This is what is wished for you by
quien desde que la besò, muchos años ha, la mano, viue enamorada de su alma, sin que se aya entibiado este amor, por la distancia, ni el tiempo, porque el amor espiritual no padece achaques de mudanças, ni le reconoce el que es puro, sino es àzia el crecimiento: Su Magestad oyga mis suplicas, y haga à v. md. muy santa, y me la guarde en toda prosperidad. Deste Convento de la Santissima Trinidad de la Puebla de los Angeles, y Nouiembre 25. de 1690.
one who, ever since kissing your hand many years ago, has lived in love with your soul. This love has not cooled through distance or time, for spiritual love suffers no ailments of change, and pure love admits no change except toward growth. May His Majesty hear my prayers, make you very holy, and keep you for me in all prosperity. From this Convent of the Most Holy Trinity of Puebla, November 25, 1690.
B. L. M. de V. md. su afecta seruidora. Philotèa de la Cruz.
Your affectionate servant, who kisses your hand, Filotea de la Cruz.
The Reply to Sor Filotea
Mexico City, March 1, 1691 · Sor Juana tells the story of her life of study and defends the right of women to learn and to teach.
Two impossibilities
She cannot answer so learned a letter or thank her correspondent enough for printing her critique.
Muy Ilustre Señora, mi Señora. No mi voluntad, mi poca salud, y mi justo temor han suspendido tantos dias mi respuesta. Què mucho, si al primer passo encontraba, para tropezar mi torpe pluma, dos impossibles? El primero (y para mi el mas rigoroso) es, saber responder à vuestra doctissima, discretissima, santissima, y amorosissima Carta.
Most Illustrious Lady, my Lady. It is not my will but my poor health and my well-founded fear that have held back my reply for so many days. Is that any wonder, when at the very first step my clumsy pen met two impossibilities to stumble over? The first, and for me the harshest, is knowing how to answer your most learned, most discerning, most holy and most loving letter.
Y si veo, que preguntado el Angel de las Escuelas, Santo Thomàs, de su silencio con Alberto Magno, su Maestro; respondiò: Que callaba, porque nada sabia dezir digno de Alberto; Con quanta mayor razon callaria, no como el Santo, de humildad; sino que en la realidad es, no saber algo digno de vos?
Thomas Aquinas, the Angel of the Schools, was once asked why he kept silent before his teacher Albertus Magnus, and he replied that he kept silent because he could say nothing worthy of Albertus. If so, how much more reason would I have to keep silent? With me it is not humility, as it was with the saint; the reality is that I know nothing worthy of you.
El segundo impossible es, saber agradeceros tan excessiuo, como no esperado fauor, de dar à las Prensas mis borrones, merced tan sin medida, que aun se le passàra por alto à la esperança mas ambiciosa, y al deseo mas fantastico; y que ni aun como ente de razon, pudiera caber en mis pensamientos; y en fin, de tal magnitud, que no solo no se puede estrechar à lo limitado de las vozes; pero excede à la capacidad del agradecimiento, tanto por grande, como por no esperado, que es lo que dixo Quintiliano: Minorem spei, maiorem benefacti gloriam pereunt. Y tal, que enmudecen al beneficiado.
The second impossibility is knowing how to thank you for so excessive and so unexpected a favor as giving my scribblings to the press. It is a kindness so beyond measure that it would have outstripped even the most ambitious hope and the wildest desire. It could not have entered my thoughts even as a mere figment of reason. In short, it is so great that it not only cannot be confined within the narrow limits of words, but exceeds the capacity of gratitude itself, as much by its greatness as by its unexpectedness. This is what Quintilian said: They yield less glory to hope, and more to the benefit received. Such favors leave the one who receives them speechless.
Quando la felizmente esteril, para ser milagrosamente fecunda, Madre del Baptista, viò en su casa tan desproporcionada visita, como la Madre de el Verbo, se le entorpeciò el entendimiento, y se le suspendiò el discurso; y assi, en vez de agradecimientos, prorrumpiò en dudas, y preguntas: Et vnde hoc mihi? De donde à mi viene tal cosa? Lo mismo sucediò à Saul, quando se viò electo, y vngido Rey de Israel: Numquid non filius Iemini ego sum de minima Tribu Israel, & cognatio mea inter omnes de Tribu Beniamin? Quare igitur locutus es mihi sermonem istum?
The mother of the Baptist was happily barren, so that she might be miraculously fruitful. When she saw in her house a visitor so far above her as the Mother of the Word, her understanding was dulled and her reasoning suspended, and so, instead of thanks, she broke out in doubts and questions: And whence is this to me? Where does such a thing come to me from? The same happened to Saul when he found himself chosen and anointed King of Israel: Am I not a son of Jemini, of the least tribe of Israel, and my kindred among all of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then have you spoken this word to me?
Assi yo dirè: De donde, venerable señora, de donde à mi tanto favor? Por ventura soy mas, que vna pobre Monja, la mas minima criatura del Mundo, y la mas indigna de ocupar vuestra atencion? Pues quare locutus es mihi sermonem istum? Et vnde hoc mihi? Ni al primer impossible tengo mas, que responder, que no ser nada digno de vuestros ojos: ni al segundo mas, que admiraciones, en vez de gracias, diziendo, que no soy capàz de agradeceros la mas minima parte de lo que os debo.
So I will say: Whence, venerable lady, whence comes so great a favor to me? Am I anything more than a poor nun, the least creature in the world and the least worthy to occupy your attention? Then why have you spoken this word to me? And whence is this to me? To the first impossibility I have no other answer than that I am not in the least worthy of your eyes. To the second I have nothing but exclamations of wonder instead of thanks, and can only say that I am not capable of thanking you for the smallest part of what I owe you.
No es afectada modestia, señora, sino ingenua verdad de toda mi alma; que al llegar à mis manos impressa la Carta, que vuestra propriedad llamò Athenagorica, prorrumpi (con no ser esto en mi muy facil) en lagrimas de confusion, porque me pareciò, que vuestro favor no era mas, que vna reconvencion, que Dios haze à lo mal que le correspondo; y que como à otros corrige con castigos, à mi me quiere reducir à fuerça de beneficios, especial favor, de que conozco ser su deudora, como de otros infinitos de su inmensa bondad; pero tambien especial modo de avergonçarme, y confundirme, que es mas primoroso medio de castigar, hazer que yo mesma, con mi conocimiento, sea el juez, que me sentencie, y condene mi ingratitud.
This is not affected modesty, my lady, but the plain truth of my whole soul. When the letter you so aptly called Athenagoric reached my hands in print, I burst into tears of confusion, though tears do not come easily to me. It seemed to me that your favor was nothing but a reproach from God for how poorly I respond to him. As he corrects others with punishments, he wishes to bring me round by force of benefits. This is a special favor, and I know I am his debtor for it, as I am for countless others from his immense goodness. But it is also a special way of shaming and confounding me, and a more exquisite way of punishing: to make me myself, with my own knowledge, the judge who sentences me and condemns my ingratitude.
Y assi, quando esto considero, acà à mis solas, suelo dezir: Bendito seais vos, Señor, que no solo no quisisteis en manos de otra criatura el juzgarme, y que ni aun en la mia lo pusisteis, sino que lo reservasteis à la vuestra, y me librasteis à mi de mi, y de la sentencia, que yo mesma me daria; que forçada de mi proprio conocimiento, no pudiera ser menos, que de condenacion, y vos la reservasteis à vuestra misericordia, porque me amais mas de lo que yo me puedo amar.
And so, when I consider this here on my own, I often say: Blessed be you, Lord, who not only did not wish to place my judgment in the hands of any other creature, nor even in my own, but reserved it to yours. You freed me from myself and from the sentence I would pass on myself, which, forced by my own knowledge of myself, could be nothing less than condemnation. You reserved it to your mercy, because you love me more than I can love myself.
Why she writes little on sacred subjects
She explains that fear of the Inquisition and reverence for Scripture, not dislike, have kept her from sacred topics.
Perdonad (señora mia) la digression, que me arrebatò la fuerça de la verdad; y si la he de confessar toda, tambien es buscar efugios para huir la dificultad de responder, y quasi me he determinado à dexarlo al silencio; pero como este es cosa negativa, aunque explica mucho con el enfasis de no explicar, es necessario ponerle algun breve rotulo, para que se entienda lo que se pretende, que el silencio diga; y sino, dirà nada el silencio, porque esse es su proprio oficio, dezir nada.
Forgive me, my lady, for the digression into which the force of truth carried me off. And if I am to confess the whole truth, it is also a way of looking for evasions to escape the difficulty of answering. I had almost decided to leave the matter to silence. But silence is a negative thing, and although it explains a great deal by the emphasis of not explaining, it needs some brief label so that what one means silence to say can be understood. Otherwise silence will say nothing, because that is its proper office: to say nothing.
Fue arrebatado el Sagrado Vaso de Eleccion al tercer Cielo, y aviendo visto los arcanos secretos de Dios, dize: Audiui arcana Dei, quæ non licet homini loqui. No dize lo que viò; pero dize, que no lo puede dezir; demanera, que aquellas cosas, que no se pueden dezir, es menester dezir, siquiera, que no se pueden dezir, para que se entienda, que el callar, no es no aver que dezir, sino no caber en las vozes, lo mucho, que ay que dezir. Dize S.
The sacred Vessel of Election was caught up to the third heaven, and having seen the hidden secrets of God, he says: I heard the secrets of God, which it is not lawful for man to speak. He does not say what he saw; but he says that he cannot say it. So things that cannot be said must at least be said to be things that cannot be said. That way it is understood that keeping silent is not having nothing to say, but that the great deal there is to say will not fit into words. St. John says
Juan, que si huviera de escrivir todas las maravillas, que obrò nuestro Redemptor, no cupieran en todo el Mundo los libros: y dize Vieyra sobre este lugar, que en sola esta clausula dixo mas el Evangelista, que en todo quanto escriviò: y dize muy bien el Fenix Lusitano (pero quando no dize bien, aun quando no dize bien?)
that if he were to write down all the wonders our Redeemer worked, the whole world could not hold the books. And Vieira says of this passage that in this one sentence the Evangelist said more than in everything else he wrote. And the Phoenix of Portugal speaks very well here (but when does he not speak well, even when he does not speak well?)
porque aqui dize San Juan todo lo que dexò de dezir, y expressò lo que dexò de expressar: Assi yo (señora mia) solo responderè, que no sè qué responder, solo agradecerè, diziendo, que no soy capàz de agradeceros, y dirè (por breve rotulo de lo que dexo al silencio) que solo con la confiança de favorecida, y con los valimientos de honrada, me puedo atrever à hablar con vuestra grandeza: si fuere necedad, perdonadla, pues es alhaja de la dicha, y en ella ministrarè yo mas materia à vuestra benignidad, y vos dareis mayor forma à mi reconocimiento.
for here St. John says everything he left unsaid, and expresses what he left unexpressed. So I, my lady, will answer only that I do not know how to answer. I will thank you only by saying that I am not capable of thanking you. And as a brief label for what I leave to silence, I will say that only with the confidence of one who has been favored, and with the privileges of one who has been honored, do I dare speak to your greatness. If this is foolishness, forgive it, since foolishness is one of good fortune’s treasures. In it I will supply more matter for your kindness, and you will give greater form to my gratitude.
No se hallaba digno Moyses, por balbuciente, para hablar con Faraon; y despues, el verse tan favorecido de Dios, le infunde tales alientos, que no solo habla con el mismo Dios, sino que se atreve à pedirle impossibles: Ostende mihi faciem tuam. Pues assi yo (señora mia) ya no me parecen impossibles los que puse al principio, à vista de lo que me favoreceis: porque quien hizo imprimir la Carta tan sin noticia mia, quien la intitulò, quien la costeò, quien la honrò tanto, siendo de todo indigna por sì, y por su Autora, què no harà? què no perdonarà? què dexarà de hazer?
Moses, because he was slow of speech, did not think himself worthy to speak with Pharaoh. Yet afterward, finding himself so favored by God filled him with such courage that he not only spoke with God himself but dared to ask him for the impossible: Show me your face. It is the same with me, my lady: in view of how you favor me, the impossibilities I set down at the beginning no longer seem impossible. For the person who had the letter printed without my knowing anything of it, who gave it its title, who paid for it, who honored it so highly when it was wholly unworthy, both in itself and in its author—what will such a person not do? What will such a person not forgive? What will such a person leave undone?
y què dexarà de perdonar? Y assi, debaxo de el supuesto de que hablo con el salvoconducto de vuestros favores, y debaxo de el seguro de vuestra benignidad, y de que me aveis, como otro Assuero, dado à besar la punta de el cetro de oro de vuestro cariño, en señal de concederme benevola licencia para hablar, y proponer en vuestra venerable presencia: Digo, que recibo en mi alma vuestra santissima amonestacion, de aplicar el estudio à Libros Sagrados, que aunque viene en trage de consejo, tendrà para mi sustancia de precepto, con no pequeño consuelo de que aun antes parece, que prevenia mi obediencia vuestra Pastoral insinuacion, como à vuestra direccion, inferido de el assumpto, y pruebas de la misma Carta.
And what will such a person leave unforgiven? So I take it that I speak under the safe-conduct of your favors and the security of your kindness. Like another Ahasuerus, you have given me the tip of the golden scepter of your affection to kiss, as a sign that you kindly grant me leave to speak and to make my case in your venerable presence. On that basis I say that I receive into my soul your most holy admonition to apply my study to sacred books. Though it comes dressed as advice, for me it will have the substance of a command. And it is no small comfort to me that my obedience seems to have anticipated your pastoral suggestion even before it came, as if under your direction, as can be inferred from the subject and the arguments of that very letter.
Bien conozco, que no cae sobre ella vuestra cuerdissima advertencia, sino sobre lo mucho, que avreis visto de assumptos humanos, que he escrito: y assi, lo que he dicho no es mas, que satisfaceros con ella à la falta de aplicacion, que avreis inferido (con mucha razon) de otros Escritos mios;
I am well aware that your most prudent warning is not aimed at that letter, but at the many writings on secular subjects of mine that you will have seen. So what I have said is only meant to make amends to you, by means of that letter, for the lack of application you will have inferred, and with good reason, from my other writings.
y hablando con mas especialidad, os confiesso con la ingenuidad, que ante vos es debida, y con la verdad, y claridad, que en mi siempre es natural, y costumbre, que el no aver escrito mucho de Assumptos Sagrados, no ha sido desaficion, ni de aplicacion la falta, sino sobra de temor, y reverencia debida à aquellas Sagradas Letras, para cuya inteligencia, yo me conozco tan incapàz, y para cuyo manejo soy tan indigna; resonandome siempre en los oìdos, con no pequeño horror, aquella amenaza, y prohibicion del Señor à los pecadores como yo: Quare tu enarras iustitias meas, & assumis testamentum meum per os tuum?
To speak more specifically, I confess to you, with the candor I owe you and with the truth and clarity that are always natural and habitual in me, that if I have not written much on sacred subjects, it has not been from dislike, nor from lack of application. It has been from an excess of fear, and of the reverence owed to those sacred letters, which I know I am so incapable of understanding and so unworthy of handling. Always ringing in my ears, with no small horror, is the Lord’s threat and prohibition to sinners like me: Why do you declare my justices, and take my covenant in your mouth?
Esta pregunta, y el vèr, que aun à los Varones Doctos se prohibia el leer los Cantares, hasta que passaban de treinta años, y aun el Genesis; este, por su obscuridad; y aquellos, porque de la dulçura de aquellos Epithalamios no tomasse ocasion la imprudente juventud de mudar el sentido en carnales afectos, compruebalo mi Gran Padre S. Geronimo, mandando, que sea esto lo vltimo, que se estudie, por la misma razon: Ad vltimum sine periculo discat Canticum Canticorum, ne si in exordio legerit sub carnalibus verbis spiritualium nuptiarum Epithalamium, non intelligens, vulneretur. Y Seneca dize: Teneris in annis haut clara est fides.
There is this question. And there is the fact that even learned men were forbidden to read the Song of Songs until they were past thirty, and even Genesis: Genesis because of its obscurity, and the Song lest imprudent youth take occasion from the sweetness of those wedding songs to turn their meaning into carnal feelings. My great father St. Jerome confirms it, ordering that this be the last thing studied, for the same reason: Let her learn the Song of Songs last, without danger; lest, if she reads it at the beginning and does not understand the wedding song of spiritual marriage beneath its carnal words, she be wounded. And Seneca says: In tender years faith is not clear.
Pues como me atreviera yo à tomarlo en mis indignas manos, repugnandolo el sexo, la edad, y sobre todo las costumbres? Y assi, confiesso que muchas vezes este temor me ha quitado la pluma de la mano, y ha hecho retroceder los assumptos àzia el mesmo entendimiento, de quien querian brotar: el qual inconveniente no topaba en los assumptos profanos, pues vna heregia contra el arte, no la castiga el Santo Oficio, sino los discretos con risa, y los criticos con censura;
How then would I dare take this into my unworthy hands, when my sex, my age and above all my way of life stand against it? And so I confess that this fear has often taken the pen out of my hand and driven my subjects back into the very understanding from which they were trying to spring. I did not meet this obstacle with profane subjects, since a heresy against art is punished not by the Holy Office but by the discerning with laughter and by critics with censure;
y esta, iusta, vel iniusta, timenda non est, pues dexa comulgar, y oìr Missa, por lo qual me dà poco, ò ningun cuidado, porque segun la mesma decision de los que lo calumnian, ni tengo obligacion para saber, ni aptitud para acertar: luego si lo yerro, ni es culpa, ni es descredito; no es culpa, porque no tengo obligacion; no es descredito, pues no tengo possibilidad, de acertar, y ad impossibilia nemo tenetur.
and censure, just or unjust, is not to be feared, since it still lets one take communion and hear Mass. So it causes me little or no concern. For according to the very verdict of those who malign it, I have neither the obligation to know nor the aptitude to get things right. Therefore, if I get it wrong, it is neither a fault nor a discredit. It is not a fault, because I have no obligation; it is not a discredit, because I have no possibility of getting it right, and no one is bound to do the impossible.
Y à la verdad, yo nunca he escrito, sino violentada, y forçada, y solo por dàr gusto à otros, no solo sin complacencia, sino con positiva repugnancia, porque nunca he juzgado de mi, que tenga el caudal de letras, è ingenio, que pide la obligacion de quien escrive, y assi es la ordinaria respuesta à los que me instan (y mas si es Assumpto Sagrado:) Què entendimiento tengo yo? què estudio? què materiales? ni què noticias para esso?
And in truth, I have never written except under pressure and compulsion, and only to please others, not only without satisfaction but with positive reluctance. I have never judged that I have the store of learning and wit that a writer’s duty requires. So my usual answer to those who press me, especially on a sacred subject, is this: What understanding do I have? What study? What materials? What knowledge for that?
sino quatro bachillerias superficiales: Dexen esso para quien lo entienda, que yo no quiero ruido con el Santo Oficio, que soy ignorante, y tiemblo de dezir alguna proposicion malsonante, ò torcer la genuina inteligencia de algun lugar. Yo no estudio para escrivir, ni menos para enseñar, que fuera en mi desmedida sobervia, sino solo por vèr, si con estudiar ignoro menos. Assi lo respondo, y assi lo siento.
Nothing but a few superficial smatterings. Leave that to those who understand it. I want no trouble with the Holy Office, for I am ignorant, and I tremble at the thought of uttering some ill-sounding proposition or twisting the genuine meaning of some passage. I do not study in order to write, still less to teach, which in me would be boundless pride, but only to see whether by studying I may be less ignorant. That is how I answer, and that is what I feel.
El escrivir nunca ha sido dictamen proprio, sino fuerça agena, que les pudiera dezir con verdad: Vos me coegistis. Lo que si es verdad, que no negarè (lo vno, porque es notorio à todos; y lo otro, porque aunque sea contra mi, me ha hecho Dios la merced de darme grandissimo amor à la verdad) que desde que me rayò la primera luz de la razon, fue tan vehemente, y poderosa la inclinacion à las Letras, que ni agenas reprehensiones (que he tenido muchas) ni proprias reflexas (que he hecho no pocas) han bastado à que dexe de seguir este natural impulso, que Dios puso en mi:
Writing has never been my own choice but the compulsion of others; I could truly say to them: You have compelled me. What is true, and I will not deny it, is this. I will not deny it, first because everyone knows it, and second because, even if it tells against me, God has granted me the mercy of a very great love of truth. From the moment the first light of reason dawned on me, my inclination to letters was so vehement and powerful that neither the reprimands of others (and I have had many) nor my own reflections (and I have made not a few) have been enough to make me stop following this natural impulse that God placed in me.
su Magestad sabe por què, y para què: y sabe que le he pedido, que apague la luz de mi entendimiento, dexando solo lo que baste para guardar su Ley, pues lo demàs sobra (segun algunos) en vna muger; y aun ay quien diga, que daña.
His Majesty knows why and for what purpose. And he knows that I have asked him to put out the light of my understanding, leaving only enough to keep his law, since anything more is superfluous in a woman, according to some; and there are even those who say it does harm.
Sabe tambien su Magestad, que no consiguiendo esto, he intentado sepultar con mi nombre mi entendimiento, y sacrificarsele, solo à quien me le diò, y que no otro motivo me entrò en la Religion, no obstante que al desembarazo, y quietud, que pedia mi estudiosa intencion, eran repugnantes los exercicios, y compañia de vna Comunidad; y despues en ella, sabe el Señor, y lo sabe en el Mundo, quien solo lo debiò saber, lo que intentè en orden à esconder mi nombre, y que no me lo permitiò, diziendo, que era tentacion: y si serìa.
His Majesty also knows that, when I did not succeed in this, I tried to bury my understanding along with my name and to sacrifice it only to the One who gave it to me. He knows that no other motive brought me into religious life, even though the exercises and company of a community were at odds with the freedom and quiet that my studious purpose required. And afterward, once I was there, the Lord knows, and in the world only the one who alone was meant to know it knows, what I attempted in order to hide my name. And he would not allow it, saying it was a temptation. And perhaps it was.
Si yo pudiera pagaros algo de lo que os debo (señora mia) creo, que solo os pagàra en contaros esto, pues no ha salido de mi boca jamàs, excepto para quien debiò salir. Pero quiero, que con averos franqueado de par en par las puertas de mi coraçon, haziendoos patentes sus mas sellados secretos, conozcais que no desdize de mi confiança, lo que debo à vuestra venerable persona, y excessivos favores.
If I could repay you any part of what I owe you, my lady, I believe I could repay it only by telling you this, for it has never passed my lips except to the one to whom it had to be told. By throwing the doors of my heart wide open to you and laying bare its most sealed secrets, I want you to see that my trust in you is equal to what I owe your venerable person and your excessive favors.
A child who wanted to learn
She learns to read at three, begs to attend the university, and cuts her hair to study.
Prosiguiendo en la narracion de mi inclinacion (de que os quiero dàr entera noticia) digo, que no avia cumplido los tres años de mi edad, quando enviando mi madre à vna hermana mia, mayor que yo, à que se enseñasse à leer en vna de las que llaman, Amigas, me llevò à mi trás ella el cariño, y la travessura; y viendo que la daban leccion, me encendì yo demanera en el deseo de saber leer, que engañando, à mi parecer, à la Maestra, la dixe: Que mi madre ordenaba, me diesse leccion: Ella no lo creyò, porque no era creible; pero por complacer al donayre, me la diò.
To continue the story of my inclination, which I want you to know in full: I was not yet three years old when my mother sent one of my sisters, older than I, to learn to read at one of the schools they call Amigas. Affection and mischief led me to follow her. When I saw her being given lessons, I was so fired with the desire to know how to read that, deceiving the teacher (or so I thought), I told her that my mother had ordered her to give me lessons. She did not believe it, because it was not believable; but to humor the joke, she gave me lessons.
Proseguì yo en ir, y ella prosiguiò en enseñarme, ya no de burlas, porque la desengañò la experiencia, y supe leer en tan breve tiempo, que yà sabìa, quando lo supo mi madre, à quien la Maestra lo ocultò, por darle el gusto por entero, y recibir el galardon por junto: y yo lo callè, creyendo que me açotarian, por averlo hecho sin orden. Aun vive la que me enseñò, Dios la guarde, y puede testificarlo.
I kept going, and she kept teaching me, no longer in jest, because experience had undeceived her. I learned to read so quickly that I already knew how by the time my mother found out. The teacher had kept it from her so as to give her the pleasure all at once and receive her reward in one lump. And I kept quiet about it, thinking I would be whipped for having done it without permission. The woman who taught me is still alive, God keep her, and can bear witness to it.
Acuerdome, que en estos tiempos, siendo mi golosina la que es ordinaria en aquella edad, me abstenia de comer queso, porque oì dezir, que hazia rudos, y podia conmigo mas el deseo de saber, que el de comer, siendo este tan poderoso en los niños.
I remember that in those days, although I had the sweet tooth usual at that age, I abstained from eating cheese, because I had heard that it made people dull-witted. The desire to know was stronger in me than the desire to eat, powerful as that is in children.
Teniendo yo despues como seis, ò siete años, y sabiendo ya leer, y escrivir, con todas las otras habilidades de labores, y costuras, que deprehenden las mugeres, oì dezir, que avia Vniversidad, y Escuelas, en que se estudiaban las Sciencias, en Mexico: y apenas lo oí, quando empecè à matar á mi madre con instantes, è importunos ruegos, sobre que, mudandome el trage, me enviasse à Mexico, en casa de vnos deudos, que tenia, para estudiar, y cursar la Vniversidad;
Later, when I was about six or seven and already knew how to read and write, along with all the other skills of needlework and sewing that women learn, I heard that in Mexico City there was a university, and schools where the sciences were studied. No sooner had I heard it than I began to plague my mother to death with insistent, importunate pleas to change my clothes and send me to Mexico City, to the house of some relatives she had there, so that I could study and attend the university.
ella no lo quiso hazer (y hizo muy bien) pero yo despiquè el deseo en leer muchos Libros varios, que tenia mi abuelo, sin que bastassen castigos, ni reprehensiones à estorbarlo: demanera, que quando vine à Mexico, se admiraban, no tanto del ingenio; quanto de la memoria, y noticias, que tenia, en edad, que parecia que apenas avia tenido tiempo para aprehender à hablar.
She would not do it, and she was quite right. But I satisfied my desire by reading a great many different books that my grandfather owned, and neither punishments nor reprimands were enough to stop me. So when I came to Mexico City, people marveled not so much at my intelligence as at my memory and the knowledge I had at an age when it seemed I had scarcely had time to learn to speak.
Empezè à deprehender Gramatica, en que creo, no llegaron à veinte las lecciones que tomè; y era tan intenso mi cuidado, que siendo assi, que en las mugeres (y mas en tan florida juventud) es tan apreciable el adorno natural del cabello, yo me cortaba de él quatro, ò seis dedos, midiendo hasta donde llegaba antes, è imponiendome ley, de que si quando bolviesse à crecer hasta alli, no sabía tal, ò tal cosa, que me avia propuesto deprehender, en tanto que crecia, me lo avia de bolver á cortar, en pena de la rudeza.
I began to learn Latin grammar, and I believe I took fewer than twenty lessons. My application was so intense that, although in women, and especially in the very flower of youth, the natural adornment of hair is so highly prized, I would cut off four or six finger-widths of it. I measured how far it had reached before and set myself a rule: if, by the time it grew back to that point, I did not know such and such a thing that I had set myself to learn while it grew, I would cut it off again as a penalty for my dullness.
Sucedia assi, que èl crecia, y yo no sabía lo propuesto, porque el pelo crecia apriessa, y yo aprehendia de espacio, y con efecto le cortaba, en pena de la rudeza; que no me parecia razon, que estuviesse vestida de cabellos cabeça, que estaba tan desnuda de noticias, que era mas apetecible adorno.
And so it happened that the hair grew and I did not yet know what I had set myself, because the hair grew quickly and I learned slowly; and I did indeed cut it off, as a penalty for my dullness. For it did not seem right to me that a head so bare of knowledge, which was the more desirable adornment, should be dressed in hair.
Entrème Religiosa, porque aunque conocìa, que tenìa el estado cosas (de las accessorias hablo, no de las formales) muchas repugnantes à mi genio; con todo, para la total negacion, que tenia al Matrimonio, era lo menos desproporcionado, y lo mas decente, que podia elegir, en materia de la seguridad, que deseaba, de mi salvacion: à cuyo primer respeto (como al fin mas importante) cedieron, y sugetaron la cervìz todas las impertinencillas de mi genio, que eran, de querer vivir sola, de no querer tener ocupacion obligatoria, que embaraçasse la libertad de mi estudio, ni rumor de Comunidad, que impidiesse el sossegado silencio de mis Libros.
I became a nun because, although I knew that this state had many things repugnant to my temperament (I speak of the incidental things, not the essential ones), nevertheless, given my total aversion to marriage, it was the least unsuitable and most fitting choice I could make for the security I desired for my salvation. To this first consideration, as the most important end, all the little whims of my temperament gave way and bowed their necks: wanting to live alone, wanting no obligatory occupation that would hamper the freedom of my study, and no bustle of a community to disturb the peaceful silence of my books.
Esto me hizo vacilar algo en la determinacion, hasta que alumbrandome personas Doctas, de que era tentacion, la vencí con el favor Divino, y tomè el estado, que tan indignamente tengo. Pensè yo, que huìa de mì misma; pero miserable de mi! traxeme à mi conmigo, y traxe mi mayor enemigo en esta inclinacion, que no sè determinar, si por prenda, ò castigo, me diò el Cielo, pues de apagarse, ò embaraçarse con tanto exercicio, que la Religion tiene, rebentaba, como polvora, y se verificaba en mi el priuatio est causa appetitus.
These things made me waver somewhat in my decision, until learned people made me see that it was a temptation. I overcame it with divine help and took the state I so unworthily hold. I thought I was fleeing from myself; but, wretch that I am, I brought myself along with me! And I brought my greatest enemy in this inclination, which I cannot tell whether Heaven gave me as a gift or as a punishment. For when it was smothered or hampered by all the exercises that religious life involves, it exploded like gunpowder, and the saying privation is the cause of appetite proved true in me.
Studying without a teacher
She climbs through logic, rhetoric, music and the other sciences toward theology, with only books to guide her.
Bolvì (mal dixe, pues nunca cessè) proseguì, digo, à la estudiosa tarèa (que para mi era descanso en todos los ratos, que sobraban à mi obligacion) de leer, y mas leer; de estudiar, y mas estudiar, sin mas Maestro, que los mismos Libros. Ya se vè, quan duro es estudiar en aquellos caractères sin alma, careciendo de la voz viva, y explicacion de el Maestro: pues todo este trabajo sufria yo muy gustosa, por amor de las Letras; ò si huviesse sido por amor de Dios, que era lo acertado, quanto huviera merecido!
I returned (I misspoke, for I never stopped)—I went on, I mean, with the studious task of reading and more reading, studying and more studying, with no teacher but the books themselves. For me this task was rest, in all the hours left over from my duties. Anyone can see how hard it is to study from those soulless characters, without the living voice and explanation of a teacher. Yet I bore all this labor with great pleasure, for love of learning. Oh, if it had been for love of God, which would have been the right thing, how much merit I would have earned!
Bien, que yo procuraba elevarlo, quanto podia, y dirigirlo à su servicio, porque el fin à que aspiraba, era à estudiar Theologia, pareciendome menguada inhabilidad, siendo Catholica, no saber todo lo que en esta vida se puede alcançar, por medios naturales, de los Divinos Mysterios; y que siendo Monja, y no seglar, debia por el estado Eclesiastico, professar letras; y mas, siendo hija de vn S. Geronimo, y de vna Santa Paula, que era degenerar de tan Doctos Padres, ser idiota la hija.
True, I tried to raise it as high as I could and direct it to his service, because the goal I aspired to was the study of theology. It seemed to me a feeble incapacity, being a Catholic, not to know everything about the divine mysteries that can be attained in this life by natural means. And it seemed to me that, being a nun and not a laywoman, I ought by my ecclesiastical state to profess learning. All the more so as the daughter of a St. Jerome and a St. Paula, since it would be a falling-off from such learned parents for the daughter to be unlettered.
Esto me proponia yo de mi misma, y me parecia razon; sino es, que era (y esso es lo mas cierto) lisongear, y aplaudir à mi propria inclinacion, proponiendola, como obligatorio, su proprio gusto: con esto proseguì, dirigiendo siempre, como he dicho, los passos de mi estudio à la cumbre de la Sagrada Theologia; pareciendome preciso, para llegar à ella, subir por los escalones de las Sciencias, y Artes humanas; porque como entenderà el estilo de la Reyna de las Sciencias, quien aun no sabe el de las ancillas?
This is what I proposed to myself, and it seemed reasonable to me. Unless, that is (and this is more likely the truth), I was flattering and applauding my own inclination by presenting its own pleasure to it as an obligation. With this I went on, always directing the steps of my study, as I have said, toward the summit of sacred theology. To reach it, it seemed necessary to me to climb the steps of the human sciences and arts. For how will anyone understand the style of the queen of the sciences who does not yet know the style of her handmaids?
Como, sin Logica, sabria yo los methodos generales, y particulares, con que està escrita la Sagrada Escritura? Como, sin Rethorica, entenderia sus figuras, tropos, y locuciones? Como, sin Fisica, tantas questiones naturales de las naturalezas de los animales de los sacrificios, donde se symbolizan tantas cosas, ya declaradas, y otras muchas, que ay? Como, si el sanar Saul al sonido de la Harpa de David, fue virtud, y fuerça natural de la Musica, ò sobrenatural, que Dios quiso poner en David?
Without logic, how would I know the general and particular methods in which Holy Scripture is written? Without rhetoric, how would I understand its figures, tropes and turns of phrase? Without physics, how would I understand so many natural questions about the natures of the animals used in the sacrifices? So many things are symbolized in them, some already explained and many others still remaining. How would I know whether Saul’s healing at the sound of David’s harp came from the natural virtue and power of music, or from a supernatural power that God chose to place in David?
Como, sin Arithmetica, se podràn entender tantos computos de años, de dias, de meses, de horas, de hebdomadas tan misteriosas, como las de Daniel, y otras, para cuya inteligencia es necessario saber las naturalezas, concordancias, y propriedades de los numeros? Como, sin Geometria, se podràn medir el Arca Santa de el Testamento, y la Ciudad Santa de Jerusalen, cuyas mysteriosas mensuras hazen vn cubo, con todas sus dimensiones, y aquel repartimiento proporcional de todas sus partes, tan maravilloso?
Without arithmetic, how could one understand so many computations of years, days, months and hours, and of weeks as mysterious as those of Daniel and others? To understand them one must know the natures, correspondences and properties of numbers. Without geometry, how could one measure the holy Ark of the Covenant and the holy city of Jerusalem? Their mysterious measurements form a cube in all its dimensions, with that marvelous proportional distribution of all its parts.
Como, sin Arquitectura, el gran Templo de Salomon, donde fue el mismo Dios el Artifice, que diò la disposicion, y la traza; y el Sabio Rey solo fue sobrestante, que la executò, donde no avia basa sin mysterio, columna sin symbolo, cornisa sin alusion, arquitrave sin significado; y assi de otras sus partes, sin que el mas minimo filete estuviesse solo por el servicio, y complemento de el Arte, sino symbolizando cosas mayores? Como, sin grande conocimiento de reglas, y partes, de que consta la Historia, se entenderàn los Libros historiales?
Without architecture, how would one understand the great Temple of Solomon? God himself was its maker, who gave its arrangement and plan, and the wise king was only the overseer who carried it out. In it there was no base without a mystery, no column without a symbol, no cornice without an allusion, no architrave without a meaning, and so with its other parts. Not even the smallest fillet was there only for the service and completion of the art; each symbolized greater things. Without a great knowledge of the rules and parts of which history consists, how will the historical books be understood?
Aquellas recapitulaciones, en que muchas vezes se pospone en la narracion, lo que en el hecho sucediò primero? Como, sin grande noticia de ambos Derechos, podràn entenderse los Libros Legales? Como, sin grande erudicion, tantas cosas de historias profanas, de que haze mencion la Sagrada Escritura? Tantas costumbres de Gentiles? tantos ritos? tantas maneras de hablar? Como, sin muchas reglas, y leccion de Santos Padres, se podrà entender la obscura locucion de los Profetas? Pues sin ser muy perìto en la Musica, como se entenderàn aquellas proporciones musicales, y sus primores, que ay en tantos lugares?
How will one understand those recapitulations in which the narrative often places later what in fact happened first? Without great knowledge of both laws, how can the books of law be understood? Without great erudition, how can one understand so many matters of secular history that Holy Scripture mentions? So many customs of the Gentiles? So many rites? So many ways of speaking? Without many rules and much reading of the Holy Fathers, how can the obscure language of the Prophets be understood? And without being very expert in music, how will one understand the musical proportions, and their refinements, found in so many passages?
especialmente en aquellas peticiones, que hizo à Dios Abrahan, por las Ciudades, de que, si perdonarìa, aviendo cincuenta Justos? y de este numero, baxò à quarenta y cinco, que es sexquinona, y es, como de Mi, à Re: de aqui à quarenta, que es sexquioctaua, y es, como de Re, à Mi: de aqui à treinta, que es sexquitercia, que es la de el Diatessaron: de aqui à veinte, que es la proporcion sexquialtera, que es la de el Diapente: de aqui à diez, que es la dupla, que es el Diapasson; y como no ay mas proporciones harmonicas, no passo de aì.
This is especially true of the petitions Abraham made to God for the cities, asking whether he would spare them if there were fifty righteous men. From this number he came down to forty-five, which is the sesquinonal proportion, like the interval from mi to re. From there he came down to forty, which is the sesquioctaval, like the interval from re to mi. From there to thirty, which is the sesquitertian, the proportion of the diatessaron. From there to twenty, which is the sesquialteral proportion, that of the diapente. From there to ten, which is the duple, the diapason. And since there are no more harmonic proportions, he went no further.
Pues como se podrà entender esto sin Musica? Allá en el Libro de Job, le dize Dios: Nunquid coniungere valebis micantes stellas Pleiadas, aut gyrum Arcturi poteris dissipare? Nunquid producis Luciferum in tempore suo, & Vesperum super filios terræ consurgere facis? Cuyos terminos, sin noticia de Astrologia, serà impossible entender. Y no solo estas nobles Sciencias; pero no ay Arte mecanica, que no se mencione.
How, then, could this be understood without music? There in the Book of Job, God says to him: Can you join together the shining stars, the Pleiades, or can you scatter the circuit of Arcturus? Do you bring forth the morning star in its season, and make the evening star rise over the children of the earth? Without knowledge of astronomy it will be impossible to understand these terms. And it is not only these noble sciences: there is no mechanical art that is not mentioned.
Y en fin, como el Libro, que comprehende todos los Libros, y la Sciencia, en que se incluyen todas las Sciencias, para cuya inteligencia todas sirven: y despues de saberlas todas (que yà se vè, que no es facil, ni aun possible) pide otra circunstancia mas que todo lo dicho, que es, vna continua Oracion, y pureza de vida, para impetrar de Dios aquella purgacion de animo, è iluminacion de mente, que es menester, para la inteligencia de cosas tan altas: y si esto falta, nada sirve de lo demàs.
And finally, Scripture is the Book that contains all books, and the science in which all sciences are included, and all of them serve for understanding it. Even after one knows them all (which, as anyone can see, is not easy, nor even possible), it requires one further condition beyond everything said so far. That condition is continual prayer and purity of life, to obtain from God the purification of spirit and illumination of mind needed to understand such lofty things. If this is lacking, none of the rest is of any use.
De el Angelico Doctor Santo Thomàs dize la Iglesia estas palabras: In difficultatibus locorum Sacræ Scripturæ ad orationem ieiunium adhibebat. Quin etiam sodali suo Fratri Reginaldo dicere solebat, quidquid sciret, non tàm studio, aut labore suo peperisse, quàm diuinitùs traditum accepisse. Pues yo, tan distante de la virtud, y las letras, como avia de tener animo para escrivir?
Of the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas, the Church says these words: When passages of Holy Scripture were difficult, he joined fasting to prayer. Indeed, he used to tell his companion Brother Reginald that whatever he knew he had not so much produced by his own study or labor as received as a gift from God. How then could I, so far from virtue and from learning, have the courage to write?
Y assi, por tener algunos principios grangeados, estudiaba continuamente diversas cosas, sin tener para alguna particular inclinacion, sino para todas en general; por lo qual, el aver estudiado en vnas mas, que en otras, no ha sido en mì eleccion, sino que el acaso de aver topado mas à mano Libros de aquellas facultades, les ha dado (sin arbitrio mio) la preferencia:
And so, to gain some foundations, I studied various things continually, without a particular inclination toward any one of them, but toward all in general. That is why I did not choose to study some more than others. It was the chance of finding books in certain fields closer to hand that gave those fields the preference, without any decision of mine.
y como no tenia interès, que me moviesse, ni limite de tiempo, que me estrechasse el continuado estudio de vna cosa, por la necessidad de los Grados, casi à vn tiempo estudiaba diversas cosas, ò dexaba vnas por otras: bien, que en esso observaba orden, porque à vnas llamaba estudio, y à otras diversion; y en estas, descansaba de las otras: de donde se sigue, que he estudiado muchas cosas, y nada sè, porque las vnas han embaraçado à las otras.
I had no interest to drive me, and no time limit, such as the requirements of degrees, to confine me to the continuous study of one subject. So I studied various things almost at once, or left some for others. Still, I kept an order in this: some I called study and others recreation, and in the latter I rested from the former. It follows that I have studied many things and know nothing, because each has hindered the others.
Es verdad, que esto digo de la parte practica en las que la tienen, porque claro està que mientras se mueve la pluma, descansa el compàs; y mientras se toca el harpa, sossiega el organo, & sic de cæteris: porque como es menester mucho vso corporal, para adquirir habito, nunca le puede tener perfecto quien se reparte en varios exercicios; pero en lo formal, y especulativo sucede al contrario, y quisiera yo persuadir à todos con mi experiencia, á que no solo no estorban, pero se ayudan, dando luz, y abriendo camino las vnas para las otras, por variaciones, y ocultos engaces, que para esta cadena vniversal les puso la Sabiduria de su Autor; demanera, que parece se corresponden, y estàn vnidas con admirable travazon, y concierto.
It is true that I say this of the practical side, in those subjects that have one. Clearly, while the pen moves the compass rests, and while the harp is played the organ is still, and so with the rest. Acquiring a skill takes much bodily practice, so whoever divides himself among various exercises can never acquire a perfect one. But in the formal and speculative part the opposite happens, and I would like my experience to persuade everyone of it. These subjects not only do not hinder one another but help one another, each shedding light on the others and opening the way for them. They do so through variations and hidden links that the Wisdom of their Author placed in them for this universal chain. So they seem to correspond with one another, and are joined with admirable coherence and harmony.
Es la cadena, que fingieron los antiguos, que salìa de la boca de Jupiter, de donde pendian todas las cosas, eslabonadas vnas con otras. Assi lo demuestra el R. P. Athanasio Quirquerio en su curioso Libro de Magnete. Todas las cosas salen de Dios, que es el centro, à vn tiempo, y la circunferencia, de donde salen, y donde pàran todas las lineas criadas.
It is the chain that the ancients imagined coming from the mouth of Jupiter, from which all things hung, linked one to another. The Reverend Father Athanasius Kircher demonstrates this in his curious book On the Magnet. All things proceed from God, who is at once the center and the circumference, from which all created lines go out and in which they all end.
Yo de mi puedo assegurar, que lo que no entiendo en vn Autor de vna facultad, lo suelo entender en otro de otra, que parece muy distante; y essos proprios, al explicarse, abren exemplos methaforicos de otras Artes; como quando dizen los Logicos, que el medio se ha con los terminos, como se ha vna medida con dos cuerpos distantes, para conferir si son iguales, ò no: y que la oracion de el Logico anda como la linea recta, por el camino mas breve; y la de el Rethorico se mueve, como la corva, por el mas largo; pero van à vn mismo punto los dos.
For my part I can affirm that what I do not understand in an author in one field, I usually understand in another author in another field that seems very remote. And those same authors, in explaining themselves, draw metaphorical examples from other arts. So the logicians say that the middle term stands to the other terms as a measure stands to two distant bodies, used to compare whether they are equal or not. They also say that the logician’s discourse moves like a straight line, by the shortest way, while the rhetorician’s moves like a curve, by the longest, yet both reach the same point.
Y quando dizen, que los Expositores son como la mano abierta, y los Escolasticos como el puño cerrado: y assi, no es disculpa, ni por tal la doy, el aver estudiado diversas cosas, pues estas antes se ayudan; sino que el no aver aprovechado, ha sido ineptitud mia, y debilidad de mi entendimiento, no culpa de la variedad: lo que, si, pudiera ser descargo mio, es, el sumo trabajo, no solo en carecer de Maestro, sino de Condiscipulos, con quienes conferir, y exercitar lo estudiado, teniendo solo por Maestro vn Libro mudo, por Condiscipulo vn tintero insensible; y en vez de explicacion, y exercicio, muchos estorbos, no solo los de mis Religiosas obligaciones (que estas ya se sabe quan vtil, y provechosamente gastan el tiempo) sino de aquellas cosas accessorias de vna Comunidad, como estàr yo leyendo, y antojarseles en la Celda vezina tocar, y cantar:
And there is the saying that the expositors are like the open hand and the scholastics like the closed fist. So having studied various things is no excuse, nor do I offer it as one, since they rather help one another. My failure to profit has come from my own ineptitude and the weakness of my understanding, not from the variety. What might indeed serve as some excuse for me is the great labor of lacking both a teacher and fellow students with whom to discuss and practice what I had studied. My only teacher was a mute book, my only fellow student an insensible inkwell. And instead of explanation and practice I had many hindrances. Some came from my religious obligations (and everyone knows how usefully and profitably these spend one’s time). Others came from the incidental things of a community. I would be reading, and the nuns in the next cell would take it into their heads to play and sing;
estàr yo estudiando, y pelear dos criadas, y venirme à constituir Juez de su pendencia: estàr yo escriviendo, y venir vna amiga à visitarme, haziendome muy mala obra, con muy buena voluntad; donde es preciso, no solo admitir el embaraço, pero quedar agradecida de el perjuicio: y esto es continuamente, porque como los ratos, que destìno á mi estudio, son los que sobran de lo regular de la Comunidad, essos mismos les sobran à las otras, para venirme à estorvar; y solo saben quanta verdad es esta, los que tienen experiencia de vida comun, donde solo la fuerça de la vocacion puede hazer, que mi natural estè gustoso, y el mucho amor, que ay entre mi, y mis amadas Hermànas, que como el amor es vnion, no ay para èl extremos distantes.
I would be studying, and two maids would quarrel and come to make me judge of their dispute; I would be writing, and a friend would come to visit me, doing me a very bad turn with very good will. Then one must not only put up with the hindrance but be grateful for the harm. And this happens continually. The hours I set aside for study are those left over from the community’s regular routine, and those same hours are left over for the others to come and disturb me. Only those with experience of community life know how true this is. There, only the strength of my vocation can keep my nature content, together with the great love between me and my beloved Sisters; for since love is union, for love there are no distant extremes.
En esto, si, confiesso, que ha sido inexplicable mi trabajo; y assi, no puedo dezir lo que con embidia oygo à otros, que no les ha costado afan el saber: dichosos ellos. A mi no el saber (que aun no sè) solo el desear saber, me le ha costado tan grande, que pudiera dezir con mi Padre San Geronimo (aunque no con su aprovechamiento:) Quid ibi laboris insumpserim: quid sustinuerim difficultatis: quoties desperauerim: quotiesque cessauerim, & contentione dicendi rursus incæperim; testis est conscientia, tàm mea, qui passus sum, quàm eorum, qui mecum duxerunt vitam.
In this, yes, I confess that my labor has been beyond telling. So I cannot say what I hear others say, and envy them for saying, that knowledge has cost them no effort. Happy are they! For me, not knowledge (for I still do not know) but merely the desire to know has cost so much effort that I could say with my father St. Jerome (though not with his profit): What labor I spent on it, what difficulty I endured, how often I despaired, how often I gave up and, in my eagerness to learn, began again, my conscience is witness—both mine, who suffered it, and that of those who lived their lives with me.
Menos los compañeros, y testigos (que aun de esse alivio he carecido) lo demàs bien puedo assegurar con verdad. Y què aya sido tal esta mi negra inclinacion, que todo lo aya vencido!
Except for the companions and witnesses (for I have lacked even that relief), I can truthfully affirm all the rest. To think that this wretched inclination of mine should be so strong that it has overcome everything!
Interruptions
Convent life, visits and her love for her sisters keep pulling her away from study.
Solìa sucederme, que como, entre otros beneficios, debo à Dios vn natural tan blando, y tan afable, y las Religiosas me aman mucho por èl (sin reparar, como buenas, en mis faltas) y con esto gustan mucho de mi compañia: conociendo esto, y movida de el grande amor, que las tengo, con mayor motivo, que ellas à mi, gusto mas de la suya; assi me solìa ir los ratos, que à vnas, y à otras nos sobraban, à consolarlas, y recrearme con su conversacion.
Among the other blessings I owe to God is a nature so gentle and so affable that the nuns love me very much for it (being good women, they overlook my faults), and so they greatly enjoy my company. Knowing this, and moved by the great love I have for them, I enjoy theirs even more, and with greater reason than they have to enjoy mine. So it used to happen that in the free moments that we all had, I would go to comfort them and refresh myself with their conversation.
Reparè, que en este tiempo hazia falta à mi estudio, y hazia voto de no entrar en Celda alguna, si no me obligasse à ello la obediencia, ò la caridad; porque sin este freno tan duro, al de solo proposito, le rompiera el amor; y este voto (conociendo mi fragilidad) le hazia por vn mes, ò por quince dias; y dando, quando se cumplia, vn dia, ù dos de treguas, lo bolvia à renovar, sirviendo este dia, no tanto à mi descanso (pues nunca lo ha sido para mi el no estudiar) quanto à que no me tuviessen por aspera, retirada, è ingrata al no merecido cariño de mis carissimas Hermanas.
I noticed that at those times I was neglecting my study, and I made a vow not to enter any cell unless obedience or charity obliged me to. Without so harsh a curb, love would have broken through a curb of mere resolution. Knowing my frailty, I made this vow for a month, or for a fortnight. When it expired, I would give myself a day or two of truce and then renew it. That day served not so much for my rest (for not studying has never been rest for me) as to keep my dearest Sisters from thinking me harsh, withdrawn, and ungrateful for their undeserved affection.
Bien se dexa en esto conocer, qual es la fuerça de mi inclinacion. Bendito sea Dios, que quiso fuesse àzia las letras, y no àzia otro vicio, que fuera en mi casi insuperable; y bien se infiere tambien quan contra la corriente han navegado (ò por mejor dezir, han naufragado) mis pobres estudios. Pues aun falta por referir lo mas arduo de las dificultades; que las de hasta aqui solo han sido estorvos obligatorios, y casuales, que indirectamente lo son; y faltan los positivos, que directamente han tirado à estorvar, y prohibir el exercicio.
This shows clearly enough how strong my inclination is. Blessed be God, who willed that it should turn toward letters and not toward some other vice, which in me would have been almost unconquerable. One can also infer how much against the current my poor studies have sailed (or, better said, have been shipwrecked). For the hardest of the difficulties is still to be told. Those I have described so far have been only obligatory or incidental hindrances, which hinder indirectly. There remain the positive ones, which have aimed directly at hindering and forbidding my study.
Quien no creerà, viendo tan generales aplausos, que he navegado viento en popa, y mar en leche, sobre las palmas de las aclamaciones comunes? Pues Dios sabe, que no ha sido muy assi: porque entre las flores de essas mismas aclamaciones, se han levantado, y despertado tales aspides de emulaciones, y persecuciones, quantas no podrè contar;
Who would not believe, seeing such widespread applause, that I have sailed before a following wind on a sea smooth as milk, borne up on the palms of general acclaim? Yet God knows it has not been quite so. Among the flowers of that very acclaim, so many asps of envy and persecution have reared up and awakened that I could never count them;
y los que mas nocivos, y sensibles para mi han sido, no son aquellos, que con declarado odio, y malevolencia me han perseguido; sino los que amandome, y deseando mi bien (y por ventura, mereciendo mucho con Dios por la buena intencion) me han mortificado, y atormentado mas, que los otros, con aquel: No conuiene à la santa ignorancia, que deben, este estudio; se ha de perder, se ha de desvanecer en tanta altura con su mesma perspicacia, y agudeza.
and the ones that have been most harmful and most painful to me are not those who have persecuted me with open hatred and ill will. They are those who, loving me and wishing me well (and perhaps earning great merit with God for their good intention), have mortified and tormented me more than the others with that refrain: This study is not fitting for the holy ignorance that is her duty; she is bound to be lost; at such heights her very perspicacity and sharpness will make her head swim.
Què me avrà costado resistir esto? Rara especie de martyrio, donde yo era el martyr, y me era el verdugo! Pues por la (en mi dos vezes infelìz) habilidad de hazer versos, aunque fuessen Sagrados, què pesadumbres no me han dado? O quales no me han dexado de dar? Cierto, señora mia, que algunas vezes me pongo à considerar, que el que se señala, ò le señala Dios, que es quien solo lo puede hazer, es recibido como enemigo comun, porque parece à algunos, que vsurpa los aplausos, que ellos merecen; ò que haze estanque de las admiraciones, à que aspiraban, y assi le persiguen.
What must it have cost me to withstand this? A strange kind of martyrdom, in which I was the martyr and my own executioner! And as for my ability to write verses (in my case doubly unfortunate), even sacred ones, what griefs has it not caused me? Or rather, which has it failed to cause me? Truly, my lady, I sometimes stop to reflect that whoever stands out, or whom God singles out (for he alone can do so), is received as a common enemy. To some it seems that such a person usurps the applause they deserve, or dams up for himself the admiration they aspired to, and so they persecute him.
Aquella ley politicamente barbara de Athenas, por la qual salìa desterrado de su Republica, el que se señalaba en prendas, y virtudes, porque no tyranizasse con ellas la libertad publica; todavia dura, todavia se observa en nuestros tiempos, aunque no ay ya aquel motivo de los Athenienses; pero ay otro, no menos eficàz, aunque no tan bien fundado, pues parece maxima de el impìo Machiabelo; que es, aborrecer al que se señala, porque desluce à otros. Assi sucede, y assi sucediò siempre.
That law of Athens, crude in its statecraft, by which anyone who stood out in gifts and virtues was banished from the republic so that he might not use them to tyrannize over public liberty, still endures. It is still observed in our own times, even though the Athenians’ motive no longer exists. There is another motive, no less effective though not so well founded, for it looks like a maxim of the impious Machiavelli: to hate whoever stands out because he outshines others. So it happens, and so it has always happened.
Persecuted for her gifts
She argues that anyone who stands out, like Christ crowned with thorns, attracts envy and persecution.
Y sino, qual fue la causa de aquel rabioso odio de los Fariseos contra Christo, aviendo tantas razones para lo contrario? Porque si miramos su presencia, qual prenda mas amable, que aquella Divina hermosura? qual mas poderosa para arrebatar los coraçones? Si qualquiera belleza humana tiene jurisdicion sobre los alvedrios, y con blanda, y apetecida violencia los sabe sugetar, què haria aquella con tantas prerrogativas y dotes soberanos? què haria, què moveria? Y què no haria? y què no moveria aquella incomprehensible beldad, por cuyo hermoso Rostro, como por vn terso cristal, se estaban transparentando los rayos de la Divinidad?
If this is not so, what was the cause of the Pharisees’ furious hatred of Christ, when there were so many reasons for the opposite? If we consider his presence, what gift could be more lovable than that divine beauty? What could be more powerful to carry off hearts? Any human beauty holds sway over the will and knows how to subdue it with a gentle and welcome force. What, then, would that beauty do, with so many sovereign prerogatives and endowments? What would it do, what would it move? And what would it not do, what would it not move, that incomprehensible loveliness, through whose beautiful face, as through polished crystal, the rays of the Godhead were shining?
Què no moveria aquel semblante, que sobre incomparables perfecciones en lo humano, señalaba iluminaciones de Divino? Si el de Moyses, de solo la conversacion con Dios, era intolerable à la flaqueza de la vista humana, què serìa el de el mismo Dios humanado? Pues si vamos à las demàs prendas, qual mas amable, que aquella Celestial modestia? que aquella suavidad, y blandura, derramando misericordias en todos sus movimientos? Aquella profunda humildad, y mansedumbre? Aquellas palabras de vida eterna, y eterna sabiduria? Pues como es possible, que esto no les arrebatàra las almas? que no fuessen enamorados, y elevados tràs èl?
What would that countenance not move, which, over and above its incomparable human perfections, showed the radiance of the divine? If the face of Moses, merely from conversing with God, was unbearable to the weakness of human sight, what must the face of God made man have been? And if we turn to his other gifts, what could be more lovable than that heavenly modesty? Than that gentleness and mildness, pouring out mercies in all his movements? Than that profound humility and meekness? Than those words of eternal life and eternal wisdom? How, then, is it possible that all this did not carry off their souls, and that they did not follow him, enamored and uplifted?
Dize la Santa Madre, y Madre mia, Teresa, que despues que viò la hermosura de Christo, quedò libre de poderse inclinar à criatura alguna, por que ninguna cosa veìa, que no fuesse fealdad, comparada con aquella hermosura. Pues como en los hombres hizo tan contrario efecto? Y ya que como toscos, y viles, no tuvieran conocimiento, ni estimacion de sus perfecciones, siquiera, como interessables, no les moviera sus proprias conveniencias, y vtilidades en tantos beneficios como les hazia, sanando los enfermos, resuscitando los muertos, curando los endemoniados? Pues como no le amaban?
The holy Mother Teresa, who is my mother too, says that after she saw the beauty of Christ she was freed from any inclination toward any creature, because compared with that beauty she saw nothing that was not ugliness. Why, then, did it have so contrary an effect on those men? Even if, being coarse and base, they had no knowledge or esteem of his perfections, should not their own interest and advantage at least have moved them, as self-seeking men, given the many benefits he did them by healing the sick, raising the dead, and curing those possessed by demons? Why, then, did they not love him?
Ay Dios, que por esso mismo no le amaban, por esso mismo le aborrecian! Assi lo testificaron ellos mismos.
Oh God, it was for that very reason that they did not love him, for that very reason that they hated him! They themselves testified to it.
Juntanse en su concilio, y dizen: Quid facimus, quia hic homo multa signa facit? Ay tal causa? Si dixeran: Este es vn malhechor, vn transgressor de la ley, vn alborotador, que con engaños alborota el Pueblo, mintieran, como mintieron, quando lo dezian; pero eran causales mas congruentes à lo que solicitaban, que era, quitarle la vida; mas dar por causal, que haze cosas señaladas, no parece de hombres Doctos, quales eran los Fariseos. Pues assi es, que quando se apassionan los hombres Doctos, prorrumpen en semejantes inconsequencias: en verdad, que solo por esso saliò determinado, que Christo muriesse.
They gather in their council and say: What are we doing? For this man performs many signs. Is that a reason? If they had said that he was an evildoer, a lawbreaker, an agitator who stirred up the people with deceptions, they would have been lying, as indeed they lied when they did say it. Still, those would have been grounds more in keeping with what they sought, which was to take his life. But to give as grounds that he does signal things does not seem worthy of learned men, as the Pharisees were. Yet so it is: when learned men are carried away by passion, they burst out with such inconsistencies. Truly, it was for that reason alone that they resolved Christ should die.
Hombres, si es que assi se os puede llamar, siendo tan brutos, por què es essa tan cruel determinacion? No responden mas, sino que multa signa facit. Valgame Dios! que el hazer cosas señaladas, es causa para que vno muera? Haziendo reclamo, este: Multa signa facit; à aquel: O radix Iesse, qui stas in signum populorum! Y al otro: In signum cui contradicetur. Por signo? Pues muera. Señalado? Pues padezca, que esso es el premio de quien se señala.
Men (if you can be called men, being so brutish), why so cruel a resolution? They answer nothing more than that he performs many signs. God help me! Is doing signal things a reason for someone to die? This He performs many signs calls out in echo to that other text, O root of Jesse, who stand as a sign to the peoples!, and to another, For a sign that shall be contradicted. A sign? Then let him die. Marked out? Then let him suffer, for that is the reward of whoever stands out.
Suelen en la eminencia de los Templos collocarse por adorno vnas figuras de los vientos, y de la fama, y por defenderlas de las aves, las llenan todas de puas; defensa, parece, y no es sino propriedad forçosa: no puede estàr sin puas, que la puncen, quien està en alto: alli està la ojeriza del Ayre, alli es el rigor de los Elementos, alli despican la colera los rayos, alli es el blanco de piedras, y flechas: ò infelìz altura, expuesta à tantos riesgos! O signo, que te ponen por blanco de la embidia, y por objeto de la contradicion!
On the heights of churches it is the custom to place figures of the winds and of Fame as ornaments, and to protect them from the birds they are covered all over with spikes. It looks like a defense, but it is only a necessary property: whoever stands on high cannot be without spikes to prick him. Up there is the spite of the air, the harshness of the elements. There the thunderbolts vent their anger, and there is the target for stones and arrows. O unhappy height, exposed to so many dangers! O sign, set up as a target for envy and an object of contradiction!
Qualquiera eminencia, yà sea de dignidad, yà de nobleza, yà de riqueza, yà de hermosura, yà de sciencia, padece esta pension; pero la que con mas rigor la experimenta, es la de el entendimiento: lo primero, porque es el mas indefenso, pues la riqueza, y el poder castigan à quien se les atreve; y el entendimiento no, pues mientras es mayor, es mas modesto, y sufrido, y se defiende menos. Lo segundo es, porque como dixo doctamente Graciàn, las ventajas en el entendimiento, lo son en el ser.
Every eminence, whether of rank, of nobility, of wealth, of beauty, or of learning, pays this tax. But the one that feels it most harshly is eminence of the understanding. First, because it is the most defenseless. Wealth and power punish whoever dares to affront them, but the understanding does not, for the greater it is, the more modest and long-suffering it is, and the less it defends itself. Second, because, as Gracián learnedly said, superiority in understanding is superiority in being.
No por otra razon es el Angel mas, que el hombre, que porque entiende mas: no es otro el excesso, que el hombre haze al bruto, sino solo entender; y assi, como ninguno quiere ser menos, que otro; assi ninguno confiessa, que otro entiende mas; porque es consequencia de el ser mas. Sufrirà vno, y confessarà, que otro es mas noble, que èl; que es mas rico, que es mas hermoso; y aun, que es mas docto; pero que es mas entendido, apenas avrà quien lo confiesse: Rarus est, qui velit cedere ingenio. Por esso es tan eficàz la baterìa contra esta prenda.
The angel is more than man for no other reason than that he understands more. The only advantage man has over the brute is understanding. And so, just as no one wants to be less than another, no one admits that another understands more, because that would mean the other is more. A person will put up with it and admit that another is nobler than he, or richer, or more handsome, and even more learned. But hardly anyone will admit that another is more intelligent: Rare is the man who is willing to yield in wit. That is why the assault on this gift is so effective.
Quando los Soldados hizieron burla, entretenimiento, y diversion de N. S. Jesù Christo, traxeron vna purpura vieja, y vna caña hueca, y vna Corona de espinas, para coronarle por Rey de burlas. Pues aora, la caña, y la purpura eran afrentosas, pero no dolorosas; pues por què solo la Corona es dolorosa? No basta, que como las demàs insignias, fuesse de escarnio, è ignominia, pues esse era el fin?
When the soldiers made Our Lord Jesus Christ the object of their mockery, sport, and amusement, they brought an old purple robe, a hollow reed, and a crown of thorns, to crown him as a mock king. Now, the reed and the purple were insulting but not painful. Why, then, is the crown alone painful? Was it not enough that it should serve, like the other insignia, for scorn and ignominy, since that was their aim?
No, porque la Sagrada Cabeça de Christo, y aquel Divino Cerebro eran deposito de la Sabiduria; y cerebro sabio en el Mundo, no basta que estè escarnecido, ha de estár tambien lastimado, y maltratado; Cabeça que es erario de Sabiduria, no espere otra Corona, que de espinas. Qual guirnalda espera la sabiduria humana, si vè la que obtuvo la Divina?
No, because the sacred head of Christ and that divine brain were the repository of wisdom. In this world it is not enough for a wise brain to be mocked; it must also be wounded and ill-treated. A head that is a treasury of wisdom should expect no crown but one of thorns. What garland can human wisdom expect, when it sees the one that divine wisdom received?
Coronaba la sobervia Romana las diversas hazañas de sus Capitanes, tambien con diversas Coronas; yà con la Civica, al que defendia al Ciudadano; ya con la Castrense, al que entraba en los Reales enemigos; ya con la Mural, al que escalaba el Muro; ya con la Obsidional, al que libraba la Ciudad cercada, ò el Exercito sitiado, ò el Campo, ò en los Reales; ya con la Naval, ya con la Oval, ya con la Triunfal otras hazañas, segun refieren Plinio, y Aulo Gelio:
Roman pride crowned the various exploits of its generals with various crowns. The civic crown went to the man who saved a citizen, the camp crown to the man who broke into the enemy’s camp, and the mural crown to the man who scaled the wall. The obsidional crown went to the man who relieved a besieged city, or an army under siege in the field or in its camp. The naval, the ovation, and the triumphal crowns rewarded other exploits, as Pliny and Aulus Gellius report.
mas viendo yo tantas diferencias de Coronas, dudaba de qual especie serìa la de Christo, y me parece, que fue obsidional, que (como sabeis señora) era la mas honrosa, y se llamaba Obsidional, de Obsidio, que quiere dezir cerco; la qual, no se hazia de oro, ni de plata, sino de la misma grama, ò yerva, que cria el campo, en que se hazia la empressa: y como la hazaña de Christo fue hazer levantar el cerco al Principe de las Tinieblas, el qual tenìa sitiada toda la Tierra, como lo dize en el Libro de Job: Circuiui terram, & ambulaui per eam.
Seeing so many kinds of crowns, I wondered which kind Christ’s would be, and it seems to me that it was the obsidional. That crown (as you know, my lady) was the most honorable. It was called obsidional from obsidio, which means siege, and it was made not of gold or silver but of the very grass or herbage that grew on the field where the feat was accomplished. Christ’s feat was to make the Prince of Darkness raise his siege, for he held the whole earth besieged, as he says in the Book of Job: I have gone round the earth and walked through it.
Y de èl dize San Pedro: Circuit quærens, quem deuoret; y vino nuestro Caudillo, y le hizo levantar el cerco: Nunc Princeps huius mundi eijcietur foras: assi los Soldados le coronaron, no con oro, ni plata, sino con el fruto natural, que producia el Mundo, que fuè el campo de la lid; el qual, despues de la maldicion, spinas, & tribulos germinabit tibi, no producia otra cosa, que espinas: y assi, fue proprissima Corona de ellas, en el valeroso, y sabio vencedor, con que le coronò su madre la Synagoga.
And St. Peter says of him: He goes about seeking whom he may devour. Then our Captain came and made him raise the siege: Now the prince of this world shall be cast out. So the soldiers crowned him not with gold or silver but with the natural fruit produced by the world, which was the field of battle. After the curse, thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you, the world produced nothing but thorns. And so a crown of thorns was the most fitting for the valiant and wise victor, and with it his mother the Synagogue crowned him.
Saliendo à vèr el doloroso triunfo, como al de el otro Salomon, festivas, à este llorosas las Hijas de Sion, porque es el triunfo de sabio obtenido con dolor, y celebrado con llanto, que es el modo de triunfar la sabiduria; siendo Christo, como Rey de ella, quien estrenò la Corona, porque santificada en sus Sienes, se quite el horror à los otros sabios; y entiendan, que no han de aspirar à otro honor.
The daughters of Zion come out to see the sorrowful triumph: they went out rejoicing for the other Solomon, but weeping for this one. For this is the triumph of the wise, won with pain and celebrated with tears, which is how wisdom triumphs. And it was Christ, as wisdom’s King, who first wore that crown, so that once it had been sanctified on his brow it might lose its horror for other wise men, and they might understand that they must aspire to no other honor.
Quiso la misma vida ir à dàr la vida à Lazaro difunto; ignoraban los Discipulos el intento, y le replicaron: Rabbi, nunc quærebant te Iudæi lapidare: & iterum vadis illuc? Satisfizo el Redemptor el temor: Nonne duodecim sunt horæ diei? Hasta aqui parece que temian, porque tenian el antecedente de quererle apedrear, porque les avia reprehendido, llamandoles ladrones, y no pastores de las ovejas.
Life itself chose to go and give life to the dead Lazarus. The disciples did not know his purpose and objected: Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again? The Redeemer answered their fear: Are there not twelve hours in the day? Up to this point, it seems, they were afraid because of the precedent: the Jews had wanted to stone him for rebuking them and calling them thieves and not shepherds of the sheep.
Y assi, temian, que si iva à lo mesmo (como las reprehensiones, aunque sean tan justas, suelen ser mal reconocidas) corriesse peligro su vida; pero yà desengañados, y enterados, de que và à dar vida à Lazaro, qual es la razon, que pudo mover à Tomàs, para que tomando aqui los alientos, que en el Huerto Pedro: Eamus & nos, vt moriamur cum eo? Què dizes, Apostol Santo, à morir no và el Señor, de què es el rezelo? porque à lo que Christo và, no es à reprehender, sino à hazer vna obra de piedad, y por esto no le pueden hazer mal.
So they feared that if he was going for the same purpose, his life would be in danger, since rebukes, however just, are usually ill received. But once they had been set right and told that he was going to give life to Lazarus, what reason could have moved Thomas to summon here the same courage Peter showed in the Garden, and say: Let us also go, that we may die with him? What are you saying, holy Apostle? The Lord is not going to die, so why the misgiving? Christ is going not to rebuke but to do a work of mercy, and for that they cannot harm him.
Los mismos Judios os podian aver assegurado, pues quando los reconvino, queriendole apedrear: Multa bona opera ostendi vobis ex Patre meo, propter quod eorum opus me lapidastis? Le respondieron: De bono opere non lapidamus te, sed de blasphemia. Pues si ellos dizen, que no le quieren apedrear por las buenas obras, y aora và à hazer vna tan buena, como dàr la vida à Lazaro, de què es el rezelo? ò por què? No fuera mejor dezir: Vamos à gozar el fruto de el agradecimiento de la buena obra, que và à hazer nuestro Maestro? à verle aplaudir, y rendir gracias al beneficio?
The Jews themselves could have reassured you. When he reproached them as they sought to stone him, I have shown you many good works from my Father; for which of those works do you stone me?, they answered him: We do not stone you for a good work, but for blasphemy. Then if they say they do not want to stone him for good works, and now he is going to do one as good as giving life to Lazarus, what is the misgiving about? Or why? Would it not have been better to say: “Let us go and enjoy the fruit of gratitude for the good work our Master is going to do, to see him applauded and thanked for his kindness,
à vèr las admiraciones, que hazen del milagro? Y no dezir, al parecer, vna cosa tan fuera del caso, como es: Eamus cum eo. Mas ay! que el Santo temiò, como discreto, y hablò como Apostol. No và Christo à hazer vn milagro? Pues què mayor peligro? Menos intolerable es para la sobervia oìr las reprehensiones, que para la envidia vèr los milagros. En todo lo dicho, venerable señora, no quiero (ni tal desatino cupiera en mi) dezir, que me han perseguido por saber, sino solo porque he tenido amor à la sabiduria, y à las letras, no porque aya conseguido, ni vno, ni otro.
to see the wonder people show at the miracle”? Rather than saying something that seems so beside the point as Let us go with him? But ah, the saint feared like a wise man and spoke like an Apostle. Is Christ not going to perform a miracle? Then what greater danger could there be? It is less intolerable for pride to hear rebukes than for envy to see miracles. In all I have said, venerable lady, I do not mean (nor could such folly find room in me) that I have been persecuted for knowing. I mean only that I have been persecuted for having loved wisdom and letters, not for having attained either the one or the other.
Hallabase el Principe de los Apostoles, en vn tiempo, tan distante de la sabiduria, como pondera aquel enfatico: Petrus verò sequebatur eum à longè. Tan lexos de los aplausos de Docto, quien tenia el titulo de indiscreto: Nesciens quid diceret. Y aun examinado del conocimiento de la sabiduria, dixo èl mesmo, que no avia alcançado la menor noticia: Mulier nescio quid dicis: mulier, non noui illum. Y què le sucede? Que teniendo estos creditos de ignorante, no tuvo la fortuna, si las aflicciones de sabio. Por què? No se diò otra causal, sino: Et hic cum illo erat.
The Prince of the Apostles was, at one time, as far from wisdom as that emphatic phrase stresses: But Peter followed him from afar. He who bore the title of indiscreet was far from the applause given the learned: Not knowing what he said. Even when examined on his knowledge of wisdom, he himself said that he had not attained the least notion of it: Woman, I do not know what you are saying; woman, I do not know him. And what happens to him? Though he had this reputation for ignorance, he did not have the good fortune of the wise, but he did have their afflictions. Why? No other cause was given than this: And this man too was with him.
Era afecto à la sabiduria, llevabale el coraçon, andabase tràs ella, preciabase de seguidor, y amoroso de la sabiduria: y aunque era tan à longè, que no le comprehendia, ni alcançaba, bastò para incurrir sus tormentos. Ni faltò Soldado de fuera, que no le afligiesse, ni muger domestica, que no le aquexasse. Yo confiesso, que me hallo muy distante de los terminos de la sabiduria, y que la he deseado seguir, aunque à longè.
He was devoted to wisdom. It carried away his heart, he went after it, and he prided himself on being a follower and lover of wisdom. And although he followed so afar that he neither understood it nor reached it, that was enough to bring its torments upon him. He lacked neither a soldier from outside to trouble him nor a woman of the household to harass him. I confess that I find myself very far from the bounds of wisdom, and that I have wished to follow it, though afar.
Pero todo ha sido acercarme mas al fuego de la persecucion, al crisol del tormento: y ha sido con tal extremo, que han llegado à solicitar, que se me prohiba el estudio.
But all of it has only brought me closer to the fire of persecution and the crucible of torment. It has gone to such an extreme that they have even sought to have study forbidden to me.
Studying the whole world
Forbidden books for three months, she studies everything around her: buildings, spinning tops, games of pins.
Vna vez lo consiguieron con vna Prelada muy santa, y muy candida, que creyò, que el estudio era cosa de Inquisicion, y me mandò, que no estudiasse: yo la obedecì (vnos tres meses, que durò el poder ella mandar) en quanto à no tomar Libro, que en quanto à no estudiar absolutamente, como no cae debaxo de mi potestad, no lo pude hazer, porque aunque no estudiaba en los Libros, estudiaba en todas las cosas, que Dios criò, sirviendome ellas de letras, y de Libro toda esta maquina vniversal.
Once they succeeded, with a very saintly and very guileless mother superior who believed that study was a matter for the Inquisition, and she ordered me not to study. I obeyed her for the three months or so that her power to command lasted, as far as not picking up a book. But I could not obey her as to not studying at all, since that does not lie within my power. Although I did not study in books, I studied in all the things that God created, and they served me as letters, and this whole universal machine served me as a book.
Nada veìa sin reflexa, nada oìa sin consideracion, aun en las cosas mas menudas, y materiales; porque como no ay criatura, por baxa que sea, en que no se conozca el me fecit Deus, no ay alguna, que no pasme el entendimiento, si se considera como se debe. Assi yo (buelvo à dezir) las miraba, y admiraba todas; de tal manera, que de las mismas personas, con quienes hablaba, y de lo que me dezian, me estaban resaltando mil consideraciones: de donde emanarìa aquella variedad de genios, è ingenios, siendo todos de vna especie? Quales serian los temperamentos, y ocultas qualidades, que lo ocasionaban?
I saw nothing without reflecting on it and heard nothing without considering it, even in the smallest and most material things. For since there is no creature, however lowly, in which one cannot recognize the God made me, there is none that does not astonish the understanding, if it is considered as it should be. So, I say again, I looked at them all and marveled at them all. Even from the very people I spoke with, and from what they said to me, a thousand reflections kept springing up in me. Where could that variety of dispositions and wits come from, since all were of one species? What could be the temperaments and hidden qualities that caused it?
Si veìa vna figura, estaba convinando la proporcion de sus lineas, y mediandola con el entendimiento, y reduciendola à otras diferentes. Passeabame algunas vezes en el testero de vn Dormitorio nuestro (que es vna pieza muy capàz) y estaba observando, que siendo las lineas de sus dos lados paralelas, y su techo à nivel; la vista fingia, que sus lineas se inclinaban vna à otra, y que su techo estaba mas baxo en lo distante, que en lo proximo; de donde inferia, que las lineas visuales corren rectas, pero no paralelas, sino que vàn à formar vna figura piramidal.
If I saw a figure, I would be combining the proportion of its lines, measuring it with my understanding, and reducing it to other, different figures. Sometimes I would walk at the head of one of our dormitories, which is a very large room. I observed that although the lines of its two sides were parallel and its ceiling was level, the eye made it seem that its lines inclined toward each other and that its ceiling was lower at the far end than close by. From this I inferred that visual lines run straight but not parallel, and that they go on to form a pyramidal figure.
Y discurria, si serìa esta la razon, que obligò à los Antiguos à dudar si el Mundo era esferico, ò no? Porque aunque lo parece, podia ser engaño de la vista, demonstrando concavidades donde pudiera no averlas.
And I wondered whether this might be the reason that led the ancients to doubt whether the world was spherical or not. For although it appears so, this could be a deception of the eye, showing concavities where there might be none.
Este modo de reparos en todo me sucedia, y sucede siempre, sin tener yo arbitrio en ello, que antes me suelo enfadar, porque me cansa la cabeça; y yo creìa, que à todos sucedia esto mismo, y el hazer versos, hasta que la experiencia me ha mostrado lo contrario: y es de tal manera esta naturaleza, ò costumbre, que nada veo, sin segunda consideracion.
This kind of noticing happened to me in everything, and it always does, without my having any choice in it. In fact it often annoys me, because it tires my head. I believed that the same thing happened to everyone, as did making verses, until experience showed me otherwise. This nature, or habit, is such that I see nothing without a second consideration.
Estaban en mi presencia dos niñas jugando con vn trompo, y apenas yo vì el movimiento, y la figura, quando empecè, con esta mi locura, à considerar el facil motu de la forma esferica; y como duraba el impulso, yà impresso, è independente de su causa, pues distante la mano de la niña, que era la causa motiva, bailaba el trompillo: y no contenta con esto, hize traer harina, y cernerla, para que en bailando el trompo encima, se conociesse, si eran circulos perfectos, ò no, los que descrivia con su movimiento; y hallè, que no eran sino vnas lineas espirales, que iban perdiendo lo circular, quanto se iba remitiendo el impulso.
Two little girls were playing with a top in front of me. No sooner had I seen its motion and shape than I began, with this madness of mine, to consider the easy motion of the spherical form. I considered how the impulse lasted once it was imparted, independent of its cause, since the little top went on dancing at a distance from the girl’s hand, which was the moving cause. Not content with this, I had flour brought and sifted, so that when the top danced on it one could tell whether the circles it described with its motion were perfect or not. I found that they were nothing but spiral lines, which lost their circularity as the impulse died down.
Jugaban otras à los alfileres (que es el mas frivolo juego, que vsa la puerilidad) yo me llegaba à contemplar las figuras, que formaban; y viendo, que acaso se pusieron tres en triangulo, me ponia à enlazar vno en otro, acordandome de que aquella era la figura, que dizen tenia el mysterioso anillo de Salomon, en que avia vnas lexanas luzes, y representaciones de la Santissima Trinidad, en virtud de lo qual, obraba tantos prodigios, y maravillas: y la misma, que dizen tuvo el harpa de David, y que por esso sanaba Saul à su sonido; y casi la misma conservan las harpas en nuestros tiempos.
Other girls were playing at pins, which is the most frivolous game children play. I would go over to contemplate the figures they formed. Seeing that three of them happened to fall in a triangle, I set about linking one with another. I remembered that this was said to be the figure of Solomon’s mysterious ring, in which there were faint distant glimmers and representations of the Most Holy Trinity, and by virtue of which it worked so many prodigies and marvels. It was also the shape that David’s harp is said to have had, which is why Saul was healed at its sound, and harps in our day keep almost the same shape.
Philosophy in the kitchen
She describes what cooking has taught her and how her mind keeps reasoning even in sleep.
Pues què os pudiera contar, señora, de los secretos naturales, que he descubierto, estando guisando? Veo que vn huevo se vne, y frie en la manteca, ò azeyte; y por contrario, se despedaza en el almivar: vèr que para que el azucar se conserve fluida, basta echarle vna muy minima parte de agua, en que aya estado membrillo, ò otra fruta agria: vèr que la yema, y clara de vn mismo huevo son tan contrarias, que en los vnos, que sirven para el azucar, sirve cada vna de por sì, y juntos no.
Then what could I tell you, my lady, of the natural secrets I have discovered while cooking? I see that an egg holds together and fries in lard or oil, but falls apart in syrup. I see that to keep sugar fluid it is enough to add a very tiny bit of water in which quince or some other sour fruit has been steeped. I see that the yolk and the white of one and the same egg are so contrary that, in the eggs used with sugar, each one works on its own, but not the two together.
Por no cansaros con tales frialdades, que solo refiero, por daros entera noticia de mi natural, y creo que os causarà risa; pero, señora, què podèmos saber las mugeres, sino filosofias de cocina? Bien dixo Lupercio Leonardo: Que bien se puede filosofar, y aderezar la cena. Y yo suelo dezir, viendo estas cosillas: Si Aristoteles huviera guisado, mucho mas huviera escrito.
But I will not weary you with such trifles, which I relate only to give you full knowledge of my nature, and which I believe will make you laugh. But, my lady, what can we women know except kitchen philosophies? Lupercio Leonardo said it well: How well one can philosophize and still get supper ready. And when I see these little things, I often say: If Aristotle had cooked, he would have written a great deal more.
Y prosiguiendo en mi modo de cogitaciones, digo, que esto es tan continuo en mi, que no necessito de Libros: y en vna ocasion, que por vn grave accidente de estomago me prohibieron los Medicos el estudio, passè assi algunos dias; y luego les propuse, que era menos dañoso el concedermelos, porque eran tan fuertes, y vehementes mis cogitaciones, que consumian mas espiritus en vn quarto de hora, que el estudio de los Libros en quatro dias; y assi, se reduxeron à concederme, que leyesse: y mas, señora mia, que ni aun el sueño se librò de este continuo movimiento de mi imaginativa;
Continuing with my way of thinking, I say that this is so constant in me that I do not need books. On one occasion, because of a serious stomach ailment, the doctors forbade me to study. I spent a few days that way, and then I put it to them that it would be less harmful to allow me books. My thoughts were so strong and vehement that they consumed more spirits in a quarter of an hour than the study of books did in four days. So they were brought to allow me to read. And what is more, my lady, not even sleep was free from this continual motion of my imagination;
antes suele obrar en èl mas libre, y desembaraçada, confiriendo con mayor claridad, y sossiego las especies, que ha conservado del dia; arguyendo, haziendo versos, de que os pudiera hazer vn catalogo muy grande, y de algunas razones, y delgadezas, que he alcançado dormida, mejor, que despierta; y las dexo, por no cansaros, pues basta lo dicho, para que vuestra discrecion, y transcendencia penetre, y se entère perfectamente en todo mi natural, y de el principio, medios, y estado de mis estudios.
in sleep, in fact, it tends to work more freely and unencumbered, going over the images it has kept from the day with greater clarity and calm. It argues and makes verses, and I could give you a very large catalogue of these, and of some arguments and subtleties that I have arrived at better asleep than awake. I leave them aside so as not to weary you, since what I have said is enough for your discretion and penetration to see into my whole nature and understand it perfectly, together with the beginning, means, and present state of my studies.
Learned women
She lists learned women from the Bible, antiquity, the Church and her own day.
Si estos, señora, fueran meritos (como los veo por tales celebrar en los hombres) no lo huvieran sido en mi, porque obro necessariamente: si son culpa, por la misma razon creo, que no la he tenido; mas con todo, vivo siempre tan desconfiada de mi, que ni en esto, ni en otra cosa me fio de mi juizio: y assi, remito la decision à esse soberano talento, sometiendome luego à lo que sentenciare, sin contradicion, ni repugnancia, pues esto no ha sido mas de vna simple narracion de mi inclinacion à las letras.
If these things, my lady, were merits, as I see them celebrated as such in men, they would not have been merits in me, because I act out of necessity. If they are a fault, then for the same reason I believe I have not been at fault. Yet for all that, I always live so distrustful of myself that neither in this nor in anything else do I trust my own judgment. So I submit the decision to that sovereign talent of yours, and I yield at once to whatever you decide, without contradiction or reluctance, since this has been no more than a simple account of my inclination to letters.
Confiesso tambien, que con ser esto verdad, tal, que (como he dicho) no necessitaba de exemplares; con todo, no me han dexado de ayudar los muchos que he leìdo, assi en Divinas, como en humanas letras. Porque veo à vna Debora dando leyes, assi en lo Militar, como en lo Politico, y governando el Pueblo, donde avia tantos Varones doctos. Veo vna sapientissima Reyna de Sabà, tan docta, que se atreve à tentar con enigmas la sabiduria del mayor de los Sabios, sin ser por ello reprehendida; antes por ello serà Juez de los incredulos.
I also confess that, although this is so true that, as I have said, I needed no examples, the many examples I have read, in sacred as well as secular letters, have still not failed to help me. For I see a Deborah giving laws, in military as well as political matters, and governing the people in a place where there were so many learned men. I see a most wise Queen of Sheba, so learned that she dares to test the wisdom of the greatest of the wise with riddles, without being reproached for it. On the contrary, she will be the judge of unbelievers for it.
Veo tantas, y tan insignes mugeres; vnas, adornadas de el dòn de profecia, como vna Abigail; otras, de persuasion, como Esther; otras, de piedad, como Raab; otras, de perseverancia, como Ana, madre de Samuel: y otras infinitas, en otras especies de prendas, y virtudes.
I see so many and such distinguished women. Some are adorned with the gift of prophecy, like an Abigail; others with persuasion, like Esther; others with piety, like Rahab; others with perseverance, like Hannah, mother of Samuel; and countless others with other kinds of gifts and virtues.
Si rebuelvo à los Gentiles, lo primero que encuentro es con las Sybilas, elegidas de Dios para profetizar los principales Mysterios de nuestra Fè; y en tan doctos, y elegantes versos, que suspenden la admiracion. Veo adorar por Diosa de las Ciencias à vna muger, como Minerva, hija de el primer Jupiter, y Maestra de toda la sabiduria de Athenas. Veo vna Bola Argentaria, que ayudò à Lucano, su marido, à escrivir la gran Batalla Pharsalica. Veo à la hija de el Divino Thiresias, mas docta, que su padre. Veo à vna Cenobia, Reyna de los Palmirenos, tan sabia, como valerosa.
If I turn to the Gentiles, the first I come upon are the Sibyls, chosen by God to prophesy the principal mysteries of our faith, in verses so learned and elegant that they hold wonder spellbound. I see a woman like Minerva worshiped as goddess of the sciences, daughter of the first Jupiter and teacher of all the wisdom of Athens. I see a Polla Argentaria, who helped her husband Lucan write the great Battle of Pharsalia. I see the daughter of the divine Tiresias, more learned than her father. I see a Zenobia, queen of the Palmyrenes, as wise as she was brave.
A vna Agete, hija de Aristipo, doctissima. Nicostrata, inventora de las letras Latinas, y eruditissima en las Griegas. A vna Aspasia Millesia, que enseñò Filosofia, y Retorica, y fue Maestra del Filosofo Pericles. A vna Hypasia, que enseñò Astrologia, y leyò mucho tiempo en Alexandria. A vna Leoncia, Griega, que escriviò contra el Filosofo Teophrasto, y le convenciò.
An Arete, daughter of Aristippus, most learned. Nicostrata, inventor of the Latin letters and most erudite in the Greek. An Aspasia of Miletus, who taught philosophy and rhetoric and was the teacher of the philosopher Pericles. A Hypatia, who taught astronomy and lectured for a long time in Alexandria. A Leontium, a Greek woman, who wrote against the philosopher Theophrastus and refuted him.
A vna Jucia, à vna Corina, à vna Cornelia: y en fin, à toda la gran turba de las que merecieron nombres, yà de Griegas, yà de Musas, yà de Phitonisas: pues todas no fueron mas, que mugeres doctas, tenidas, y celebradas, y tambien veneradas de la Antiguedad por tales. Sin otras infinitas, de que estàn los Libros llenos, pues veo aquella Egypciaca Catharina, leyendo, y convenciendo todas las Sabidurias de los Sabios de Egypto. Veo vna Getrudis leer, escrivir, y enseñar.
A Jucia, a Corinna, a Cornelia. In short, I see the whole great throng of those who earned the names now of Greeks, now of Muses, now of Pythonesses, since all of them were nothing but learned women, held, celebrated, and also venerated as such by antiquity. And there are countless others with whom books are filled. I see that Egyptian Catherine, reading and refuting all the wisdom of the wise men of Egypt. I see a Gertrude reading, writing, and teaching.
Y para no buscar exemplos fuera de casa, veo vna Santissima Madre mia Paula, docta en las Lenguas, Hebrea, Griega, y Latina, y aptissima para interpretar las Escrituras. Y què mas? que siendo su Coronista vn Maximo Geronimo, apenas se hallaba el Santo digno de serlo, pues con aquella viua ponderacion, y energica eficacia, con que sabe explicarse, dize: Si todos los miembros de mi cuerpo fuessen lenguas, no bastarian à publicar la sabiduria, y virtud de Paula.
And not to look for examples outside the house, I see a most holy mother of mine, Paula, learned in the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin tongues and most apt at interpreting the Scriptures. And what more? Her chronicler was no less than a Jerome the Greatest, and the saint scarcely found himself worthy of the task. With that lively emphasis and forceful efficacy with which he knows how to express himself, he says: If all the members of my body were tongues, they would not suffice to proclaim the wisdom and virtue of Paula.
Las mesmas alabanças le mereciò Blesilla, viuda; y las mismas la esclarecida virgen Eustochio, hijas ambas de la misma Santa: y la segunda tal, que por su ciencia era llamada Prodigio del Mundo. Fabiola, Romana, fue tambien doctissima en la Sagrada Escritura. Proba Falconia, muger Romana, escriviò vn elegante Libro con centones de Virgilio, de los mysterios de nuestra Santa Fè. Nuestra Reyna Doña Isabel, muger de el Dezimo Alfonso, es corriente, que escriviò de Astrologia.
Blaesilla, a widow, earned the same praises, and so did the illustrious virgin Eustochium, both daughters of the same saint. The second was such that for her learning she was called Prodigy of the World. Fabiola, a Roman, was also most learned in Holy Scripture. Proba, a Roman woman, wrote an elegant book of centos from Virgil on the mysteries of our holy faith. Our Queen Doña Isabel, wife of Alfonso the Tenth, is commonly said to have written on astronomy.
Sin otras, que omito, por no trasladar lo que otros han dicho (que es vicio, que siempre he abominado) pues en nuestros tiempos està floreciendo la gran Christina Alexandra, Reyna de Suecia, tan docta, como valerosa, y magnanima; y las Excelentissimas señoras, Duquesa de Abeyro, y Condesa de Villa-vmbrosa.
There are others I omit, so as not to copy what others have said, which is a vice I have always abhorred. In our own times the great Christina Alexandra, queen of Sweden, flourishes, as learned as she is brave and magnanimous; and the most excellent ladies the Duchess of Aveiro and the Countess of Villaumbrosa.
May women study and teach?
Citing Arce, Jerome and St. Paul, she argues that women may study and teach in private.
El venerable Doctor Arce (digno Professor de Escritura por su virtud, y letras) en su estudioso Bibliorum excita esta question: An liceat fœminis sacrorum Bibliorum studio incumbere? eaque interpretari? Y trae por la parte contraria muchas sentencias de Santos, en especial aquello del Apostol: Mulieres in Ecclesijs taceant, non enim permittitur eis loqui, &c.
The venerable Doctor Arce, a worthy professor of Scripture for his virtue and learning, raises this question in his studious Bibliorum: Is it lawful for women to apply themselves to the study of the Holy Bible, and to interpret it? On the opposing side he brings forward many sayings of saints, especially that of the Apostle: Let women keep silent in the churches, for it is not permitted to them to speak, etc.
Trae despues otras sentencias, y del mismo Apostol aquel lugar ad Titum: Anus similitèr in habitu sancto benè docentes, Con interpretaciones de los Santos Padres; y al fin, resuelve con su prudencia, que el leer publicamente en las Cathedras, y predicar en los Pulpitos, no es licito à las mugeres; pero que el estudiar, escrivir, y enseñar privadamente, no solo les es licito; pero muy provechoso, y vtil: claro està, que esto no se debe entender con todas, sino con aquellas à quienes huviere Dios dotado de especial virtud, y prudencia, y que fueren muy provectas, y eruditas, y tuvieren el talento, y requisitos necessarios para tan sagrado empleo:
He then brings forward other sayings, including that passage of the same Apostle to Titus: The aged women likewise in holy attire, teaching well, with interpretations of the holy Fathers. In the end, with his prudence, he concludes that lecturing publicly from university chairs and preaching from pulpits is not lawful for women. But studying, writing, and teaching privately is not only lawful for them but very profitable and useful. Of course, this is not to be understood of all women, but of those whom God has endowed with special virtue and prudence, who are very advanced and erudite, and who have the talent and qualifications necessary for so sacred an occupation;
y esto es tan justo, que no solo à las mugeres (que por tan ineptas estàn tenidas) sino à los hombres (que con solo serlo, piensan que son sabios) se avia de prohibir la interpretacion de las Sagradas Letras, en no siendo muy doctos, y virtuosos, y de ingenios dociles, y bien inclinados; porque de lo contrario, creo yo, que han salido tantos Sectarios, y que ha sido la raìz de tantas heregias; porque ay muchos, que estudian para ignorar, especialmente los que son de animos arrogantes, inquietos, y sobervios, amigos de novedades en la Ley (que es quien las rehusa;) y assi, hasta que por dezir lo que nadie ha dicho, dizen vna heregia, no estàn contentos.
and this is so just that interpreting the sacred letters ought to be forbidden not only to women, who are held to be so inept, but also to men, who think they are wise merely by being men, unless they are very learned and virtuous, with docile and well-disposed minds. For it is from the contrary, I believe, that so many sectarians have come, and this has been the root of so many heresies. There are many who study in order to be ignorant, especially those of arrogant, restless, and proud spirits, fond of novelties in the Law, which is the very thing that rejects them. And so they are not content until, by saying what no one has said, they say a heresy.
De estos dize el Espiritu Santo: In maleuolam animam non introibit sapientia. A estos mas daño les haze el saber, que les hiziera el ignorar. Dixo vn discreto, Que no es necio entero, el que no sabe Latin; pero el que lo sabe, està calificado. Y añado yo, que le perficiona (si es perfeccion la necedad) el aver estudiado su poco de Filosofia, y Theologia, y el tener alguna noticia de Lenguas, que con esso es necio en muchas Sciencias, y Lenguas: porque vn necio grande, no cabe en solo la Lengua materna.
Of these the Holy Spirit says: Wisdom will not enter a malicious soul. To such people knowing does more harm than not knowing would do. A wit once said: He who does not know Latin is not a complete fool; but he who knows it is a certified one. And I add that what perfects him, if foolishness can be perfection, is having studied his bit of philosophy and theology and having some knowledge of languages. With that he is a fool in many sciences and languages, because a great fool cannot fit into his mother tongue alone.
A estos, buelvo à dezir, haze daño el estudiar, porque es poner espada en manos del furioso; que siendo instrumento nobilissimo para la defensa, en sus manos es muerte suya, y de muchos.
To these people, I say again, studying does harm, because it is putting a sword in the hands of a madman. Though it is a most noble instrument for defense, in his hands it is death to himself and to many others.
Tales fueron las Divinas Letras en poder del malvado Pelagio, y del protervo Arrio, del malvado Lutero, y de los demàs Heresiarcas, como lo fue nuestro Doctor (nunca fue nuestro, ni Doctor) Cazalla: à los quales hizo daño la sabiduria, porque aunque es el mejor alimento, y vida del alma; à la manera, que en el estomago mal acomplexionado, y de viciado calor, mientras mejores los alimentos que recibe, mas aridos, fermentados, y perversos son los humores, que cria; assi estos malevolos, mientras mas estudian, peores opiniones engendran; obstruyeseles el entendimiento con lo mismo, que avia de alimentarse, y es, que estudian mucho, y digieren poco, sin proporcionarse al vaso limitado de sus entendimientos.
Such were the divine letters in the power of the wicked Pelagius, the perverse Arius, the wicked Luther, and the other heresiarchs, and so they were for our Doctor Cazalla, who was never ours, nor a doctor. To these men wisdom did harm. Wisdom is the best nourishment and the life of the soul. But in an ill-constituted stomach of vitiated heat, the better the food it receives, the drier, more fermented, and more perverse the humors it produces. In the same way, the more these malevolent men study, the worse the opinions they breed. Their understanding is obstructed by the very thing that should have nourished it. The fact is that they study much and digest little, without measuring themselves against the limited vessel of their understanding.
A esto dize el Apostol: Dico enim per gratiam, quæ data est mihi, omnibus, qui sunt inter vos: Non plus sapere, quàm oportet sapere, sed sapere ad sobrietatem, & vnicuique sicut Deus diuisit mensuram fidei. Y en verdad, no lo dixo el Apostol à las mugeres, sino à los hombres; y que no es solo para ellas el taceant, sino para todos los que no fueren muy aptos.
To this the Apostle says: For I say, through the grace that is given me, to all who are among you: not to be wiser than one ought to be wise, but to be wise unto sobriety, and to each as God has apportioned the measure of faith. And in truth, the Apostle did not say this to women, but to men. The let them keep silent is not only for women, but for all who are not very apt.
Querer yo saber tanto, ò mas, que Aristoteles, ò que San Agustin, si no tengo la aptitud de San Agustin, ò de Aristoles (aunque estudie mas, que los dos) no solo no lo conseguirè, sino que debilitarè, y entorpecerè la operacion de mi flaco entendimiento, con la desproporcion del objeto.
If I wish to know as much as Aristotle or St. Augustine, or more, without having the aptitude of St. Augustine or of Aristotle, then even if I study more than both of them, not only will I fail to achieve it, but I will weaken and dull the working of my feeble understanding through the disproportion of the object.
O si todos (y yo la primera, que soy vna ignorante) nos tomassemos la medida al talento, antes de estudiar (y lo peor es, de escrivir) con ambiciosa codicia de igualar, y aun de exceder à otros, què poco animo nos quedàra, y de quantos errores nos escusàramos, y quantas torcidas inteligencias, que andan por aì, no anduvieran! Y pongo las mias en primer lugar, pues si conociera, como debo, esto mismo, no escriviera: y protesto, que solo lo hago por obedeceros; con tanto rezelo, que me debeis mas en tomar la pluma con este temor, que me debierades, si os remitiera mas perfectas obras.
Oh, if all of us (and I first of all, for I am an ignorant woman) took the measure of our talent before we studied (and, what is worse, before we wrote) with an ambitious greed to equal and even to surpass others, how little spirit we would have left! How many errors we would spare ourselves, and how many twisted interpretations now going about would not be going about! And I put my own in first place, for if I knew this as I ought, I would not write. I protest that I do so only to obey you, and with such misgiving that you owe me more for taking up the pen with this fear than you would owe me if I sent you more perfect works.
Pero bien, que và à vuestra correccion; borradlo, rompedlo, y reprehendedme, que esso apreciarè yo mas, que todo quanto vano aplauso me pueden otros dàr: Corripiet me iustus in misericordia, & increpabit: oleum autem peccatoris non impinguet caput meum.
But very well, it goes to you for correction. Strike it out, tear it up, and reprove me, for I will value that more than all the empty applause others can give me: The just man shall correct me in mercy and rebuke me; but let not the oil of the sinner anoint my head.
Y bolviendo à nuestro Arce, digo, que trae, en confirmacion de su sentir, aquellas palabras de mi Padre San Geronimo, ad Lætam de institutione filiæ. Donde dize: Adhuc tenera lingua Psalmis dulcibus imbuatur. Ipsa nomina, per quæ consuescit paulatim verba contexere, non sint fortuita, sed certa, & coaceruata de industria, Prophetarum videlicet, atque Apostolorum, & omnis ab Adam Patriarcharum series, de Matthæo, Lucaque descendat, vt dum aliud agit, futuræ memoriæ præparetur. Reddat tibi pensum quotidie de Scriptorum floribus carptum. Pues si assi queria el Santo, que se educasse vna niña, que apenas empezaba à hablar; què querrà en sus Monjas, y en sus Hijas espirituales?
And returning to our Arce, I say that he cites, in confirmation of his view, those words of my father St. Jerome to Laeta, on the education of her daughter, where he says: While her tongue is still tender, let it be steeped in the sweet psalms. Let the very names by which she gradually grows used to putting words together not be chosen at random, but fixed and deliberately gathered: those of the prophets, that is, and of the apostles; and let the whole line of patriarchs from Adam come down to her from Matthew and Luke, so that while she is doing something else she is being prepared for future remembrance. Let her render you each day a set task gathered from the flowers of the Scriptures. Well then, if the saint wanted a little girl who was barely beginning to talk to be educated this way, what will he want for his nuns and his spiritual daughters?
Bien se conoce en las referidas Eustochio, y Faviola, y en Marcela, su hermana, Pacatula, y otras, à quienes el Santo honra en sus Epistolas, exortandolas à este sagrado exercicio; como se conoce en la citada Epistola, donde notè yo aquel Reddat tibi pensum, que es reclamo, y concordante del Benè docentes de San Pablo: pues el Reddat tibi de mi Gran Padre, dà à entender, que la Maestra de la Niña ha de ser la misma Leta su madre.
This is plainly seen in Eustochium and Fabiola, already mentioned, and in Marcella, her sister, Pacatula, and others whom the saint honors in his letters, urging them to this holy exercise. It is seen as well in the letter cited, where I noted that Let her render you, which echoes and agrees with St. Paul’s teaching well. For my great father’s Let her render you makes it clear that the girl’s teacher is to be Laeta herself, her mother.
O quantos daños se escusàran en nuestra Republica, si las ancianas fueran doctas, como Leta, y que supieran enseñar, como manda San Pablo, y mi Padre San Geronimo! Y no, que por defecto de esto, y la suma floxedad en que han dado en dexar à las pobres mugeres, si algunos padres desean doctrinar mas de lo ordinario à sus hijas, les fuerça la necessidad, y falta de ancianas sabias, à llevar Maestros hombres à enseñar à leer, escrivir, y contar; à tocar, y otras habilidades, de que no pocos daños resultan, como se experimentan cada dia en lastimosos exemplos de desiguales consorcios: por que con la immediacion del trato, y la comunicacion del tiempo, suele hazerse facil, lo que no se pensò ser possible.
Oh, how much harm would be avoided in our commonwealth if older women were learned, like Laeta, and knew how to teach, as St. Paul and my father St. Jerome command! But for lack of this, and because of the extreme negligence in which poor women have come to be left, if some parents wish to give their daughters more instruction than usual, necessity and the lack of wise older women force them to bring in male teachers to teach reading, writing and arithmetic, playing music, and other accomplishments. Not a little harm results from this, as we see every day in pitiful examples of unequal matches. For with close dealings and long company, what no one thought possible often becomes easy.
Por lo qual, muchos quieren mas dexar barbaras, è incultas à sus hijas, que no exponerlas à tan notorio peligro como la familiaridad con los hombres, lo qual se escusàra, si huviera ancianas doctas, como quiere San Pablo; y de vnas en otras fuesse subcediendo el magisterio, como sucede en el de hazer labores, y lo demàs, que es costumbre. Porque, què inconveniente tiene, que vna muger anciana, docta en letras, y de santa conversacion, y costumbres, tuviesse à su cargo la educacion de las doncellas?
For this reason many would rather leave their daughters uneducated and uncultivated than expose them to so evident a danger as familiarity with men. This would be avoided if there were learned older women, as St. Paul wishes, and the office of teaching passed from one to the next, as happens with needlework and the other customary skills. For what objection can there be to an older woman, learned in letters and holy in conversation and conduct, having charge of the education of young girls?
Y no, que estas, ò se pierden por falta de Doctrina, ò por querersela aplicar por tan peligrosos medios, quales son los Maestros hombres, que quando no huviera mas riesgo, que la indecencia de sentarse al lado de vna muger verecunda (que aun se sonrosea de que la mire à la cara su proprio padre) vn hombre tan estraño, à tratarla con casera familiaridad, y à tratarla con magistral llaneza: el pudor del trato con los hombres, y de su conversacion, basta para que no se permitiesse.
Instead, these girls are lost either for lack of instruction or through attempts to give it to them by such dangerous means as male teachers. Even if there were no greater risk than the indecency of a man who is a stranger sitting beside a modest woman (who blushes even when her own father looks her in the face), dealing with her with household familiarity and treating her with a teacher’s ease, the modesty proper to dealings and conversation with men would be reason enough not to allow it.
Y no hallo yo, que este modo de enseñar de hombres à mugeres, pueda ser sin peligro, sino es en el severo Tribunal de vn Confessonario, ò en la distante decencia de los Pulpitos, ò en el remoto conocimiento de los Libros; pero no en el manoseo de la inmediacion: y todos conocen, que es esto verdad; y con todo, se permite, solo por el defecto de no aver ancianas sabias; luego es grande daño el no averlas?
And I do not find that this way of men teaching women can be free of danger, except in the severe tribunal of the confessional, or the distant decorum of the pulpit, or the remote acquaintance of books—but not in the handling that comes with closeness. Everyone knows this is true, and yet it is permitted, only for want of wise older women. Is it not, then, a great harm that there are none?
Esto debian considerar los que atados al Mulieres in Ecclesia taceant, blasfeman de que las mugeres sepan, y enseñen; como que no fuera el mismo Apostol el que dixo, Benè docentes. Demàs, de que aquella prohibicion cayò sobre lo historial, que refiere Eusebio; y es, que en la Iglesia Primitiva se ponian las mugeres à enseñar las Doctrinas vnas à otras en los Templos; y este rumor confundia, quando predicaban los Apostoles: y por esso se les mandò callar, como aora sucede, que mientras predica el Predicador, no se reza en alta voz.
This is what they ought to consider who, tied to Let women keep silent in the churches, rail against women knowing and teaching—as though it were not the same Apostle who said teaching well. Besides, that prohibition concerned the historical circumstance that Eusebius reports: in the early Church women would set about teaching one another doctrine in the churches, and their murmuring caused confusion while the apostles were preaching. That is why they were told to keep silent, just as now no one prays aloud while the preacher is preaching.
No ay duda, de que para inteligencia de muchos Lugares, es menester mucha Historia, costumbres, ceremonias, proverbios, y aun maneras de hablar de aquellos tiempos en que se escrivieron, para saber sobre què caen, y à què aluden algunas locuciones de las Divinas Letras: Scindite corda vestra, & non vestimenta vestra, No es alusion à la ceremonia, que tenian los Hebreos de rasgar los vestidos, en señal de dolor, como lo hizo el mal Pontifice, quando dixo, que Christo avia blasfemado? Muchos Lugares del Apostol, sobre el socorro de las viudas, no miraban tambien à las costumbres de aquellos tiempos?
There is no doubt that to understand many passages one needs a great deal of history, customs, ceremonies, proverbs, and even the ways of speaking of the times in which they were written, in order to know what certain expressions in sacred letters bear on and allude to. Rend your hearts and not your garments: is this not an allusion to the Hebrews’ ceremony of tearing their clothes as a sign of grief, as the wicked high priest did when he said that Christ had blasphemed? Did not many of the Apostle’s passages on the relief of widows also look to the customs of those times?
Aquel Lugar de la Muger Fuerte: Nobilis in portis vir eius, No alude à la costumbre de estàr los Tribunales de los Juezes en las puertas de las Ciudades? El Dare terram Deo, no significaba hazer algun voto? Hyemantes, no se llamaban los pecadores publicos, porque hazian penitencia à Cielo abierto, à diferencia de los otros, que la hazian en vn portal? Aquella quexa de Christo al Fariseo, de la falta del osculo, y lavatorio de pies, no se fundò en la costumbre, que de hazer estas cosas tenian los Judios?
That passage on the Strong Woman, Her husband is noble in the gates: does it not allude to the custom of holding the judges’ courts at the city gates? Did not To give land to God mean to make some vow? Were not public sinners called the winterers because they did penance in the open air, unlike the others, who did it in a porch? And Christ’s complaint to the Pharisee about the missing kiss and the washing of feet—was it not founded on the Jews’ custom of doing these things?
Y otros infinitos Lugares, no solo de las Letras Divinas, sino tambien de las humanas, que se topan à cada passo, como el Adorate purpuram, que significa obedecer al Rey; el Manumittere eum, que significa dàr libertad, aludiendo à la costumbre, y ceremonia de dàr vna bofetada al esclavo, para darle libertad? Aquel Intonui Cœlum de Virgilio, que alude al aguero de tronar àzia Occidente, que se tenia por bueno? Aquel Tu nunquam leporem edisti de Marcial, que no solo tiene el donayre de equivoco en el Leporem, sino la alusion à la propriedad, que dezian tener la liebre?
And countless other passages, not only in sacred letters but in secular ones too, met with at every step: such as Adore the purple, which means to obey the king; or To manumit him, which means to give freedom, alluding to the custom and ceremony of giving a slave a slap in order to set him free. Or Virgil’s I thundered the sky, which alludes to the omen of thunder in the west, held to be a good one. Or Martial’s You never ate hare, which has not only the wit of the double meaning in leporem but also the allusion to the property hares were said to have.
Aquel Proverbio, Maleam legens, quæ sunt domi obliuiscere, que alude al gran peligro del Promontorio de Laconia? Aquella respuesta de la casta Matrona al pretensor molesto, de por mi no se vntaràn los quicios, ni arderàn las teas, para dezir, que no queria casarse, aludiendo à la ceremonia de vntar las puertas con manteca, y encender las teas nupciales en los Matrimonios; como si aora dixeramos: Por mi no se gastaràn arras, ni echarà bendiciones el Cura. Y assi, ay tanto comento de Virgilio, y de Homero, y de todos los Poetas, y Oradores.
Or the proverb When you sail past Malea, forget what is at home, which alludes to the great danger of the Laconian promontory? Or the chaste matron’s reply to her troublesome suitor, no doorposts will be anointed for me, nor will torches burn, meaning that she did not wish to marry, and alluding to the ceremony of anointing the doors with fat and lighting the wedding torches at marriages? It is as if we were to say now, “No wedding coins will be spent on my account, nor will the priest give any blessings.” And that is why there are so many commentaries on Virgil and Homer and all the poets and orators.
Pues fuera desto, què dificultades no se hallan en los Lugares Sagrados, aun en lo Gramatical de ponerse el plural por singular, de passar de segunda à tercera persona, como aquello de los Cantares? Osculetur me osculo oris sui: quia meliora sunt vbera tua vino. Aquel poner los adjetivos en genitivo, en vez de acusativo, como, Calicem salutaris accipiam. Aquel poner el femenino por masculino; y al contrario, llamar adulterio à qualquier pecado.
Beyond this, what difficulties are not found in the sacred passages, even in their grammar! There is the putting of the plural for the singular, and the passing from the second person to the third, as in that verse of the Song of Songs: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth, for your breasts are better than wine. There is the putting of adjectives in the genitive instead of the accusative, as in I will take the cup of salvation. There is the putting of the feminine for the masculine, and the reverse; and the calling of any sin adultery.
Todo esto pide mas leccion de lo que piensan algunos, que de meros Gramaticos; ò quando mucho, con quatro terminos de Sumulas, quieren interpretar las Escrituras, y se aferran del Mulieres in Ecclesia taceant, sin saber, como se ha de entender. Y de otro lugar, Mulier in silentio discat. Siendo este lugar mas en favor, que en contra de las mugeres, pues manda, que aprehendan; y mientras aprehenden, claro està que es necessario que callen. Y tambien està escrito: Audi Israel, & tace.
All this demands more reading than some people think, who as mere grammarians, or at most with a handful of terms from the summulae, want to interpret the Scriptures. They cling to Let women keep silent in the churches without knowing how it is to be understood, and to another passage, Let a woman learn in silence. Yet this passage is more in favor of women than against them, since it commands them to learn; and while they are learning, clearly they must be silent. It is also written: Hear, O Israel, and be silent.
Donde se habla con toda la coleccion de los hombres, y mugeres, y à todos se manda callar; porque quien oye, y aprehende, es mucha razon, que atienda, y calle.
There the whole assembly of men and women is addressed, and all are commanded to be silent; for whoever listens and learns has every reason to pay attention and keep quiet.
Y sino, yo quisiera, que estos Interpretes, y Expositores de San Pablo me explicàran como entienden aquel lugar, Mulieres in Ecclesia taceant: Porque, ò lo han de entender de lo material de los Pulpitos, y Cathedras; ò de lo formal de la vniversalidad de los Fieles, que es la Iglesia: si lo entienden de lo primero, que es (en mi sentir) su verdadero sentido, pues vemos, que con efecto, no se permite en la Iglesia, que las mugeres lean publicamente, ni prediquen; por què reprehenden à las que privadamente estudian?
Otherwise, I would like these interpreters and expounders of St. Paul to explain to me how they understand that passage, Let women keep silent in the churches. For they must understand it either materially, of pulpits and lecterns, or formally, of the whole body of the faithful, which is the Church. If they understand it in the first way—which is, in my opinion, its true meaning, since we see that in fact women are not permitted to lecture publicly or to preach in church—why do they reprove those who study in private?
Y si lo entienden de lo segundo, y quieren, que la prohibicion del Apostol sea transcendentalmente, que ni en lo secreto se permita escrivir, ni estudiar à las mugeres; como vemos, que la Iglesia ha permitido, que escriva vna Getrudis, vna Teresa, vna Brigida, la Monja de Agreda, y otras muchas?
And if they understand it in the second way, and want the Apostle’s prohibition to extend so far that women may not write or study even in private, how is it that we see the Church has allowed a Gertrude, a Teresa, a Bridget, the nun of Ágreda, and many others to write?
Y si me dizen, que estas eran Santas, es verdad; pero no obsta à mi argumento: lo primero, porque la proposicion de San Pablo es absoluta, y comprehende à todas las mugeres, sin excepcion de Santas, pues tambien en su tiempo lo eran Marta, y Maria, Marcela, Maria madre de Jacob, y Salomè, y otras muchas, que avia en el fervor de la Primitiva Iglesia, y no las exceptùa;
And if they tell me that these were saints, that is true, but it does not weaken my argument. First, because St. Paul’s statement is absolute and includes all women, with no exception for saints. In his time, too, Martha and Mary, Marcella, Mary the mother of James, and Salome were saints, as were many others in the fervor of the early Church, and he does not except them;
y aora vemos, que la Iglesia permite escrivir à las mugeres Santas, y no Santas, pues la de Agreda, y Maria de la Antigua no estàn canonizadas, y corren sus escritos; y ni quando Santa Teresa, y las demàs escrivieron, lo estaban: Luego la prohibicion de San Pablo solo mirò à la publicidad de los Pulpitos, pues si el Apostol prohibiera el escrivir, no lo permitiera la Iglesia.
and now we see that the Church permits women to write whether they are saints or not, for the nun of Ágreda and María de la Antigua are not canonized, and their writings circulate; nor were St. Teresa and the others canonized when they wrote. Therefore St. Paul’s prohibition concerned only the public pulpit, for if the Apostle had forbidden writing, the Church would not permit it.
Pues aora, yo no me atrevo à enseñar, que fuera en mi muy desmedida presuncion; y el escrivir, mayor talento, que el mio, requiere, y muy grande consideracion: assi lo dize San Cypriano: Graui consideratione indigent, quæ scribimus. Lo que solo he deseado, es, estudiar para ignorar menos: que (segun San Agustin) vnas cosas se aprehenden para hazer, y otras para solo saber: Discimus quædam, vt sciamus; quædam, vt faciamus. Pues en què ha estado el delito, si aun lo que es licito à las mugeres, que es, enseñar escriviendo, no hago yo, porque conozco que no tengo caudal para ello?
Now, I do not dare to teach—that would be excessive presumption in me—and writing requires greater talent than mine, and very great reflection. So says St. Cyprian: What we write calls for grave consideration. All I have wanted is to study in order to be less ignorant; for, according to St. Augustine, some things are learned in order to act and others only in order to know: We learn some things in order to know them, others in order to do them. Then where has the crime been, if I do not even do what is permitted to women—teaching by writing—because I know I lack the capacity for it?
siguiendo el consejo de Quintiliano: Noscat quisque, & non tantum ex alienis præceptis, sed ex natura sua capiat consilium. Si el crimen està en la Carta Athenagorica, fue aquella mas, que referir sencillamente mi sentir, con todas las venias, que debo à nuestra Santa Madre Iglesia? Pues si ella, con su santissima autoridad, no me lo prohibe, por què me lo han de prohibir otros? Llevar vna opinion contraria de Vieyra, fue en mì atrevimento, y no lo fue en su Paternidad, llevarla contra los tres Santos Padres de la Iglesia?
In this I follow the advice of Quintilian: Let each know himself, and take counsel not only from the precepts of others but from his own nature. If the crime lies in the Athenagoric Letter, was that anything more than a simple statement of my opinion, with all the deference I owe our Holy Mother Church? Well then, if she, with her most holy authority, does not forbid it to me, why should others forbid it? Was it boldness in me to hold an opinion contrary to Vieira’s, and not boldness in His Paternity to hold one against the three holy Fathers of the Church?
Mi entendimiento, tal, qual, no es tan libre, como el suyo, pues viene de vn solar? Es alguno de los principios de la Santa Fè revelados su opinion, para que la ayamos de creer à ojos cerrados? Demàs, que yo, ni faltè al decòro, que à tanto Varon se debe, como acà ha faltado su Defensor, olvidado de la sentencia de Tito Lucio: Artes committatur decor. Ni toquè à la Sagrada Compañia en el pelo de la ropa; ni escrivì mas, que para el juizio de quien me lo insinuò: y segun Plinio, Non similis est conditio publicantis, & nominatim dicentis.
Is my understanding, such as it is, not as free as his, since both come from the same stock? Is his opinion one of the revealed principles of the holy faith, that we must believe it with our eyes shut? Besides, I did not fail in the respect owed to so great a man, as his defender here has failed, forgetting the maxim of Titus Livius: Let decorum accompany the arts. Nor did I touch so much as a thread of the holy Society’s cloak; nor did I write for anyone but the judgment of the person who suggested it to me. And according to Pliny, The position of one who publishes is not like that of one who speaks to a particular person.
Que si creyera se avia de publicar, no fuera con tanto desaliño como fue. Si es (como dize el Censor) Heretica, por que no la delata? y con esso èl quedarà vengado, y yo contenta, que aprecio (como debo) mas el nombre de Catholica, y de obediente hija de mi Santa Madre Iglesia, que todos los aplausos de docta. Si està barbara (que en esso dize bien) riase, aunque sea con la risa, que dizen, del conejo; que yo no le digo, que me aplauda, pues como yo fuì libre para dissentir de Vieyra, lo serà qualquiera para dissentir de mi dictamen.
For if I had thought it was going to be published, it would not have been written as carelessly as it was. If it is heretical, as the censor says, why does he not denounce it? With that he will be avenged and I content, for I value—as I ought—the name of Catholic and obedient daughter of my Holy Mother Church more than all the applause I might receive as a learned woman. If it is crude (and in that he is right), let him laugh, even if it is with what they call the rabbit’s laugh. I am not asking him to applaud me; for just as I was free to dissent from Vieira, anyone will be free to dissent from my judgment.
Pero donde voy, señora mia? que esto no es de aqui, ni es para vuestros oìdos, sino que como voy tratando de mis Impugnadores, me acordè de las clausulas de vno, que ha salido aora, è insensiblemente se deslizò la pluma, à quererle responder en particular, siendo mi intento hablar en general. Y assi, bolviendo à nuestro Arce, dize, que conociò en esta Ciudad dos Monjas: la vna, en el Convento de Regina, que tenia el Breviario de tal manera en la memoria, que aplicaba, con grandissima promptitud, y propriedad, sus versos, Psalmos, y sentencias de Homilias de los Santos, en las conversaciones.
But where am I going, my lady? This does not belong here, nor is it for your ears. As I was speaking of my critics, I remembered the phrases of one who has just appeared, and my pen slipped, without my noticing, into wanting to answer him in particular, when my intention was to speak in general. And so, returning to our Arce: he says that he knew two nuns in this city. One, in the convent of Regina, had the breviary so thoroughly by heart that in conversation she applied its verses, psalms, and sentences from the homilies of the saints with the greatest readiness and aptness.
La otra, en el Convento de la Concepcion, tan acostumbrada à leer las Epistolas de mi Padre San Geronimo, y locuciones del Santo, de tal manera, que dize Arce: Hieronymum ipsum Hispanè loquentem audire me existimarem.
The other, in the convent of the Conception, was so accustomed to reading the letters of my father St. Jerome, and to the saint’s turns of phrase, that Arce says: I would have thought I was hearing Jerome himself speaking Spanish.
Y desta dize, que supo, despues de su muerte, avia traducido dichas Epistolas en Romance; y se duele, de que tales talentos no se huvieran empleado en mayores estudios, con principios scientificos, sin dezir los nombres de la vna, ni de la otra, aunque las trae para confirmacion de su sentencia: que es, que no solo es licito, pero vtilissimo, y necessario à las mugeres el estudio de las Sagradas Letras; y mucho mas à las Monjas, que es lo mismo à que vuestra discrecion me exorta, y à que concurren tantas razones.
Of this second nun he says that he learned after her death that she had translated those letters into Spanish; and he regrets that such talents had not been employed in greater studies, grounded in the principles of the sciences. He does not give the name of either, though he cites them to confirm his view: that the study of sacred letters is not only permissible but most useful and necessary for women, and much more so for nuns. That is the very thing to which your discretion urges me, and for which so many reasons concur.
In defense of verse
She defends writing verse, citing Scripture and the saints, and explains how the Athenagoric Letter came to be.
Pues si buelvo los ojos à la tan perseguida habilidad de hazer versos, que en mi es tan natural, que aun me violento para que esta Carta no lo sean; y pudiera dezir aquello de Quidquid conabar dicere versus erat.
Then if I turn my eyes to the much-persecuted gift of making verses—which in me is so natural that I even have to force myself to keep this letter from coming out in verse, and I might say with the poet, Whatever I tried to say was verse—
Viendola condenar à tantos tanto, y acriminar, he buscado muy de proposito qual sea el daño, que puedan tener, y no le he hallado; antes si, los veo aplaudidos en las bocas de las Sybilas; santificados en las plumas de los Profetas, especialmente del Rey David, de quien dize el gran Expositor, y amado Padre mio (dando razon de las mensuras de sus metros:) In more Hacc, & Pindarum, nunc iambo currit, nunc calico personat, nunc saphicotum, & nunc semipede ingreditur.
seeing it so harshly condemned and denounced by so many, I have searched very deliberately for the harm that verses can do, and I have not found it. On the contrary, I see them applauded in the mouths of the Sibyls and sanctified in the pens of the prophets, especially King David. Of him the great expositor, my beloved father, says, explaining the measures of his meters: In the manner of Horace and Pindar, now it runs in iambs, now it rings out in alcaics, now it swells in sapphics, and now it moves in half-feet.
Los mas de los Libros Sagrados estàn en metro, como el Cantico de Moyses: y los de Job (dize San Isidoro en sus Ethymologias) que estàn en verso heroyco. En los Epithalamios los escriviò Salomon, en los Threnos Jeremias. Y assi, dize Cassiodoro: Omnis Poetica locutio à Diuinis Scripturis sumpsit exordium. Pues nuestra Iglesia Catholica, no solo no los desdeña, mas los vsa en sus Hymnos, y recita los de San Ambrosio, Santo Tomàs, de San Isidoro, y otros. San Buenaventura les tuvo tal afecto, que apenas ay plana suya sin versos.
Most of the sacred books are in meter, like the Song of Moses, and the books of Job, as St. Isidore says in his Etymologies, are in heroic verse. Solomon wrote verses in his epithalamia, and Jeremiah in his Lamentations. And so Cassiodorus says: All poetic speech took its beginning from the divine Scriptures. Our Catholic Church not only does not disdain verses but uses them in its hymns, and recites those of St. Ambrose, St. Thomas, St. Isidore and others. St. Bonaventure was so fond of them that there is hardly a page of his without verses.
San Pablo bien se vè, que los avia estudiado, pues los cita, y traduce el de Arato: In ipso enim viuimus, & mouemus, & sumus. Y alega el otro de Parmenides: Cretenses semper mendaces, nalæ bestiæ, pigri. San Gregorio Nazianzeno disputa en elegantes versos las questiones de Matrimonio, y la de la Virginidad. Y què me canso?
St. Paul plainly had studied them, for he quotes and translates the line of Aratus, For in him we live, and move, and are, and he cites that other line of Parmenides, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, idle. St. Gregory of Nazianzus debates the questions of marriage and of virginity in elegant verse. But why do I wear myself out?
La Reyna de la Sabiduria, y Señora nuestra, con sus Sagrados labios entonò el Cantico de la Magnificat; y aviendola traido por exemplar, agravio fuera traer exemplos profanos, aunque sean de Varones gravissimos, y doctissimos, pues esto sobra para prueba; y el vèr, que aunque como la elegancia Hebrea no se pudo estrechar à la mensura Latina, à cuya causa el Traductor Sagrado, mas atento à lo importante del sentido, omitiò el verso; con todo, retienen los Psalmos el nombre, y divisiones de versos: pues qual es el daño, que pueden tener ellos en sì?
The Queen of Wisdom, Our Lady, intoned the canticle of the Magnificat with her sacred lips. Having brought her forward as an example, it would be an insult to bring profane examples, even those of the gravest and most learned men, for this is more than enough proof. And there is the further fact that Hebrew elegance could not be squeezed into Latin measure, and so the sacred translator, more attentive to what mattered in the sense, left out the verse; yet the Psalms still keep the name and divisions of verses. So what harm can there be in verses in themselves?
Porque el mal vso, no es culpa del Arte, sino del mal Professor, que los vicia, haziendo dellos lazos del demonio; y esto en todas las facultades, y sciencias sucede: pues si està el mal en que los vse vna muger, ya se vè quantas los han vsado loablemente; pues en què està el serlo yo? Confiesso desde luego mi ruindad, y vileza; pero no juzgo que se avrà visto vna copla mia indecente.
For misuse is the fault not of the art but of the bad practitioner who corrupts verses, making them snares of the devil, and this happens in every faculty and science. And if the harm lies in a woman’s using them, it is plain how many women have used them laudably; so where is the harm in my being one? I confess at once my baseness and vileness, but I do not think anyone will have seen an indecent verse of mine.
Demàs, que yo nunca he escrito cosa alguna por mi voluntad, sino por ruegos, y preceptos agenos; de tal manera, que no me acuerdo aver escrito por mi gusto, sino es vn Papelillo, que llaman el Sueño.
Besides, I have never written anything of my own will, but only at the requests and commands of others—so much so that I do not remember writing anything for my own pleasure except a little paper they call The Dream.
Essa Carta, que vos, señora mia, honrasteis tanto, la escrivì con mas repugnancia, que otra cosa: y assi por que era de cosas Sagradas, à quienes (como he dicho) tengo reverente temor, como porque parecia querer impugnar, cosa à que tengo aversion natural: y creo, que si pudiera aver prevenido el dichoso destino à que nacia; pues como à otro Moyses, la arrojè exposita à las aguas del Nilo del silencio, donde la hallò, y acariciò vna Princesa como vos:
That letter, which you, my lady, so honored, I wrote with more reluctance than anything else, both because it dealt with sacred things, for which, as I have said, I have a reverent fear, and because it seemed to set out to refute someone, a thing for which I have a natural aversion. And I believe that if I could have foreseen the happy destiny to which it was born—for like another Moses I cast it out, a foundling, on the waters of the Nile of silence, where a princess like you found it and cherished it—
creo (buelvo à dezir) que si yo tal pensàra, la ahogàra antes entre las mismas manos en que nacia, de miedo de que pareciessen à la luz de vuestro saber, los torpes borrones de mi ignorancia: de donde se conoce la grandeza de vuestra bondad; pues està aplaudiendo vuestra voluntad, lo que precisamente ha de estàr repugnando vuestro clarissimo entendimiento.
I believe, I say again, that had I imagined such a thing, I would sooner have smothered it in the very hands in which it was born, for fear that the clumsy blots of my ignorance would show in the light of your knowledge. From this the greatness of your kindness is known, since your will is applauding what your most brilliant understanding must surely be rejecting.
Pero ya que su ventura la arrojò à vuestras puertas, tan exposita, y huerfana, que hasta el nombre le pusisteis vos, pesame, que entre mis deformidades, llevasse tambien los defectos de la prisa; porque assi por la poca salud, que continuamente tengo, como por la sobra de ocupaciones, en que me pone la obediencia, y carecer de quien me ayude à escrivir, y estàr necessitada à que todo sea de mi mano; y porque como iba contra mi genio, y no queria mas, que cumplir con la palabra, à quien no podia desobedecer, no veìa la hora de acabar: y assi, dexè de poner discursos enteros, y muchas pruebas, que se me ofrecian: y las dexè, por no escrivir mas;
But since its fortune cast it at your doors, such a foundling and orphan that you even gave it its name, I am sorry that among my deformities it should also have carried the defects of haste. There was the poor health I constantly suffer, and the abundance of tasks that obedience lays on me; I had no one to help me write and was obliged to do everything in my own hand; and since the work went against my nature and I wanted only to keep my word to one I could not disobey, I could hardly wait to finish. And so I left out whole arguments and many proofs that occurred to me, and I left them out so as not to write more.
que à saber, que se avia de imprimir, no las huviera dexado, siquiera por dexar satisfechas algunas objeciones, que se han excitado, y pudiera remitir; pero no serè tan desatenta, que ponga tan indecentes objetos à la pureza de vuestros ojos; pues basta que los ofenda con mis ignorancias, sin que los remita agenos atrevimientos: si ellos por sì bolaren por allà (que son tan livianos, que si haràn) me ordenareis lo que debo hazer, que si no es interviniendo vuestros preceptos, lo que es por mi defensa, nunca tomarè la pluma, porque me parece, que no necessita de que otro le responda, quien en lo mismo que se oculta, conoce su error: Pues (como dize mi Padre San Geronimo) Bonus sermo secreta non quærit.
Had I known it was to be printed, I would not have left them out, if only to settle some objections that have been raised and that I could send you. But I will not be so discourteous as to set such indecent objects before the purity of your eyes; it is enough that I offend them with my ignorance, without sending them the impudence of others. If those objections should fly over there on their own (and they are so light that they will), you will command me what I ought to do. For unless your commands intervene, I will never take up my pen in my own defense, because it seems to me that one who knows his error in the very act of hiding needs no one else to answer him. For, as my father St. Jerome says, Good speech does not seek secrecy.
Y San Ambrosio: Latere criminosæ est conscientiæ.
And St. Ambrose: To hide is the mark of a guilty conscience.
Answering her critics
She declines to answer her detractors, prefers patience to praise, and closes with apologies for her familiar style.
Ni yo me tengo por impugnada, pues dize vna regla del Derecho: Accusatio non tenetur, si non curat de persona, quæ produxerit illam. Lo que sì es de ponderar, es, el trabajo que le ha costado el andar haziendo traslados: rara demencia! cansarse mas en quitarse el credito, que pudiera en grangearlo.
Nor do I consider myself refuted, for a rule of law says: An accusation does not stand if it takes no account of the person who brought it. What is worth weighing, though, is the trouble it has cost him to go about making copies. Strange madness! To tire himself more in losing his reputation than he could have in winning it.
Yo (señora mia) no he querido responder, aunque otros lo han hecho (sin saberlo yo) basta que he visto algunos Papeles; y entre ellos vno, que por docto, os remito, y porque el leerle os desquite parte del tiempo, que os he malgastado en lo que yo escrivo. Si vos (señora) gustaredes de que yo haga lo contrario de lo que tenia propuesto à vuestro juizio, y sentir, al menor movimiento de vuestro gusto, cederà (como es razon) mi dictamen, que (como os he dicho) era de callar: porque aunque dize San Juan Chrisostomo, Calumniatores conuincere oportet, interrogatores docere.
I, my lady, have not wished to reply, although others have done so without my knowing it until I saw some of their papers. Among them is one which I send you, because it is learned, and so that reading it may make up to you for part of the time I have wasted for you with what I write. If you, my lady, should wish me to do the opposite of what I had put before your judgment and opinion, then at the slightest motion of your wish my own view will yield, as is right—and that view, as I have told you, was to keep silent. For although St. John Chrysostom says, Slanderers must be refuted, questioners taught,
Veo, que tambien dize San Gregorio: Victoria non minor est, hostes tolerare, quàm hostes vincere. Y que la paciencia vence tolerando, y triunfa sufriendo. Y si entre los Gentiles Romanos era costumbre en la mas alta cumbre de la gloria de sus Capitanes, quando entraban triunfando de las Naciones, vestidos de purpura, y coronados de laurel, tirando el carro, en vez de brutos, coronadas frentes de vencidos Reyes, acompañados de los despojos de las riquezas de todo el Mundo, y adornada la Milicia vencedora de las insignias de sus hazañas, oyendo los aplausos Populares en tan honrosos titulos, y renombres, como llamarlos Padres de la Patria, Columnas del Imperio, Muros de Roma, Amparos de la Republica;
I see that St. Gregory also says, It is no lesser victory to bear with enemies than to conquer them, and that patience conquers by enduring and triumphs by suffering. And among the pagan Romans, at the highest peak of their generals’ glory, there was a custom. They entered in triumph over the nations, clothed in purple and crowned with laurel, their chariot drawn not by beasts but by the crowned heads of conquered kings. They were accompanied by the spoils of the riches of the whole world, their victorious army adorned with the insignia of its exploits, and they heard the people’s applause in such honorable titles and names as Fathers of the Fatherland, Pillars of the Empire, Walls of Rome, Shelters of the Republic,
y otros nombres gloriosos; que en este supremo auge de la gloria, y felicidad humana fuesse vn Soldado, en voz alta diziendo al vencedor (como consentimiento suyo, y orden del Senado:) Mira, que eres mortal; mira, que tienes tal, y tal defecto: sin perdonar los mas vergonçosos, como sucediò en el triunfo de Cesar, que vozeaban los mas viles Soldados à sus oìdos: Cavete Romani, adducimus vobis adulterum, calvum.
and other glorious names. And at this supreme height of human glory and happiness, a soldier would go along saying aloud to the victor, as if with his consent and by order of the Senate, “Remember that you are mortal; remember that you have this or that defect,” without sparing the most shameful ones. So it happened at Caesar’s triumph, when the lowest soldiers shouted in his ears: Look out, Romans, we are bringing you the bald adulterer.
Lo qual se hazia, porque en medio de tanta honra, no se desvaneciesse el vencedor, y porque el lastre destas afrentas hiziesse contrapeso à las velas de tantos aplausos, para que no peligrasse la nave del juizio entre los vientos de las aclamaciones: Si esto, digo, hazian vnos Gentiles, con sola la luz de la ley natural; nosotros Catholicos, con vn precepto de amar à los enemigos, què mucho harèmos en tolerarlos?
This was done so that amid so much honor the victor should not grow vain, and so that the ballast of these insults might counterweigh the sails of so much applause, lest the ship of judgment founder among the winds of acclaim. If this, I say, was done by pagans with only the light of natural law, what great thing will it be for us Catholics, who have a commandment to love our enemies, to bear with them?
Yo de mi puedo assegurar, que las calumnias algunas vezes me han mortificado; pero nunca me han hecho daño, porque yo tengo por muy necio al que, teniendo ocasion de merecer, passa el trabajo, y pierde el merito; que es como los que no quieren conformarse al morir, y al fin mueren, sin servir su resistencia de escusar la muerte, sino de quitarles el merito de la conformidad, y de hazer mala muerte, la muerte que podia ser bien.
For my part I can assure you that slanders have sometimes pained me, but they have never done me harm. For I consider anyone a great fool who, having the chance to earn merit, goes through the hardship and loses the merit. It is like those who will not resign themselves to dying, and die in the end anyway: their resistance serves not to spare them death but only to rob them of the merit of resignation, and to make a bad death of a death that could have been a good one.
Y assi (señora mia) estas cosas creo que aprovechan mas, que dañan; y tengo por mayor el riesgo de los aplausos en la flaqueza humana, que suelen apropriarse lo que no es suyo; y es menester estàr con mucho cuidado, y tener escritas en el coraçon aquellas palabras del Apostol: Quid autem habes, quod non accèpisti? Si autem accepisti, quid gloriaris quasi non acceperis?
And so, my lady, I believe these things do more good than harm, and I consider greater the danger that applause poses to human frailty, which tends to appropriate what is not its own. One must be very careful and keep written on one’s heart those words of the Apostle: What do you have that you have not received? And if you have received it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?
Para que sirvan de escudo, que resista las puntas de las alabanças, que son lanças; que en no atribuyendose à Dios, cuyas son, nos quitan la vida, y nos hazen ser ladrones de la honra de Dios, y vsurpadores de los talentos, que nos entregò, y de los dones, que nos prestò; y de que hemos de dàr estrechissima cuenta. Y assi (señora) yo temo mas esto, que aquello: porque aquello, con solo vn acto sencillo de paciencia, està convertido en provecho: y esto, son menester muchos actos reflexos de humildad, y proprio conocimento, para que no sea daño.
Let them serve as a shield to withstand the points of praise, for praises are lances: unless they are attributed to God, to whom they belong, they take our life, and make us thieves of God’s honor and usurpers of the talents he entrusted to us and the gifts he lent us, of which we must give the strictest account. And so, my lady, I fear this more than that. For that, with a single simple act of patience, is turned to profit, whereas this requires many reflective acts of humility and self-knowledge if it is not to do harm.
Y assi, de mi lo conozco, y reconozco, que es especial favor de Dios el conocerlo, para saberme portar en vno, y en otro con aquella sentencia de San Agustin: Amico laudanti credendum non est, sicut nec inimico detrahenti.
And so I know it from my own case, and I acknowledge that knowing it is a special favor of God, so that I may conduct myself in both cases according to that saying of St. Augustine: A friend who praises is not to be believed, any more than an enemy who disparages.
Aunque yo soy tal, que las mas vezes lo debo de echar à perder, ò mezclarlo con tales defectos, è imperfecciones, que vìcio, lo que de suyo fuera bueno: y assi, en lo poco, que se ha impresso mio, no solo mi nombre; pero ni el consentimiento para la impression, ha sido dictamen proprio, sino libertad agena, que no cae debaxo de mi dominio; como lo fue la impression de la Carta Athenagorica: de suerte, que solamente vnos Exercicios de la Encarnacion, y vnos Ofrecimientos de los Dolores, se imprimieron con gusto mio, por la publica devocion, pero sin mi nombre: de los quales remito algunas copias, porque (si os parece) los repartais entre nuestras Hermanas las Religiosas de essa santa Comunidad, y demàs de essa Ciudad.
And yet I am such that most of the time I must spoil it, or mix it with such defects and imperfections that I corrupt what would have been good in itself. And so, in the little of mine that has been printed, neither my name nor even consent to print it has been my own decision, but the liberty of others, which is not under my control—as was the case with the printing of the Athenagoric Letter. Only some Exercises on the Incarnation and some Offerings on the Sorrows were printed with my approval, for public devotion, though without my name. I am sending some copies of them so that, if you think fit, you may distribute them among our sisters, the nuns of that holy community and of the rest of that city.
De los Dolores và solo vno, porque se han consumido yà, y no pude hallar mas: hizelos solo por la devocion de mis Hermanas, años ha, y despues se divulgaron; cuyos assumptos son tan improporcionados à mi tibieza, como à mi ignorancia: y solo me ayudò en ellos ser cosas de nuestra Gran Reyna; que no sè què se tiene el que, en tratando de Maria Santissima, se enciende el coraçon mas elado. Yo quisiera (venerable señora mia) remitiros, obras dignas de vuestra virtud, y sabiduria; pero como dixo el Poeta: Vt desint vires, tamen est laudanda voluntas: / Hac ego contentus, auguror esse Deos.
Of the Sorrows only one copy goes, because they have all been used up and I could find no more. I wrote them years ago solely for my sisters’ devotion, and afterward they spread. Their subjects are as far beyond my lukewarmness as beyond my ignorance, and my only help in them was that they concern our great Queen—for I do not know what it is, but when one speaks of Most Holy Mary, the coldest heart catches fire. I would like, my venerable lady, to send you works worthy of your virtue and wisdom; but as the poet said: Though strength be lacking, still the will deserves praise: / with this, I trust, the gods are content.
Si algunas otras cosillas escriviere, siempre iràn à buscar el sagrado de vuestras plantas, y el seguro de vuestra correccion, pues no tengo otra alhaja, con que pagàros: y en sentir de Seneca, el que empeçò à hazer beneficios, se obligò à continuarlos; y assi os pagarà à vos vuestra propria liberalidad, que solo assi puedo yo quedar dignamente desempeñada; sin que caiga en mi aquello del mismo Seneca, Turpe est beneficijs vinci. Que es bizarria del acreedor generoso dàr al deudor pobre, con que pueda satisfacer la deuda.
If I write any other little things, they will always go in search of the sanctuary at your feet and the safety of your correction, for I have no other treasure with which to repay you. And in Seneca’s opinion, whoever has begun to confer benefits has bound himself to continue them. So your own generosity will repay you, for only in this way can I be worthily freed of my debt without falling under that other saying of Seneca, It is shameful to be outdone in benefits. For it is the gallantry of a generous creditor to give the poor debtor the means to pay the debt.
Assi lo hizo Dios con el Mundo, impossibilitado de pagar: Diòle à su Hijo proprio, para que se le ofreciesse por digna satisfacion. Si el estilo (venerable señora mia) desta Carta no huviere sido como à vos es debido, os pido perdon de la casera familiaridad, ò menos autoridad, de que tratandoos como à vna Religiosa de Velo, hermana mia, se me ha olvidado la distancia de vuestra Ilustrissima persona, que à veros yo sin Velo, no sucediera assi;
So God did with the world, which was unable to pay: he gave it his own Son, so that it might offer him as worthy satisfaction. If the style of this letter, my venerable lady, has not been what is owed to you, I ask your pardon for its homely familiarity and lack of ceremony. Treating you as a veiled nun, my sister, I have forgotten the distance of your most illustrious person—which would not have happened had I seen you without the veil;
pero vos, con vuestra cordura, y benignidad, suplireis, ò enmendareis los terminos; y si os pareciere incongruo el vos, de que yo he vsado, por parecerme, que para la reverencia que os debo, es muy poca reverencia la Reverencia, mudadlo en el que os pareciere decente à lo que vos mereceis, que yo no me he atrevido à exceder de los limites de vuestro estilo, ni à romper el margen de vuestra modestia.
but you, with your good sense and kindness, will supply or amend the terms. And if the vos I have used seems incongruous to you—for it seemed to me that, given the reverence I owe you, “Your Reverence” is too little reverence—change it to whatever you think befits what you deserve. I have not dared to go beyond the limits of your style, nor to break through the margin of your modesty.
Y mantenedme en vuestra gracia, para impetrarme la Divina, de que os conceda el Señor muchos aumentos, y os guarde, como le suplico, y he menester. Deste Convento de N. Padre San Geronimo de Mexico, à primero dia del mes de Março de mil seiscientos y noventa y vn años.
And keep me in your good graces, to obtain for me the grace of God; may the Lord grant you great increase and keep you, as I beg of him and as I need. From this convent of our father St. Jerome in Mexico City, the first day of the month of March, 1691.
B. V. M. vuestra mas favorecida, Juana Inès de la Cruz.
I kiss your hand. Your most favored, Juana Inés de la Cruz.