"Green enravishment of human life" by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz also known as Juana de Asbaje

[Original Spanish text]

Verde embeleso de la vida humana,
loca esperanza, frenesí dorado,
sueño de los despiertos intrincado,
como de sueños, de tesoros vana;

alma del mundo, senectud lozana,
decrépito verdor imaginado,
el hoy de los dichosos esperado
y de los desdichados el mañana:

sigan tu sombra en busca de tu día
los que, con verdes vidrios por anteojos,
todo lo ven pintado a su deseo:

que yo, más cuerda en la fortuna mía,
tengo en entrambas manos ambos ojos
y solamente lo que toco veo.

[English translation by Samuel Beckett]

"Green enravishment of human life"...

Green enravishment of human life,

smiling frenzy of demented hope,

inextricable dream of them that wake

and, as a dream, of riches destitute.

Spirit of the world, robust old age,

imagination of decrepit vigour,

longing for the happy ones' to-day

and for the unhappy ones' to-morrow.

Let those who, with green glasses spectacled,

see all things sicklied o'er with their desire,

questing for thy light pursue thy shadow:

but I, more mindful of my destiny,

imprison my two eyes in my two hands

and see no other thing than it I touch.

Source of the text - An Anthology of Mexican Poetry, translated by Samuel Beckett, compiled by Octavio Paz, and preface by C. M. Bowra.  Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1958, p. 87.

TJB: This sonnet, rhymed in the original, might be an artist’s statement renouncing the world of desire for a spiritual life; or a curse on desire.