Explore "I Adore Lisi" by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Which explains the most sublime quality of love
I adore Lisi but do not pretend / that Lisi will return my token of love, / for if I deem her beauty within reach,
I offend both her honor and my mind.
To intend nothing is all my intention; / for I know that to merit so much grandeur / no merit can suffice, and it is foolish / to act contrary to my understanding.
I conceive her great beauty as something so / sacred that audacity does not wish / to give the slightest opening to hope: / for yielding my great happiness to hers, / in order not to see it badly used,
I think I would regret seeing her mine.
7 Lisi, or Lysi, is a standard name used in pastoral poetry of the Golden Age.