Explore "You Say, Leonor" by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
A satirical lesson for one who is vain about her beauty
You say, Leonor, for beauty / you should be given the palm; / the one for virgin is better, / and this your face guarantees.
Do not boast with such insolence / that you steal the heart of each man: / if you have been given the palm, / it is, Leonor, for bogeyman.
1 The pun is based on dual meanings for palma and coco. The first is both a palm tree and the equivalent of victory laurels; the second is both a coconut and a bogeyman used to frighten children.