Caprice
Who thankless flees me, I with love pursue, 1.
Who loving follows me, I thankless flee;
To him who spurns my love I bend the knee,
His love who seeks me, cold I bid him rue;
I find as diamond him I yearning woo, 5.
Myself a diamond when he yearns for me;
Who slays my love I would victorious see,
While slaying him who wills me blisses true.
To favor this one is to lose desire,
To crave that one, my virgin pride to tame; 10.
On either hand I face a prospect dire,
Whatever path I tread, the goal the same:
To be adored by him of whom I tire,
Or else by him who scorns me brought to shame.
Trans. Peter H. Goldsmith
Full Colophon Information
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Genre: Poetry
This text was first published in Madrid in 1692
The text of the present edition was initially prepared from and proofed against Hispanic Anthology: Poems Translated from the Spanish by English and North American Poets , ed. Thomas Walsh (New York: G. P. Putnam's Son, 1920). All preliminaries and notes have been omitted except those for which the author is responsible. All editorial notes have been omitted except those that indicate significant textual variations. Line and paragraph numbers contained in the source text have been retained. In cases where the source text displays no numbers, numbers are automatically generated. In the header, personal names have been regularized according to the Library of Congress authority files as "Last Name, First Name" for the REG attribute and "First Name Last Name" for the element value. Names have not been regularized in the body of the text.