I started it but I haven't finished it. I will resume it from the beginning and now you will be part of my story. Amen.

SYLLABLES THE STARS COMPOSE

Finally, after 2 attempts, you are part of my story, my love.

A very complete research by Mr. Paz on the life and work of Sor Juana is recommended, with the proviso that they have to focus on the historical context of New Spain at that time, which is sometimes tedious.

This text seems to express a personal journey where there was an unfinished task that is now being restarted with a new element (perhaps a person) becoming part of the story. The mention of Sor Juana's research by Mr. Paz indicates an academic or intellectual interest, although it also notes that the historical context can be tiresome at times. Overall, it gives a sense of both personal and intellectual pursuits.

Este libro es una obra mastodóntica que nos permite conocer a la persona que fue Sor Juana Inés de La Cruz.

Según el propio autor, el objeto de la biografía es convertir al personaje lejano en un amigo más o menos íntimo. Y este libro logra esto, ya que nos permite conocer un poco más a una de las mejores escritoras de todos los tiempos a través de una revisión histórica y social de su época, una mirada de su vida personal y un análisis de sus escritos.

Es una fortuna encontrar este libro donde Octavio Paz realiza un análisis profundo, elocuente y emotivo de su obra y ofrece reflexiones sobre temas como el amor y el amor no correspondido. Además, habla de la dualidad del mismo, ya que la naturaleza dual y paradójica del placer es que basta tocar un cuerpo para que se desvanezca y basta que se desvanezca para que recobre toda su realidad.

A pesar del triste final de los últimos años de Sor Juana, su obra ha llegado hasta nuestros días y está acompañada de un análisis tan elocuente de Octavio Paz que hace que su poesía tenga más alcance y sea más accesible para los lectores del presente y del futuro.

¡Qué las palabras de Sor Juana sigan llegando a los corazones de las personas por toda la eternidad! "Sílabas las estrellas compongan".

One of the most ambitious works is by Octavio Paz.

It not only contributes to the history of Mexico but also attaches great value to the history of the struggle of women.

Octavio Paz has deeply analyzed the conditions of women from a human, modern, close and moving perspective.

He interprets the silences, hieroglyphics and allegories left to us by Mother Sor Juana Inés, elucidating how the shadow, mystery and absence seduce under the veil of light.

To Sor Juana, my complete gratitude.

Octavio Paz's work offers a profound exploration of the female experience, shedding light on the often overlooked aspects of women's lives in Mexican history. His unique perspective allows us to better understand the challenges and triumphs of women throughout the ages. By examining the works of Sor Juana Inés, Paz uncovers the hidden meanings and messages that have been passed down through the ages. This not only enriches our understanding of Mexican literature and history but also provides valuable insights into the role of women in society. Overall, Octavio Paz's work is a significant contribution to the field of literature and a must-read for anyone interested in the history and struggles of women.

To Her Portrait

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was a remarkable figure who lived from 1651 to 1695. In this poem, translated by Roderick Gill, she reflects on a portrait.

The poem begins by stating that what one sees in the portrait, with its fine art, colored shows, and reasoning of shade, is just a false presentment. It only discloses the poor deceits fanned by earthly senses.

The portrait seems to be filled with constant flattery, providing excuses for the stains of old age and pretexts against the advancing years. It tries to withstand the footprints of old seasons.

However, the poet goes on to describe the portrait as a vain artifact of scheming minds. It is like a flower fading on the winds, a useless protest against fate, and stupidity without a thought. If we meditate on it, it is just a lifeless shadow, dead, dust, shadow, and nothing.

This poem offers a profound meditation on the nature of a portrait and the transient nature of physical appearance.

I purchased this book influenced by Daniel Molina (@rayovirtual) who in a class pointed it out as the best work of Octavio Paz.

Although I had only read some loose poems of Sor Juana, I trusted his recommendation and I was not disappointed. This book is about her but also about the history of Mexico, about the power strings between the Church and the politicians, about the impulse of a helpless adolescent to survive and end up being an intellectual and poet respected in a large part of the world (who only at the end succumbs to the ecclesiastical pressures). All interwoven with the knowledge, the pen and the essayist's craft of Paz.

I took quite a while to read it because I wanted to do it when I could mentally transport myself to that viceroyalty of New Spain in Jesuit times and absorb all the details that come out of the author's research and previous biographies whose focus was more psychological or religious.

I had known Paz in my adolescence probably with the help of Alejandro Dolina and I liked his poems, his essays on love and eroticism (I read and enjoyed "La doble llama" that I took from the library of my neighborhood). Mentor of Pizarnik, powerful orator (I saw his interview with Soler Serrano more than once), symbol of Mexico, this book probably encloses the best of him.

"Las Trampas de la Fe" by Octavio Paz is a brilliant and courageous essay about a woman who, hidden behind the habit imposed by New Hispanic Mexican society, gave Mexico an identity, poetry, and cunning in equal parts.

It is a masterpiece that reveals Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, like a butterfly, with the patience of a linguist-entomologist that only the sharp gaze and precise word of the Mexican Nobel laureate could achieve.

This essay is as important, if not more so, for understanding the development of the Mexican nation as "The Labyrinth of Solitude." In these traps, Paz reveals that the vocation of art, in our land, is an almost inexhaustible and inaccessible treasure, yet at the same time believable and dazzling, gestated in the solitude of a cell of a cloistered nun.

Octavio Paz's exploration of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz in this essay provides a unique perspective on the role of women in Mexican history and the power of art to transcend social constraints. It is a thought-provoking and engaging work that invites readers to consider the complex relationship between faith, art, and identity in Mexican culture.

I'm feeling suuuper sick.

My head is pounding, and my body aches all over.

I have no energy to do anything, and even getting out of bed seems like a huge task.

I keep coughing and sneezing, and my nose is all stuffed up.

I don't know what's wrong with me, but I hope it goes away soon.

I've been drinking plenty of fluids and trying to rest as much as possible, but I still don't feel any better.

I might have to go to the doctor if this persists.

I really don't want to, but I know it's the best thing to do to get better.

I just hope that I can recover quickly and get back to my normal life.

I am not the most religious woman in the world, but the poetry of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz is so perfect that it seems inspired by a superior being. It is truly a remarkable piece of work. The way she weaves words together to create such beautiful and profound expressions is simply astonishing. Each line seems to carry a deeper meaning, as if she is revealing secrets of the universe through her poetry.

The maestro Octavio Paz has also done an excellent job in presenting and analyzing her work. His insights and interpretations add another layer of depth to our understanding of Sor Juana's poetry. It is a pleasure to read and study her works, and to be able to appreciate the beauty and genius that lies within them.

In conclusion, while I may not be the most religious, I can still recognize the power and inspiration that comes from Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz's poetry. It is a testament to the human spirit and the ability to create something truly remarkable through the written word.

The late Octavio Paz, the Nobel laureate in Literature in 1990, firmly believed in a distinct Mexican identity, one that was separate from other Latin American countries. In this regard, Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz was a significant figure. Her intelligence, literary output, and even her spirituality placed her both within and outside of Spain's colonial empire.

The volume was based on the research Paz conducted while preparing a series of lectures at Harvard University in the 1980s. Although he drew on the critical scholarship of others, his conclusions彰显了 his genius. The clear subtext of the premier Mexican poet of the 20th century was that Sor Juana, who lived in the 17th century, was the foundation upon which he built his own work.

This book is not an easy read for the casual reader as Paz went to great lengths to depict not only Sor Juana but also the world in which she lived.

Sor Juana has recently become something of a feminist hero. She was a highly individualistic woman in a male-dominated world, an artist whose works outshone those of men, and a woman who preferred the company of other women.

Fortunately, Paz chose not to engage in such a narrow reading of an individual who was clearly a genius. He presented a more comprehensive and nuanced view of Sor Juana and her significance, making this work a valuable contribution to the study of Mexican literature and history.

Edición española.

Este libro, que forma parte de la Biblioteca Breve, es el número 608.

Su edición española ofrece una versión en español para aquellos lectores que prefieren disfrutar de la literatura en esta lengua.

La Biblioteca Breve es conocida por recopilar una amplia variedad de obras, cubriendo diferentes géneros y temáticas.

Con este libro, los lectores tendrán la oportunidad de sumergirse en una historia o un mundo creado por el autor.

Podrán disfrutar de la prosa, los personajes y la trama que el autor ha desarrollado meticulosamente.

Además, la edición española asegura que la lectura sea fluida y accesible para aquellos que hablan español como lengua materna o segunda lengua.

Este libro es una excelente opción para aquellos que buscan un momento de lectura agradable y enriquecedor.

During a pandemic, it can be a great idea to pick up a book about a nun.

I had a bit of a mixed experience with this book. Some parts I rated 4 stars, while others only got 2 stars. The 4-star sections were the historical bits and the recreations of her life and story. His thoughts on Baroque really helped me understand its significance. He talked about the opposites within it that lead to their own dissolution, and the excess that comments on itself and its decadence. His interpretation of New Spain also felt spot-on. One thing that's hard to explain to students about the colonial period is that progress wasn't everyone's goal. Many societies, like orthodox Spain and its realms, didn't desire change. The idea that other values can drive culture and action, like the solidity and permanence of tradition (even if it's not truly permanent), is an important one. And I liked his attempt to blend historical and imaginative elements and different genres.

I think he did a fairly good job of bringing New Spain to life. The formal intolerance along with lax enforcement, the sumptuous court, the worldly convent with its visitors, letters, study, and private chambers filled with books, jewels, and maids.

The poetry part, however, didn't really click with me. I don't mean her actual poetry, which was fine. But his analysis of it seemed to boil down to "this is good because I, as an author and cultural producer, say so because I have good taste." Ranking artists has never appealed to me. I don't think using one's own taste as the basis for what's "good" or "better" has much real value. It just seems like they like it because they like it and then say their opinion is valuable because they like themselves. He went through her influences and other writers of the time, but since I'm not well-versed in those other people, I can't really say if it means anything or is valuable. It's not my area of expertise.

When he did talk about things I'm more familiar with, he did a good job. I guess the point is that this book has many different threads, and I only got something out of some of them, mostly at the beginning and end.

I think he mostly avoided being condescending when assessing her work as a woman and someone whose sexuality has been studied a lot. Occasionally he came across as chauvinistic, but overall he did a good job of pointing out that love, attraction, and friendship can look different at different ages and we don't need to reduce another age's standards or ideas to our own. As for her feminism and the importance of her gender in understanding her place in society, he might have mentioned it a bit too much. What I mean is, he mostly just said that women had it hard in New Spain and Sor Juana's life was no different. There wasn't a lot of nuance in his understanding of what makes being a woman difficult. It's just that society tells women to know their place and men (often misogynistic men) have power and use it to stay in power. I think one thing his portrayal of her shows, even though he never said it explicitly, is that she wasn't a feminist in the sense of wanting equality for all women. She wanted it for herself. Her desire to continue her studies and justify them was for her own benefit. She wrote lists of learned women from the past to add her own name to that list. Paz pointed out that any human being is unique and only knowable to a certain extent, and I think Sor Juana would agree. She was solitary and removed, even before she renounced letters at the end of her life.

Here's a passage I really liked: "Her house became as large as the world because it held a library and a collection of rare objects from the four corners of the earth....A realm at once spatial and temporal, concrete and imaginary; a realm in which the world, transformed into a collection, lost its hostility, reduced to a series of random and marvelous objects. The collection neutralized the world, turned it into a toy. She could admire each of these objects, venerate it as a center of magnetic radiation, caress it like a lover, rock it like a child, study it, take it apart, or throw it out the window." (247) But as I reread and transcribed it, I noticed the selfishness of the attitude and the hoarding of beautiful things just for the sake of possessing and knowing them. That made me enjoy imagining this life for her and myself a little less. But I think the bigger point is that she seems like a hoarder because in part she had to be if she wanted a life of letters. She made the best of what she had: being illegitimate, with no real ties to her father, no prospects for marriage (and not really wanting to marry), and under the pressure of spiritual advisors that she could continue her studies as a nun. She created a life for herself as best she could. And she didn't just hoard her knowledge. She used it to create beautiful things that touched people's lives.

I guess I struggle with the same central tension that Paz said Sor Juana had: the desire to know, perceive, and connect ideas and systems while knowing the enormity and impossibility of the task. And the tension between a solitary life of learning and studying and the need to connect with others. He mentioned self-loathing and narcissism in the same sentence, and it's a powerful struggle.

I like this book because it made me think about a lot of things. And I like how it bends genres and his acknowledgement of the limitations of history and documentation and the tightrope an author has to walk when trying to illuminate subjects from the past, not leaning too much towards history and society or too much towards personality and genius.

Interesante ensayo que expone tanto la vida de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz como a la sociedad en la que vive.

El genio de Sor Juana queda manifiesto en su obra literaria así como en su actitud personal.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz fue una figura destacada en la literatura mexicana. Su vida estuvo llena de desafíos y logros.

Ella escribió obras maestras que aún hoy son admiradas y estudiadas.

Además, su actitud personal, su independencia y su búsqueda constante de conocimiento, la hicieron un ejemplo para muchas personas.

La sociedad en la que vivió también era un factor importante en su vida.

Estaba marcada por la religión, la jerarquía social y las normas culturales.

Sor Juana tuvo que luchar contra muchas restricciones para poder expresarse y desarrollar su talento.

Sin embargo, su determinación y su genio le permitieron superar estos obstáculos y dejar un legado literario que perdurará en el tiempo.