To a Rose

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Divine rose, in such gentle cultivation,
with your fragrant subtlety, you are
a masterful lesson in beauty,
a snowy example of loveliness;

A hint of human architecture,
an example of fleeting grace,
in whose being, nature united
a joyful cradle and a sorrowful grave:

How proud in your pomp, presumptuous,
you scorn the risk of dying;
and then, wilted and shrunken,

you show sad signs of your decaying self!
How, with learned death and foolish life,
you deceive while living and teach by dying!