You Foolish Men by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

You foolish men who lay

the guilt on women,

not seeing you're the cause

of the very thing you blame;

.

if you invite their disdain

with measureless desire

why wish they well behave

if you incite to ill.

.

You fight their stubbornness,

then, weightily,

you say it was their lightness

when it was your guile.

.

In all your crazy shows

you act just like a child

who plays the bogeyman

of which he's then afraid.

.

With foolish arrogance

you hope to find a Thais

in her you court, but a Lucretia

when you've possessed her.

.

What kind of mind is odder

than his who mists

a mirror and then complains

that it's not clear.

.

Their favour and disdain

you hold in equal state,

if they mistreat, you complain,

you mock if they treat you well.

.

No woman wins esteem of you:

the most modest is ungrateful

if she refuses to admit you;

yet if she does, she's loose.

.

You always are so foolish

your censure is unfair;

one you blame for cruelty

the other for being easy.

.

What must be her temper

who offends when she's

ungrateful and wearies

when compliant?

.

But with the anger and the grief

that your pleasure tells

good luck to her who doesn't love you

and you go on and complain.

.

Your lover's moans give wings

to women's liberty:

and having made them bad,

you want to find them good.

.

Who has embraced

the greater blame in passion?

She who, solicited, falls,

or he who, fallen, pleads?

.

Who is more to blame,

though either should do wrong?

She who sins for pay

or he who pays to sin?

.

Why be outraged at the guilt

that is of your own doing?

Have them as you make them

or make them what you will.

.

Leave off your wooing

and then, with greater cause,

you can blame the passion

of her who comes to court?

.

Patent is your arrogance

that fights with many weapons

since in promise and insistence

you join world, flesh and devil.