indecisive

Of course the Spanish version is a lot more powerful, but no one would read this poem unless I posted it in English. So here goes.

Silly, you men- so very adept

at wrongly faulting womankind,

not seeing you’re alone to blame

for faults you plant in woman’s mind.

After you’ve won by urgent plea

the right to tarnish her good name,

you still expect her to behave—

you, that coaxed her into shame.

You batter her resistance down

and then, all righteousness, proclaim

that feminine frivolity,

not your persistence, is to blame.

When it comes to bravely posturing,

your witlessness must take the prize:

you’re the child that makes a bogeyman,

and then recoils in fear and cries.

Presumtuous beyond belief,

you’d have the woman you pursue

be Thais when you’re courting her,

Lucretia once she falls to you.

For plain default of common sense,

could any action be so queer

as oneself to cloud the mirror,

then complain that it’s not clear?

Whether you’re favored or disdained,

nothing can leave you satisfied.

You whimper if you’re turned away,

you sneer if you’ve been gratified.

With you, no woman can hope to score;

whichever way, she’s bound to lose;

spurning you, she’s ungrateful—

succumbing, you call her lewd.

Your folly is always the same:

you apply a single rule

to the one you accuse of looseness

and the one you brand as cruel.

What happy mean could there be

for the woman who catches your eye,

if, unresponsive, she offends,

yet whose complaisance you decry?

Still, whether it’s torment or anger—

and both ways you’ve yourselves to blame—

God bless the woman who won’t have you,

no matter how loud you complain.

It’s your persistent entreaties 

that change her from timid to bold.

Having made her thereby naughty,

you would have her good as gold.

So where does the greater guilt lie

for a passion that should not be:

with the man who pleads out of baseness

or the woman debased by his plea?

Or which is more to be blamed—

though both will have cause for chagrin:

the woman who sins for money

or the man who pays money to sin?

So why are you men all so stunned

at the thought you’re all guilty alike?

Either like them for what you’ve made them

or make of them what you can like.

If you’d give up pursuing them,

you’d discover, without a doubt,

you’ve a stronger case to make

against those who seek you out.

I well know what powerful arms

you wield in pressing for evil:

your arrogance is allied

with the world, the flesh, and the devil!