osprey_archer | You want me to be white

In my last post,

entwashian commented that I might like the Defiant Muse series - books of feminist poetry since the middle ages, written in Spanish, Italian, German with parallel text translations.

The university library has them, so I toddled over and took a look at the Spanish book. This one, below, I love - and recognize; it was in one of my high school Spanish text books.

(This translation is a mash-up of the translation from the book with a couple from the Internet, because I didn't think any of them were quite right. Of course if you read Spanish, the original is best.)

You want me white
by Alfonsina Storni

You want me white,
made of seaspray
Made of mother-of-pearl
A lily
Chaste above all others
Of delicate perfume
A closed bud.

Not one ray of the moon
should have touched me
Nor a daisy
have called herself my sister
You want me like snow
You want me white
You want me pure.

You whose hands
have held all the goblets
Of fruits and honey
Lips stained purple
You who at banquets
Covered in grapevines
Made toasts with your flesh
Celebrating Bacchus
You who in gardens
dark with deceit
clad in scarlet
caroused to ruin.

You whose skeleton
you keep intact
Only by some miracle
I still do not know
expect me to be white
(May God forgive you)
expect me to be chaste
(May God forgive you)
expect me to be pure.

Run away to the woods
Go to the mountains
Clean out your mouth
Live in a shack
Touch with your hands
The damp earth
Feed your body
With bitter roots
Drink from the rocks
Sleep on the frost
Restore your tissues
With saltpeter and water
Talk with the birds
And set sail at dawn
And when your flesh
Has returned to you
And you have given it back
the soul you left
entangled in bedrooms
Then, good man,
Expect me to be white
expect me to be snow
expect me to be chaste.