The Answer/La Respuesta

Romance epistolar / Epistolary Ballad

Romance epistolar [Poema 49] [Romance que respondió nuestra Poetisa al Caballero recién llegado a Nueva España que le había escrito el Romance “Madre que haces chiquitos …”]¡Válgate Apolo por hombre! No acabo de santiguarme (más que vieja cuando Jove dispara sus triquitraques) de tan paradoja idea, de tan remoto dictamen; sin duda, que éste el autor es de los Extravagantes. Buscando dice que viene a aquel Pájaro que nadie (por más que lo alaben todos) ha sabido a lo que sabe; para quien las cetrerías se inventaron tan de balde, que es un gallina el halcón y una mandria el girifalte, el azor un avechucho, una marimanta el sacre, un cobarde el tagarote y un menguado el gavilanes; a quien no se le da un bledo de que se prevenga el guante, pihuelas y capirote, con todos los demás trastes, que bien mirado, son unos trampantojos boreales, que inventó la golosina 190 Selected Poems 10 20 Epistolary Ballad [Poem 49] [Romance with which our Poet answered the Gentleman just arrived in New Spain, who had written her the ballad, `Mother who makes little ones’ . . .].” Apollo help you, as you’re a man! It’s the sign of the cross I’m making (more than some little old lady, when Zeus hurls down his firecrackers) at an idea so paradoxical, this most unlikely notion! Of obscure and Extravagant canon laws, this fellow must be the author. He says that he has come to seek the Bird that no one’s tasted, its flavor still unsavored (though everyone sings its praises); the Bird who renders useless falconry and its tricks, who makes a poltroon of the eagle, and the falcon, a cowardly chick; to whom the sparrow-hawk’s a sparrow, and the kestrel but a nestling, the fierce harrier, just a bogeyman and the goshawk, a puny fledgling; who is concerned not one whit by the gauntlet and gimmickry, the jesses and the leather hood, and the falconer’s trickery, which clearly seen amount to nothing but trompe l’œil from northern climes that a taste for dainties once devised Extravagant canon laws: The ecclesiastical laws compiled by Pope Gregory XIII, in the late sixteenth century, included the Extra-vagantes, or laws previously uncompiled, thus “wandering.” The sought-after “Bird that no one’s tasted” is the Phoenix. See note 11, “Selected Poems: Introduction,” above. Lines 13–20 play with the notion that none of various “noble” birds traditionally used in falconry to hunt down smaller birds can possibly catch the Phoenix; lines 21–29 similarly spurn specific apparatus associated with this aristocratic sport as ineffective against the legendary bird. Selected Poems 191 10 20 para alborotar el aire; de cuyo antojo quedaron, por mucho que lo buscasen, Sardanapalo en ayunas, Heliogábalo con hambre. De éste, el pobre Caballero dice que viene en alcance, revolviendo las Provincias y trasegando los Mares. Que, para hallarlo, de Plinio un itinerario trae, y un mandamiento de Apolo, con las señas de rara avis.¿No echas de ver, Peregrino, que el Fénix sin semejante es de Plinio la mentira que de sí misma renace? En fin, hasta aquí, es nonada, pues nunca falta quien cante: Dáca el Fénix, toma el Fénix, en cada esquina de calle. Lo mejor es, que es a mí a quien quiere encenizarme, o enfenizarme, supuesto que allá uno y otro se sale. Dice que yo soy la Fénix que, burlando las edades, ya se vive, ya se muere, ya se entierra, ya se nace: la que hace de cuna y tumba diptongo tan admirable, que la mece renacida la que la guardó cadáver; la que en fragantes incendios de las gomas más suaves, es parecer consumirse 192 Selected Poems 30 40 50 60 to confound the skies— in longing for this Bird, although assiduously they sought, even Sardis went on fasting and Heliopolis went without. For none other, this poor Gentleman says that he comes searching, covering provinces step by step and navigating oceans; that Pliny’s itinerary sets out the route he has followed, and he’ll serve this rara avis a writ from no one less than Apollo. But has it not struck you, Pilgrim, that the Phoenix without peer is a fib that as Pliny himself says, dies off only to reappear? In short, all this...