Hombres necios que acusáis
a la mujer sin razón,
sin ver que sois la ocasión
de lo mismo que culpáis.
Barroco novohispano·c. 1690·fragmento (primera estrofa)
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
Hombres necios que acusáis
a la mujer sin razón,
sin ver que sois la ocasión
de lo mismo que culpáis.
Context
Sor Juana wrote in colonial Mexico under church scrutiny. This 'redondilla' (eight-line stanza in this case) is the opening of a longer poem with the same biting rhetorical structure. It pre-dates the word 'feminism' by 240 years and arrives intact.
In plain English prose
Foolish men, who accuse women without reason, without seeing that you yourselves are the cause of the very thing you blame them for.
Read it out loud at least once.
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