C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Juan Ruiz (active 1343)
Praise of Little Women
I
In a little lump of sugar, how much of sweetness lies!
So in a little woman love grows and multiplies:
You recollect the proverb says, A word unto the wise.
More than all other condiments, although ’tis sprinkled thinner:
Just so a little woman is, if love will let you win her,—
There’s not a joy in all the world you will not find within her.
And in a little grain of gold much price and value lies,
As from a little balsam much odor doth arise,
So in a little woman there’s a taste of paradise.
Yet warble sweeter in the grove than all the birds that sing;
And so a little woman, though a very little thing,
Is sweeter far than sugar and flowers that bloom in spring.