[Julie Steiner]

Thanks for your guidance, Roger and mignon. Draft Four is posted above, with the main changes to the second quatrain.

You are both certainly correct that Rueda likes to leave things open to several meanings, and that my coming right out and saying "lava" excludes other possibilities (as well as spoiling the guessing game for the reader). Rueda's mention of joy rather than anger makes me think that "encendida" is likelier to refer to other aroused passions than anger/malice, in addition to the intensity of the red color, and to heat. The shape of the "oblong slash / mouth" might be, in addition to a description of the oval shape of most watermelons, a delicate reference to feminine anatomy and its juices. I was also struck by the various meanings of "freshness" in the contexts of watermelon, liquids (hot and cold), and femininity.

Rueda was noted for his playful coplas (quatrains), most of which can be read more than one way. Preserving as many of those dimensions as possible is a real challenge in such short pieces.

I mainly chose to translate this sonnet because I was in a summery mood.

mignon, I would recommend leaving the French accents in étagère.