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Friends, a mission has driven us to the world ... Poetry in the Aztec world was known as "flower and song," the Nahuatl (Aztec language) metaphors for art and symbolism. It was the highest art form and it often celebrated the transient nature of life on earth. The theme of cut flowers was regularly used to symbolize the temporary fragility and beauty of existence. Life, so solid, so apparently real, was thus an illusion. Only by creating art, by imitating the Lord of the Close and the Near, could they aspire to immortality. Thus the idea that "art made things divine," and only the divine was true. In this they felt they were imitating their principal deity, Omeoteotl, the creator of the universe, also called the Lord and Lady of the Close and the Near. |
Fifteen Poets of the Aztec World The Winged Serpent American Indian Prose and Poetry |
Omeoteotl achieved immortality through creativity, and the Aztec poets sought to do the same. The creation of poetry was a task for well-educated Aztec nobles. Individual composers like Tecayhuatzin, Ayocuan, and in particular, Nezahualcoyotl, earned renown for their poetry. The Aztecs held a belief that the earth was but a layer between thirteen heavenly levels and nine levels of the underworld, corresponding to the thirteen hours of day and nine hours of night. The nine levels of the Aztec underworld were called Mictlan, the Land of the Dead. A wandering soul walked for four years down the first eight levels, which were extremely difficult and taxing to cross. The lowest of the nine levels was Mictlan proper, a vast cave filled with skeletons and ruled by the Lord and Lady of Death. |
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"My grandmother taught me. We just don't die. The spirits come back and we can feel their love and caring for us at day of the dead." Ruben Maqueda |
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Canti Aztechi (Aztec Songs) edited by Ugo Liberatore and Jorge Hernandez-Campos (Guanda, Perma, 1966). |
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Ritual poetry, created for communal expression, is widespread in Native America. It aims to re-create the sacred in the present moment. Communities regularly seek to be restored to their original fertility in cyclic ceremonies of renewal and thus promote the continuance of life on earth. Lyric poetry, created by the individual is less known in the native world but was much celebrated by the Aztecs at the time of the conquest, and a century later when it was recorded by scribes. Most of the surviving Nahuatl songs can be found in two major collections, "Romances de los señores de la Nueva España" and "Cantares mexicanos" (Mexican Songs). Both were compiled between 1560 and 1582. A few songs are duplicated in both the Romances and the Cantares, attesting to their popularity. Nahuatl was primarily an oral language, which still lends itself to expressive metaphors, and eloquent repetitions. Nahuatl has over a million and a half speakers, more than any other family of indigenous languages in Mexico today. The name "Nahuatl" (pronounced in two syllables, ná-watl) comes from the root nahua ([nawa]) which means 'clear sound' or 'command'. Cantares Mexicanos, or Mexican Songs, is the largest single collection of Nahuatl songs. They were collected by an unknown number of Aztecs who worked under the direction of a missionary during the latter part of the sixteenth century. A sense of the rhythm and rhetoric of the poets is denied the reader who does not know Nahuatal. It is inspired oratory and poetry, recited both as a pastime and to celebrate the gods. |
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WE ONLY LIVE IN YOUR BOOK OF PAINTINGS With flowers You paint, With black ink You will blot out You give shading ANOTHER POEM BY HUNGRY COYOTE I choose the colors, A polished jewel, a jade precious and brilliant Of deepest green, it is made, I am honored, I am made glad,
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HUNGRY-COYOTE (NEZAHUALCOYOTL) King of Texcoco (1431-72) |
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There were poets in different ages and regions in the Aztec Empire. Nezahualcoyotl ("Fasting Coyote") of Texcoco lived from 1402 until 1472, thus predating the arrival of Cortes, and is considered a pre-eminent poet-ruler of the 15th century. Portrait of Hungry Coyote |
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A SONG The destruction of the Mexican state was foreshadowed by a series of omens and prodigies which took place during the ten years preceding the arrival of Cortes. By the "smoking stars" is meant a comet that was visible for about a year. The sweet-voiced quetzal there, ruling the earth, has intoxicated my soul. I am like the quetzal bird, I am created in the one and only God; I sing sweet songs among the flowers; I chant songs and rejoice in my heart. The fuming dewdrops from the flowers in the fields intoxicate my soul. I grieve to myself that ever this dwelling on earth should end. I foresaw, being a Mexican, that our rule began to be destroyed, I went forth weeping that it was to bow down and to be destroyed. Let me not be angry that the grandeur of Mexico is to be destroyed. The smoking stars gather against it: the one who cares for flowers is about to be destroyed. He who cared for books wept, he wept for the beginning of the destruction. I ERECT MY DRUM I erect my drum, I assemble my friends. Aya! Here they find recreation, I make them sing. Thus we must go over There. Remember this. Be happy. Aya! Oh my friends! Ohuaya ohuaya! Perhaps now with calm, and thus it must be over There? Aya! Perhaps there is also calm There in the Bodyless Place? Aye! Ohuaya ohuaya! Let us go. But here the law of the flowers governs, here the law of the song governs, here on earth. Ehuaya! Be happy, dress in finery, oh friends. Ohuaya ohuaya. Romances de los Señores #38 (23v-24v) ALL THE EARTH IS A GRAVE All the earth is a grave and nothing escapes it, nothing is so perfect Filled are the bowels of the earth with pestilential dust once flesh and bone, once animate bodies of man who sat upon thrones, decided cases, presided in council, commanded armies, conquered provinces, possessed treasure, destroyed temples, exulted in their pride, majesty, fortune, praise and power. Vanished are these glories, just as the fearful smoke vanishes that belches forth from the infernal fires of Popocatepetl. Nothing recalls them but the written page.
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Songs of sadness
The doubt
The song of Tetlepanquetzanitin |
The academics or wise men of the Aztecs were known as the Tlamatinime (The Men with Words). They were both poets and philosophers. The Tlarnatinime taught the people through poetry, asking the cosmic question "Is There Any Truth in Man?" Does man possess any truth? Does man possess any truth? One day we must go One day we must go, Lonely as a cloud Song of Friendship |
Like the spring grass
To the god of war, Huitzilopochtli |
Last Update: 13NOV2005
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