Aztec Poetry

This poem fragment is from the Cantares Mexicanos, or Mexican Songs, which 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. Nahuatl was primarily an oral language, which "lent itself to expressive metaphors, and eloquent repetitions. It inspired oratory and poetry, recited both as a pastime and to celebrate the gods." [1]

For centuries prior to the sixteenth century, Aztecs had had their own pictographic or "painted books" which were used to provide guidance for the poet or singer in the recitation of poetry, in oratory, and the chanting of sacred hymns. Students at the Calmecac, or school for the elite classes, were taught to follow, memorize, then enlarge upon the contents of these books. According to Miguel Leon-Portilla in Fifteen Poets of the Aztec World:

The living repository of the individual's memory, particularly that of the priests and sages, was not opposed, when the circumstances required it, to enrichments and adaptations of the "reading" of the book and the recalling of the word. [2]

In this manner, the oral tradition did not remain static-there were as many ways to present the ideas as there were storytellers.

There were poets in different ages and regions in the Aztec Empire. One of the most well known is Nezahualcoyotl, who lived from 1402 until 1472, thus predating the arrival of Cortes. Not only a poet and a sage, Nezahualcoyotl was also the ruler of Tezcoco. Leon-Portilla credits him with being one of the most profound of the Aztec poets, reflecting on "the evanescent nature of whatever exists on earth...the mysteries surrounding death and the afterlife; the possibility of saying true words in a world where everything changes and becomes destroyed.".[3] In the following poem, Nezahualcoyotl speaks of the meaning of "flower and song," which are the Nahuatl metaphors for art and symbolism.

With flowers You paint,
O Giver of Life!
With songs You give color,
with songs You shade
those who will live on the earth.
Later You will destroy eagles and tigers:
we live only in Your painting
here, on the earth.

With black ink You will blot out
all that was friendship,
brotherhood, nobility.

You give shading
to those who will live on the earth.
We live only in Your book of paintings,
here on the earth, [4]