Nezahualcoyotl

[John F. Schwaller]

>Date:         Fri, 7 Jul 2000 08:45:04 -0400
>Reply-To: Johncarr439 at cs.com
>Sender: Pre-Columbian History <AZTLAN at LISTSERV.LOUISVILLE.EDU>
>From: John Carr <Johncarr439 at cs.com>
>Subject:      ME: Nezahualcoyotl
>To: AZTLAN at LISTSERV.LOUISVILLE.EDU
>
>
>This Aztec poem is engraved in stone above a door in the courtyard
>of the Museo Natl. de Antropologia in Mexico, DF and was the frontpiece
>of Eric Wolf's _Sons of the Shaking Earth_
>_________________________________________
>
>
>   "All the earth is a grave and nothing escapes it;
>        nothing is so perfect that it does not descend into
>          its tomb.
>   Rivers, rivulets, fountains and waters flow,
>        but never return to their joyful beginnings;
>   Anxiously they hasten on to the vast realms of the
>        rain god.
>  As they widen their banks, they also fashion
>        the sad urn of their burial.
>   Filled are the bowels of the earth with pestilential
>         dust
>   once flesh and bone, once animate bodies of men
>         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."
>
>                              ~Nezahualcoyotl
>                                    King of Texcoco  (1431-72)
>
>                                                          jc
>
>note:  Fernando Horcasitas P. on seeing it above the museum
>          door once remarked to me "Its a fake, isn't it?"  It is true
>          Mexico once enjoyed a cottage industry faking Nahuatl
>          poetry and yes, Fernandotzin studied under Prof. Garibay.
>          Has anyone seen the source ms for the above?

John Frederick Schwaller                             schwallr at selway.umt.edu
Associate Provost                                        406-243-4722
The University of Montana                           FAX 406-243-5937
                           http://www.umt.edu/history/NAHUATL/