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<TITLE>Re: [Nahuat-l] poetry question </TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>Richa</SPAN><FONT SIZE="4"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:14.0px'>rd Haly did some very interesting work that provides a good start on Nahuatl poetics related to drum rhythms and syllables from the Cantares mexicanos and the drumming notation these texts contain. Check out: Haly, Richard. “The Poetics of the Aztecs.” <I>New Scholar </I>10 (1986): 85-133. (an “oldie but goodie”). These texts also contain wonderful examples of how Nahuatl poetic forms were adapted to colonial realities. <BR>
Jeanne<BR>
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-- <BR>
Jeanne L. Gillespie, Ph.D.<BR>
The University of Southern Mississippi <BR>
Associate Dean, College of Arts and Letters<BR>
Hattiesburg, Mississippi<BR>
<a href="http://www.usm.edu/colleges/coal/">http://www.usm.edu/colleges/coal/</a><BR>
Jeanne.gillespie@usm.edu<BR>
601.266.4315<BR>
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On 10/17/06 10:06 AM, "John F. Schwaller" <schwallr@potsdam.edu> wrote:<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>At 07:14 PM 10/16/2006, you wrote:<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>I'm embarrassed to ask, but can certain syllables become long by<BR>
'position' like they can in Latin (admittedly a wholly different<BR>
language)? Is the most important thing about poetry in Classical<BR>
Nahuatl the metrification of syllabic feet, that is, the way 'feet'<BR>
are divided into predictable series of long and short syllables<BR>
(disregarding syllabic stress)?<BR>
<BR>
When the Spanish missionaries introduced their hymns, were any<BR>
of these translated into Nahuatl?<BR>
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These are really important questions, and unfortunately know one knows all of the answers. <BR>
Syllables do not seem to become long, and the metre is not entirely clear, unlike European models with iambic pentameter, or in Spanish where we measure the number of syllables in the line.<BR>
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Fran Karttunen and Jim Lockhart considered many of these questions in their article in Estudios de Cultura Nahuatl:<BR>
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Karttunen, Frances and James Lockhart, “La estructura de la poesía Nahuatl vista por sus variantes,” <I>Estudios de Cultura Nahuatl</I>, vol. 14 (1980), pp. 15-64.<BR>
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You can also see my article "The Pre-Hispanic Poetics of Sahagun's <I>Psalmodia Cristiana</I>, also in ECN vol. 36 (2005), pp. 67-86.<BR>
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We know that some European hymns were translated into Nahuatl, but the most famous are Sahagun's Nahuatl hymns in the Psalmodia<BR>
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John F. Schwaller<BR>
President<BR>
SUNY Potsdam<BR>
44 Pierrepont Ave.<BR>
Potsdam, NY 13676<BR>
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315-267-2100<BR>
315-267-2496 fax<BR>
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