Nahuatl poetry

[Frances Karttunen]

What is the meter pattern of classical Nahuatl poetry? Is it syllable- 
length-based like classical Latin poetry, or what?

Citlalyani.


One looks in vain for either stress-based or syllable-timed meter in  
the large body of Nahuatl poetry/songs. If we knew how they fit  
together with the music, it would be a great help, but in the  
manuscripts we have the words but not the music.  Many of them are  
preceded by drumbeat patterns transcribed with the syllables ti, to,  
qui, and co.  For example, several songs are accompanied by the  
drumbeat coto coto coti ticoti ticoti.  For others the beat is toco  
tico tocoti tocoti tocoti tocoti..  A longer one is tiqui tiqui  
tocoto tiqui tiqui tocoto tiqui tiquiti tiqui tiqui tiquiti.   
Sometimes one drumbeat pattern is given and then a second one for  
“when it turns” or “until it ends.”

In Nahuatl high style, whether prose or verse, elements are paired.  
Such a pair of words or phrases is often described in English as a  
couplet, and in Nahuatl formal rhetoric, couplets are frequently  
embedded within couplets. Whatever is worth saying is worth saying  
twice.  And whatever is worth saying twice is worth saying four or  
eight times.

This is reflected in the structure of the songs.  The majority of  
them consist of four stanzas, each stanza consisting of a pair of  
verses.  We know that the verse pairs go together, because each of  
the two elements ends with an identical coda.  The coda is made up of  
syllables that can be compared to tralala in English songs. The  
syllables have no meaning of their own but serve to tell the hearer  
that one verse is over and another is about to begin.  A typical coda  
in Nahuatl songs is ohuaya ohuaya, but there are longer ones such as  
ayie a oo ohuaya and ohui ohui ilili y yao ayyahue o amaha ilili ahua  
y yaohuia.

An eight-verse Nahuatl song begins with a stanza consisting of a pair  
of verses, each ending in the same coda.  Then comes another stanza,  
often with a different shared coda.  Then comes another stanza,  
followed by the fourth.  Rather than progressing from a beginning to  
a middle to an end, the organization is circular.  In some  
repetitions, we find different order of the stanzas, but within the  
stanzas, the verse pairs are inseparable.  In a few cases where one  
of the verses has been forgotten, a dummy verse has been substituted  
ending with the same coda as its partner within the stanza.
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