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Updated: June 29, 2025
He does not specifically state that they are in the original. His literary friend, however, Don Mariano Echevarria y Veitia, removes the uncertainty about the two songs of Nezahualcoyotl, as he informs us that they were in the original tongue, and adds that he had inserted them in his History without translation.
The fragments of Boturini's library collected by M. Aubin, of Paris, contain a number of the original ancient songs of the highest importance, which make us regret the more that this collection has been up to the present inaccessible to students. The most distinguished figure among the Nahuatl poets was Nezahualcoyotl, ruler of Tezcuco. His death took place in 1472, at the age of eighty years.
The ruined aqueduct of Tetzcotzinco which I have just mentioned was a grand work, serving to supply the great gardens of Nezahualcoyotl, which covered a large space of ground and excited the admiration of the Conquerors, who soon destroyed them, it is said, in order that they might not remain to remind the conquered inhabitants of their days of heathendom.
Restoring the much mutilated original to what I should think was its proper form, the translation should read: "Listen attentively to what I, the singer, the noble Nezahualcoyotl, say:" Listen with attention to the lamentations which I, the King Nezahualcoyotl, make upon my power, speaking with myself, and offering an example to others.
From the wording, this appears to be one of the lost songs of Nezahualcoyotl, either composed by him or sung before him. There is in it no hint of Christian consolation, no comfortable hope of happiness beyond the grave. Hence it dates, in all likelihood, from a period anterior to the arrival of the missionaries.
Although No. V. is probably one of the lost songs of Nezahualcoyotl, the present is the only one of the collection which is definitely attributed to him. The language is very archaic, and in the sentiment there is every mark of antiquity. The text is apparently a dialogue, which was chanted as strophe and antistrophe, the one singer speaking for the King, the other for the bard himself.
In the highest and purest period of the old Mexican faith we read of the Tezcucan monarch Nezahualcoyotl, who said: "These idols of wood and stone can neither hear nor feel; much less could they make the heavens and the earth, and man who is the lord of it. These must be the work of the all-powerful unknown God, the Creator of the universe, on whom alone I must rely for consolation and support."
These stones which I the King Nezahualcoyotl have succeeded in uniting in loving liens, Are the famous princes, the one called Axaxacatzin, the other Chimalpopoca, and Xicomatzintlamata. To-day, somewhat rejoiced by the joy and words of these, and of the other lords who were with them, I feel, when alone, that my soul is pleased but for a brief time, and that all pleasure soon passes.
It seems to me that ye answer from your souls, like the fine vapor arising from precious stones, "O King Nezahualcoyotl, O royal Montezuma, your subjects sustain themselves with your soft dews. "But at last a day shall come which will cut away this power, and all these will be left wretched orphans.
The expression in Dios, I explain as in the note to II, 1, and do not consider that it detracts from the authentic antiquity of the poem. 2. yoyontzin; on the significance of this appellation of Nezahualcoyotl, see Introduction, p. 35. 3. ti Nezahualcoyotl; "thou Nezahualcoyotl." The princely poet may have addressed himself in this expression, or we may suppose the song was chanted before him.
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