Nahuatl has for centuries been an indigenous language
of the peoples of Mexico. Prior to the arrival
of Spanish explorers, it was the language spoken by
inhabitants of the México-Tenochtitlán region,
who called themselves Mexicas or Tenochcas, but
whom the Spanish referred to as Aztecs. It is likely
that Nahuatl was also the language of the Toltecs,
who predated Aztec civilization and whose culture
was absorbed into the Aztecs’ in many ways.Nahuatl
was a spoken as well as a written language.
Priests, rulers, and their counselors preserved their
knowledge and written history in a form of ORAL
LITERATURE aided by pictoglyphic accounts
recorded in paintings and books they called cuicamatl,
or “papers of songs.”The recitation of Nahuatl
verse was, in fact, a reading of pictures, to which
the language of the poetry often makes reference.
Some of the Nahuatl poetry records history,
from the beginnings of Toltec civilization in the
first century A.D. to the Spanish conquest in 1521.
The poetry was meant to be sung, and some
records involve musical notation or directions on
intonation. The meter of the poetry is varied and
complex, and poems frequently pair images and
lines to convey a single idea. For instance, the words
xochitl (flower) and cuicatl (song) are frequently
used together, and a “flower-song” might represent
art, poetry, or the idea of symbolism itself.
Genres of poems range from songs celebrating
war, rulers, women, and ancient wisdom to songs
about nature, including the seasons and certain
favorite images such as doves, fish, flowers, birds,
and eagles. A number of the surviving songs are
anonymous, while others are attributed to rulers
and sages referred to as cuicahuicque, “composers
of songs.”Many poems glorify Aztec conquests in
war and explain their religion, a system of sacrifice
built on the premise that it was human responsibility
to ensure the continuation of sun,
moon, earth, and stars in what they counted the
fifth incarnation of the universe. Other poems celebrate
love and friendship.Many of the poems addressed
to nature contain a theme of lament on the
transitional nature of life.
The most famous of the ancient Nahuatl poets,
and the most-praised in his own time, is Nezahualcoyotl
(1402–72), ruler of Tezcoco, an architect,
legislator, and sage as well as a poet. His
poetry shows a profound depth of thought and an
artful blend of two distinct traditions—that of the
ancient Chichimecs of the north and that of the
Toltecs, who attribute their arts, crafts, philosophy,
and wisdom to the divine figure and culture
hero Quetzacoatl. His poetry also reflects the
somber meditation that all on earth must pass
away, as in these lines translated by Miguel León-
Portille in Fifteen Poets of the Aztec World. Observing
that nothing lasts forever, the poet says sadly:
Though it be jade it falls apart,
though it be gold it wears away,
though it be quetzal plumage it is torn
asunder.
Mortality, Nezahualcoyotl writes, means eventual
loss and departure: “Like a painting / we will be
erased.” But if there is an afterlife, he speculates,
then nothing ever really disappears.
While untold numbers of artifacts, manuscripts,
and other records of Aztec culture were systematically
destroyed by the Spanish, some early missionaries
took an interest in the native language and
literature.Many of them attempted to preserve customs,
histories, and poems by transcribing them in
either Nahuatl or Spanish. Most of the existing
works of ancient Nahuatl poetry survive in three
collections: the “Romances of New Spain,” collected
and recorded by Juan Bautista Pomar as part of his
history Geographical Relation of Tezcoco (1582); the
anonymous Cantares Mexicanos (Mexican Songs)
compiled between 1565 and 1597; and the songs
recorded by Bernardino de Sahagún in the Florentine
Codex (1560). In addition to these, native
speakers like Alva Ixtlilxóchitl adopted the Spanish
alphabet for their own language and made a similar
effort to preserve their heritage before it was entirely
lost. These collections show very little influence
of European thought or religion, preserving
the native beauty and spirit of Nahuatl poetry.
English Versions of Ancient Nahuatl Poetry
Cantares Mexicanos: Songs of the Aztecs. Edited by
John Bierhorst. Palo Alto, Calif.: Stanford University
Press, 1985.
Poems of the Aztec Peoples. Translated by Edward
Kissam and Michael Schmidt. Ypsilanti, Mich.:
Bilingual Press, 1983.
A Scattering of Jades: Stories, Poems, and Prayers of
the Aztecs. Translated by Thelma D. Sullivan.
Edited by Timothy J. Knab. Tucson: University of
Arizona Press, 2003.
Works about Ancient Nahuatl Poetry
León-Portilla, Miguel. Aztec Thought and Culture: A
Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind. Translated by
Jack Emory Davis. Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 1990.
———,ed. Fifteen Poets of the Aztec World. Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1992.
———. Pre-Columbian Literatures of Mexico. Translated
by Grace Lobanov. Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 1986.