Flower Songs of Nezahualcoyotl

A little poetry today for your contemplation and enjoyment.   I dug up John Curl’s translation of several songs commonly attributed to Nezahualcoyotl over on FAMSI.  The translations are quite nice, though I’d ignore his discussion about Nezahualcoyotl and Texcocan religion, as he seems to have bought into the myth that this ruler was a King David-esque poet, monotheist (!!), and crusader against sacrifice.  This spurious idea got its birth right after the Conquest, and has been incredibly difficult to get rid of since.  If you want to read a systematic study of this misrepresentation, its origins, and its repercussions on Mesoamerican studies since, I recommend checking out Jongsoo Lee’s The Allure of Nezahualcoyotl: Pre-Hispanic Religion, Politics, and Nahua Poetics. Dr. Lee thoroughly dismantles this idea and provides a wealth of information about Colonial distortions of Nahua religion and poetry, particularly where it intersects the “Nezahualcoyotl as pseudo-Christian” myth.

Bad history aside though, Curl’s actual translations are enjoyable, and I invite you to check those out.

Click HERE to read John Curl’s translations of Nahua poetry.

Nezahualcoyotl, From The Codex Ixtlilxochitl

December 30, 2008 | Categories: Culture, Literature | Tags: adorar, antes de la conquista, Aztec, Aztec religion, Azteca, ética, belief, ceremony, Codex, codices, Colonial, costumbre, creencia, cuicatl, cultura, culture, dios, dioses, ethics, faith, FAMSI, fe, filosofía, flower and song, flower song, god, goddess, gods, idea, indígena, Indian, indigenous, indio, Ixtlilxochitl, John Curl, Jongsoo Lee, la religión de los aztecas, Mesoamerica, Mexica, Mexicayotl, Mexico, moral, morality, myth, Nahua, Nahuatl, Nezahualcoyotl, philosophy, piety, poem, poema, pre-Columbian, pre-Conquest, Pre-Hispanic, Precolumbian, preconquest, Prehispanic, reflexión, religion, sacrifice, song, teología, Teotl, Texcocan, Texcoco, The Allure of Nezahualcoyotl, theology, thought, tradicional, traditional, Ur-monotheism, worship, xochicuicatl | 10 Comments