30 May 2025 / 10 House
Article suitable for older students
Find out moreIs this a Nezahualcoyotl poem?
Sculpture of King Nezahualcoyotl
ORIGINAL QUESTION received from - and thanks to - Diego: Is it true that on earth one lives?
Not forever on earth, only a little while.
Though jade it may be, it breaks;
Though gold it may be, it is crushed;
Though it be quetzal plumes, it shall not last.
Not forever on earth, only a little while.
Is this a Nezahualcoyotl poem? And if it is, what is it in nahuatl? I’d love to get it tattooed. (Answered by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)
Yes it is a philosophical poem by King Nezahualcóyotl. It comes from the manuscript Cantares Mexicanos (fol. 17r). Miguel León-Portilla has written the following in this context:-
’Several of the poems attributed to the well-known king Nezahualcóyotl show that deliberation on the evanescence [transitory nature] of earthly things was a basic theme and point of departure for his speculation.’
We’ve checked this with Panel of Experts member John Bierhorst who has kindly not only provided the Nahuatl original, but explained some of the meaning and context to the lines. Here’s the important Nahuatl text:-
Annochipa tlpc. çan achica ye nican ohuaye ohuaye, Tel ca chalchihuitl no xamani no teocuitlatl in tlapani oo quetzalli poztequi yahui ohuaye. ãnochipa tlpc. çan achica ye nican ohuaya
John writes:-
”The stanza (in my edition) is no. 13, song XX (folio 17r, lines 17-19).
”My translation: ‘Not forever on earth, but briefly here. Even jades are shattered. Gold, broken. Ah! plumes, splintered. Not forever on earth, but briefly here.’
”Jades, gold, and plumes are code words for the warrior. Gold, as gold, cannot be broken (only crushed or melted). But the human body can be broken - or shattered, or splintered.
”Thus it is not a pretty statement about ephemerality. It is a statement of the warriors’ death. The stanza is immediately preceded by “Do we truly live on earth?” And the stanza in question says no, we die (but elsewhere in the Cantares [and in the Florentine Codex] we learn that death on the battlefield, paradoxically, means translation to the sky world and eventual return to earth).”
Quote from Aztec Thought and Culture by Miguel León-Portilla, University of Oklahoma Press, 1963, p. 72.
Picture sources:-
• Photo by Thelmadatter, Wikipedia
• Illustration scanned from our own copy of Códice Durán - Historia de las Indias de Nueva España e Islas de Tierra Firme, Arrendedora Internacional, Mexico City, 1990.
Comments (1)
Ember
3rd May 2023
Will we ever get the nahuatl transcription for this? I have tried retranslating an alternative version of this poem but would love to see the origional
Mexicolore
The original is now here - see above!
Sculpture of King Nezahualcoyotl
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