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| From where the eagles are resting, from where the tigers are exalted, the Sun is invoked. Like a shield that descends, so does the Sun set. In Mexico night is falling, war rages on all sides. Oh Giver of Life! war comes near.... Proud of itself is the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Here no one fears to die in war. This is our glory. This is Your Command, oh Giver of Life! Have this in mind, oh princes, do not forget it. Who could conquer Tenochtitlan? Who could shake the foundation of heaven? With our arrows, with our shields, the city exists. Mexico-Tenochtitlan remains. |
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| -León-Portilla 1969:86-87 | Truly I say: certainly it is not the place of happiness here on earth. Certainly one must look somewhere else, where indeed happiness will exist. Or only in vain have we come to the earth? Somewhere else is the place of life. There I want to go, there surely I will sing with the most beautiful birds. There I will have genuine flowers, the flowers that delight, that bring peace to the heart, the only ones that give peace to man, that intoxicate him with joy.... -León-Portilla 1969:86 |
Tears are pouring, teardrops are raining there in Tlatelolco. The
Mexican women have gone into the lagoon. It's truly thus. So all
are
going. And where to, comrades?
True it is. They forsake the city of Mexico. The smoke is rising, the
haze is spreading. This is your doing, 0 Giver of Life.
Mexicans, remember that he who sends down on us his agony, his
fear, is none but Dios, alas, there in Coyonazco.
-Damrosch 1991:113.
