Introduction Nahuatl or Aztec poetry presents a number of intriguing characteristics and difficulties, and provides fascinating insights into Aztec culture. As León-Portilla notes, "there is probably no more eloquent picture of the inner and outer life of any culture than its literary production" (1969:3). The main difficulty presented by Aztec poetry, especially in the context of this website, rests with the necessity of examining the poems in translation. In order to make a true study of the literature of any culture, it is necessary to be able to examine it in its original form, but in this case we must trust to the abilities of our translators. Jump to a section:
Poetics This website uses the word poetics to refer both to the theory of Aztec poetry, and to the literary and stylistic devices that characterize it. The three most significant or remarkable poetic devices used in Nahuatl poetry of the Aztec period are strong visual metaphor and nature imagery which complement the other sensory aspects of the poem, ritualistic repetition elements, especially in the more religiously oriented works, and the use of parallelism, that is, parallel word, phrase, and line structures.
Though this is something of an extreme case, which exactly repeats itself, the "repetition of ideas and the expression of sentiment in parallel form" is present throughout all of Aztec poetry (León-Portilla 1969:68). It can be seen as an integral aspect of the essentially oral nature of Aztec poetry, which was designed to be memorized and repeated or orated at later dates. León-Portilla sees the "rhythm and parallelism [...] as an indication that the poems were learned by heart", and this concept makes a great deal of sense when we consider the lack of formalized writing systems that could convey exact words and phrases in pre-Conquest Aztec society (León-Portilla 1969:64). Another poem evokes this idea while also referencing the inseperability of poetry and song in the Aztec mind: The poet explains that he is part of a long tradition of oral performers; that he has memorized the poems, chants, and songs depicted in the codices. Bright notes that the parallelism in Aztec poetry "expresses likeness rather than contrast" (1990:437), and this is, perhaps, the defining element of the Aztec use of repetition and parallel structures. Many poems are marked by recurring phrases and key words that are repeated to evoke the same metaphor, emphasizing the importance of the idea being conveyed."I sing the pictures of the book Another important style of parallelism common in Aztec poetry, but relatively rare in the European tradition, was the concept of "uniting two words which also complement each other, either because they are synonyms or because they evoke a third idea, usually a metaphor" (León-Portilla 1969:77). For instance, the combination "flower-and-song" was used metaphorically for poetry and art, "skirt-and-blouse" referred to the sexual aspect of woman, while "seat-and-mat" metaphorically represented authority and power (León-Portilla 1969:77). Much of Aztec lyric poetry evokes this concept of poetry and song as a flower, beautiful and divine, and the following poem, in common with poets everywhere, expresses the frustration the poet feels with being unable to put these divine gifts appropriately into words: "From within the heavens comeThe second and third lines provide an excellent example of the parallel structure described above, which can also be more readily remarked upon in the original Nahuatl texts in the next page of this website. Bright sums it up best, perhaps, when he notes that most Nahuatl artistic texts, especially poetry, are characterized by: ""(a) parallel morphosyntactic structure, and (b) semantic relationships of synonymy or close paraphrase, as opposed to those of contrast" (Bright 1990:439).
Poetic History & FunctionAztec poetry enjoyed a varied and diverse range of theme, subject matter, and importance. León-Portilla notes that the "principal subjects found in native literatures [were] myths and legends, sacred hymns, various kinds of epic, lyric, and religious poetry, early forms of theater, chronicles and history, speeches and discourses, religious doctrines, even the tenets of what may be called pre-Hispanic philosophy" (1969:27). For the Aztecs, many of these various subjects were expressed in poetic forms, a product of the essentially oral nature of Aztec literary art. Song and poetry were the same thing, ritual was expressed in poetry, as were legend and myth. The Aztecs expressed much of their ideology and history in "epic poetry telling of cosmic origins and great deeds of the gods and the culture heroes", and expressed their devotion to the gods with "hymns accompanied by music (León-Portilla 1969:60, 63). Certain priests of Epcohua, one of the many titles of the deity Tlaloc, on new hymns and songs that were composed, explicitly linking poetry with religion (León-Portilla 1969:78). Apart from these grand epic and religious poems, the Aztecs had a strong tradition of more personal, lyric poetry, that questioned the nature of life and beauty, celebrated war, love, nature, and the joy of companionship, and was as well developed as any tradition of lyric poetry throughout the world. "I, Cuauhtencoztli, here I am suffering.What is the nature of truth? Why is there so much suffering in the world? The poet here expresses the uncertainty that characterized so much of the Aztec world view, the transitory and unstable nature of existence. But not all of Aztec lyric poetry is so pessimistic. Even though everyone must die and pass on, the flowers, the poems, will live on forever while the poet goes with his or her friends onwards. "The song [...] possesses the flower's fertility, and can bring the singer back to life through its powers of regeneration" (Damrosch 1991:103); through poetry and song, fame is secured. The Gods themselves are portrayed as poets, creating those on the earth in their songs:"Let us have friends here! Here again, the poet evokes the divine nature of poetry and song, flowers and the impermanence of existence. Poetry is a mystical experience, it comes from beyond the real, beyond this world, from the divine realms of the gods, and is a reflection of the struggle for truth and meaning. León-Portilla says that "only through metaphor and poetry could [the Aztecs] utter some truth about, and thus communicate with, the Divine" (León-Portilla 1978:79). Poetry may be, in fact, the only truth that exists on the earth:"With flowers you write, However, it is also possible that "it may be that no one speaks the truth on earth" at all (León-Portilla 1978:76). Whatever the case may be, poetry was extremely important, words were like jade, quetzal plumes, and flowers, exotic and precious, and it seems that for many of the Aztecs, especially those of the noble class prior to the conquest, that "poetry [was] the only thing of value that we may leave behind" (León-Portilla 1978:78)."Thus spoke Ayocuan Cuetzpaltzin  León-Portilla 1978:153 Pre-Conquest, poetry was usually the work of professional poets retained by Aztec kings and rulers, though some poems are attributed to the lords themselves (Damrosch 1991:104). These poems glorified war and battle, expansion and the capture of enemies for the greater glory of Huitzilopochtli and Tenochtitlan. As Damrosch points out, "many of the most perfect expressions of the love of beauty and friendship serve to introduce the parallel beauties of battle" (1991:104). "And we? We won't be giving pleasure to the Giver of Life forever. Here the flowers of song and poetry have transformed into flowers of war and battle, evoking the famous and controversial "flowery war" that the Aztecs participated in. Before the conquest, "the
political dimensions of warfare are rarely alluded to in the poetry;
instead, warfare is seen as an artistic act, and the warrior becomes a
poet" (Damrosch 1991:105), rather similar, in fact, to the later periods of feudal Japan. The ideas of beauty and glorious death in battle for the braze Aztec warrior continued to have a presence in Aztec poetry, but the emphasis was shifted from glorious conquest to broken resistance. The Aztec Empire was no longer expansionist and victorious, but conquered and enslaved. However, "the most striking, and the most readily visible, change in the poetry [was] the displacement of the old gods by the new" (Damrosch 1991:110). Sometimes, they were simply replaced, while other times the Christian God became the Giver of Life."And all this happened to us. Due to the oral nature of pre-Conquest Aztec poetry, it is almost impossible to tell which of the surviving poems are truly indicative of Aztec poetics before the arrival of the Spanish, but, as Damrosch points out, "the Aztec poems illustrate in exemplary fashion some of the ways in which any text alters and renews its meaning across time and across cultures" (1991:116). Poetry continued to have great importance for the Nahuatl speaking Aztec culture that remained after the conquest, though it was, if anything, marked by an even deeper melancholy:
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We come here only to sleep, we come here only to dream; it is not true, it is not true that we come to live on earth.
-Cantares mexicanos, 18.39 (Damrosch 1991:101) Hymn to Huitzilopochtli Huitzilopochtli, the young warrior,he who acts above, moving along his way. "Not in vain did I take the raiment of yellow plumage, for it is I who made the Sun appear." Portentous one, who inhabits the region of clouds, you have but one foot! Inhabiter of the cold region of wings, you have opened your hand! Near the wall of the region that burns, feathers come forth. The Sun spreads out, there is a war cry.... My god is called Protector of Men. Oh, now he advances, comes well adorned with paper, he who inhabits the region that burns, in the dust, in the dust, he gyrates. Our enemies are those of Amantla; come adhere to us! War is made with combat, come adhere to us! Our enemies are those of Pipiltlan: come adhere to us! War is made with combat, come adhere to us! -León-Portilla 1969:65-66.
An Aztec ball court (Codex Laud:40) Hymn to the Giver of Life (He who invents Himself) attributed to Nezahualcoyotl In no place can be the house of He who invents Post-Conquest Poem Make your beginning, you who sing. May you beat again your flowered drum, may you give joy to my lords, the eagles, the jaguars. Briefly we are here together. The one heart's desire of the Giver of Life is jewels, is quetzal plumes: to tear them apart. This is his desire: to scatter apart the eagles, the jaguars. Briefly we are here together. And these our songs, these our flowers, they are our shrouds. So be happy: woven into them is the eagle, the jaguar; we will go with them, there where it is all the same. So let us now rejoice within our hearts, all who are on earth; only briefly do we know one another, only here are we together. So do not be saddened, my lords: no one, no one is left behind on earth. -Damrosch 1991:116-117 Nezahualcoyotl on Material Goods:
His own, later, response: At last my heart knows;
An Aztec priest performing a sacrifice (Codex Laud:8) post-Conquest War Poem I grieve, I weep. What good is this? |
