Flower and Song: Poems of the Aztec PeoplesMichael Schmidt Shake the flower, root out songin your house, Ipalnemoani, Master of Herons.-- Rejoice Perhaps with wordsyou will be pierced, brokento understand, Prince Warriors: earth is all over with.-- Rejoice The brilliant Aztec poetic tradition would have all but vanished after the Spanish Conquest in 1521 without the friars who painstakingly transcribed and preserved the poems in the years that followed. In this new edition of their translations, Edward Kissam and Michael Schmidt--two poets who spent formative years in Mexico--give us powerful echoes of the lyrical and philosophical songs; the songs of rejoicing, sorrow, ritual, and war; the laments made by Nezahualpilli and others as the end of their empire approached; and the epics of myth and legend. Their introduction is a distilled account of the background to the Aztec empire, its way of life, and its fall, including the role of poetry in Aztec life and how the poems were preserved. Michael Schmidt, poet, scholar, critic, and translator, is the founder-director of Carcanet Press and PN Review. He studied at Harvard University and Wadham College, Oxford, before settling in England. He lives in Manchester. Edward Kissam studied at Princeton University and Magdalen College, Oxford. He works at JBS International on a variety of applied research issues related to education in developing countries. He is the author (with David Griffith) of Working Poor: Farmworkers in the United States. He lives in Oakland, California. |
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arrow Arrow-Fish Ayocuan birds blue body bones born Cacamatzin Cantares Mexicanos Chimalman cloud Cloud-Serpent cloud-snakes Colhuacan Conquest Cortez Cuacuautzin Cuextecas cult culture dawn deer Dialogue of Poets dressed drum drunk eagle ear of corn earth Edward Kissam fire flower and song flowered war four-hundred friends gods gold hand heart Huastecs Huexotzinco Huichol Huitzilopochtli Ipalnemoani jade jewels King King of Texcoco Lady Lake Texcoco lament legend live Lord Macuilxochitl Mexicans Michael Schmidt Moctezuma mother mountains Nahuatl name means native Nezahualcoyotl Nezahualpilli obsidian ohuaya One-Cane Otomí painted palace peyote plumage plumes poems precious princes quetzal feathers Quetzalcoatl Quilaztli rain Rejoice sacred Sahagún Seven Caves shield shining sing spread spring stones symbolic Tamoanchan Tecayehuatzin temple Tenochtitlan Tezcatlipoca tiger Tlacahuepan Tlalocan Tlazolteotl Toltec totiquiti totototo tradition translated tree tribe turquoise Valley of Mexico Viricota warriors weep woman Xochiquetzal yellow