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. |
Contents
Introduction | 9 |
Songs of War poems 6383 | 63 |
Four Otomi poems | 115 |
Copyright | |
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arrow Arrow-Fish Ayocuan birds blue body bones born Cacamatzin CALIFORNIA/SANTA CRUZ UNIVERSITY Cantares Mexicanos Chimalman cloud Cloud-Serpent cloud-snakes Colhuacan Conquest Cortez CRUZ The University Cuacuautzin Cuextecas cult culture dawn deer Dialogue of Poets drum drunk eagle ear of corn earth Edward Kissam fire flowered war four-hundred friends gods hand heart Huastecs Huexotzinco Huichol Huitzilopochtli Ipalnemoani jade jewels King King of Texcoco Lake Texcoco lament Library The University live Lord Macuilxochitl Mexicans Moctezuma mother mountains Nahuatl name means Nezahualcoyotl Nezahualpilli ohuaya One-Cane OtomĂ painted palace peyote plumes poems precious princes quetzal feathers Quetzalcoatl Quilaztli rain Rejoice sacred SahagĂșn SANTA CRUZ Seven Caves shield shining sing stones Tamoanchan Tecayehuatzin temple Tenochtitlan Tezcatlipoca tiger Tlacahuepan Tlalocan Toltec totiquiti tradition translated tree tribe turquoise University Library UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA/SANTA Valley of Mexico Viricota warriors weep woman Xochiquetzal yellow