May 1st, Theme Day: Statues

Nezahualcoyotl  King of Texcoco
Sculpture by Luis Ortiz Monasterio (1956)

Nezahualcoyotl


(April 28, 1402 – June 4, 1472) was a philosopher, warrior, architect, poet and ruler (Tlatoani) of the city-state of Texcoco in Pre-Columbian Mexico. Unlike other high-profile Mexican figures from the century preceding Spanish Conquest,  Nezahualcoyotl was not an Aztec; his people were the “Acolhua", another Nahualtl people settled in the eastern part of the Valley of Mexico, the eastern side of Lake Texcoco. He is best remembered for his beautiful poetry.

Songs by Nezahualcoyotl

The destruction of the Mexican state was foreshadowed by a series of omens and prodigies which took place during the ten years preceding the arrival of Cortes. 
By the "smoking stars" is meant a comet that was visible for about a year.

The sweet-voiced quetzal there, ruling the earth, has intoxicated my soul.

I am like the quetzal bird, I am created in the one and only God; I sing sweet songs among the flowers; I chant songs and rejoice in my heart.

The fuming dewdrops from the flowers in the fields intoxicate my soul.

I grieve to myself that ever this dwelling on earth should end.

I foresaw, being a Mexican, that our rule began to be destroyed, I went forth weeping that it was to bow down and to be destroyed.

Let me not be angry that the grandeur of Mexico is to be destroyed.

The smoking stars gather against it: the one who cares for flowers is about to be destroyed.

He who cared for books wept, he wept for the beginning of the destruction.

___

Amo el canto del zenzontle

Pájaro de cuatrocientas voces,

Amo el color del jade

Y el enervante perfume de las flores,

Pero más amo a mi hermano: el hombre.

I love the song of the mockingbird,

Bird of four hundred voices,

I love the color of the jadestone

And the enrapturing scent of flowers,

But more than all I love my brother: man.

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