نيزاهوالكويوتل

الموقف

Songs in the Nahuatl collections Cantares Mexicanos and Romances de los señores de la Nueva España are attributed to Nezahualcóyotl, but whether he composed them is debated. They ask whether anything on earth is true and lasting, lament the brevity of life, and address the Giver of Life (Ipalnemohuani). Their answer is “flower and song” (in xochitl in cuicatl) – poetry as a way to say something true. That this amounts to a “Nahua philosophy” of sages (tlamatinime) was argued by Miguel León-Portilla; James Maffie later reconstructed Aztec metaphysics as a philosophy of constant becoming. The image of him as a near-monotheist stems largely from colonial sources.

الحياة والسياق

According to colonial chronicles, Nezahualcóyotl was born in 1402 as heir to the throne of Texcoco, the main city of the Acolhua, a Nahua people of the Valley of Mexico. He saw his father killed by the forces of Azcapotzalco and lived for years as a fugitive. Allied with Tenochtitlan he defeated Azcapotzalco in 1428, forming the Triple Alliance, and ruled Texcoco until 1472 as lawgiver, builder and patron of learning. This picture owes much to his idealising descendant Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxóchitl.

الأعمال الرئيسة

• Songs attributed to him in the Cantares Mexicanos (manuscript, late 16th century)
• Songs attributed to him in the Romances de los señores de la Nueva España (compiled c. 1582)

يرد في

• رحلة «أمريكا اللاتينية وأمريكا الأصلية» · المحطة 2 من 13