Nezahualcoyotl
Ruler of Texcoco, the chief city of the Acolhua, from about 1431 until his death in 1472. With the Mexica he overthrew the Tepanecs of Azcapotzalco; he was remembered as a lawgiver, builder and poet.
Songs of Flowers and Parting
Nahua singers, three songs from the Cantares mexicanos manuscript, as printed by Daniel G. Brinton, Ancient Nahuatl Poetry (Philadelphia, 1887), songs XXII–XXIV · sung before and after the Spanish conquest; written down in the sixteenth century; printed 1887
Ycuic Nezahualcoyotzin. Totoco totoco tico, totoco totoco ic ontlantiuh tico titico ti tico tico.
The song of Nezahualcoyotzin. Totoco totoco tico, totoco totoco, and it ends with tico titico ti tico tico.
Ti Nopiltzi o ti Nezahualcoyotl o tiya Mictl a quenonamica y yece miyoncan ay yo.
You, my prince, you, Nezahualcoyotl, you have gone to Mictlan, to the place where somehow we live on.
Quiyon quiyon caya nichocaya ya ni Nezahualcoyotl huiya queni yeno yaz o ya nipolihuiz oya miquitla ye nimitzcahua noteouh ypalnemo o tinechnahuatia ye niaz nipolihuiz aya, yo.
I wept, I, Nezahualcoyotl, thinking how I too will go, how I will perish in the place of the dead. Now I leave you, my god, Giver of Life. You command me, and now I will go; I will perish.
O ayac quitlamitaz monecuiltonol ypalnemoa a noyolquimati cuelachic otictlanehuico Nezahualcoyotzin ay oppatihua nican anaya y chan tlpc. Oon yn ay oppatihua in tlalticpacqui, zan nicuicanitl ayaho onnichocaya niquelnamiqui Nezahualcoyotl aya ho.
No one will use up your riches, Giver of Life. My heart knows it: we only borrowed Nezahualcoyotzin for a little while. No one comes back a second time to his home here on earth. No one lives twice on earth. I, only a singer, wept as I remembered Nezahualcoyotl.
Xo acico ye nican in teotl aya ypalnemoa, ayaho on nichocaya a niquelnamiqui Nezalhuacoyotl ayio.
Come here now, god, Giver of Life. I wept as I remembered Nezahualcoyotl.
Teotihuacan Answers the King
The elders of San Juan Teotihuacan, answers to the king's questionnaire, recorded by the corregidor Francisco de Castañeda, March 1, 1580 · March 1, 1580 (customs remembered from before the Spanish conquest of 1521)
El pueblo de San Juan esta en comarca de Tescuco: hera antiguamente cabeça de prouinçia por que le reconoçian los pueblos comarcanos en tienpo de su gentilidad, y eran los pueblos, Otunba, Tepeapulco, Tlaquilpa y otros comarcanos hasta que Neçahualcoyotzin señor de Tescuco los tiraniso y subgeto con guerra.
The town of San Juan lies in the district of Tescuco. Long ago, before the people became Christians, it was the head of a province, because the towns around it recognized it as their head: Otunba, Tepeapulco, Tlaquilpa and others nearby. This lasted until Neçahualcoyotzin, lord of Tescuco, seized them by force and conquered them in war.
En tienpo de su gentilidad fueron gente y republica sobre si, sin reconocer a nadie sino a sus señores naturales que llamaban chichimecas, hasta que Nesagualcoyotzin, señor de Tescuco, tiranizo toda la comarca matando a los hijos de Tetzotzomoctli, señor de Escaputzalco a quien todos reconocian, por guerra, e despues de su muerte de Tetzotzomoctli el dicho Netzagualcoyotzi se hizo poderoso aliandose con Montesuma señor de Mexico; repartieron las tierras del pueblo de San Juan y Aculma entre si los sobredichos, a los quales los naturales del pueblo de San Juan daban en reconoçimiento cada ochenta dias: algunas mantas de nequen gruesas que llaman Ichtilmates y algunas cargas de pencas de maguey de esas que llaman metlontli.
Before they became Christians, they were a people and a state of their own. They recognized no one but their own lords, whom they called chichimecas. Then Nesagualcoyotzin, lord of Tescuco, seized the whole district by force, killing in war the sons of Tetzotzomoctli, lord of Escaputzalco, whom everyone had recognized. After Tetzotzomoctli's death, Netzagualcoyotzi grew powerful by allying himself with Montesuma, lord of Mexico. These two divided the lands of San Juan and Aculma between them. Every eighty days, as a sign that they were their lords, the people of San Juan gave them some coarse cloaks of nequen (maguey fiber), which they call ichtilmates, and some loads of maguey leaves of the kind they call metlontli.
Growing Up in Texcoco
Juan Bautista Pomar, Report on Texcoco (Texcoco, March 9, 1582): birth, schooling and the raising of children · dated at Texcoco, March 9, 1582; first printed at Mexico, 1891
En lo que más les persuadían era en lo de las armas, inclinándolos á ellas y dándoles á entender que por ellas y no por otro respeto habían de valer y tener, y que ellas les habían de dar el ser y valor, y no la grandeza de sus padres los reyes; á lo menos Nezahualcoyotzin y Nezahualpitzintli nunca jamás tuvieron consigo á sus hijos, sino muy niños, y cuando los venían á conocer era ya por valor de sus personas, y que por esto lo mereciesen conocer por padre.
What they urged on them most was the use of arms. They turned them toward it and taught them that by arms, and nothing else, they would win worth and wealth, and that arms, not the greatness of their fathers the kings, would give them rank and merit. At least Nezahualcoyotzin and Nezahualpitzintli never kept their sons with them except when they were very small. When the fathers came to know them, it was already for their own worth, so that they would deserve to know him as their father.