Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Nezahualcoyotl Poem on 100 Peso Note

Nezahualcoyotl was ruler of the city-state of Texcoco in pre-Columbian Mexico. Unlike other high-profile Mexican figures from the century preceding the Spanish Conquest, Nezahualcoyotl was not a Mexica; his people were the Acolhua, another Nahuan people settled in the eastern part of the Valley of Mexico, settling on the eastern side of Lake Texcoco.

Nezahualcoyotl has been remembered as a poet. This is because a number of poems in the Classical Nahuatl language written in the 16th and 17th centuries have been ascribed to him. One of his poems is almost hidden on the Mexican 100 Peso Note

Amo el canto de 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 enervating perfume of flowers,
But more than all I love my brother: man.



Wikipedia on Nezahualcoyotl

2 comments:

Todd said...

Wow, I had no idea!

Thanks

Todd

Steve Cotton said...

Thanks for the information. Archaeology is one of my minor hobbies -- and one of the reasons I want to retire to Mexico. Discovering these little pieces of the past is fascinating to me.

On my last visit, I ran into a retired French archaeologist living in Melaque. He had quite a few interesting tales.

The construction of the house finished in April 2011 and I'm pretty much settled in. As of March 2014 I'm in preparation for rain mode for this coming summer. That includes sealing and painting things and dealing with drainage issues from last year.

Sparks Mexico Web
Manzanillo Information
House building in Pinal Villa

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