Customer Reviews

Fifteen Poets of the Aztec World

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This book is very neat and understable. It is very helpful for people who are interested in both literature and Aztec life. It was very useful for me, and help me to apreciate and understand the aztec meanings and ways of thinking. I learned a little about Netzahualcoytl and others on elementary school, but this selection was much much broader than all the official selections we get on the text books in Mexico. The main ideas, topics are there: cult of the death, temporarity of life, war, and canto, duality, and of course a strong humanism. I wish there were more aztec original text traslations to read. But, the difficulty to find original nahualt texts acccesible to the general public gives even more importance to works like this. So, I recomend the reading of this book.

Miguel Leon-Portilla once more brings the ancient Mexica past to life. First he paints the scenery that was Aztec life. He then goes on to illuminate each distinctive poet. The most prominent of the poets was of course the poet king Nezahualcoyotl. From his flight into the wilderness to escape his enemies, to his murder of a rival strangely recreating the story of Bathsheba, and David, many of this poet-king's trials are recreated in the poetry. Mr. Leon-Portilla places all of the prince's poems in the proper context. Nezahualpilli was another interesting poet. Only one work is attributed to him by Mr. Leon-Portilla but it is a gem. This poem deals with the horrors of war. Reading it one can almost step back into the battle line of the Aztecs as darts fly back and forth. Fifteen Poets of the Aztec World is a fine addition to the ever increasing corpus of Nahuatl writings. It is accessible to novice, student, and scholar alike and without hesitation I recommend it to anyone wishing to add depth to the unfortunatelly shallow image that the Aztec Empire has acquired.