Who were the poets of Mexico in the days of Aztec splendor? Here, Miguel León portilla presents biographies of fifteen composers of Nahuatl verse—fourteen men and one woman—and analyzes their poetry, reproduced here in both Nahuatl and English.
"Painted in lost pictoglyphic codices, then read or sung to conquering priests, then transcribed in Roman letters and now translated into English for the first time, the poems in Miguel León Portilla's volume celebrate song and the fame of poets; they mourn for dead friends and heroes; they contemplate their own death" Voice Literary Supplement
"In this extraordinary book, the author draws from his vast fund of knowledge to skillfully introduce the reader in a single volume to the Aztec world through its poets and poetry... Should be in every public library and university library" Choice
"A tantalizing anthology of the Nahuatl texts and their English translations...[and] a serviceable introduction to some of the key historical, intellectual, and thematic problems associated with this poetry." Library Journal
Miguel León Portilla served as a director of the Institute of Historical Research of the National University of Mexico. He is the author of Aztec Thought and Culture, Pre-Columbian Literatures of Mexico, and Time and Reality in the Thought of the Maya, all published by the Univeristy of Oklahoma Press.
