Ballads of the Lords of New Spain. The Codex Romances de los Señores de la Nueva España

An authoritative transcription, translation, and commentary on a sixteenth-century Nahuatl codex that is one of only two principal sources of Aztec song and a key document in the study of Aztec life in the century after conquest.

Compiled in 1582, Ballads of the Lords of New Spain is one of the two principal sources of Nahuatl song, as well as a poetical window into the mindset of the Aztec people some sixty years after the conquest of Mexico. Presented as a cancionero, or anthology, in the mode of New Spain, the ballads show a re-ordering?but not an abandonment?of classic Aztec values. In the careful reading of John Bierhorst, the ballads reveal in no uncertain terms the pre-conquest Aztec belief in the warrior?s paradise and in the virtue of sacrifice. This volume contains an exact transcription of the thirty-six Nahuatl song texts, accompanied by authoritative English translations. His translations are thoroughly annotated to help readers understand the imagery and allusions in the texts. The volume also includes a helpful introduction and a larger essay, ?On the Translation of Aztec Poetry,? that discusses many relevant historical and literary issues. In Bierhorst?s expert translation and interpretation, Ballads of the Lords of New Spain emerges as a song of resistance by a conquered people and the recollection of a glorious past.

CONTENIDO

-Preface
-A note on orthography
-Using the online edition

-Introduction
-On the translation of Aztec poetry
-Guide to the vocabulary

Romances de los Señores de la Nueva España
-Guide to the transcription
-The text in Nahualt and in English
Part I
1. Friends, let us sing
2. "I'm coming, I, Yoyontzin, craving flowers"
3. Again they make music
4. God Self Maker's home is nowhere
5. Friends, listen to this
6. "I come to guard the city"
7. The flower lords, the song bells
8. Chalco's come to fight
9. Let's drink
10. For a moment God's drums come forth
11. May your flesh, your hearts be leafy green
12. The flower trees are whirling
13. In this flower house
14. Princess, I've been hearing good songs
Part II
1. Now let us begin
2. A master of egrets makes these flowers move
3. On this flower mat you paint your songs
4. Are You obliging?
5. I'm born in vain
6. I strike up a song
7. I stand up the drum
8. Your flowers blossom as bracelets
9. My heart is greatly wanting flowers
10. Let there be comrades
11. Strike it up beautifully
12. Eagle flowers, broad leafy one, are sprounting
13. A shield-roaring blaze-smoke rises up
14. Flowers are our only adornment
Part III
1. [...]
1-A.ou paint with flowers, with songs
2. Your flowers are jade
3. Come forth and play our drums
4. In the house of pictures
Part IV
1. Begin in beauty
2. Like flowers
3. "Never with shields"
4. Jade, turquoise: your chalk, [your] plumes

-Commentary
-Concordance to proper nouns
-Verbs, particles, and common nouns

Appendix I: Two versions of the Myth of the origin of music
Appendix II: Corrections for the "Cantares" edition

Bibliography
Index