Ayocuan, Nahua poet, c. 1490

Will I have to go like the flowers that perish?
Will nothing remain of my name?
Nothing of my fame here on earth?
At least my flowers, at least my songs!
Earth is the region of the fleeting moment.
Is it also thus in the place
where in some way one lives?
Is there joy there, is there friendship?
Or is it only here on earth
we come to know our faces?

- Ayocuan, Nahua poet, c. 1490
(León-Portilla 1969:81-82).


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