Flower Song

An imitation of Aztec poetry.

Aztec high lords from Codex Mendoza. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Flower Song

This House of Dreams is like a picture book —
All is unreal, wherever you will look.
Young men in strength, with quetzal feathers plumed,
Stand tall and strong, and yet each one is doomed.

The eagles and jaguars die;
The flowers fall out of the sky.

The maidens, each as lovely as a flower,
Have grown up strong, and reached the marriage-hour.
They will bear sons, though some of them succumb
When that great trial of womanhood is come.

The eagles and jaguars die;
The flowers fall out of the sky.

A prince of the people recited this song:
His eyes were sharp, and his earlobes long.
On his chest and his wrists were turquoise and jade
But now in the tomb his body is laid.

The eagles and jaguars die;
The flowers fall out of the sky.

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The title of this short poem derives from the Classical Nahuatl expression used to denote poetry: in xochitl in cuicatl (“the flower, the song”).

It is, in my opinion, a lazy imitation of Aztec poetics, based almost entirely on my memory of the poems in this book and not on any special research.

However, it seems a nice follow-up to the poem Tenochtitlan shared last Saturday, and some people might enjoy it. Further, it gives me a chance to recommend much better work, such as the English translations of Classical Nahuatl poetry in Flower and Song: Poems of the Aztec Peoples by Edward Kissam and Michael Schmidt (Anvil Press Poetry, 2010), and this recent translation of Cuicapeuhcayotl (Song of the Beginning) by Forester McClatchey in Literary Matters, Issue 18.2 (Spring 2026).

© Metrical Poet 2026.