This is a Classical Nahuatl poem composed by Tētlepanquetzanitzin, supposedly from the 15th century prior to the Spanish invasion and compiled towards the end of the 16th century. As can be seen from the inclusion of words like 'dios', the text as it's been transmitted must have been 'Christianized' after contact, similar to what happened in the case of the Old English poem Beowulf where a pre Christian text was later modified in its transmission. Given that vast amounts of Indigenous American literature was seen as blasphemous and consequently destroyed under Spanish rule, it seems likely that the Christianization of these texts has allowed them to survive.

Enormous thanks to Richard Alexander, who helped me extensively, from glossing and formatting the text for me to aiding in researching the phonology and providing feedback on various stages of the project. This was by far the most difficult recording I've done, and it would not have been possible without his help. You can find and follow him here: [ Ссылка ]

Richard also devised the somewhat unorthodox orthography you see here, with some input from me. The orthography is designed to more intuitively represent the phonology of Nahuatl, rather than the traditional Spanish based orthography.

The pronunciation on display here is the reconstructed classical pronunciation of Nahuatl, including pitch accent and the glottal stop, which are features that have generally disappeared in modern varieties of Nahuatl.

The poetic translation was composed by David Bowles, which you can find here along with additional details: [ Ссылка ]

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