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Lament on the Fall of Tenochtitlán
While Jerome Rothenberg and Javiar Taboada include “Lament on the Fall of Tenochtitlan” in their anthology, The Serpent and the Fire: Poetries of the Americas from Origins to Present, they only provide the following information regarding the poem’s author, date, and origin: “Nahua (Anonymous) Mexico, 16th Century.” 1) However, through Columbia University, a PDF of chapters fourteen and fifteen of The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico by Miguel Leon-Portilla is available online for free, wherein the “Lament on the Fall of Tenochtitlan” is titled “The Fall of Tenochtitlan” and is identified as a part of Cantares mexicanoes. 2) Moreover, Leon-Portilla maintains that the poem/song “was probably composed in 1523.” 3)
Translator's Information:
In Rothenberg and Taboada's anthology, the poem is translated by Lysander Kemp.
- Kemp worked at the University of Texas alongside many Spanish writers and poets to translate long-forgotten works. For more information click Here.
Nahuatl Poetry
This poem is a Nahuatl poem. The Nahuatl language did not have a word for poetry. What they did have was more of a concept that roughly translated to “flowers and songs”. It was believed that poetry had been a gift from the god Ometeotl, or the dual god. Believed to be both the father and the mother, a convergence. Important themes to authors from this period include: time, impermanence. inevitability of death, etc. For more information click Here.
Summary and Interpretation
By definition, a lament is “a song, poem, or other piece of writing that expresses sadness about someone’s death,” 4) thus, “Lament on the Fall of Tenochtitlan” is a poem detailing the emotions that accompanied Tenochtitlan’s demise. One interpretation suggests that there is a personification of the city throughout the poem. In such an interpretation, the poem can be summarized as documenting the experiences of the Aztec people as they abandon the city, attempting to run for their lives. All the while, the city watches in despair as the Spanish pilfer, pillage, and burn the once-great city down. Thus, the poem “Lament on the Fall of Tenochtitlan” is all about the impermanence of the great city and the Empire as a whole, not to mention a commentary on time itself, as all things come to an end when given time.
In the poem, there is an emphasis on observation and emotion. For example, the speaker, who refers to themself as part of the collective with the inclusion of the word “our,” is crying “for Tlatelolco is lost,” but they are still in the process of watching “The Aztecs [who] are fleeing across the lake” (lines 1, 3, 4). 5) If we accept that “Tlateloclo [was located] on the northern part of the island,” the poem's speaker suggests that the inhabitants of Tlateloclo were forced to simply wait until the invaders reached their residences, despite knowing that their homes would be destroyed. 6)
Moreover, emotionally, the speaker expresses “grief,” but there is also a sense of frustration throughout the poem when we consider the use of the word “deserting,” which typically has a negative connotation (1, 7). 7) Therefore, it could be argued that the helplessness that is evoked with the line “How can we save our homes, my people” is, in a way, assigning blame to those the speaker has already witnessed abandoning the fight (6). 8) Interpreting the poem in this manner creates a division between the speaker of the poem and, by extension, their community, and “The Aztecs [who] are fleeing” (4). 9)
To support the division theorized above, it is recommended to examine how religion functions in the poem. The speaker of the poem says, “The water has turned bitter / our food is bitter / These are the acts of the Giver of Life” (17-19). 10) While the lines undoubtedly refer to Cortes’s erasure of the city’s “religious structures,” they also hint at the existence of a complex religious system dependent on location. 11) Specifically, the Guggenheim has a “Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Axis Mundi of the Universe” on their website and maintains that “The great temple known as the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan symbolize[d] the axis mundi, the Aztec center of the world, where the sky, the earth, and the underworld met,” and significantly, “Each of the four cardinal directions radiated out from the Templo Mayor….[and] the northern half was dedicated to Talaloc, the god of rain, water,* and the earth’s fertility.” 12) Given the location of Tlateloclo, the final lines of the poem most likely refer to Talaloc and either express the god’s displeasure with Tlateloclo’s inhabitants or the deity’s pain at the imminent destruction of their grounds.
Therefore, by the end of the poem, the city appears to have been abandoned or at the very least rebuilt and unrecognizable, especially if Motelchiuhtzin, Tlacotzin, and Oquitzin* can be associated with the time period directly following Tenochtitlan’s downfall.
*In the poem, “tears” are important and may warrant further research, considering that “Talaloc, [was] the god of rain, water, and the earth’s fertility” (2). 13) 14)
*Refer to Key Names
Key Names*
- Motelchiuhtzin - “Motelchiuhtzin….He was interim ruler of Tenochtitlan” 15)
- Tlacotzin - “Tlacotl, baptized don Juan Velázquez Tlacotzin, would oversee the tremendous labor force required to raze and rebuild the new capital until 1524…” 16)
- Oquitzin - “Oquitzin (ruler of Azcapotzalco)” 17)
*Please note that it is unclear whether or not the poem refers to the individuals and descriptions copied and pasted from Portraying the Aztec Past : The Codices Boturini, Azcatitlan, and Aubin by Angela Herren Rajagopalan. However, the potential subjects should provide a starting point for future research.
Key Term
- Tlatelolco - “While the Tenochca Mexica occupied Tenochtitlan, later capital of the Mexica Empire, the dissidents (Tlatelolca Mexica) established Tlatelolco on the northern part of the island.” 18)
Historical Context
Aztec Empire:
“Mesoamerican empire that originated with a league of three Mexica cities in 1430 and gradually expanded through the Central Valley of Mexico, uniting numerous small, independent states under a single monarch who ruled with the help of counselors, military leaders, and priests. By the late fifteenth century, the Aztec realm may have embraced 25 million people” (Pollard et al. 557).
Tenochtitlan:
“Tenochtitlan spread in concentric circles, with the main religious and political buildings in the center and residences radiating outward. The city's outskirts connected a mosaic of floating gardens producing food for urban markets. Canals irrigated the land, waste served as fertilizer, and high-yielding produce found easy transport to markets” (Pollard et al. 557).
“At its height, the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, was as populous as Europe's largest city” (Pollard et al. 558).
Documented Responses to Tenochtitlan:
“Upon entering, he [Hernan Cortes] gasped in wonder, 'This city is so big and so remarkable [that it is] almost unbelievable.' One of his soldiers wrote, 'It was all so wonderful that I do not know how to describe this first glimpse of things never heard of, seen or dreamed of before'” (qtd. in Pollard et al. 559).
Documented Response to the Fall of Tenochtitlan:
“The Aztecs lamented their defeat in verse: 'We have pounded our hands in despair against the adobe walls, for our inheritance, our city, is lost and dead'” (qtd. in Pollard et al. 560).
Source: Pollard, Elizabeth, et al. Worlds Together Worlds Apart with Sources Volume 2: From 1000 CE to the Present. W.W. Norton & Company, 2019.
Poem's Meaning
There is a personification of the city throughout the poem. The Aztec people abandon the city, attempting to run for their lives. All the while, the city watches in despair as the Spanish pilfered, pillaged, and burned the once great city down. The poem is all about the impermanence of the great city and the Empire as a whole, not to mention a commentary on time itself, as all things come to an end when given time.
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