Lamentations of Nezahualcóyotl: Nahuatl Poems

Lamentations of Nezahualcóyotl: Nahuatl Poems

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By Nezahualcóyotl

Retold from the Nahuatl by Ilan Stavans

Illustrated by Cuauhtémoc Wetzka

From award-winning author, editor, and translator Ilan Stavans comes a one-of-kind retelling of a legendary Aztec ruler’s timeless verses.

Hardcover • ISBN: 9781632063861
Publication date: March 25, 2025

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About the Book

A king, a warrior, and a poet, Nezahualcóyotl was a revolutionary far ahead of his time. Born in 1402, the ruler—whose name means “hungry coyote” in the Uto-Aztecan language of Nahuatl—led the city-state of Texcoco through its age of enlightenment. His four-decade reign was among the most transformative and prosperous eras of the Aztec Empire. Today he is a hero in Mexico, seen as a mysterious, powerful, anti-colonial figure.

Brimming with anguish and longing, this epic collection of songs and poems was composed by Nezahualcóyotl with members of his illustrious court. After six centuries, in a powerful retelling by Ilan Stavans with new illustrations by Cuauhtémoc Wetzka, twenty-two poems bring to life a young warrior and his journey from exile to historical legend. Sorrowful and unforgettable, Lamentations of Nezahualcóyotl will thrill readers of Latin American literature for years to come.

Praise for Lamentations of Nezahualcóyotl

“Stavans enters into the unknown and incredible set of visionary and historical pillars held up by Nezahualcóyotl, the first poet-prince of Mesoamerica. Although cast as ‘Lamentations,’ here we read the extracts of deep research and ‘total’ transmission of Neza’s poetry, rule and depth of thought, knowledge, and vision. Stavans makes sure we take note of Nezahualcóyotl’s hidden multidimensional senses: ‘I perceive what is secret,’ Neza writes. He speaks of ‘shape-shifting,’ the ‘Divine Voice,’ ‘The three souls of the human body,’ the substance of ‘words’ and the ‘journey to the Underworld.’ This is a treasure of unknown powers, paths of awareness, an elastic universe at our hands, voice and mind—gifted by the first poet of the Americas and the first transmitter of his ‘Lamentations.’ Here is a notebook of cultural and cosmic lightning. A ground-breaker and sky-shaker.”

— Juan Felipe Herrera, Poet Laureate of the United States, Emeritus

“Ilan Stavans casts a spell in this remarkable retelling of a king’s sorrows. Stripped of all poetic adornments, yet beautifully conveyed, these songs become a moving testimony. Nezahualcóyotl (1402–1472) wants nothing more than a knowledgeable populace, justice, and moral civility in a resplendent floral region, a paradise. Yet he harbors revenge against those who killed his father and clashes with rivals in the area called Texcoco, just north of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan. A fierce warrior, he assumes his rightful place. He becomes a king, powerful and dressed in colorful robes. Nevertheless, he is like other mortals. He sings, ‘I am fallible, I am infinite,’ a human contradiction. Here we have geography, cosmology, prophecy, the kingdom of birds and animals, and glimpses of a king filled with doubt. This is Nezahualcóyotl’s lament about the brevity of life. An extraordinary work.”

— Gary Soto, author of A Fire in My Hands

"The poet king of Texcoco has returned! Ilan Stavans journeys to the pre-Hispanic underworld to recover a lost tradition. If Nezahualcóyotl rebelled against the fugacity of life in an epoch defined by war and human sacrifices, Stavans reverses oblivion to articulate a stunning utopian retrospective for our present. The beauty and sharpness of these poems is such that it allows us to feel the obsidian edge of history. A classic of the 15th century reaches us with the divinatory power of dreams."

— Juan Villoro, author of Horizontal Vertigo: A City Called Mexico

"How startling to read about a world from so long ago only to recognize the one in which we currently live, beleaguered by war and crises of faith, and facing an uncertain future. Nezahualcóyotl's poems, superbly retold by Ilan Stavans, offer us hard-won wisdom and warnings from a civilization on the brink of breaking. But with the dark days, the poet king assures us, come the possibility of clarity, restoration, and even redemption. What a gift to receive these enlightening words during our troubled times!"

— Rigoberto González, author of Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nezahualcóyotl (1402-1472) was a Nahuatl poet, philosopher, urban planner, warrior, ruler, and one of the crucial historical figures who defined the Aztec Empire. His verses, only a handful of which survive, explore the most intimate aspects of his people. An icon of modern Mexico whose legacy remains the subject of intense debate, he died approximately fifty years before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors, whose devastations he foresaw.

ABOUT THE contributors

Ilan Stavans is the publisher of Restless Books and the Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities and Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College. His books include On Borrowed Words, Spanglish, Dictionary Days, The Disappearance, and A Critic’s Journey. He has edited The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature, the three-volume set Isaac Bashevis Singer: Collected Stories, The Poetry of Pablo Neruda, among dozens of other volumes. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, Chile’s Presidential Medal, the International Latino Book Award, and the Jewish Book Award. Stavans’s work, translated into twenty languages, has been adapted to the stage and screen. A cofounder of the Great Books Summer Program at Amherst, Stanford, Chicago, Oxford, and Dublin, he is the host of the NPR podcast “In Contrast.”

Cuauhtémoc Wetzka is an illustrator originally from Zongolica, recognized for his work that gives voice to childhood, the indigenous community and the richness of native languages. He has illustrated story books, posters, illustrations and cartoons for brands including Google, Apple, Cirque du Soleil's One Drop Foundation, and various publishers. His work has been exhibited in Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala, Spain, France, Estonia, Slovakia, Poland, Taiwan, Canada, Turkey and the United States.