Miguel Leon Portilla Quotes
You can find Miguel Leon Portilla quotes, Miguel Leon Portilla book quotes, the most impressive sentences and paragraphs on 1000Kitap.Eagerly does my heart yearn for flowers;
I suffer with songs, yet I create them on earth,
I, Cuacuauhtzin:
I crave flowers that will not perish in my hands!
Where might I find lovely flowers, lovely songs?
Such as I seek, spring does not produce on earth;
indeed, I feel tormented,
I, Cuacuauhtzin.
Those of the white hair and the wrinkled faces,
our ancestors. . . .
They did not come here to be arrogant; they were not seeking;
they were not greedy.
They were such
that they were highly esteemed on earth;
they came to be eagles and tigers.
One of the names for tiger used by the Nahuas was tecuani, “devourer of people”; he was a monster of the earth.
They preserved their history.
But it was burned
at the time that Itzcóatl reigned in Mexico.
The Aztec lords decided it,
saying:
“It is not wise that all the people
should know the paintings.
The common people would be driven to ruin
and there would be trouble,
because these paintings contain many lies,
for many in the pictures have been hailed as gods."
Although flowers, considered the symbol of beauty, perish; when they are related to song, they represent poetry and are everlasting. For, originating in the innermost part of heaven, they constitute “the only truth on earth.” Nezahualcóyotl was aware of this belief:
"My flowers shall not cease to live;
my songs shall never end:
I, a singer, intone them;
they become scattered, they are spread about."
It is not true, it is not true
that we come to this earth to live.
We come only to sleep, only to dream.
Our body is a flower.
As grass becomes green in the springtime,
so our hearts will open, and give forth buds,
and then they wither.
So did Tochihuitzin say.