AN AZTEC PLAY
Tecayehuatzin :
May I now and always take pleasure in these emeralds and jewels,
for they are princes.
I would bring together princes
as I might arrange flowers in a pattern,
With my songs, I would bind them
here, close to the drums.
I am giving a feast in Huexotzinco
I, King Tecayehuatzin.
I shall gather emeralds and quetzal feather
for they are princes.
Motenehuatzin :
In the spring,
delightful are the flowers,
delightful the songs and the music;
but in my house, there sadness dwells.
For of a truth we are scarce alive
so weighted with pain and sadness are we:
this is why I prince Monencanhtzin
twine into my chants
as if they were quetzal feathers
the gathering of princes
Kings, and nobles and Teplohuatl himself,
King Tepolohuatl.
In the spring
delightful are the flower
delightful the songs and the music
but in my house, there sadness dwells.
Ayocuan:
We live in a land of flowers;
No one can ever do away with flowers or
with singing here:
for they ever dwell in the house of the Sun.
And earth is a place of the moment come and gone.
It shall not be so in the land Beyond.
Shall we find joy, shall we find friendship there?
Shall we only meet on earth and then no more?
Xayacamacban:
Rejoice now to the fullness of your heart
O flowering jewel,
O King Tecayehuatzin
Shall we perhaps live once again?
Your heart tells you the answer
Once only do we come into the world.
Tecayehuatzin:
Like a white and fragrant flower, does friendship flutter.
With the white feathers of the heron is it twined.
From its flowers red and priceless and its branches draw forth honey, kings and princes
to the number of a thousand.
Anonymous King:
From the inner chambers of the sky
descend the flowers, O so pretty,
come down the songs of striking beauty;
but our muse deforms them
and our art makes them ugly
save it be you, O king Tecayehuatzin.
For you are the Sun’s red bird,
you are the god’s King
and you are of the first who saw the dawn –
you who now sing here.
May my heart be firm in a devotion
to the flowers of achievement: they are the flowers
of the sun
How else shall my heart yearn?
Is it all in vain we come and strive upon the earth?
I shall pass away
even as the flowers which have passed before me.
Shall all my fame be nought one day?
Shall all report of me fade from the earth?
At least let there be flowers,
let there be song.
What shall you do O heart?
Is it indeed in vain we come into this world to strive?
Huitzilopochtli :
I came with this alone in mind:
to settle on the Flowering Tree,
I the chosen Humming bird.
With my beak I find delight and I am happy,
sweet and pleasant are my lips.
The last chorus :
O giver of life,
with flowers do we make our supplication.
We humbly bow to thee, sure we give thee pleasure
near to the flowering drums.
Now the drum is still, the drum is packed and put away
In the house of spring your friends await you
Yaomanatzin, Micohuatzin, Ayocuahtzin:
Now princes sigh with flowers.
