Caveat: Ihcuac tlahtolli ye miqui

This is a poem composed in the Nahuatl language (indigenous to Mexico).

Ihcuac tlahtolli ye miqui
mochi in teoyotl,
cicitlaltin, tonatiuh ihuan metztli;
mochi in tlacayotl,
neyolnonotzaliztli ihuan huelicamatiliztli,
ayocmo neci
inon tezcapan.
Ihcuac tlahtolli ye miqui,
mochi tlamantli in cemanahuac,
teoatl, atoyatl,
yolcame, cuauhtin ihuan xihuitl
ayocmo nemililoh, ayocmo tenehualoh,
tlachializtica ihuan caquiliztica
ayocmo nemih.
Inhuac tlahtolli ye miqui,
cemihcac motzacuah
nohuian altepepan
in tlanexillotl, in quixohuayan.
In ye tlamahuizolo
occetica
in mochi mani ihuan yoli in tlalticpac.
Ihcuac tlahtolli ye miqui,
itlazohticatlahtol,
imehualizeltemiliztli ihuan tetlazotlaliztli,
ahzo huehueh cuicatl,
ahnozo tlahtolli, tlatlauhtiliztli,
amaca, in yuh ocatcah,
hueliz occepa quintenquixtiz.
Ihcuac tlahtolli ye miqui,
occequintin ye omiqueh
ihuan miec huel miquizqueh.
Tezcatl maniz puztecqui,
netzatzililiztli icehuallo
cemihcac necahualoh:
totlacayo motolinia.
– Miguel León Portilla (Mexican poet, b 1926)

Below is a soundtrack of someone reading … something similar. I don't think it's exactly the same text, since it doesn't seem to match up to the written form. It may be that the person talking is doing more of a riff on the theme as opposed to reading the actual poem. Notable, especially, are the frequent Spanish-origin loanwords in the woman's reading, which are not present in the poem's text, above.

Cuando Muere una Lengua / When a tongue dies from Combo on Vimeo.

If you want to hear the actual reading, by the original poet, you can hear it here (not embeddable) – he starts reading in Nahuatl at about halfway through the video at that site.

[daily log: walking, 1km]

 

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