Lamentations of Nezahualcoyotl

"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. Nezahualcoyotl (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 Nezahualcoyotl'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 Nezahualcoyotl 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. Nezahualcoyotl'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 Gonzalez, author of Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa