Nahuatl, the laguage of the Mexicas was a poetic language. According to Richard F. Townsend in his book "The Aztecs" the Nahuatl language employed a particular form of extended metaphor which has been curiously likened to the "kennings" of the old Norse poetry.
In his book on the life of Netzahualcoyotl, the ruler of Texcoco, Jose Luis Martinez points out that Nahuatl poetry routinely used extended metaphors, not only for the names of deities but also for places, actions,heroes, and concepts of special significance. The floating city of Tenochtitlan was known as "the place of the white willows" or "the place of the eagle and the cactus". Warfare was "the song of shields" or "flowers of the heart upon the plain." For the Mexicas, poetry was a combination of two words, flowers and song.
The following poems are taken fom CANTARES MEXICANOS,
a twentieth-centrury anthology compiled by the scholar Angel Maria Garibay
K.
It is not true that we live,
it is not true that we endure
on earth.
I must leave the beautiful flowers,
I must go in search of the mysterious
realm!
Yet for a brief moment,
Let us make the fine songs
ours.
Anonymous, Chalco.
