From within the Heavens by Ayocuan Cuetzpaltzin
(translated by Miguel Le贸n-Portilla) From within the heavens they come, the beautiful flowers, the beautiful songs, but our yearning spoils them, our inventiveness makes them lose their fragrance, although not those of the Chichimec prince Tecayehatzin. With his, rejoice! Friendship is a shower of precious flowers White tufts of heron feathers are woven with precious red flowers, among the branches of the trees under which stroll and sip the lords and nobles Your beautiful song is a golden wood thrush most beautiful, you raise it up. You are in a field of flowers. Among the flowery bushes you sing. Are you perchance a precious bird of the Giver of Life? Perchance you have spoken with God? As soon as you saw the dawn, you began to sing. Would that I exert myself, that my heart desire, the flowers of the shield, the flowers of the Giver of Life. What can my heart do? In vain we have come, we have blossomed forth on earth. Will I have to go alone like the flowers that perish? Will nothing remain of my name? Nothing of my fame here on earth? At least my flowers, at least my songs! What can my heart do? In vain we have come, we have blossomed forth on earth. Let us enjoy, O friends, here we can embrace. We stroll over the flowery earth. No one here can do away with the flowers and the songs, they will endure in the house of the Giver of Life Earth is the region of the fleeting moment. Is it also thus in the Place Where in Some Way One Lives? Is one happy there? Is there friendship? Or is it only here on earth we come to know our faces?