Nezahualcóyotl, poemas

There are only thirty-four poems by Nezahualcóyotl that can be attributed to him with certainty: 10 are found in Cantares mexicanos and 24 in Romances de los señores de Nueva España. Several poems collected in the Historia chichimeca translated by Alva Ixtlilxóchitl are also attributed to him. A great-grandson of Nezahualcóyotl, Juan Bautista Pomar (possibly a mestizo and native of Texcoco), wrote his Relación de Texcoco to inform King Philip II of the state and history of his territories. Pomar finished his book in March 1582 —a very valuable exposition of the "historical and cultural environment" of this ancient lordship— and added a chapter called Romances de los señores de Nueva España. It is a compilation of ancient Nahuatl poems. It is said that Fray Bernardino de Sahagún commissioned this document. The manuscript has 42 folios, with 60 poems grouped by their areas of origin: Texcoco, Chalco, Huexotzinco, and the Triple Alliance. We have put together the following anthology of Nezahualcóyotl's poems based mainly on the editions and translations by Ángel María Garibay, and on the immense work of Miguel León-Portilla.