Poem to be Recited Every 8 Years While Eating Unleavened Tamales

It can be difficult to understand many of these poems without background. They rely on complex allusions that are completely alien to most western readers. Furthermore, many of them purposely use ambiguity to create a mystical, ineffable kind of mood. I tried to research a few of the allusions in this poem. I noticed that Tlaçolteotl, the god of vice and purification, was oddly juxtaposed with images of Quetzalcoatl, Piltzintecutli, and Xochiquetzal, gods of fertility and knowledge, and Xolotl, god of lightning and death. These associations, coupled with the poem's deliberate ambiguity and minimalistic descriptions, assert the overwhelming power of romantic love.

Part 1 of this poem immediately makes it evident that this poem is a sort of chronicle of the unfolding of the speaker's understanding: "the flower / my heart / it opened." The speaker seems to suggest some kind of sexual encounter as the catalyst in creating this understanding. His heart is opened at midnight by Tlaçolteotl, "our mother / goddess desire." The speaker suggests that he has gained understanding by opening himself to "desire." Another thing that is immediately apparent about this section is its strange line breaks. They immediately visually seperate it from the other parts of the poem. I have come up with a couple possible reasons for this: 1. this typography echoes the "opening" of the speaker's heart, 2. it emphasizes the importance of the different manifestations of Tlaçolteotl.

Part 2 begins to describe the unfolding of the speaker's understanding. The repetition of the phrase "in the" emphasizes the multiple instances of birth that are occurring in this setting. Furthermore, humans, nature ("jewel-fish"), and gods ("maize god") are juxtaposed and united in these instances of birth/reproduction.

Part 3 is immediately striking in its brevity, typography, and nature as a short sentence fragment. It is hard to say but my best guess is that it functions to describe the kind of paradise/plenty that exists after the birth introduced in the previous parts.

Part 4 again brings the gods down to earth. But this time literally: "down here on earth / you rise in the marketplace and say / I am lord Quetzalcoatl." The connection between heaven and earth is especially explicit as the part progresses: "hear the word of our lord / in the quechol-bird's word." Quechol-birds literally reflect the gods but these lines also develop the connection further through the repetition of the "rd" sound. This consonance strengthens the connection between gods and nature and also perhaps echoes the songs of the quechol-birds (a connection between man and nature?). However there is an abrupt transition in the last stanza. It is the first instance of death being mentioned in the poem. This makes it apparent that the birth in this poem is also a rebirth. It also explains that this birth is a means of moving on and cultivating hope. Even if this hope is only meager: "your brother whom we mourn / will never be killed again."

At this point the mood of the poem suddenly became very melancholy for me. The world moves on so the best we can do is accept the finality of the past and enjoy the brief period of rebirth that we have and the (momentary) end of suffering.

Xolotl stands menacing over part 5 of the poem. This marks a transition to part 6 in which Piltzintecutli, a fertility god, is "lain down." Or at least, the speaker asks us to look to see if he is lain down. This distinction conveys a sense of anxiety. The repetition of the word dark highlights this anxiety and emphasizes the disollution that occurs after the plenty described earlier.

Part 7, too, is difficult. I wonder about the significance of this merchant. It could be that the merchant comes to exploit the peoples' desires. This is hardly suggested by the context in that he is selling luxury items: "turquoise spikes for your ears / and turquoise bands for your arms." But according to Wikipedia Xochiquetzal is "By connotation, ... also representative of human desire, pleasure, and excess." This is contrasted with the seeming connection between desire and prosperity earlier. Furthermore, the speaker says, "I fear the maize god is still on his way)" which is contrasted with the connotation of prosperity connected with the "maize god's" birth. The entire part functions to show the other side of desire. It's capacity to cause decadence and destruction.

Parts 8 and 9 are distinctive and mark a break from the pattern of the unfolding of a description of rebirth. I think part 9 especially brings the entire fanciful scene back into the dream-state from which it started ("at midnight / that lordly hour"). All the images of gods and states of rebirth and death seem merely to be unfoldings of the wandering mind of some dreaming person. I notice a particular contrast between the rhythms of part 8 and 9. Part 8 is anapestic and repetitive suggesting the steady dreamlike state it describes. Part 9 suggests through its line breaks and indentation hard pauses in the middle of phrases like "here / the woman." Furthermore, the brevity of the lines itself also gives the whole part an arresting rhythm. The rhythm of part 8 suggests that the realizations of the poem are fanciful and undermine their gravity. The rhythm of part 9 reasserts the significance of these realizations. The whole 9th part centers the poem in the relationship of a man and a woman. And these contrasts seem to highlight the importance of romantic relationships: their omnipotent capacity for creation and destruction.