I leave you the best phrases of Nezahualcóyotl, also known as El Rey Poeta. This character was the ruler (tlatoani) of Texcoco, today part of the State of Mexico, and made the region one of the most flourishing, culturally speaking, of ancient Mexico. He was also an architect and academic of the time. His native language was Nahuatl.
You may also be interested in these phrases of historical figures.
Nezahualcóyotl bronze sculpture in the Jardin de la Triple Alianza, Historic Center of Mexico City. Source: Wikimedia Commons - Jesús F. Contreras
-I love the song of the cenzontle, bird with four hundred voices, I love the color of jade, and the unnerving perfume of flowers; But I love my brother the man more.
-The most powerful warrior is the one who manages to defeat himself.
-I'm just looking for the flowers, on earth I have come to cut them. Here I already cut the precious flowers, for me I cut those of friendship: they are your being, oh prince!
-The bird walks there, chatters and sings, it comes to see the house of God. Only with our flowers
-Only in your book of paintings do we live, here on earth.
-To rid your children of these vices and calamities, make them give themselves to virtue and jobs from childhood.
-I have come to be sad, I grieve. You are no longer here, no longer, in the region where somehow it exists. You left us without provision on earth. Because of this, I wear myself out.
-Over the flowers the beautiful pheasant sings, its song unfolds inside the waters. Various red birds respond to him. The beautiful red bird beautifully sings.
-If I never died, if I never disappeared. There where there is no death, there where she is conquest, let me go there.
-May your heart straighten: here no one will live forever.
-I look at their faces, eagles and tigers everywhere, by experience I know the jades, the precious anklets.
-We do things wrong, oh friend. For this reason you do not grieve, that makes us sick, causes us death. Do your best, we will all have to go to the region of mystery.
- Will they come once more, will they live again? Only once do we perish, only once here on earth.
-How to live next to the people? Does he who sustains and elevates men inconsiderately, does he live?
we are pleased. Only with our songs does their sadness perish.
-Even if you were made of jade, even if you go there, to the place of the fleshless. We will have to disappear. No one will be left.
-God, our Lord, he is invoked everywhere, everywhere he is also venerated. He seeks his glory, his fame on Earth. He is the one who invents things, he is the one who invents himself.
-No one can be friends with the giver of life. Where then shall we go? Straighten up, we'll all have to go to the place of mystery.
-You only distribute flowers that intoxicate, beautiful flowers. You are the singer. Inside the spring house you make people happy.
-As if it were made of gold, like a fine necklace, like the wide plumage of a quetzal, that's how I appreciate your true song: with it I'm happy.
-Like a painting we will fade away. Like a flower we have to dry on the earth. Like quetzal feathers, zacua, tiles, we will perish.
-I feel out of my senses, I cry, I grieve when I think, say and remember.
-With flowers you write, giver of life. With colorful songs, with shady songs for those who have to live on Earth.
-Nothing is forever on earth: just a little here. Even if it is made of jade, it breaks, even if it is made of gold, it breaks, even if it is quetzal plumage, it tears.
-With black ink you will erase what was the brotherhood, the community, the nobility. You shade those who are to live on Earth.
-All that is true (that has a root), they say is not true (that has no root).
-Take your cocoa, let it be already drunk! Let the dance take place, begin the dialogue of the songs! This is not our home, we will not live here, you will have to leave anyway.
-Only there in the interior of the sky, you invent your word, giver of life! What will you determine? Will you have annoyance here? Will you hide your fame and your glory on earth?
- At last my heart understands: I hear a song, I contemplate a flower: I hope they do not wither!
-I am sad, I grieve, I, Mr. Nezahualcoyotl, with flowers and songs I remember the princes, those who went to Tezozomoctzin, to Cuacuahtzin.
-I want, I long for friendship, nobility, community. With flowery songs I live.
-In the sky you forge your design. You will decree it: are you fed up and here you hide your fame and your glory on earth? What do you decree?
- Will I have to stand on the earth? What is my destiny? I am needy, my heart suffers, you are just my friend on earth, here.
-How should I go? Will I leave nothing behind me on earth? How should my heart act? Do we come to live in vain, to sprout on the earth? Let's at least leave flowers. Let's at least leave songs.
-Are you true, do you have roots? Only the one who dominates all things, the giver of life. In this right? Isn't it, as they say? That our hearts do not have torment!
-Without violence it remains and prospers in the middle of its books and paintings, there is the city of Tenochtitlan.
-There where somehow it exists. I wish I could follow the princes, bring them our flowers! If only I could make the beautiful songs of Tezozomoctzin my own! Your name will never perish.
-I am Nezahualcóyotl, I am the singer, I am a big-headed parrot. Take your flowers and your fan now. Start dancing with them!
- No one can be by his side, succeed, reign on earth. Only you alter things, as our hearts know: no one can be by his side, succeed, reign on Earth.
-The song resounds, the bells are heard. Our flowery rattles respond to them. Pour flowers, rejoice the song.
-The giver of life drives us crazy, he intoxicates us here. Can no one be by his side, succeed, reign on earth?
-Where shall we go, where death does not exist? More, for this I will live crying? May your heart be straightened: here no one will live forever.
- Precious realities makes it rain, your happiness comes from you, giver of life! Olorous flowers, precious flowers, I yearned for them, I had vain wisdom…
- What of this life is borrowed, that in an instant we have to leave it as others have left it.
-My flowers will not end, my songs will not cease. I sing, I raise them, they spread, they spread. Even when the flowers fade and yellow, they will be carried there, inside the house of the bird with the golden feathers.
-That's how we are, we're mortal, four by four of us men, we will all have to leave, we will all have to die on earth.
-How should my heart act? Do we come to live in vain, to sprout on the earth?
-May not my heart be anguished. Do not reflect anymore. Truly I hardly have compassion on myself on earth.
-Live in peace, spend life in calm!
-Spread your compassion, I am by your side, you are God. Maybe you want to kill me? Is it true that we rejoice, that we live on earth?