It is with some hesitation that I offer this volume to the scientific
public. The text of the ancient songs which it contains offers
extreme and peculiar difficulties to the translator, and I have been
obliged to pursue the task without assistance of any kind. Not a line
of them has ever before been rendered into an European tongue, and my
endeavors to obtain aid from some of the Nahuatl scholars of Mexico
have, for various reasons, proved ineffectual. I am therefore alone
responsible for errors and misunderstandings.
Nevertheless, I have felt that these monuments of ancient native
literature are so interesting in themselves, and so worthy of
publication, that they should be placed at the disposition of
scholars in their original form with the best rendering that I could
give them at present, rather than to await the uncertain event of
years for a better.
The text itself may be improved by comparison with the original MS.
and with the copy previously made by the Licentiate Chimalpopoca,
referred to on page 48. My own efforts in this direction have been
confined to a faithful reproduction in print of the MS. copy of the
Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg.
The Notes, which might easily have been extended, I have confined
within moderate compass, so as not to enlarge unduly the bulk of the
volume.
To some, the Vocabulary may seem inadequate. I assume that those
persons who wish to make a critical study of the original text will
provide themselves with the Nahuatl Dictionaries of Molina or Siméon,
both of which are now easily obtainable, thanks to Mr. Julius
Platzmann for the reprint of Molina. I also assume that such students
will acquaint themselves with the rules of grammar and laws of
word-building of the tongue, and that they will use the vocabulary
merely as a labor-saving means of reaching the themes of compounds
and unusual forms of words. Employed in this manner, it will, I hope,
be found adequate.
In conclusion, I would mention that there is a large body of Nahuatl
literature yet unpublished, both prose and poetry, modern and
ancient, and as the Nahuatl tongue is one of the most highly
developed on the American continent, it is greatly to be desired that
all this material should be at the command of students. The Nahuatl,
moreover, is not a difficult tongue; for an Englishman or a
Frenchman, I should say it is easier to acquire than German, its
grammar being simple and regular, and its sounds soft and sonorous.
It has special recommendations, therefore, to one who would acquaint
himself with an American language.