Songs of Nezahualcoyotl

Not forever on Earth,

only a little while here.

Though it be jade it falls apart,

Though it be gold it fades away,

Though it be quetzal plumage it is torn asunder.

Not forever on Earth,

only a little while here.

--poetry of Nezahualcoyotl, the "half-starved coyote,"

Lord of Texcoco, Aztec aristocracy, sixteenth century, before the magnificent culture was wiped out by the crude Spanish barbarians.