The Song of Netzahualcoytl (An Aztec "Thanatopsis") Translated By H. C. Theobald At the wedding feast of Netzahualcoytl, who was Emperor of Texcoco, in the latter half of the fifteenth century, the ruler recited to his guests a poem which has been translated from the Nahuatl dialect of the Aztecs and turned into melodious Spanish verse by Juan Villalon, a modern Mexican poet. In sentiment closely resembling Bryant's "Thanatopsis," these lines reveal the philosopher king's belief in immortality and in a Supreme Being. The following translation from the Spanish represents an endeavor to keep close to the literal rendering by Villalon of this rather serious wedding poem: Swift fades the pomp and trappings of this world, The purple of the throne fades like the rose Brief is the reign of mortals, brief as flowers! That piteously inters all those she bore. The rivers, brooks and streamlets onward rush, Was not that which to-day doth seem to be; Full is the vault of sad remains: those forms Were warriors, lusty youth, and monarchs wise. Which Popocapetl boiling vomits forth. Rend now the shadows of the hollow crypt, Ah, idle, vain desire! Ah, useless search! Aye! and in none other manner, also they To life immortal, oh, noble Texocanos, To life of the high heavens let us aspire! The mortal perishes 'mid worms, but not the soul. A A Bordertown Barbecue By Daisy Kessler Biermann SINGLE star hung low in the luminous amethyst above the Eastern horizon, trembling in liquid radiance above the silent hills. The Western sky was still flooded with a vivid saffron glow, and the studded oaks were black blotches etched in clear-cut silhouette through the dry mountain air. A stretch of pasture, gray-green in a fast gathering twilight dimness spread as a carpet from the sloping hills on either side. In this expanse of gray-green merging into the darkening silhouettes of the hedging Southern California mountains, a group of men gathered, a spot of darker grey, about the mouth of a deeply dug pit. Within its depths -ruddily glowing-sturdy oaks were transforming into a bed of palpitating living coals, and imbedded in the fiery mass lay rounded stones dully glowing with an intense heat. Campo was preparing for the barbecue. The men lounged lazily about the pit, their idle gaze held by the ageold fascination of the fire. Pricking the darkness here and there about the circle glowed the point of a cigarette, and its thin blue smoke mingled its fragrance with the pungent odor of the drifting wood smoke. The men spoke in low tones, desultory remarks in mingled American and Mexican. In the silences that marked the lapses in conversation the stillness of the mountain night seemed freighted with the weight of desert solitudes pressing from the east, the loneliness of the wilds of old Mexico to the south, and of all the peaks and valleys stretching down to the ocean seventy miles to the west. Finally the smoke ceased drifting from the pit. In its yawning throat the clear air vibrated with the red heat of the coals. The group of waiting men stirred casually. From the darkness beyond the rim of firelight were brought huge pieces of raw beef, a quarter or a half a beef in a chunk. These were wrapped in burlap sacking, soused in tubs of water, and flung dripping upon the sizzling stones. Clouds of white steam rose densely. An old square of tent canvas was soaked with water and battened down over the steaming mass, and earth was heaped over all, hermetically sealing the feast which was to be the central feature of to-morrow's festivities. The little band of workers faded into the night beneath the now brilliantly starset sky, plodding toward the village lights. From the distance a lone auto truck following the highway from the sea to the desert shrilled its harsh, strident call across the deserted dreaming pastures. The next morning the sun rolled up, a burning ball in a sky of fleckless blue. With its early rays came the first arrivals. Jingling spurs, leathern chaps, coils of rawhide riata hanging from their saddle pommels, the cowpunchers from the desert edge and the higher pine-clad mountains, trailed in in groups of two and threes. Lazily lounging in their saddles, they clustered about the bottled soda and icecream cone stand erected in front of the stone-built frontier store, and imbibed copiously. As the sun grew higher the crowds about the store thickened, and drifted up to the barbecue grounds in the pasture beyond the settlement. A strangely assorted mixture met and stared and greeted on this common ground. Smart automobiles, now dust covered from the long climb up heavy grades from the seaside city, filled with curious pleasure-seekers; dilapidated wagons, drawn by a pair of shaggy burros or dejected horses, overflowing with dark-skinned, black |