Aviary

Publication Instance Details #319

Publication Overview

Translation	Is Multilingual	Explicit Irish Context?	Ekphrasis	Has Paratext?	Reference to News, Media or Technology
Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No

Details

Human Rights Issues	HR & Colonisation/Colonial Legacies Indigenous Rights (incl. culture & language)
Languages	English
Original Language	Irish
Original Poem	Vogelhaus
Original Author	Gabriel Rosenstock
Genre	Short Lyric
Medium	Print Collection
Notes	The speaker of this poem is a dwarf in the court of Montezuma, the head of the Aztec Empire, during whose reign the first contact between the Mesoamerican peoples and the European settlers took place. Montezuma eventually became a prisoner in his own palace under the Spaniards, including Cortés, before being killed in unknown circumstances. The speaker of the poem's role is to entertain his emperor, and he describes his job in the poem. However, the notable aspect of this poem is the mention of the 'hombres dios' in the penultimate verse of the poem, in which they claim that the Aztec gods 'have had their day!' This is likely a reference to the presence of Spaniards in the Aztec Kingdom already.