Tlanehuihuiliztlahtolli, machiyotlahtolli: Zum Verständnis zweier ästhetischer Begriffe aus dem Buch VI des Florentiner Codex

Abstract

This article is an analysis of two aesthetic terms from the Nahuatl part of book VI of the Florentine Codex. While the first tlanehuihuiliztlahtōlli signifies word(s) of comparison or simile(s), the second machiyōtlahtōlli does not correspond directly to any analogous European concept, although it was employed as a translation of metaphor in Sahagún and of simile in Molina. The term stems from the craft of feather working. Since the prehispanic era the artisans used machiyōtl, ingenious patterns or models, that helped to create their precious feather mosaics. The machiyōtlahtōlli, pattern-words, were esteemed in the same way: as beautiful and difficult. They are complex formulas with a specific content that were memorized and repeated in Nahua oral literature. The list of metaphors in Sahagún reveals that the machiyōtlahtōlli are parallelisms and tropes of two or more components, including the so-called difrasismos, while tropes of only one constituent seem to be excluded.