Song IX — Mexican Spring Song (Mexicaxopancuicatl Tlamelauhcayotl)

The xopancuicatl — the spring song — is one of the central genres of Nahua ceremonial poetry. Spring in Nahua thought is not merely a season but a register: the world of flowers, beauty, song, and the divine. Yet the Cantares Mexicanos consistently hold spring's beauty against the fact of death. The flower blooms; the flower is cut. The song rises; the singer grieves. The spring songs of this manuscript are less celebrations of spring than mediations on it — on what it means to stand in the place of beauty knowing that beauty ends.

Song IX carries the double label Mexicaxopancuicatl tlamelauhcayotl — Mexican Spring Song, Plain Song. The tlamelauhcayotl designation (tlamela-uhcayotl, from melaua*, "to go straight, to be plain") signals a direct register, unadorned and unhidden. The song moves through four stations: a meditation on those who seek fame and refuse wisdom, who deceive themselves about their permanence before the Lord of the Near and Nigh; an exhortation to a friend to take example from the passing princes and to weave grief-flowers for the divine; the singer's own performance — adorning himself with grief-flowers, drawing music from the sacred birds of the sky — setting it all heavenward; and finally the bare confession: only the flower, only the song. My heart grieves. Those who hate us will also go.*

Song IX occupies folio 5r of the manuscript (sections 44–47 in the continuous verse numbering of the León-Portilla critical edition). It follows the tlaocolcuicatl of Song VIII and precedes a new song beginning with the manuscript heading XI on folio 5v. Nahuatl source text accessed from the UNAM TEMOA digital platform (temoa.iib.unam.mx), CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Translated directly from Classical Nahuatl by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

Oh, how you thirsted —
going about acquiring fame on earth,
yet no one values it,
those who refuse wisdom.
Perhaps it is all deception,
the way they measure you,
O Lord of the Near and Nigh —
thinking they will live forever here on earth.
I sit in grief; I see it:
perhaps they have drunk datura and jimsonweed —
that is why I am emboldened,
I who am afflicted.
Perhaps there in Ximohuayan
we will go to see each other —
whenever we meet,
our hearts will be filled at last.

Let no one trouble the heart
here on earth,
as we go about in grief and tears —
for it will end in just a moment.
Perhaps we only pass through as lords,
just as the princes once ruled.
Take example, my friend —
you who take no joy,
who find no pleasure on earth —
yet still, weave together the grief-flower,
the weeping flower,
let them be freshly strewn,
these flower-sighs,
to send toward the Lord of the Near and Nigh.

With this I adorn myself —
the grief-flower necklace lies in my hands,
the yearning flower-shield —
I raise up the grief song.
I lay out the jade necklace,
the beautiful, gentle song;
I intertwine the gourd-flower around my jade drum
and send my precious song into the sky —
I the singer draw it from the sky-dwellers:
the troupial bird,
the quetzal-song bird,
the sacred spoonbill who speaks there,
who gladdens the Lord of the Near and Nigh.

My heart grieves — I am the singer, I am poor.
Ah — it is only the flower,
only the song,
with which I wound myself here on earth.
Let not those say it, who hate us,
who send death toward us —
they will all go there,
wherever their home is.
Ohuaya.

Colophon

Song IX of the Cantares Mexicanos carries the dual heading Mexicaxopancuicatl tlamelauhcayotl — Mexican Spring Song, Plain Song. It occupies folio 5r and covers sections 44–47 in the continuous verse numbering of the León-Portilla critical edition. The manuscript heading appears at the folio opening, immediately following the completion of Song VIII's final verse.

The song works in four movements. Verse 44 opens with a direct address to an unnamed second person who has "thirsted for fame" on earth — then turns inward as the singer observes those who refuse wisdom and deceive themselves before the divine. Mixitl tlapatl — datura and jimsonweed — are the two classic Nahua plants of intoxication and self-deception; the phrase tlacaço mixitl tlapatl oquique ("perhaps they have drunk datura and jimsonweed") is an accusation against those whose thinking has been disordered. The verse closes with the hope that in Ximohuayan — the underworld realm of the ordinary dead — the singer and the addressed one will finally meet and find satisfaction.

Verse 45 is an exhortation. The friend is urged toward the same lesson the princes exemplified by dying: life is brief, pass through it as a lord, take example from the dead. The characteristic Nahua flower-weaving imagery appears here: tlaocolxochitl choquizxochitl — the grief-flower and the weeping flower — are the offerings appropriate to this condition, sent toward Tloque Nahuaque, the Lord of the Near and Nigh.

Verse 46 is the singer's report of his own practice — adorning himself with the tlaocolxochicozcatl (grief-flower necklace), raising the elcicihuilizchimalxochitl (yearning flower-shield), arranging the jade necklace of song, drawing music from the three sacred sky-birds: the çaquantototl (troupial, known for its brilliant song), the quetzaltzinitzcantototl (a melodious bird associated with the quetzal), and the teoquechol (the sacred spoonbill, among the most prestigious of Nahua sacred birds). To send song toward the Lord of the Near and Nigh by drawing it from the birds of heaven is to make the song cosmically legitimate — borrowed from the source of music itself.

Verse 47 strips all the ornamentation away: ça ye y xochitl çan ye in cuicatl — only the flower, only the song. With these the singer wounds himself. Nintlacocoa — "I wound myself" — is the word for the auto-sacrificial act, the bloodletting that costs the singer something real. The verse ends with the universal equalizer: those who hate and who kill will also go to their home — wherever that is. Ohuaya is the standard vocalization refrain, a traditional closing breath.

A transcription artifact ("xciii") appears in the source text within verse 46, embedded in what should read on nic ehhua ya (I raise it, I lift it up). This is a folio-reference insertion by a later hand, identical in type to the "lxxxviii" artifact documented in Song VIII. The translation reads the intended Nahuatl; the source text below preserves the transcription as received.

The translation was made from Classical Nahuatl, consulting Alonso de Molina's Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana (1571) and Frances Karttunen's Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl for lexical verification. No existing English translation of the Cantares Mexicanos was used as source or guide; the English is independently derived.

Translated from Classical Nahuatl and compiled for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text: Song IX — Sections 44–47 (Folio 5r)

Classical Nahuatl source text from the Cantares Mexicanos manuscript, Biblioteca Nacional de México. Transcription accessed via the UNAM TEMOA digital platform (temoa.iib.unam.mx), CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Song heading and verse text presented in manuscript order. A transcription artifact ("xciii") in verse 46 is preserved as received; see Colophon note.

(IX — Mexicaxopancuicatl tlamelauhcayotl)

Quemach amique o in motimalotinemico y in tlalticpac yn ayac contenmati o in atlamachilizneque o tlacaço can moztlacahuia on in amitztenmatiin tiTloque in tiNahuaque inic momati o ca mochipa tlalticpac nemizque o ninotlamattimotlalia o niquimitta o tlacaço mixitl tlapatl oquique o ic nihualnelaquahua in ninotolinia o tlacaço ompa in Ximohuayan neittotiuh o çaço tiquenamique o quiniquac ye pachihuiz ye toyollo a

Macayac quen quichihua ya in iyollo o in tlalticpac ye nican in titlaocoxtinemi in tichocatinemi a ca ça cuel achic untlamiiz oo tlacaço çan tontlatocatihui o yn iuh oo tlatocatque tepilhuan ma ic ximixcuiti in tinocniuh in ahtonahuia in ahtihuelamati in tlalticpac o maoc ye ximapana in tlaocolxochitl choquizxochitl xocoyatimalo o xochielcicihuiliztli o in ihuicpa toconiyahuaz on in Tloque in Nahuaque

Yca yeninapana o tlaocolxochicozcatl on nomac onmanian elcicihuilizchimalxochitl on nic ehuayaxciii in tlaocolcuicatl oo nicchalchiuhcozcahuicomana yectli yan cuicatl nicahuachxochilacatzoa y nochalchiuhuehueuh ilhuicatl ytech nictlaxilotia in nocuicatzin in nicuicani ye niquincuilia yn ilhuicac chaneque o çaquantototl quetzaltzinitzcantototl teoquechol in on tlatoa quechol in quicecemeltia in Tloque in Nahuaque

Tlaocoya in noyollo nicuicanitl nicnotlamati a yehua ça ye y xochitly çan ye in cuicatl in ica nintlacocoa in tlalticpac ye nican manen quitocan in techcocolia in techmiquitlani moch ompa onyazque can o y ichán i ohuaya etcetera xcv

Source Colophon

Source text from the Cantares Mexicanos manuscript, Biblioteca Nacional de México, sixteenth century. Transcription accessed via the UNAM TEMOA digital platform (temoa.iib.unam.mx). The manuscript transcription is made available by the Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas, UNAM, under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. Reproduced for non-commercial archival use under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Critical edition: Miguel León-Portilla et al., Cantares Mexicanos, 3 vols. (México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México / Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, 2011). Song IX appears on folio 5r (sections 44–47). The UNAM TEMOA platform provides the accessible transcription; the scholarly PDF edition is image-only.

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