Song LIV — The Jewel Song
Song LIV is the Cozcacuicatl — the Jewel Song — MS LVI. Its full rubric reads: "Here begins the jewel-song concerning the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Don Francisco Plácido composed it in the year of 1553." It is one of the great colonial syncretic masterpieces of the Cantares Mexicanos: the Christian Nativity told entirely in Nahua ceremonial language.
The song opens with a surprising historical frame — war at Azcapotzalco, the Tepanec crisis — before pivoting to the birth of Christ at Bethlehem. The transition is seamless: the same rhetorical structure that mourns Nahua dead now celebrates the Redeemer. Turquoise jewels and jade necklaces become rosary beads. The quetzal house on the road's edge becomes the stable of the Nativity. Santa Maria bears the Son of God. The lords of the east bring gold, copal (Nahuatl copalli = incense), and myrrh. Angels among precious birds sing Gloria in excelsis Deo. And then, in the song's closing, the memorial tradition reasserts itself: the Nonoalca lord don Diego goes to Ximoayan, the Nahua place of the stripped dead, and his grief-song is woven with sorrow-flowers.
Song LIV occupies folios 37v through 38v, sections 713 through 730 (eighteen sections). The drum preamble "Tiqui tiqui tocoto" opens the performance. Nahuatl source text accessed from the UNAM TEMOA digital platform. Translated directly from Classical Nahuatl by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
Nican ompehua cozcacuicatl ytechpa yn itlacatilitzin Totecuiyo Xesucristo oquitecpan don Francisco Plácido ypan xihuitl 1553 años.
Tiqui tiqui tocoto tiquitiqui tocoto tiqui tiqui tiqui tiquitiqui tiqui.
[section 713]
When they have gone to Quenonamican —
you, my princes,
O Tepanec, O Acacihtli —
upon you war will end,
upon us the burning will stir.
For some time yet
he keeps guard
at Azcapotzalco.
[section 714]
Let Him be beseeched!
Unfurl your sorrows
as turquoise jewels, you princes.
With jade necklaces,
gold necklaces —
your rosary beads —
let us give delight
to him who arrived at Bethlehem,
the redeemer of the world.
Let us go boldly.
[section 715]
Let it be seen, our nephews:
we release the red ixquixochitl —
they scatter.
There he descended —
the thought of God,
into the world.
[section 716]
In the quetzal house,
at the road's edge —
there you are,
maiden Santa Maria.
There you gave birth
to the Son of God.
With varied jewels
let Him be beseeched.
[section 717]
You exalt yourself —
like jewels that scatter,
so he is in your hand:
the Child God.
With varied jewels
let Him be beseeched.
[section 718]
In good time, in good time,
children, our nephews!
Let us go, let us go
before God Jesus Christ.
Where the golden reed-house stands
we shall see him.
We shall give him
jade-bead rosary necklaces.
With the soft rose glow
of the precious bird
he shines.
[section 719]
There is song
in the house of flutes.
We go about singing —
what flower is this
that spreads its fragrance?
With the soft rose glow
of the precious bird
it shines.
[section 720]
Now at this very hour —
to the precious jewel,
to the quetzal-plume,
we have been bound:
your beloved child,
your jade bracelet,
your necklace —
forever maiden,
Santa Maria.
Our souls rejoice here.
[section 721]
On the quetzal mat you are,
it is your home,
Queen of Heaven.
In the varied jewel-turquoise-house
we beseech you.
Precious red-green feathers
are your flower-rosary —
we go counting them,
we come descending in compassion
to seek you.
[section 722]
The many birds,
your quechol-birds, God —
they cry out here.
Who is this that flies
like the dawn?
Angels sing:
Gloria in excelsis Deo.
Rejoice! Be glad!
[section 723]
Just then
the heavenly light
descended upon us.
Many flowers scattered.
Your quechol-birds, God, sing:
Gloria in excelsis Deo.
Rejoice! Be glad!
[section 724]
When the lords in the east heard it,
from heaven they were told:
on earth the redeemer has appeared.
Gold, incense, and myrrh
they brought.
Thus they arrived at Bethlehem.
They knew:
truly God,
truly man.
[section 725]
Before they knew you, God —
jewel-precious, quetzal-precious
were the wise ones, the rulers.
They beseeched the maiden Santa Maria.
They themselves carried and bore
your renown:
truly God,
truly man.
[section 726]
Let us all marvel,
our brothers!
There at Bethlehem —
utterly vanished are the quetzal-plumes,
the jewels, the jade.
There the little ones were shattered.
With butterfly-jewel necklaces
they went entering
into the interior of heaven —
the noble children.
[section 727]
The grief-song is wound round
with sorrow-flowers.
It eases the hearts
of your beloved, God.
With bright butterfly-jewel necklaces
they went entering
into the interior of heaven —
the noble children.
[section 728]
Nonoalco, here at Tlalhuacpan —
he paints it in jade writing,
the Nonoalca lord,
don Diego.
In vain — to Ximoayan
he came leaving the water,
the mountain.
With this I weep.
[section 729]
My song rings
like a golden bell.
I seek among the jewel-people,
my great-grandparents.
I thread jade into their words.
I remember them —
truly.
[section 730]
Upon your turquoise-ball necklace
I sing a grief-song,
I feel sorrow.
Who are the noble children?
Where is the eagle, the jaguar?
It is already written:
the water, the mountain —
they went in truth
to Ximoayan.
Colophon
Song LIV of the Cantares Mexicanos, folios 37v–38v, sections 713–730 (eighteen sections). The Cozcacuicatl — Jewel Song of the Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ — MS LVI. Composed by Don Francisco Plácido in the year 1553.
This is a colonial syncretic Nativity song — one of several in the Cantares Mexicanos that demonstrate how Nahua ritual language absorbed and transformed Christian narrative in the decades following the Conquest. Don Francisco Plácido, a Nahua nobleman and early convert, composed the song using the full apparatus of the xochicuicatl tradition: turquoise jewels, quetzal feathers, jade necklaces, precious birds, and the difrasismo atl in tepetl (water and mountain = city). The Christian elements — Bethlehem, Santa Maria, Jesus Christ, the Three Kings, gold-incense-myrrh, angels, Gloria in excelsis Deo — are embedded within this Nahua framework rather than replacing it.
The song's structure is remarkable. It opens not with the Nativity but with the Tepanec war (§713) — the crisis that preceded the Aztec Triple Alliance — as if the birth of Christ must first be situated within Mexica historical time. The closing (§§728–730) returns to Nahua memorial tradition: the Nonoalca lord don Diego of Tlalhuacpan, who has gone to Ximoayan (the Place of the Stripped Dead), not to Christian heaven. The grief-song that concludes the Cozcacuicatl uses the same language as the pre-Columbian ycnocuicatl (orphan songs) that precede it in the manuscript. The colonial and the ancient coexist without resolution.
The Latin Gloria in excelsis Deo in §§722–723 is one of the rare instances of a third language appearing in the Cantares alongside Nahuatl and Spanish. The copalli (copal incense) in §724, translated by León-Portilla as "incense" (copalli ya), is the Nahua equivalent substituted for the biblical frankincense — a telling cultural translation within the text itself.
Translated directly from Classical Nahuatl via the UNAM TEMOA transcription of the Cantares Mexicanos (MS 1628 bis, Biblioteca Nacional de México). Lexical verification via Molina's Vocabulario en Lengua Castellana y Mexicana (1571) and Karttunen's Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (1983). The León-Portilla Spanish translation was used solely as a cross-reference after independent Nahuatl parsing. This is the first free literary English translation of this song.
Good Works Translation by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Scribed by Xochitl.
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Source Text
Cantares Mexicanos, folios 37v–38v, sections 713–730. Classical Nahuatl text from the UNAM TEMOA digital transcription. Footnote markers from the León-Portilla critical edition removed.
Nican ompehua cozcacuicatl ytechpa yn itlacatilitzin Totecuiyo Xesucristo oquitecpan don Francisco Plácido ypan xihuitl 1553 años.
Tiqui tiqui tocoto tiquitiqui tocoto tiqui tiqui tiqui tiquitiqui tiqui. Titoco toto titocototo titiquititi titiquiti.
§713 Yquac in on ia Quenonamican yn annopilhuan tecpanecatl ye y oc Acihtli anmopan tzopiz yaoyotl topan miliniz ye tlachinolli o oohua yee maçoc achica ontlapia y ye y Azcapotzalco yyo ohuiya
§714 Ma ontlatlauhtilo ya xicteoxiuhcozcatotomaca yn amotlayocol antepilhuan i ma chalchiuhcozcatl teocuitlacozcatl yn amocuentax y ma ycaya ticahuiltiti yn oyehcoc in Belem cemanahuaqui temaquixtiani tla tihui ya tlatlaquauh çane
§715 Yn ma ontlachielo ya tomachuane ticcahua tlapalizquixochitl moyahua yehua oncan temoc yn itlayocol yehuayan Dioxi cemanahuaqui
§716 Yn quetzalcalitec hotenco ya oncan ye tonca yn tichpochtli Santa Maria queçohuel oncan ticyatlacatili yn Dios ypiltzin nepapan cozcatl ma yca ya man tlatlauhtilo ya
§717 Çan timotimaloa ynic aya iuhquin cozcatl toyahuaya ye momactzinco moyetztica in Dios piltzintli nepapan cozcatl ma yca ya man tlatlauhtiloya
§718 Cuelcan cuelcan pipilte tomachuane yyahue tla toyayatihuia yn ixpan Tiox Xesucristo teocuitlaxa'calli manca tictotilizque ticchalchiuhcuentaxcozcamacazque o anqui ye chanquecholtlaztalehualtotonatoc anqui ye oncan yio aye haoya yeha
§719 Cuico ya tlapitzalcalitequi toncuicatinemi tle on mach y xochitl ahuiaxtimani a o anqui ya tlauhquecholtlaztalehualtotonatoc
§720 O anqui ye huel axca tlaçocozcatl quetzalli yan tonilpililoque motlaçoconetzi çanyio mochalchiuhmaquiz mocozcatzin i mochipa ichpochtli Santa Maria
§721 Yn quetzalpetlatipan aya tonca ca ye mocha ilhuicacihuapilli yehua nepapan in maquizteoxiuhcalitequi tontlatlauhtiloyan tlapalchalchiuhihhuitl moxochicuentaxtzin ticpouhtinemi a ypan ypan aya timitztlatlaocoltemotinemi ya
§722 Yn nepapan tototl yn moquecholhuan Tiox tzatzihua ya nica a aquin huel iuhquin tlahuizcalli patlantinemi a angeloti oncuiya gloria in excelsis Deo xahuiaca xompaquica ane
§723 O anquin huel iquac topan temoc yn ilhuicac tlanextli ya nepapan xochitl moyahuaya oncuica ay in moquecholhuan Dios gloria in excelsis Deo xahuiaca xompaquicaan e
§724 A yn oquicaque in oriente in teteuctin i inilhuicapa onilhuiloque aya tlalticpac ca omonexti temaquixtiani teocuitlatl copalli ya mirra concuique ye ic onacico ya im Belem coniximatque nelli Tiox nelli oquichtli ya
§725 Yn attopa ya mitziximatque Tiox on cozcateuh quetzalteuh tlamatque yn tlatoque ayacontlatlauhtique aya yn ichpochtli Santa Maria aqui huel yehuan conitquitaque moteyo ya nelli Dios nelli oquichtli ya
§726 Yn tla timochi titlamahuiçocan ticcahuane onca Belem huel ixpoliuhtoc quetzalli yan cozcatl chalchiuhteuh oncan xamanque yn pipiltzitzinti papalmaquizcozcatica a motimolotiaqui ylhuicatl ytec aya yn tepilhuan an a
§727 Yn choquizcuicatl momamalintoc tlayocolxochitica a ymelel quiça in motlaçohuan Dios tlapapalmaquizcozcatica a motimolotiaqui ylhuicatl ytec aya yn tepilhua an a
§728 Nonohualco ye nican in Tlalhuacpan i Conchalchiuhyhcuilotihui yain nonohualcatl teuctli yn don Diego y ye onel yao Ximohuayan i concauhtehuaco yn atlo yan tepetli yaho yaho yli yaho aye ma yca nichoca yio
§729 Teocuitlacoyolihcahuaca ye nocuic huiya niquiyatemoa yn cozcateca yn nohueyohuani nichalchiuhçoçoya intlatol niquimelnamiqui ye nelli ye huan o contlalitiaque yn atlo yantepetli yaho yaho
§730 Yio ahua yiaoo hohuaye yaho aye ye moxiuhtomolcozqui ypan nitlatlayocolcuica nicnotlamati a an catlique yn tepilhuan o catliyan quauhtlocelotl ynin ca ye micuilo atlo yan tepetl onel yaque Ximoaya
Source Colophon
Source text from the Cantares Mexicanos (MS 1628 bis), 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.
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