Song VI — Chalco Song of Tetlepanquetzanitzin (Otro Chalcayotl)
The Cantares Mexicanos ("Songs of the Mexicans") is a manuscript of ninety-one Aztec songs preserved in the Biblioteca Nacional de México, copied in the late sixteenth century. Among its many genres is the chalcayotl — the Chalco song, an elegiac style associated with the city-state of Chalco, known for its grief-songs mourning fallen lords and the shortness of earthly glory.
Song VI is a chalcayotl attributed to Tetlepanquetzanitzin, a Nahua lord of Tlacopan. The song mourns by name two of the great lords of the age — Nezahualcoyotl of Texcoco and Tezozomoctli — and meditates on whether friendship and communal bonds can survive death. The singer (Yohyontzin) weeps. He has been to the place of songs. He asks where the dead have gone. And his heart slowly, reluctantly, finds consolation in the knowledge that one truly lives on this earth, bound in friendship.
This translation covers Song VI, sections 25–33 of the manuscript (folio 3v). 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.
Only the flower is our garment,
only the song —
with them our heart finds rest,
oh God, in your house.
Will the bond end because of me?
Will the friendship end because of me?
There too — I, Yohyontzin —
was in his home,
in the place of songs.
Oh, Giver of Life.
Let the turquoise-spoonbill flower
be woven with the trogon flower,
though they wither and die.
With those alone you clothe yourself,
you lord, Nezahualcoyotl.
Let your heart know this,
you princes, eagles and jaguars —
always we are friends.
Only a little while are we all here together —
then we go to his home.
Your fame will pass away,
my dear one, Tezozomoctli —
only your song remains.
Oh, I come here weeping,
I come here in sorrow.
Where does he go — to his home?
So I come here weeping,
I come here alone —
never again, never more
will I see you on this earth.
Where does he go — to his home?
Oh my friend, I am afflicted,
I weep beside you — oh God.
How greatly you have blessed your people
throughout the whole world.
We were called —
that you might lead us,
that you might fill every day with light
on this earth.
Why do you trouble yourself, my heart?
Is where we live not a worthy place?
There where there is no rancor, no enmity —
one truly lives well on this earth.
My heart knows — and I weep.
Oh, truly we are friends.
Truly one lives on this earth —
we who are bound together,
we who are friends of God.
Colophon
Song VI of the Cantares Mexicanos is a chalcayotl — an elegiac Chalco-style song — attributed to Tetlepanquetzanitzin, a lord of Tlacopan and one of the Nahua nobles who witnessed the end of the pre-colonial world. The song names Nezahualcoyotl (the renowned poet-king of Texcoco, d. 1472) and Tezozomoctli (a great Tepanec lord), and is sung by a voice identified as Yohyontzin, who weeps in the place of songs. Its themes — the bond of friendship, the passage of fame, the shortness of earthly life, and the consolation of song — are characteristic of the chalcayotl genre.
The Cantares Mexicanos manuscript is preserved in the Biblioteca Nacional de México (UNAM). Song VI appears on folio 3v, sections 25–33 in the continuous verse numbering of the UNAM TEMOA critical edition. Section 34 begins on folio 3v but carries over into folio 4r, where it appears under the Roman numeral VII — the next song's header — and has been reserved for that file.
Note on song numbering: The manuscript's internal Roman numeral system (I, II, III... VI...) marks song divisions within the manuscript. The existing project file "Cantares Mexicanos — Song I — Beginning of Songs" contains the text of manuscript Songs I through V (folios 1r–3r). This file begins with manuscript Song VI, the first content not yet in the archive. The project's tracker entry for "Song II (Xopancuicatl)" is addressed in Escalations.md.
Note on colonial interpolation: "yehuan Dios" (God) in sections 25 and 31 is a colonial Christian interpolation by the sixteenth-century scribe, identifying the divine with the Christian God. It has been translated as written — the colonial layer is part of the manuscript's history.
This 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 VI — Sections 25–33 (Folio 3v)
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 header and verse text presented in manuscript order. Embedded footnote markers from the scholarly edition have been removed.
(VI — Otro chalcayotl Canto de Tetlepanquetzanitzin)
Çanio in xochitl tonequimilol çanio in cuicatl ic huehuetzi in tellel yn Dios yemochan
Yn mach noca ompolihuiz yn cohuayotl mach noca ompolihuiz yn icniuhyotl in ono noya in ye ichan ye niioyontzin on cuicatillan o ye Ipalnemohuani
Ma xiuhquecholxochi çan in tzinitzcan malintoca can miqui huaqui xochitl çan ic tonmoquimiloa titlatoani ya tiNeçahualcoyotl
Ma yan moyol iuh quimati in antepilhuan in anquauhtin amocelo ca mochipan titocnihuançan cuel achic nican timochi tonyazque o ye ichan o
Ca ye ompolihuiz in moteyo nopiltzin tiTeçoçomoctli ancacan ye in mocuico ay ca nihualchocao ca nihualicnotlamati can otia ye ichan
Anca nihuallaocoya o nicnotlamati ayoquic o ayoc quemanian namechaittaquiuh in tlalticpac can ontia ye ichan
Aua nocnihue ninentlamatia çan ninochoquilia in monahuac aya yehuan Dios quexquich onmitzicnotlamachtia momacehual cemamanahuac on tonitlanililo ynic tontlahuica tontecemilhuitiltia in tlalticpac
Macaço tleon xoconyoyocoya tinoyollo yehua cuix ic nepohualoyan in oncan nemohua yehua in ahtle tlahuelli in antecocolia huel onyecnemiz in tlalticpac
Yn quimati noyollo nichoca yehua huele ça ye nelli in titocnihuan huelle nelli nemoa in tlalticpac in tonicniuhtlatzihuiz yehuan Dios
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 VI appears on folio 3v. The UNAM TEMOA platform provides the accessible transcription; the scholarly PDF edition is image-only.
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