Song VIII — Grief Song (Tlaocolcuicatl)

The tlaocolcuicatl — the grief song — is one of the oldest recognized genres in Nahua poetry. Where the xochicuicatl (flower song) celebrates beauty and the xochiyaoyotl (flower-war song) urges warriors toward battle, the tlaocolcuicatl turns inward, to loss. It is the genre of mourning: for dead lords, for a broken world, for the irreversible passage of what was once glorious. The Cantares Mexicanos contains several grief songs woven among the flower hymns and battle cries — moments when the celebratory register drops away and the singer stands alone before the unadorned fact of absence.

Song VIII appears on folio 4v of the manuscript under two headings: "Otro queuh ce tlatohuani in quimilnamiqui in tlatoque" — "Another, as a lord who remembers the lords" — and "Otro tlaocolcuicaotomitl" — "Another grief song of the Otomí warrior." Both use the scribal label Otro (Another) that runs through the manuscript as a minimal rubric for new compositions. The singer is a cuicani — a poet-singer — who identifies with an Otomí warrior-lord, remembering the tepilhuan, the princes, who have been cremated and descended to Ximohuayan, the place of the dead. He moves through three stations: remembering the dead as they were on earth; wishing he could reach them in Ximohuayan to ease their suffering; and finally speaking to Tloque Nahuaque — the Lord of the Near and Nigh — in raw, unadorned grief. It is a short song and a devastating one.

Song VIII covers sections 40–43 in the continuous verse numbering of the León-Portilla critical edition; verse 43 spans the folio break and completes at the opening of folio 5r, where the new heading Mexicaxopancuicatl announces Song IX. 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.

With grief's flower-tears I clothe my song —
I, the singer, remember the princes,
those burned in flame, those precious ones,
who went as lords to Ximohuayan,
who went as rulers.
Upon the earth they stood like quetzal feathers,
burned as jade, the princes.
Would that before their faces,
would that they could have seen it —
what is now visible on earth,
the recognition that the Lord of the Near and Nigh gives.

Singing in grief —
I remember the princes.
If only I could turn back,
if only I could fetch them,
if only I could bring them out
from there, from Ximohuayan —
so they might once more come to earth,
so they might marvel at
the princes we now revere.
Perhaps they themselves would marvel greatly
at the Giver of Life —
how worthy of merit we might have been,
we wretched ones who knew so little.
My heart weeps.
I, the singer, clothe myself in remembrance —
with weeping, with grief, I call them to mind.

If only I could know
that they hear me —
if I could raise up some good song for them
there in Ximohuayan,
to gladden them,
to lift the weight of their pain,
their bitterness, the princes.
Will it ever be known?
How can I truly reach them?
I cannot follow them there,
nor will I speak with them again,
here as it is on earth.

O Lord of the Near and Nigh —
I speak to you in grief,
truly with sighing I lay it before your face.
I am unhappy here on earth,
I am in want, I am afflicted.
Joy has never reached me,
nor contentment.
Here — what did I come for in vain?
Things are not as they should be.
Perhaps nothing blooms or opens here
in this discontent.

Perhaps, quietly,
near you, beside you —
let it even so arise.
Please, desire this for me:
that near you my soul may settle.
I will shed my tears
beside you, near you,
O Giver of Life.

Colophon

Song VIII of the Cantares Mexicanos bears two manuscript headings: Otro queuh ce tlatohuani in quimilnamiqui in tlatoque ("Another, as a lord who remembers the lords") and Otro tlaocolcuicaotomitl ("Another grief song of the Otomí warrior"). The combination identifies genre (tlaocolcuicatl, grief song) and the singer's persona — a cuicani of Otomí identity, singing as a warrior-lord mourning the fallen.

The song covers sections 40–43 of the continuous verse numbering in the León-Portilla critical edition, spanning folio 4v to the opening of folio 5r, where verse 43 completes before the new heading Mexicaxopancuicatl tlamelauhcayotl introduces Song IX.

The song moves in three clear stations. Verses 40–41 are the singer's lament for the tepilhuan — the princes — who have been cremated and descended to Ximohuayan. They are described as teintoque (burned, cremated) and chalchiuhteintoque (burned as jade): jade ornaments were placed on the bodies of Nahua lords and burned with them, so "jade-burned" is both literal funerary description and a kenning for noble death. Verse 42 is the singer's wish to reach them in Ximohuayan — to raise a song that might gladden them, ease their pain — followed by the quiet grief of impossibility: I cannot follow them there, nor will I speak with them again. Verse 43 breaks from elegy into direct address: the singer turns to Tloque Nahuaque and Ipalnemohuani — the Lord of the Near and Nigh, the Giver of Life — and speaks in naked poverty: joy has never reached me. What did I come for in vain? The song ends not with resolution but with a request: that the soul may settle quietly beside the divine.

Tloque Nahuaque — "the one who is near and together," the Lord of the Near and Nigh — is one of the highest designations for the supreme deity in Nahua theology, the invisible source behind the named gods. The word Ximohuayan — "the place where one goes" — is the Nahua realm of the ordinary dead, entered through cremation, distinct from the warrior's paradise or the paradise of those who die in childbirth.

A note on the UNAM TEMOA transcription: verse 42 as received contains the string "intonezlxxxviii," where "lxxxviii" (Roman numeral 88) is a folio-reference artifact embedded in the transcription — not original Nahuatl. The source text below preserves the transcription as received; the translation reads the intended Nahuatl: in intonez... in inchichinaquiliz — their pain, their bitterness.

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 VIII — Sections 40–43 (Folio 4v–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 headers and verse text presented in manuscript order. A transcription artifact ("lxxxviii") in verse 42 is preserved as received; see Colophon note.

(VIII — Otro queuh ce tlatohuani in quimilnamiqui in tlatoque / Otro tlaocolcuicaotomitl)

Tlaocolxochiyxayoticaya ic nichuipana in nocuic nicuicani niquimilnamiqui in tepilhuan in teintoque in tlaco'titoque in campa in Ximohuaya in oteuctico yn otlatocatico in tlallia icpac in quetzalhuahuac iuhtoque in chalchiuhteintoque in tepilhuan in ma oc ymixpan in ma oc oquittani yn ye itto in tlalticpac iximachoca in Tloque in Nahuaque

Y yoyahue nitlaocolcuicaya in niquimilnamiqui in tepilhuan maçan itla ninocuepa ma niquimonana ma niquinhualquixti in ompa in Ximoayan maoc oppatihua in tlalticpac maoc quimahuiçoqui in tepilhuanin ticmahuiçoa aço huel yehuantin tlatlaçomahuiçozquia in Ipalnemohualoni quemmach tomahcehual in tlaçan iuh ticmatican in ticnopillahueliloque ic choca in noyollo ninotlalnamiquilizhuipana in nicuicani choquiztica tlaocoltica nitlalnamiqui a

Manoço çan nicmati in nechcaquizque intla ytla yectli cuicatl niquimehuili in ompa Ximohuayan ma ic niquinpa'pacti ma ic niquinmacotlaça in intonezlxxxviii in inchichinaquiliz in tepilhuan cuix onmachiaz quennel nihualnellaquahua ahquenmanian ompa niquimontocaz ahno niquinnonotztaciz in ye iuhquin in tlalticpac

Yn tiTloque in tiNahuaque nimitzontlaocolnonotza ya nelcihcihuiliz mixpantzinco noconiyahua ya ninentlamati in tlalticpac ye nican nitlatenmatia ninotolinia in ayc onotech acic in pactli in necuiltonolli ye nican tle çan nen naico yc ahmo ymochiuhyan tlacahço ahtle nican xotla cueponi in nentlamachtillia tlaca'ço çan ihuian in motloc in monahuac macuel ehuatl ma xicmonequilti ma monahuactzinco o cehuiti in noyolia ninixayohuatzaz in motloc monahuac tIpalnemohuani

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 VIII appears on folio 4v (verse 43 completing at folio 5r). The UNAM TEMOA platform provides the accessible transcription; the scholarly PDF edition is image-only.

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