Song X — Another Song (Otro)
The manuscript heading on folio 5v is Otro — "Another Song" — a bare Spanish rubric naming this the next piece after Song IX's Mexican Spring Song. A second rubric Otroc follows, possibly marking a second part or a scribal addition. Song X covers sections 48–61, running from folio 5v through the opening of folio 6r, where the new heading XII — Xopancuicatl nenonotzalizcuicatl marks the beginning of Song XI.
What makes Song X remarkable among the early folios is its colonial stratigraphy. Two Spanish loanwords break through the Nahuatl surface: Dios ("God") in verse 49, and Santa Malia — the colonial Nahuatl rendering of "Santa María" — in verse 58. These are not anomalies; they are windows into a living manuscript. The Cantares Mexicanos was compiled in the mid-sixteenth century, likely in the 1560s, by Nahua intellectuals working alongside Franciscan missionaries. Dios had entered Nahuatl as a borrowed name for the Christian God, used alongside indigenous divine epithets; Ypalnemohuani (the Giver of Life) and Tloque Nahuaque (the Lord of the Near and Nigh) continued as parallel address forms. The singer who weeps before Santa María is the same singer who addresses the Giver of Life; the traditions have begun to speak in the same breath.
Two named figures appear in verse 52: Tezcacoacatl (Mirror Serpent Person) and Atecpanecatl (Water-Palace Person) — likely noble lords addressed in the ritual context of the song's performance. The call xicnotlamatican ("grieve!") summons them to the emotional register of the piece; mach nel amihuihuinti ("are you truly drunk?") echoes the datura accusation of Song IX, now directed outward at named companions rather than unnamed self-deceivers.
The philosophical center of the song is a crisis of knowing. Verse 60 asks: Aço tle nello nicyaihtohua — "Is anything I say truly true?" The song closes, in verse 61, with the unsatisfying answer: even jade, even polished stone, cannot be declared to anyone with certainty. The one through whom all things live holds it hidden. We only dream. We only came to rise from sleep.
Song X occupies folio 5v (sections 48–61 in the continuous verse numbering of the León-Portilla critical edition); section 61 straddles the 5v/6r boundary. 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.
Your glory — your fame on earth.
Let them not say it in vain,
those who hate us,
those who desire our death —
all of them will go there,
wherever their home is.
Ohuaya.
May it still be well to live on earth,
in peace, with God —
when the searching is done,
we will go
wherever their home is.
Here we are poor.
May we not die like this —
may it not come to pass.
May our friends not look upon us,
may the eagle-warriors, the ocelot-warriors,
not reproach us.
Even if He created it,
do not trust in anything yet —
there, toward the light of dawn,
with that He has hidden you,
the Giver of Life.
Ay yayo!
Grieve, Tezcacoacatl — grieve, Atecpanecatl!
Are you truly drunk?
The precious necklace, the jade —
let them adorn you now,
let you believe now.
I raise my weeping — I am afflicted.
I remember:
we must leave behind
the beautiful flower, the beautiful song.
May we still rejoice,
may we still sing —
we go entirely, we perish,
homeward.
What do our friends know of this?
My heart aches; my heart burns.
One is not born twice;
one is not a child again.
Earth has only one way out.
Just a little while yet beside people —
here, among them —
never again will I be there.
I will never be glad again.
I will never be at peace again.
Where has my heart been wandering?
Where truly is my home?
Where truly does my dwelling rest?
I am poor on earth.
This only you give —
unloosing your jade,
already wound with quetzal feathers —
the orange crest-flower headdress —
and you give them to the nobles.
The many and varied flowers have wrapped me,
covered my heart with plumage.
Then I weep —
I go before our mother,
Santa María.
I speak only to the Giver of Life:
Do not be displeased.
Do not withhold yourself from earth.
If only we could live beside you —
only in your home, within the sky.
Is anything I say truly true here,
O Giver of Life?
We only dream.
We only came to rise from sleep —
I say it here on earth.
No one can truly tell what this is.
Even though they be jades,
polished stones —
perhaps the Giver of Life —
no one here can truly tell it.
Colophon
Song X is labeled Otro / Otroc in the manuscript — "Another Song" / "Another [Song, continued]" — two brief Spanish rubrics identifying the piece as a new composition following Song IX's Mexicaxopancuicatl tlamelauhcayotl. In the León-Portilla critical edition, these verses constitute sections 48–61, with the last verse (61) straddling the 5v/6r folio boundary. Song XI begins on folio 6r with the heading XII — Xopancuicatl nenonotzalizcuicatl.
The song moves in two major arcs. Verses 48–51 are reflective and cautionary: glory and fame vanish; those who hate us will also die; God's peace may still be found on earth; but the Giver of Life has hidden the truth from us even as He made us. Verses 52–61 shift into direct address and deepening grief: named companions are called to mourn; the singer weeps; he remembers that flowers and songs must be left behind at death; he confesses he has no home; he goes before Santa María; and finally, in verses 59–61, he speaks directly to the Giver of Life with aching humility — do not withhold yourself; if only we could live beside you in the sky; is anything I say even true? Earth has only one exit.
Tezcacoacatl — "Mirror Serpent Person" — is a calendrical-noble title; its bearer here is likely a lord or warrior-noble addressed in the ritual context of the song's performance. Atecpanecatl — "Person of the Water Palace" — similarly carries noble and priestly associations. Their pairing and direct address in the same verse suggests they may be co-performers or honored witnesses.
Ipalnemohuani and Ypalnemohua are variant spellings within the manuscript of the same divine epithet: "the One by Whom One Lives" / "the Giver of Life." This epithet pre-dates colonial contact and is used here interchangeably with the borrowed Dios and, by implication, with tonan (our mother) in the Santa María verse. All three names coexist without apparent tension — a characteristic of the early colonial Nahua theological synthesis.
Verse 57's çaquanicpacxochitl is a compound: çaquan (the troupial bird, prized for its brilliant orange-and-black plumage) + icpac (cresting, atop) + xochitl (flower). I render this as "orange crest-flower headdress" — a flower arrangement modeled on the troupial's crown, a high-prestige adornment distributed to noble lords.
Verse 58's conquimilo and conihuiti are two distinct verbs of wrapping and covering: conquimilo from quimilo (to wrap as in a death bundle) and conihuiti from ihuiti (to cover with feathers). Together they image the singer swathed in flowers as in a burial wrapping, his heart feathered over. Weeping follows immediately; the singer turns toward Santa María.
Folio reference artifacts (xcvi, xcvii, xcviii, ciii, civ, cvi) appear embedded in several verses — scribal insertions by a later hand noting references in an associated edition. They are preserved in the source text below as received.
The TEMOA platform presents its Nahuatl transcription with individual content words hyperlinked to dictionary entries; particle-forms, prefixes, and inflected connectives appear as unlinked nodes. The source text below reconstructs the continuous Nahuatl from these elements. A small number of initial particles in verse 48 may not be fully represented in the TEMOA word-nodes; the verse heading and Spanish gloss confirm the verse boundary.
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 X — Sections 48–61 (Folios 5v–6r)
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. Folio reference artifacts (xcvi, xcvii, xcviii, ciii, civ, cvi) preserved as received.
(X — Otro / Otroc)
momahuizço in motenyo in tlalticpac manen quitocan in techcocolia in techmiquitlani moch ompa onyazque can o y ichán i ohuaya
Yn maçan oc huel nemohua on in tlalticpac maçano iuian yehuan Dios quinicuac onnetemolo a in tiazque in canin ye ichan etcetera xcvi
Huin in titotolinia ma iuhqui timiquican ma omochiuh in man techonittocan in tocnihuan y' ma techonahuacan in quauhtin ya ocelotl
Maço quiyocoli macaoc xictemachican canan tlahuicaya yca ya amechmotlatili yn Ipalnemohuani etcetera xcviii
Ay yayo xicnotlamatican Tezcacoacatl Atecpanecatl mach nel amihuihuinti in cozcatl in chalchiuhtli ma ye anmonecti ma ye antlaneltocati
Nichoca ehua nicnotlamati nic elnamiquici ticauhtehuazque yectli in xochitl yectli yan cuicatl maoc tonahuiacan maoc toncuicacan cen tiyahui tipolihui in ichan etcetera ciii
Ach tleon in iuh quimati in tocnihuan cocoya in noyollo qualani yehua ayoppan in tlacatihua in ayoppa piltihua in yece in quixo in tlalticpac
Ça achitzinca in tetloc in nican tenahuacan aic yezco in aic nahuiaz aic nihuelamatiz
Ca canon nemian noyollo yehua Can huel in nochan can huel nocalla mani in ninotolinia tlalticpac
Çan in tocontemaca in tocontotoma in mochalchiuh in onquetzalmalintoc çaquanicpacxochitl in yan tiquinmaca yan tepilhuan in
Yn nepapan xochitl conquimilo conihuiti in noyollo niman nichoca in ixpan niauh in tonan in Santa Malia civ
Çan nocolhuia Ypalnemohua maca ximoçoma maca ximonenequin tlalticpac maço tehuantin motloc tinemican in çan in mochan in ilhuicatlitic in etcetera cvi
Aço tle nello nicyaihtohua nican Ypalnemohua çan tontemiqui in çan toncochitlehuaco nicytoa in tlalticpac in ayac huel in tiquilhuia in nican in
manel chalchihuitl man tlamatilolli aya maço Ipalnemohuani ayac huel tic ilhuiacix nican
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 X appears on folios 5v–6r (sections 48–61). The UNAM TEMOA platform provides the accessible transcription; the scholarly PDF edition is image-only.
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