Song XI — Spring Song, Exhortation Song (Xopancuicatl nenonotzalizcuicatl)

The manuscript heading on folio 6r is XII — Xopancuicatl nenonotzalizcuicatl impampa in aquique ahmo onmixtilia in yaoc — "XII — Spring Song, Exhortation Song, for those who do not wish to distinguish themselves in war." A variant heading follows: Xopancuicatl nenonotzalcuicatl ypampa in aquique amo onmixtilia in yaoc. The song spans folios 6r through 6v¾, with sections 62–65 in the continuous verse numbering of the León-Portilla critical edition.

Unusually for the Cantares Mexicanos, the song's heading is accompanied by a Spanish-language scribal preface — the only such preface in the early folios. The scribe identifies these as cantares antiguos de los naturales otomis — ancient songs of the Otomi people, translated into Nahuatl, "taking the essence and soul of the song, the metaphorical images they used," for the use of a Franciscan superior. The Cantares Mexicanos manuscript is otherwise understood as a Nahuatl document; here, for a moment, the manuscript looks back at itself and acknowledges a layer of translation. What we receive in Nahuatl was already, once, something else. The Otomi words are gone. The Nahuatl memory of them remains.

The song opens with the figure of the drummer-singer: he beats his huehuetl, he is nicuicatlamatquetl — "I am skilled in song" — and his purpose is to wake the companions who have fallen asleep in war. The image is not metaphor and not quite myth: it is the literal social situation of a ceremony, a feast perhaps, where men sit who have not distinguished themselves in battle. The song is addressed to them. The midnight darkness has settled over them. The flower-dawn songs have not reached them. The drummer beats to change this.

From the drum-circle, the song moves outward into the cosmos: dawn-temple flowers bloom at the flower war of the Lord of the Near and Nigh (section 63); the soul is intoxicated only at Eagle Mountain, in the encircling plain where divine water and burning begin and jaguars roar and nobles shatter (section 64); and finally the nobles themselves are seen in the great feathered splendor of the warrior elite — troupial orange, divine roseate spoonbill, heron-white, red spoonbill — walking in beauty across the expanse of the plain (section 65). The exhortation ends not with a command but with a vision: this is what your companions already are. This is what the flower war makes of men.

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.

I beat my drum —
I am skilled in song.
Thus I wake them,
thus I raise our friends up.
Their hearts know nothing;
never does it dawn in their hearts.
They have fallen asleep in war —
upon them spreads
the darkness of midnight.
Not in vain I say it —
they are in want.
Let them come and hear
the flower-dawn songs,
once more scattered
at the place of the drums.
Ohuaya! Ohuai!

Dawn-temple flowers bloom
at his flower war —
the Lord of the Near and Nigh.
The dew radiates and shimmers —
it gives the heart joy.
Come and look upon them!
Is nothing said of them?
Do they bloom in vain?
Does no one desire them?
O friends of ours,
not in vain the life of flowers —
at the red-honey flower place.

It intoxicates the soul —
only there it spreads,
only there it blooms,
at Eagle Mountain,
in the circling expanse of the plain within.
There the divine water and the burning begins.
There the divine eagles are mustered,
there the jaguar roars,
there precious jewels scatter,
precious feathers burst open.
There they are shattered,
there they crumble —
the nobles.

Truly the nobles themselves
desire the place of dawn flowers —
they carry the burden,
they make themselves known among the people.
There in the sky,
the One Prince —
O prince! —
he scatters the nobles
with flowers, with songs.
Let them come and behold —
not in vain do they arise,
all these nobles there,
arrayed in orange troupial feathers,
in divine roseate spoonbill,
in heron, in red spoonbill —
they walk in beauty
across the expanse of the plain.

Colophon

Song XI carries the manuscript heading XII — Xopancuicatl nenonotzalizcuicatl impampa in aquique ahmo onmixtilia in yaoc — "Spring Song, Exhortation Song, for those who do not wish to distinguish themselves in war." The distinction between xopancuicatl (spring song, a song of the flowering/green season) and nenonotzalizcuicatl (exhortation song, from nenonotzaliztli — deliberation, counsel, exhortation) suggests a song type that takes the spring-flower aesthetic and directs it toward a social purpose: urging reluctant warriors toward the flower war.

The scribal preface, rare in the manuscript, names the songs as originally Otomi (cantares antiguos de los naturales otomis), translated into Nahuatl "taking the juice and soul of the song." This transparency is unusual. Most of the Cantares Mexicanos presents its Nahuatl as originary. Here the text acknowledges that what survives is already a translation — that the Nahuatl of sections 62–65 is not the language in which these songs first existed. The Otomi source is lost; the Nahuatl translation is all that remains.

Section 62 opens with the drummer-singer's self-presentation. Nictzotzonan nohuehueuh — "I beat my huehuetl" — introduces the huehuetl (the vertical wooden drum of Nahua ceremony) as both instrument and emblem: the singer is the keeper of rhythm, the one who holds the sleeping and the woken in tension. Yaocochmictoque is a compound: yaoc (war) + cochmihtoque (they have fallen into sleep). The warriors have not merely dozed; they have slept into the condition of war — spiritually dormant in the very place where they should be most alive. Mixtecomatlayohualli — midnight darkness — is another compound: mixtecomat (a clay pot with perforations, used to observe the stars, suggesting the deep dark between stars) + layohualli (night darkness). The image is of a perfect, starless, oppressive dark. The xochitlathuicacuicatl — flower-dawn songs — are the antidote.

Section 63 pivots from the social scene to the cosmic. Tlahuizcalteochitla — dawn-temple-flower-place — collapses dawn, the sacred, and the floral into a single word. The flowers bloom yn ixochiquiyaopan in Tloque in Nahuaque — at the flower war of the Lord of the Near and Nigh. The xochiyaotl (flower war) was a ritualized form of combat whose purpose was to capture rather than kill — to take living prisoners for sacrifice. Here it is also the Lord of the Near and Nigh's own domain: the cosmos is itself a flower war, a perpetual blooming and capturing of souls. Onahuachtotonameyotimani — the dew radiates — is one of the most beautiful compounds in the early folios: nahuachtli (dew) + totonameyoa (to radiate, to shine in rays). The verse closes with the question: does anyone desire these flowers? The answer is silence, then the affirmation: not in vain. The scribe abbreviated the verse's closing refrain with etcetera, indicating a repeated formula — likely the opening drum-call of section 62 or the ohuaya ohuai exclamation.

Section 64 is the war verse. The teyolia — the animating soul, one of three spiritual entities in Nahua anthropology, residing in the heart — is intoxicated only at Eagle Mountain (quauhtepetitlan). The cosmic geography is exact: Eagle Mountain is the site of the flower war, surrounded by the plain, and what happens there is teoatl tlachinolli — divine water and burning — the canonical paired metaphor for war in Nahuatl poetry. Teoquauhtli (divine eagle) and ocelotl (jaguar) are the warrior-orders; their presence at Eagle Mountain confirms this as the battle ground. Tlaçomaquiztetl (precious jewel-bracelets) and tlaçopilihuitl (precious feathers) are the adornments of noble warriors — and they burst open (nemomolotzayan) in battle. Teintoque and xamantoque — they are shattered, they crumble — describes the nobles who are broken in war, like jade, like ceramic. The verse is unflinching: this is what happens to those who distinguish themselves.

Section 65 completes the song with the vision that redeems sections 62–64. The nobles (tepilhuan) truly desire the place of dawn flowers. The One Prince (ce olitzin — possibly a calendrical reference to 1-Movement, ce ollin, a day-name associated with the sun and with warriors) scatters his nobles with flowers and songs. The closing image is the warriors in their full regalia: çaquanme (the orange-and-black troupial, Icterus nigrogularis), teoquecholti (divine roseate spoonbill, prized for its pink-white feathers), tzinitzcan (the white heron), tlatlauhquecholtin (red spoonbill, Platalea ajaja). These are not metaphors for valor; they are literal descriptions of the feathered warrior-costumes worn in ceremony and battle. The nobles moyehyectinemi — they walk in beauty, they walk in their own adornment. Ixtlahuatl ytican — within the plain — places them on the flat field of battle and ceremony, the same plain where, in section 64, they were shattered.

The song holds its contradictions. The nobles are shattered (§64) and they walk in beauty (§65). The warrior's end is both crumbling and radiance. This is the logic of the flower war: death is the blooming. The drummer beat so that his sleeping friends might enter it.

Folio reference artifacts (cxiv, cxv, cxviii) appear in the manuscript — marginal notations by a later hand referencing the León-Portilla critical edition apparatus. They are preserved in the source text below as received but do not appear in the translation body.

Section 65's Nahuatl text is located on folio 6v, after the scribal running head XIII — Huexotzincayotl, which the scribe placed at the top of the new folio in anticipation of the song that follows. Section 65 is structurally the last verse of Song XI; Song XII (Huexotzincayotl) begins at section 66. The "[6v¾]" notation in the TEMOA apparatus for section 65 indicates it ends approximately three-quarters down folio 6v.

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 XI — Sections 62–65 (Folios 6r–6v)

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, scribal preface, and verse text presented in manuscript order. Folio reference artifacts (cxiv, cxv, cxviii) preserved as received. "Etcetera" in section 63 preserves the manuscript's scribal abbreviation of a repeated formula.

(XII — Xopancuicatl nenonotzalizcuicatl impampa in aquique ahmo onmixtilia in yaoc)

(variant: Xopancuicatl nenonotzalcuicatl ypampa in aquique amo onmixtilia in yaoc)

[Scribal preface, folio 6r:]
Cantares antiguos de los naturales otomis que solían cantar en los combites y casamientos buelto en lengua mexicana siempre tomando el jugo y el alma del canto ynazenes metafóricas quellos decían como vuestra reverencia lo entendera i mejor que no yo por mi poco talento y tan yban con razonable estilo y primor para que vuestra reverencia las aproveche y entremeta a sus tiempos que conuiniere como buen maestro que es vuestra reverencia

[Section 62, folio 6r:]
Nictzotzonan nohuehueuh nicuicatlamatquetl ic niquimonixitia ic niquimitlehua in tocnihuan yn ahtle ynyollo quimati yn aic tlathui ypan in inyollo yaocochmictoque in inpan motimaloa in mixtecomatlayohualli ahnen niquitohua y motolinia yma quicaquiqui y xochitlathuicacuicatl occeh tzetzeuhtimani a huehuetitlan a ohuaya ohuai

[Section 63, folio 6r:]
Tlahuizcalteochitlacxiv oncuepontimani yn ixochiquiyaopan in Tloque in Nahuaque onahuachtotonameyotimani in teyolquima a ma xiqualitacan in ahtle ipan ontlatao çannen cuepontimani o ayac mah aca quelehuia o yn antocnihuan amo çannenya xochitl yoliliz tlapalneucxochitla etcetera cxv

[Section 64, folio 6r:]
Quiyolcayhuintia ya in teyolia çan oncan ye omania çan oncan ye oncuepontimani a quauhtepetitlan yn yahualiuhcancopa y ixtlahuatl itica oncan inemanaya oc teoatl tlachinolli a oncan ynepoyahuayan in teoquauhtli oncan iquiquinacayan in ocelotl ypixauhyan in nepapan tlaçomaquiztetl ynemomolotzayan in nepapan tlaçopilihuitl oncan teintoque oncan xamantoque in tepilhuan

[Section 65, folio 6v:]
Tlacuah yehuantin in tepilhuan i conelehuia o in tlahuizcalxochitlan ya nemamallihua o ic tetlane'nectiao yn ilhuicac onocan y ce olitzin yn i o tepiltzin a quitzetzelotimani o a yn tepilhuan xochitica cuicatica ma xihuallachiacan yn atley yca mihtlehua onçan moch yehuantin in tepilhuan çaquanme teoquecholti tzinitzca tlatlauhquecholtin moyehyectinemi o yn onmati o yn ixtlahuatl ytican

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 XI (manuscript XII) appears on folios 6r–6v (sections 62–65). The UNAM TEMOA platform provides the accessible transcription; the scholarly PDF edition is image-only.

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