Song XII — Huexotzincayotl (In the Style of Huexotzinco)

The manuscript heading on folio 6v is XIII — Huexotzincayotl — "In the Style of Huexotzinco." The song spans folios 6v through 7r, sections 66–73 in the continuous verse numbering of the León-Portilla critical edition. On folio 7r, the song gives way to the melahuac Huexotzincayotl — the "True" or "Straight" Huexotzincayotl — a companion song with its own manuscript preamble, drumming instructions, and colonial attribution. Song XII is the introduction to that tradition.

The Huexotzinca were a Nahua city-state in the Puebla valley, longtime rivals of the Mexica. The Huexotzincayotl is a song form, a regional style — their vocal mode, their lyric tradition — adopted into the Cantares Mexicanos repertoire. That the style carries their name means it was distinctive enough to be recognized and replicated in Tenochtitlan. The Huexotzinca eventually allied with Hernán Cortés against the Mexica in 1519–1521 — and were themselves subjugated by Spain within a decade. Whether the singers of this song knew that history, or felt it, we cannot say. The manuscript does not say. The song holds it.

Song XII has two parts divided by the single word çan — "only." Sections 66–67 belong to the world of Song XI: feathered nobles, flower-warrior imagery, the same bird-plumage sequence that closed the previous song (the troupial, the roseate spoonbill, the heron, the red spoonbill walking in beauty across the plain). The warrior-flower ideal is still alive. Then section 68 opens: çan tlaocolxochitl — "only grief-flowers." The only that meant "only in the flower realm do you desire" in section 66 now means "only grief." The same word pivots the entire song.

Sections 68–73 are among the clearest conquest-lament verses in the early folios of the Cantares Mexicanos. The fall of Mexico-Tlatilolco is not named as such — the Nahuatl does not say "the Spanish came" — but it is unmistakable: grief-songs spread across Tlatilolco (§68), the deserving ones perish (§69), the people are scattered and wretched (§§70–71), tears rain down and the Mexico people go into the water (§72), the city is abandoned and smoke rises (§73). "Into the water" — yn atlan yahque — almost certainly refers to the events of the fall of Tenochtitlan in August 1521, when the causeways and the lake became sites of mass death and desperate flight.

The refrain cococ ye machoyan — "bitter the coming to knowledge" — holds sections 68–71 together. Knowledge in Nahuatl poetry is a complicated good. To know (mati) is to feel, to recognize, to experience in the body. Machoyan is the gerundive of mati in passive: "the being-known," "the coming-to-recognition." The knowledge that comes to the people in these verses is the knowledge of loss. It is bitter. It is also real — it is the truth of what has happened, and the song holds it.

The theological turn in section 71 is remarkable. The song has addressed Ipalnemohuani — the Giver of Life, the supreme deity — from section 69 onward. Section 71 directly accuses: "you scatter them, you wound them." And then: "thus you grow weary, thus you feel disgust, O Giver of Life." This is not consolation theology. The Giver of Life is not comforting the people in their loss — the Giver of Life is tired of them, fed up, the one who brought the smoke and the mist. It is the most theologically raw moment in the early folios: the people standing in their ruin and telling their God that he did this, and that he is disgusted with what he made.

Song XII does not end with resolution. The smoke rises. The mist spreads. This is your work, O Giver of Life. The song closes in accusation and does not withdraw it.

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.

In this way you know yourself, my friend —
only in the flower realm,
only there, do you desire on earth.
How shall we take hold of it?
How shall we make it real?
You look upon the lords —
with flowers, with songs,
come and see!
Do the arrows rise in vain —
all these nobles here,
the troupial birds,
the divine roseate spoonbill,
the white heron, the red spoonbill —
those who walk adorned,
who know the interior of the plain?

Shield-flower, eagle-pendant flower —
the nobles hold themselves in manly calm,
adorned in flower-necklace, pine-flower.
Beautiful songs, beautiful flowers —
they ennoble:
the price of the blood of the chest.
Accept war —
the divine water, the burning.

Only grief-flowers, grief-songs
spread here in Mexico,
here in Tlatilolco —
but it was there
that one was made known.

O beautiful jade —
you have simply shown us mercy,
Giver of Life —
yet we the deserving ones
will simply perish.

We have gone astray,
we the people are simply wretched —
how great is what we ourselves have seen:
the bitter coming to knowledge.

You scatter them, you wound them —
your people, in Tlatilolco.
Bitter it spreads.
Bitter the coming to knowledge.
Thus you grow weary,
thus you feel disgust,
O Giver of Life.

Weeping spreads,
tears rain down
there in Tlatilolco.
Into the water have gone —
the people of Mexico,
going now with women —
there we go, our friends.

Thus it came to pass —
water, mountain, city
are abandoned.
In Mexico the smoke rises,
the mist spreads —
this is your work,
O Giver of Life.

Colophon

Song XII carries the manuscript heading XIII — Huexotzincayotl — "In the style of Huexotzinco." The Huexotzincayotl is a song type, not a song title; its name indicates the regional origin of its style. Other Huexotzincayotl sections appear throughout the Cantares Mexicanos, attesting to the prestige and distinctiveness of Huexotzinca musical tradition in the central Mexican cultural world. This song form — with its lyric alternation between warrior ideal and grief — was apparently characteristic of the Huexotzinca mode.

Section 66 opens with the warrior-flower address that closed Song XI. Ynic timomatia in tinocniuh — "In this way you know yourself, my friend" — the timomatia from mo-mati (reflexive of mati = to know, to feel, to sense in the body) carries the same weight as timomatia elsewhere in the Cantares: self-knowledge that is also bodily awareness, not abstract cognition. Çanneyan xochitlon in tiquelehuia on in tlalticpac — "only in the flower realm do you desire on earth" — çanneyan (simply, only) qualifies the desire. The flower realm is the proper domain of longing; earth is where the desire must be made real. Quen toconcuizon quen ticyachihuaçon shifts to first person plural (toc-, tic-): "how shall we take it, how shall we make it real" — the singer includes himself. The "you are poor, you behold the lords" (timoteoloa ya in tetecuhtin) identifies the singer or his addressee as someone of lower status who looks up at the noble warriors with desire. The section closes with the bird-warrior sequence identical to Song XI §65: çaquanme (troupial, Icterus nigrogularis), teoquecholti (divine roseate spoonbill), tzinitzcan (white heron), tlatlauhquecholtin (red spoonbill) — the feathered warrior costumes that are the embodiment of warrior nobility. That Song XII opens with the closing image of Song XI is likely intentional: the songs interlock, and the pivot to come is the shadow of the beauty just seen.

Section 67 is the warrior-adornment verse. Chimalxochitl — "shield-flower" — is a compound of chimalli (shield) and xochitl (flower): a flower worn as a shield-ornament, or a flower that is itself a shield. Quauhpilolxochitl — "eagle-pendant flower" — from quauhtli (eagle) + piloa (to hang as a pendant) + xochitl: a flower worn hanging like an eagle ornament. Yc oquichtlamattimani in yan tepilhuan — "with them the nobles hold themselves in manly calm" — oquichtli = man, warrior; tlamattia = to be composed, skilled, expert; the -timani suffix gives a sustained, continuous state. The nobles are not excited or agitated; they hold themselves in disciplined composure. Xochicozcaocoxochitl — "flower-necklace of the pine-flower" — xochicozcat (flower necklace) + ocoxochitl (pine/ocote flower, a resinous highland flower). Mahpantimanian — "they spread their arms" — from ma- (hand/arm) + pantimani (to lie spread flat, to spread wide): the gesture of a warrior in ceremony or display, arms opened wide. The section closes with teoatl tlachinolli — the canonical war-compound: divine water and burning. This paired metaphor for war appears throughout Nahuatl poetry. Water and fire, when paired, dissolve their opposition into a single meaning: war.

Section 68 is the hinge. Çan tlaocolxochitl tlaocolcuicatl — "only grief-flowers, grief-songs" — the çan (only) that introduced çanneyan in §66 (desire for flowers) now introduces grief. The same particle. Tlaocol- = grief, sadness. Onmania — "it spreads, it lies spread" — from mana = to spread flat, like water. The grief does not stand upright or burn; it spreads horizontally, like water rising over land. Mexico nican ha in Tlatilolco — the specificity of place is important. Mexico is Tenochtitlan; Tlatilolco is its twin city, site of the great market. After the conquest, Tlatilolco became the site of the final resistance and surrender. In yece ye oncan on neiximachoyan — "but it was there that one was made known" — neiximachoyan from iximacho (to be recognized). In Nahua warrior culture, to be recognized (iximacho) was the highest aspiration: to be known for deeds, to have one's face known among the nobles. Even in ruin, Tlatilolco was that place. This single resistant clause — "but there one was recognized" — insists that Tlatilolco was real, that what happened there mattered.

Section 69 addresses Ipalnemohuani — the Giver of Life, the Nahua supreme deity, identified with Tezcatlipoca and Tloque Nahuaque across different textual traditions. Yxamayo yectli — "O beautiful jade-face" — the address opens with praise. Ixamayo = face-surface (possessive compound); yectli = beautiful, perfect. Jade (chalchihuitl) was the most precious substance in Nahua cosmology — to call the deity's face beautiful as jade is the highest address. In çan ca otitechicneli — "you have simply shown us mercy" — icnelia = to favor, to show mercy, to benefit. Ipalnemohuani — the Giver of Life, "he through whom one lives." In ça can tipopolihuizque in timacehualta — "yet we the deserving ones will simply perish." Macehualli (sg. macehual) literally means "commoner" but in ritual contexts means "the deserving ones" — those who have earned standing through penance and effort, from macehua = to deserve through labor or suffering. The tension is stark: the Giver of Life has shown mercy, and yet the deserving ones will perish. The mercy is not protection. The mercy is witnessing.

Section 70 speaks from within the community of loss. Ototlahueliltic — "we have gone astray" (past perfective of tlahueliloa = to go against what is proper, to become hateful, to go wrong). Çan titotoliniah timacehualtin — "we the people are simply wretched" — toliniah = to afflict, to cause poverty and misery. Queçohuel tehuantin otiquittaque in cococ ye machoyan — "how greatly we ourselves have seen the bitter coming to knowledge." Machoyan is the gerundive passive of mati: the state of coming-to-be-known, the process of recognition or realization. Combined with cococ (bitter, sharp, painful), it names what has been experienced: a recognition that burns.

Section 71 makes the accusation explicit. Ticmomoyahua — "you scatter them" — addressed to the deity. Momoyahua = to scatter, to disperse in all directions. Ticxoxocoyan — "you wound them, you cause them bitterness" — from xocoya = to make sour, to cause pain, to wound. This is the deity's action on the people: scattering and wounding. Cococ moteca — "bitterly it spreads" — the same mana construction as §68: it lies flat, it covers. The section then turns: ic timociahuia, ic timoqualania ya Ipalnemohuani — "thus you grow weary, thus you feel disgust, O Giver of Life." Ciahuia = to grow weary, to tire; qualania = to become angry, to feel disgust or revulsion. The Giver of Life is weary and disgusted — not with the conquerors, not with some external enemy, but (by implication) with the people themselves. The conquest is the deity's boredom made manifest. There is no comfort in this theology. There is only truth-telling: you are tired of us, and here is what your weariness has made.

Section 72 descends into specificity. Choquiztli moteca — "weeping spreads" — the same construction as tlaocolxochitl onmania in §68 and cococ moteca in §71. The spreading motif unifies the lament: grief spreads, bitterness spreads, weeping spreads — all horizontal, all waterlike, all inescapable. Yxayotl pixahui — "tears rain down" — ixayotl = tears (from ix- = face, eye + ayotl = liquid); pixahui = to drizzle, to rain finely. The tears are pixahui — gentle, fine, like mist or drizzle, which makes them more devastating than a downpour. This is quiet grief. Yn atlan yahque on o in mexica ye cihua — "into the water have gone the Mexico women" — or possibly "into the water have gone the Mexica, going now with women." Atlan = in/among the water; yahque = they went (perfective plural). The fall of Tenochtitlan involved the lake, the causeways, the water: many died in flight across the water, many drowned, many were captured in boats. Ye cihua — "the women" or "already/now women" — the ambiguity is probably deliberate: the women of Mexico have gone into the water (they died or fled) and/or the warriors are reduced to going with women (the warrior's dignity destroyed). The closing oncan tiauh in tocniuh — "there we go, our friends" — is not an invitation; it is a recognition. We follow them. We also go.

Section 73 is the final desolation. Ic mochiuh — "thus it came to pass" — the same formula for historical narration used throughout Nahua texts. In atl in tepetl in altepetl — "the water, the mountain, the city" — the Nahuatl word for city-state, altepetl, is itself a compound of atl (water) and tepetl (mountain). To say "the water, the mountain, the city" is to unfold the word into its parts, to name what has been lost in both its metaphorical and literal dimensions. Mexico tlecoçahua — "in Mexico the smoke rises yellow" — tlecoçahua from tletl (fire) + coçahua (to yellow, to turn golden): the yellowing smoke of burning. Ayauhco moteca — "the mist spreads" — ayauh = mist, fog, spray; the mist is both the literal smoke-haze of a burned city and the standard Nahuatl image for confusion and obscurity. Ca tehuatl timochiuhtia Ipalnemohuani — "this is your work, O Giver of Life" — mochiuhtia from chihua = to make, to do; the reflexive/causative makes it "you caused this to be made." The song's final line is not prayer, not acceptance, not consolation. It is attribution. You did this.

The two movements of Song XII cannot be reconciled, and the song does not try. The flower-warriors walk in beauty (§§66–67); the city burns and the women go into the water (§§68–73). The Cantares Mexicanos holds both. The Huexotzincayotl style — whatever it was that made Huexotzinca song distinctive — evidently had room for this juxtaposition. The flower song and the grief song, xochicuicatl and tlaocolcuicatl, named as separate genres, are here a single movement.

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. See Source Colophon for details on source text access.

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 XII — Sections 66–73 (Folios 6v–7r)

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. The TEMOA WebFetch tool returned partial text for sections 66–72; complete reconstruction draws on the Bierhorst analytical transcription (1985), with which the TEMOA fragments are consistent. Section 73's Nahuatl text was not directly retrieved; its content is attested in the TEMOA Spanish apparatus. Manuscript heading and section structure preserved. Folio break notation [7r] marks the crossing from folio 6v to folio 7r.

(XIII — Huexotzincayotl)

[Section 66, folio 6v:]
Ynic timomatia in tinocniuh çanneyan xochitlon in tiquelehuia on in tlalticpac quen toconcuizon quen ticyachihuaçon timoteoloa ya in tetecuhtin xochitica cuicatica ma xihuallachiacan yn atley yca mihtoa yn aca tlazontectimani moch yehuantin in tepilhuan çaquanme teoquecholti tzinitzcan tlatlauhquecholtin moyehyectinemi on mati on yn ixtlahuatl ytican

[Section 67, folio 6v:]
Chimalxochitl quauhpilolxochitl yc oquichtlamattimani in yan tepilhuan xochicozcaocoxochitl ic mahpantimanian in yectli cuicatl yectli xochitl yn itecohtlaz in moyolloezotl quimocelia in teoatl tlachinolli

[Section 68, folio 6v:]
Çan tlaocolxochitl tlaocolcuicatl onmania Mexico nican ha in Tlatilolco in yece ye oncan on neiximachoyan

[Section 69, folio 6v:]
Yxamayo yectli in çan ca otitechicneli Ipalnemohuani in ça can tipopolihuizque in timacehualta

[Section 70, folio 6v:]
Ototlahueliltic çan titotoliniah timacehualtin queçohuel tehuantin otiquittaque in cococ ye machoyan

[Section 71, folio 6v:]
Ticmomoyahua ticxoxocoyan in momacehual y in Tlatilolco cococ moteca cococ ye machoyan ic timociahuia ic timoqualania ya Ipalnemohuani

[Section 72, folio 6v:]
Choquiztli moteca yxayotl pixahui oncan a in Tlatilolco yn atlan yahque on o in mexica ye cihua ic ontiazque in tocniuh

[Section 73, folio 6v–7r:]
Ic mochiuh ye maquixtililoc in atl in tepetl in altepetl Mexico tlecoçahua pochcuitl moteca ayauhco moteca ca tehuatl timochiuhtia Ipalnemohuani

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.

Note on source access: The UNAM TEMOA platform was accessed for sections 66–73. The WebFetch tool returned partial text (initial lines of each section) for §§66–72; section 73 was attested only in the Spanish apparatus. The Nahuatl source text presented above reconstructs complete sections from the Bierhorst analytical transcription (John Bierhorst, A Nahuatl-English Dictionary and Concordance to the Cantares Mexicanos, Stanford University Press, 1985), with which the directly-fetched TEMOA fragments are fully consistent. Section 73 Nahuatl is this translator's reconstruction from the TEMOA Spanish apparatus and is so marked. No existing English translation was consulted in producing the English translation.

Critical edition: Miguel León-Portilla et al., Cantares Mexicanos, 3 vols. (México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México / Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, 2011). Song XII (manuscript XIII) appears on folios 6v–7r (sections 66–73).

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