Song XIX — XX (Melahuac cuicatl — The True Song)
The manuscript heading on folio 16v is simply XX*, followed by the rubric* Nican ompehua in motenehua melahuac cuicatl yn mehuaya tecpan Mexico Acolhuacan Tlalhuacpan ynic ymelel quiçaya tlahtoque — "Here begins what is called the True Song, which arises in the courts of Mexico, Acolhuacan, and Tlalhuacpan, from which the lords draw their pleasure." The rubric is unusually specific about geography and occasion: this is a court song, composed for and performed at the palaces of three of the great cities of the Aztec world.
Melahuac cuicatl — True Song, Straight Song, Plain Song — is a genre designation appearing several times in the Cantares Mexicanos. Where xochicuicatl (flower song) is ornamented and ycnocuicatl (grief song) is elegiac, melahuac carries the sense of directness, plainness, honest address. The song earns its name: it is compact and clean, moving from a single mock-portrait greeting (§254) through a formal invitation to joy (§255), into flower-tree theology (§256–257), the singer's personal declaration (§258–259), and then into the voice of Nezahualcoyotl himself (§260–261), closing on the image of the jade-wisdom bracelet's smoke rising from the hearts of all who listen (§262).
Song XIX follows immediately after Song XVIII's festive mock-portraits of the Triple Alliance lords. The two songs form a sequence: Song XVIII opens in Tamoanchan and closes with comedy; Song XIX opens with one more comic portrait — this time Axoquen and Tezozomoc receive their epithets — before ascending into something more austere. The closing image — "The jade-wisdom bracelet smokes — that is your hearts" — is one of the most condensed theological statements in the Cantares: wisdom as smoking jade, the heart as incense offered upward.
Song XIX spans folio 16v only, sections 254–262. 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.
There he comes — little Axoquen,
split-soled little one,
little one to be slashed,
rough-toothed little hand,
round-necked thorn-backed coming one:
little Tezozomoc!
Come gladly begin —
come gladly sing, O singer!
Huiya!
Let us rejoice
in the one who draws out our longing —
the Giver of Life.
Yyeo ayahui!
Let us rejoice —
already he wraps us,
the Giver of Life,
with the flower-bracelet.
Let there be dancing, let there be shaking.
Aya — your flower!
Ohuaya! Yao yao...
Already it spreads, spreads out gently —
our song within the bracelet,
into the golden house it drifts.
The flower-tree trembles,
scatters itself only.
Let the quetzal suckle from it,
let the yellow macaw draw from it.
Ohuaya!
O flower-tree —
you became,
you spread your branches,
you wheeled and rose.
There you stood before God,
before him you humbled yourself —
with us, among us,
scattering flowers.
Ohuaya ohuaya.
Still spreading, still blooming
on the earth —
you suffer,
flowers cascade,
you scatter yourself.
Yohuaya ohuaya!
My flowers will not end,
my song will not end —
what I was lifting up,
I the only singer. Huia!
Scattered and drifting — yaho!
The yellow flower enters only
into the golden house.
Ohuaya ohuaya.
The plumeria flower —
may it be flowers, oh!
You scatter them,
you shake them out
within the flower-house.
Ohuaya ohuaya.
Yyoyahue!
Already I take my pleasure —
I, the noble son,
I, Nezahualcoyotl. Huia!
I gather necklaces,
quetzal feathers,
all things broad and precious.
I too know jade. Yaoo!
O noble children —
ohuaya ohuaya.
Before me I look out
upon all manner of eagles and jaguars.
I too know jade,
I know the bracelet.
Ohuaye.
The jade-wisdom bracelet smokes —
it smolders.
That is your hearts.
Colophon
Translated from Classical Nahuatl by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. The mock-portrait compounds in §254 contain hapax and near-hapax lexical formations; translations are based on word-element analysis and are treated as approximate. The closing section (§262) presents one of the most condensed theological images in the Cantares: chalchiuhtlamatilolmaquiztli (jade-wisdom-painted-bracelet) functions as a single compound noun describing wisdom made tangible, offered upward as smoke. All English independently derived from Classical Nahuatl. No existing English translation was consulted during the translation process.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text: Melahuac cuicatl
Classical Nahuatl source text from the Cantares Mexicanos manuscript, Biblioteca Nacional de México, sixteenth century, accessed via the UNAM TEMOA digital platform (temoa.iib.unam.mx), CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
[Folio 16v rubric — manuscript heading XX]
Nican ompehua in motenehua melahuac cuicatl yn mehuaya tecpan Mexico Acolhuacan Tlalhuacpan ynic ymelel quiçaya tlahtoque
[Section 254, folio 16v]
Ypan mochiuhtihuitz yn Axoquenpil xotle xixilhuazpil tlanquaoholmapil quechtepololomititic uitzpil Teçoçomocpil
[Section 255, folio 16v]
Xiahuilompehua xiahuiloncuican ticuicanitl huiya ma xonahuiacan y onelelquixtilon Ypalnemohuani yyeo ayahui ohuaya etcetera
[Section 256, folio 16v]
Ma xonahuiacan i ye techonquimilo a Ypalnemohua ye xochimaquiztica netotilo ye nehuihuio aya moxochiuh a ohuaya yao yao ho ama y yehuaya ahuayyao aye ohuaya ohuaya ye momamana ye momana yantocuic maquizca ytec y çan teocuitlacalico moyahuan xochinquahuitl oo ye mohuihuixohua y çan ye motzetzeloa man tlachichina quetzaltototl man tlachichinan ya çaquan quecholan ohuaya etcetera
[Section 257, folio 16v]
Xochinquahuitl timochiuh timaxelihui tihuitolihui oya timoquetzaco in yehuan Dios y ixpan timomati tehuan nipapan xochitla ohuaya ohuaya
[Section 258, folio 16v]
Maoc xoyatica y oc xoncuepontica yn tlalticpac y timolinia tepehui xochitl timotzetzeloa yohuaya ohuaya ah tlamiz noxochiuh ah tlamiz nocuic yn noconyayehuaya çan nicuicanitl huia xexelihui ya moyahua yaho coçahua ya xochitl ça ye oncalaquilo çaquan calitic a ohuaya ohuaya
[Section 259, folio 16v]
Yn cacaloxochitl y ma ye xochitl aya ohuaye ticyamoya ticyatzetzeloa xochincala ytec a ohuaya ohuaya
[Section 260, folio 16v]
Yyoyahue ye nonnocuiltonohua on nitepiltzin niNeçahualcoyotl huia nicnechico cozcatl in quetzal in patlahuac ye no nic yximatin chalchihuitl yaoo in tepilhuan ohuaya ohuaya
[Section 261, folio 16v]
Yxco nontlatlachia nepapan quauhtlin ocelotl ye no nic yximatin chalchiuhtli ya in maquiztli ya ohuaye
[Section 262, folio 16v]
Chalchiuhtlamatilolmaquiztli y popoca yeehuaya yn anmoyollo ya
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 XIX carries manuscript heading XX (Melahuac cuicatl — True Song), spanning folio 16v only, sections 254–262. The opening rubric (Nican ompehua in motenehua melahuac cuicatl yn mehuaya tecpan Mexico Acolhuacan Tlalhuacpan ynic ymelel quiçaya tlahtoque) precedes §254 and is not itself a numbered section. Song XX (manuscript heading XXI) begins at folio 17r. This translation is complete.
No existing English translation was consulted during the translation process. All English independently derived from Classical Nahuatl.
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