Song XLI — From the Great Green Waters
Song XLI carries no manuscript rubric — the heading XLV appears above folio 28r without a title, opening directly into the percussive flight of a bird-singer before God. It is eleven sections (§§512–522) divided by the Cantares' characteristic song-close formula: §516 ends the first movement with "auh yc ontlantiuh in cuicatl" — "and thus the song ends" — and §§517–522 continue as a second movement, or possibly as a distinct but rubric-less continuation song. The structural ambiguity is noted for Kshatriya review.
The song opens with extraordinary compound imagery: the singer is simultaneously the tlauhquechol (the great red spoonbill of warrior-souls), the golden çaquan, and the quetzalintlayahualolpapalotl — the quetzal-spinning butterfly — adorning himself with feathers before God and announcing a fresh, new song. He comes from the great green-blue waters, flying upward as a quetzal-bird and turquoise-quechol. His destination is Huexotzinco — the Puebla city-state that appears throughout the Cantares in both war and grief registers — and specifically Huexotzinco's water-reeds, where his great lords wait in bird-form: jade-quechol, turquoise-quechol, golden butterfly, jewel-bird.
Section 515 opens on the flower-water confluence — xochiatzalaan — where gold-water and jade-water meet. Here the quetzal-duck speaks and its tail-feathers shimmer. Section 516 lifts the singer to height: he stands on high, selects among the songs, adorns them with flowers. The drum-close follows: totoco tocoto.
The second movement (§§517–522) is in the grief-and-wandering register shared with Songs XXXV and XXXVIII. The flower lies in the singer's hand. The song intoxicates the heart. But only the grief remains — only the heart, only the grief. The turquoise-painted and jade-quetzal setting grounds the knowledge that the songs are good, the flowers are good, and yet — no one will live forever on earth (§519). Section 522 closes on the question that recurs across the Cantares: shall we go together to Quenonamican? The flower will not be carried there. I am only a singer. Wherever we wander — you will hear my song.
Key vocabulary: tlauhquechol (the roseate spoonbill, Platalea ajaja — a large pink-red wading bird whose brilliant plumage marked warrior-souls; its Nahuatl name means "red-feather quechol," and it was among the most prized ritual birds), çaquan / tzaquan (likely the Montezuma oropendola or another large tropical bird with golden tail-plumage; a standard symbol of princely beauty and song throughout the Cantares), quetzalintlayahualolpapalotl (quetzalli + tlayahualoa + papalotl — the "quetzal-spinning butterfly"; the verb tlayahualoa means to encircle, revolve, spin around — a compound image of transformation and radiant flight), xiuhquechol (turquoise-quechol bird; xiuhtli = turquoise/blue-green; likely a cotinga or other brilliant-plumaged bird), teocuitlapapalotl (golden butterfly; teocuitlatl = gold, literally "divine excrement," the term expressing gold's sacred preciousness; papalotl = butterfly, the symbol of the transformed warrior-soul), cozcatototl (jewel-bird; cozcatl = necklace/jewel; a lustrous bird, perhaps a cotinga species), xochiatzalaan (flower-water-confluence; xochitl = flower, atl = water, tzalan = amid/between; a liminal convergence point of sacred elements), quetzalcanauhtli (quetzal-duck; canauhtli = duck; a rare compound naming a bird with iridescent quetzal-like feathers — perhaps a heron species in breeding plumage), ninoçoçohua (I adorn myself with feathers and paint — the pre-ritual self-adorning act), Huexotzinco atzalan (Huexotzinco, amid the water-reeds — the city-state's wetland margin, a liminal space associated with border-crossing and transformation), Quenonamican (the Place Where We Know Not How We Are — the Nahua afterworld understood as existential uncertainty rather than paradise; the soul persists but its condition is unknown).
Song XLI spans folio 28r, sections 512–522. Nahuatl source text accessed from the UNAM TEMOA digital platform (temoa.iib.unam.mx), Cantares Mexicanos manuscript. The Cantares Mexicanos is held at the Biblioteca Nacional de México. Digital facsimile and transcription by UNAM's Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas. Translated directly from Classical Nahuatl by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
[§§512–516 — Movement I: The Bird-Singer Arrives]
I go flying before God,
adorning myself with feathers —
tlauhquechol,
golden çaquan,
quetzal-spinning butterfly
shaking its plumage.
I come forth from the flower-water
before the people —
the road follows my song.
It is fresh and new.
From there I come —
where the great green-blue waters spread,
where they surge and thunder —
so I fly up.
I am only the quetzal-bird,
the turquoise-quechol bird,
becoming myself as I come.
I go, I arrive
at Huexotzinco, amid the water-reeds.
I will only go seeking them,
going to know my great lords by face —
the jade-quechol bird,
the turquoise-quechol,
the golden butterfly,
the jewel-bird —
they stand waiting there
at Huexotzinco, amid the water-reeds.
At the flower-water confluence —
gold-water and jade-water meeting —
the quetzal-duck speaks.
Quetzal — my tail-feathers
shimmer and ripple.
I stand on high.
I am the singer.
The golden çaquan [moves]
where the reeds spread out.
I walk there already —
choosing among the songs,
adorning them with flowers.
Tico tico ticoti —
ticotico ticoti —
and thus the song ends —
totoco tocoto.
[§§517–522 — Movement II: Flower in My Hand]
Here I weep.
I am the singer.
I look at my flower
lying in my hand —
only the song intoxicates my heart.
I wander everywhere.
It is only my heart —
my grief.
In the turquoise-painted setting,
the jade-quetzal setting —
I know my song.
Let the flower be good,
lying in my hand.
Only the song intoxicates my heart.
I wander everywhere.
It is only my heart —
my grief.
In the jade-quetzal setting
I know:
my songs are good,
my flower is good.
You, my fellow singers —
noble children —
rejoice!
No one will live forever
on earth.
I will carry it forward —
I will go —
my good song,
my good flower.
You, my fellow singers —
noble children.
I weep.
It goes away.
I scatter flowers.
Shall we go together
to Quenonamican?
The flower will not be carried there.
I am only a singer.
Come, rejoice —
wherever we wander,
you will hear my song.
Colophon
Song XLI of the Cantares Mexicanos, manuscript heading XLV (no rubric), folio 28r, sections 512–522 (eleven sections). The Cantares Mexicanos is a colonial-era manuscript of 91 Nahuatl songs compiled in the mid-sixteenth century by indigenous and colonial scribes in central Mexico, preserved at the Biblioteca Nacional de México.
This translation was made directly from Classical Nahuatl. Alonso de Molina's Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana (1571) and Frances Karttunen's An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl were consulted for lexical verification after the English draft was complete. No existing English translation was consulted during translation. The Blood Rule is maintained.
Song XLI is a two-movement bird-and-grief song. The first movement (§§512–516) opens with the most elaborate bird-compound imagery yet encountered in this sequence: the singer is simultaneously tlauhquechol, çaquan, and the rare quetzalintlayahualolpapalotl — the quetzal-spinning butterfly — a compound of three roots expressing beauty, transformation, and aerial spinning. His flight from the great green waters to Huexotzinco's water-reeds mirrors the bird-arrival sequences common to flower-songs, but here the destination matters: Huexotzinco appears in multiple Cantares songs as a site of war, loss, and grief (Songs XII, XIV, XVII), and the bird-lords waiting in the water-reeds carry both promise and elegy.
The drum-close at §516 — auh yc ontlantiuh in cuicatl ("and thus the song ends") — is the standard Cantares terminal formula. It appears mid-folio, meaning §§517–522 either represent a second movement of the same song or an unlabeled continuation-song without a separate rubric. This is consistent with folio-boundary practice elsewhere in the manuscript. Kshatriya to verify: does TEMOA or the Peñafiel facsimile show any heading between §516 and §517? If no rubric intervenes, the unified reading (§§512–522 as one song) stands.
The second movement (§§517–522) is meditatively repetitive in the manner of grief-songs: the refrain "only the song intoxicates my heart / I wander everywhere / it is only my heart, my grief" appears across §§517–518 with slight variation. Section 519 pivots to communal address — fellow singers, noble children, rejoice — before the existential statement: ayac onnemiz in tlalticpac (no one will live on earth). Sections 521–522 are the briefest and most moving: scattered flowers, the question of Quenonamican, the declaration that the flower cannot be carried to the afterworld. The final image — ticaqui ye nocuic ("you will hear my song") — is the Cantares singer's ultimate claim: though the body goes to Quenonamican, the song remains here, audible.
§512 carries a scribal etcetera marker — the song's opening was presumably a known pattern that the scribe abbreviated. The rendering here is complete based on the non-abbreviated text.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text: Cantares Mexicanos — In Cuicatl
Classical Nahuatl source text from the UNAM TEMOA digital platform (temoa.iib.unam.mx), Cantares Mexicanos manuscript, folio 28r, sections 512–522. The Cantares Mexicanos is held at the Biblioteca Nacional de México (MS 1628 bis). Transcription by UNAM's Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above. §512 and §522 carry scribal etcetera markers. TEMOA variant/footnote reference numbers (dxx-series) have been omitted as they are editorial apparatus, not manuscript text.
§512: Ohuaya yehe nipatlantinemi a ixpan Dios a ninoçoçohua ya tlauhquechol çaquan quetzalintlayahualolpapalotl mopilihuitzetzeloa teixpanaxochiatlaquiquizcopa ohtlatoca ye nocuic yyancoili etcetera
§513: Nehcoya ompa ye nihuitz huiya xoxouhqui huey atla ymancan aya çan niman olini poçoni tetecuica yc nipatlani a çan niquetzalintototl xiuhquecholtototl nochiuhtihuitz y niyahui naci a Huexotzinco atzalan ayome
§514: Çan niquintocaz aya niquimiximatitiuh nohueyotzitzinhuan chalchiuhquechol y çan ca xiuhquechol in teocuitlapapalotl in cozcatototl ontlapia ye onca Huexotzinco atzalan ayome
§515: Xochiatzalaan teocuitlaatl chalchiuhatl ynepaniuhyan ytlatoa ya in quetzalcanauhtli quetzal no cuitlapilli cuecueyahua ya yliya yliya yaho ayli yaho aye huichile anicale
§516: Huecapan nihcac nicuicanitl huiya çaquan tolin imanica ye ninemia nicyeyectian cuicatla in nicxochiotia ya yaho yahi — Tico tico ticoti ticotico ticoti auh yc ontlantiuh in cuicatl totoco tocoto
§517: Xichocayan nicuicanitl nic itta noxochiuh çan nomac onmani a çan quihuintia ye noyol in cuicatl aya nohuian nemia çan ca ye noyollo notlayocol a in cayo
§518: Xiuhtlamatelolla quetzalchalchiuhtla ipan ye nicmati a nocuic aya ma yectla xochitl y çan nomac onmani a çan quihuintia ye noyol in cuicatl aya nohuian nemi a çan ca ye noyollo notlayocol a in cayo
§519: Yn quetzalinchalchiuhtla ipan ye nicmati a yectli ye nocuic yectli noxochiuh i annicuihuan tepilhuan aya xonahuiacan a ayac onnemiz o in tlalticpac ayo
§520: O anniquitquiz ye niaz yectli nocuic yectli noxochiuh annicuihuan tepilhuan aya
§521: Ohuayanco o nichocaya ahuayanco o cahua yyahue nictzetzelo xochitl ayyo
§522: Mach nohuan tonyaz Quenonamica o ahnic itquiz xochitl çan nicuicanitl huiya ma ya xonahuiya can toyanemia ticaqui ye nocuic ahuayye etcetera
Source Colophon
Nahuatl source text from the UNAM TEMOA digital facsimile (temoa.iib.unam.mx), Cantares Mexicanos manuscript, folio 28r. The manuscript is held at the Biblioteca Nacional de México (MS 1628 bis). Transcription by UNAM's Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Reproduced for non-commercial archival use.
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