Song XLIII — The Flower-Water Foams
Song XLIII carries no rubric in the manuscript. It occupies folio 29r, sections 532–545, and follows directly upon the drum close of Song XLII (the Song of Nezahualcoyotl). The first visible content on folio 29r is drum notation — the opening rhythm — then thirteen numbered sections. The song breaks clearly into two movements: a joyful bird-and-flower opening in which the singer adorns himself as tozi (yellow parrot), quechol (red water-bird), and quetzaltototl (quetzal bird) before the Only God, and a grief register in which the singer weeps, declares his Mexican identity, and names the perishing of the Chiltepehua and the weeping of the Tequantepehua.
The flower-song opening (§§532–539) is a variation of a form that recurs throughout the Cantares: the singer becomes a bird before the drum, the fragrant flowers scatter, the drum sounds, and the joyful waters of paradise — the xochiatl, flower-water — rise and foam. The central image is intoxication: as tozi and quechol the singer flies through the world, and on the earth the flower-water has intoxicated his heart. He is not drunk in the ordinary sense but caught up in the ekstasis of sacred song — the characteristic Nahua state of divine possession that the flower-songs both describe and induce.
The grief movement (§§540–545) pivots on the recurring Cantares verse: ayac ychan tlalticpac — no one's home is on the earth. From this existential foundation the song turns toward specific sorrow: the singer declares himself Mexican and speaks of going toward Tequantepec while the Chiltepehua are perishing and the Tequantepehua weep. A star smokes and spreads. The Amaxtecatl weep. The song closes as the drum is raised for the lords to dance, jade and quetzal are shared, and the flower of the Giver of Life rests in the singer's hand — the gesture of provisional, luminous possession: no one's home is on the earth, and yet the flower is here.
Key vocabulary: xochiatl (flower-water — the sacred water of paradise, intoxicating as the song itself; xochitl = flower, atl = water; the compound suggests the waters that flow through Xochitlalpan, the flower-land), poçontimani (it foams, it boils and spreads everywhere — from poçoni, to foam or bubble; the image of the flower-water surging across the earth as song begins), toztli (yellow parrot, Amazona oratrix or a related species — bright golden-yellow, contrasting with the red quechol; a symbol of the joyful, brilliant voice at the drum), quechol (a red water-bird, possibly roseate spoonbill — always a paradise bird in the Cantares, bearing the color of blood and sacred fire), quetzaltototl (quetzal bird, Pharomachrus mocinno — the most sacred Mesoamerican bird; its tail feathers were more valuable than gold; to call oneself quetzaltototl is to claim the identity of divine, beautiful song), poyomatl (a white fragrant flower, possibly Bourreria huanita — sacred in the Nahua tradition as a night-blooming flower of the divine; depicted in manuscripts alongside hummingbirds and sacred singers), Ycelteotl (the Only God — ycel = sole/alone, teotl = god; an epithet of the supreme deity appearing frequently in the colonial-era sections of the Cantares, often in parallel with Ypalnemoani), Tequantepec (Tehuantepec — modern Tehuantepec in Oaxaca; the principal city of the Zapotec lords of the Isthmus; Aztec forces under Ahuitzotl campaigned there around 1496–1498 and established a garrison), Chiltepehua (people of Chiltepec — a settlement in the Oaxaca-Veracruz region; in this context, warriors of the Tehuantepec campaign or its aftermath), Amaxtecatl (person from Amaxtlan — amaxtle = maguey loin-cloth, or from amatl = paper/book; either "people of the paper-place" or "maguey-cloth people"; a group associated with the Tehuantepec/Oaxacan campaign forces), Tequantepehua (people of Tehuantepec — the Zapotec lords and warriors who resisted or were incorporated into Aztec expansion), xochineneliuhtiaz noyollo (my heart will intermingle with flowers — xochi- = flower, neneliuhtiaz = it will mingle together while going, noyollo = my heart; a composite image of the heart dissolving into flowers as the soul enters the flower-realm), netlanehuiloz (let it be borrowed/shared — tlanehui = to lend or borrow; the Cantares frequently uses lending/borrowing language for the temporary possession of beauty, life, and jade).
Song XLIII spans folio 29r, sections 532–545. Section 532 is the drum preamble visible at the top of folio 29r; it carries no section number in the TEMOA transcription but precedes §533 as the opening rhythm of the song. Song XLIV begins at folio 29v, section 546, with the rubric "Ycuic Axayacatzin Ytzcoatl Mexico tlatohuani" (Song of Axayacatl Itzcóatl, lord of Mexico). 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.
[§532 — Drum Preamble]
Tico toco tocoto — going away —
ticoto ticoto.
Tototitiqui tototitiquiti.
Toto tiquiti tiquiti — going away —
tocotico tocoti.
[§§533–539 — Movement I: The Flower-Water]
Let flowers be prepared here now —
only in the marigold-place
they scatter and shake,
the many flowers.
The drum sounds —
let there be dancing.
The quetzal-poyomatl flower —
with it my heart has been painted,
I the singer.
The flower scatters.
Come, rejoice!
Only within my heart
the song-flower bursts open —
I scatter it in the flower-place.
In song I will wrap myself —
when my heart will intermingle with flowers
among the noble children, the lords.
This is why I weep —
when I speak my flower-self,
my song-self.
I will set it in place —
when my heart will intermingle with flowers
among the noble children, the lords.
As tozi and quechol I fly about
upon the earth —
it has intoxicated my heart.
I am the quetzal bird —
I am made good
beside the Only God's water.
Above the flowers I sing well,
I speak through song.
My heart already rejoices.
The flower-water foams —
upon the earth
it has intoxicated my heart.
[§§540–545 — Movement II: The Tequantepehua Weep]
I weep for myself,
I feel my destitution —
no one's home is on the earth.
Only I say it — I am Mexican.
Let me go,
I will speak at Tequantepec.
I go —
the Chiltepehua are perishing,
the Tequantepehua weep.
May my elder lord not be angered —
that Mexican.
The Chiltepehua are perishing,
the Tequantepehua weep.
A star smokes —
it spreads upon them.
They are perishing —
only the Xochitecatl.
Only the Amaxtecatl weeps —
the Tequantepehua weep.
The drum has been raised.
Let the lords dance —
let jade and the broad quetzal be shared.
No one's home is on the earth.
Only in my hand it rests —
the flower of the Giver of Life.
Let jade be shared.
Colophon
Song XLIII of the Cantares Mexicanos, no rubric in the manuscript, folio 29r, sections 532–545 (thirteen 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 XLIII is a two-movement xochicuicatl with a structure characteristic of many songs in the late twenties and thirties of the Cantares: joyful bird-and-flower opening, then grief and existential declaration. The bird-sequence of Movement I builds through three bird-identifications — toztli (yellow parrot), quechol (red water-bird), quetzaltototl (quetzal bird) — from the jubilant to the most sacred. The singer moves from flying about as a noisy parrot-and-quechol pair (§537) to identifying as the quetzal bird at the water of Ycelteotl (§538): he has reached the divine threshold. The central refrain "upon the earth it has intoxicated my heart" appears first in §537 and again as the full §539 — the flower-water, rising and foaming, is the agent of this sacred intoxication.
The xochiatl (flower-water) of §539 is the Cantares' central metaphor for the ekstatic state produced by song. Flower-water is not ordinary water: it is the water that flows in Xochitlalpan (the flower-land of the paradise warriors), the intoxicating stream of beauty that makes the heart open. The verb poçontimani — it foams and spreads everywhere — describes a bubbling surge across the whole earth, the song overtaking all things. This is the same intoxication described in Song XXVIII ("the war-flowers torment") and Songs XXIV and XXVII, but here the intoxication is wholly joyful: the heart rejoices.
Movement II pivots without transition at §540. The intoxicated joy gives way to weeping; the flower-water's intoxication collapses into grief; and the existential foundation appears: ayac ychan tlalticpac — no one's home is on the earth. This is the seventh or eighth appearance of this verse across the Cantares (it is the most quoted philosophical line in the manuscript), but each occurrence renews it in a specific context. Here it bridges between the joyful bird-section and the Tequantepec lament: the singer weeps for himself because no home exists, then speaks as a Mexican going toward the dying at Tehuantepec.
Sections 541–544 form the Tequantepec cluster. The singer declares himself Mexican (nimexicatl) and announces that he will go to speak authority at Tequantepec — the imperial seat of the Zapotec lords. The Chiltepehua (people of Chiltepec) are perishing; the Tequantepehua weep. This language is conquest-elegy: the singer mourns allied or subject peoples destroyed in Aztec expansion or resistance. The Aztec campaigns against the Isthmus of Tehuantepec were conducted primarily under Ahuitzotl (r. 1486–1502), who forced the Zapotec lords to open the isthmus trade route and established a garrison there. The Chiltepehua and Tequantepehua are the peoples caught in this expansion.
Section 543 — "a star smokes / it spreads upon them" — is a striking image of cosmic-scale destruction. The smoking star (citlalin in popoca) is likely a comet or a star in destructive aspect: in Nahua cosmology, stars could be weapons, portents, or spiritual presences. To smoke and spread upon a people is to annihilate them under a celestial sign. The Xochitecatl (§543) and Amaxtecatl (§544) are warriors or peoples in the same campaign zone, perishing under this omen.
Section 545 closes as the drum is raised for the lords to dance and share jade. The netlanehuihuilo chalchihuitl — the sharing or lending of jade — recalls Songs XXXIX, XLI, and XLII's lending-metaphors: jade (the most precious substance, symbol of life, fertility, and divine beauty) is passed from hand to hand because no one can keep it. The Giver of Life's flower rests in the singer's hand — çan nomac onmani, yxochiuh, Ipalnemoa — only in my hand it rests, his flower, the Giver of Life. This is the resolution: no home on earth, but the flower is here, now, in the singer's open palm. Let it be shared.
Boundary note: Song XLIII ends at §545. Song XLIV begins at folio 29v, §546, with the rubric "Ycuic Axayacatzin Ytzcoatl Mexico tlatohuani" — Song of Axayacatl Itzcóatl, lord of Mexico. Section 546's content (§§546–556) confirms a new song with a named royal author, distinct from the anonymous Song XLIII. The §532 drum preamble visible at the start of folio 29r is treated here as the opening of Song XLIII; it may correspond to the section numbered 532 that Life 45 noted after the §531 drum close of Song XLII (see Cantares Mexicanos — Song XLII — The Song of Nezahualcoyotl.md, Boundary note).
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 29r, sections 532–545. 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. TEMOA variant/footnote reference numbers (dxxxix-series cross-references) have been omitted as editorial apparatus; scribal etcetera markers noted in the translation colophon.
§532 (Drum preamble): Tico toco tocoto ic ontlantiuh ticoto ticoto — tototitiqui tototitiquiti — Toto tiquiti tiquiti ic ontlantiuh tocotico tocoti
§533: Ma xochitl oyecoc ye nican ayyahue çan tlaa'huixochitla moyahua ya motzetzeloa anca ço yehuatl in nepapa xochitl ayio Çan comoni huehuetl ma ya nehtotilo etcetera dxxxix
§534: Yn quetzalpoyomatl a yc yhcuilihuic noyol nicuicanitl in xochitl ayan tzetzelihui yyaandxl cuel in cuiyama xonahuiacan ayio çan noyolitic ontlapani on cuicaxochitl nicyamoyahua ya y xoochitla etcetera
§535: Cuicatl ya ninoquimilotehuaz in quenmania xochineneliuhtiaz noyollo yehuan tepilhuan oon teteuctin in cayio
§536: Can ye ic nichoca in quenmanian çan nicayaihtoa noxochiteyo nocuicatoca nictlalitehuaz inquenmania xochineneliuhtiaz noyollo yehuan tepilhuan oon teteuctin in cayio
§537: Toztli yan quechol nipatlantinemi a in tlalla icpac oquihuinti ye noyol ahuayy ai
§538: Niquetzaltototl niyecoya ye iquiapan Ycelteotly xochiticpac nihueloncuica oo nicuicaihtoa paqui ye noyol ahuay etcetera
§539: Xochiatl in poçontimani a yn tlalla icpac oquihuinti ye noyol ahua etcetera
§540: Ninochoquilia niquinotlamati ayac inchan on tlallicpac ahua etcetera
§541: Çan niquittoa ya ye nimexicatl ma niyahuiya nohtlatoca Tequantepec niyahui polihuin chiltepehua aya ye choca In tequantepehua ohuaye etcetera
§542: Maca qualani a nohueyo yehua mexicatl i polihui chiltepehua aya ye choca in Tequantepehua ohuaye
§543: Citlalin in popoca ya ipan ye moteca y ça ye polihuia çan ye xochitecatl ohuaye etcetera
§544: Çan ye choca ya amaxtecatl aya ca ye choca ya Tequantepehua
§545: Oyamoquetz huehuetl ooon ma onnetotilo teteuctin aya ma onnetlanehuihuilo chalchihuitl on quetzal i patlahuac ayac ychan tlalticpac ayio çan nomac onmani a ooo yxochiuh aya Ipalnemoa ma onnetlanehuilo chalchihuitl
Source Colophon
Nahuatl source text from the UNAM TEMOA digital facsimile (temoa.iib.unam.mx), Cantares Mexicanos manuscript, folio 29r. 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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