Song XLVI — The Bird-Song of Totoquihuatzin
Song XLVI carries the manuscript rubric "Ytotocuic Totoquihuatzin Tlacopan tlatoani" — Bird-Song of Totoquihuatzin, tlatoani of Tlacopan. Totoquihuatzin was the ruler of Tlacopan (modern Tacuba, in the western Valley of Mexico), the third pillar of the Triple Alliance alongside Tenochtitlan and Texcoco. The rubric "Ytotocuicatl" designates a lighter song-type — the bird-song — in which the singer identifies with a bird and the melodic register turns personal and lyrical. The manuscript gives the song the heading XLIX, part of the broad Mexica song cycle occupying folios 1r–31v. The drum notation "Tiquiti tiquiti tiquiti" introduces a slit-drum rhythm lighter than the war-drum patterns of adjacent songs. The song spans folios 30v (rubric and drum opening) through 31r (the body) and into 31v (the closing sections), totaling thirteen sections, §§576–588.
The song moves in five gestures, pivoting sharply from martial declaration to personal leave-taking. (I) The war opening (§§576–580): the earth trembles, the Mexica begins the dance of eagle and jaguar; the Huexotzinca are called to witness; chalk-flowers scatter at Chiquiuhtépetl and Eagle Mountain; shield-mist settles as the bells ring and quetzal-banners spread above the fighting Mexica. (II) Self-declaration in war (§§581–582): "Behold me — I the Mexica, I stand in the shield-house; no one beside me will be my friend; what is your word against the divine water and conflagration?" Then a direct address to Nezahualcóyotl of Acolhuacan, whose divine water foams and whose burning rolls through smoke at the water's edge — a report of the war reaching even Texcoco. (III) The singer's adornment as bird (§§583–585): the pivot; the singer becomes the quetzal-water-flower bird, offering the festival in the sky and in Anahuac, scattering flowers to intoxicate the noble children; jade necklace, jades smoking, song intoxicating the heart on the flower-earth. (IV) Grief on earth (§§586–587): only singing in sadness, sorrow rising from within; the Toltec art will be painted and the song will live on earth — but the singer is going, will be lost, will lie down on a precious feather-mat; mothers weep; the flowers of his Otomí-heart scatter at the edge of yellow water. (V) Departure to Tlapallan (§588): the final echo — I grieve, I am carried like a chest to Tlapallan where smoke rises, I will go, I will be lost, on a precious feather-mat I will lie down. The closing refrain — "cozcatozpetlac ninotecatiuh" — seals both §587 and §588, the doubled leave-taking of a man who knows the Toltec tradition will survive him.
Key vocabulary: Ytotocuicatl (bird-song — yototl = small bird, songbird; cuicatl = song; the lighter register of personal lyric distinct from the war-song yaocuicatl and flower-song xochicuicatl; the singer-as-bird is a recurrent Cantares persona, often merging human grief with avian freedom), teoatl tlachinolli (divine water, the conflagration — the double-kenning for warfare throughout the Cantares; water and fire together = the sacred destruction of battle), chimalayahuitl (shield-rain/mist — chimalli = shield; ayahuitl = mist, fine rain; the shower of projectiles in battle rendered as atmospheric phenomenon; one of the Cantares' most evocative war-images), Oyohualpan (the place of the cascabels — oyohualli = the circular rattling bells worn by warriors; the battlefield named for their sound), niquetzalaxochiatototl (I am the quetzal-water-flower bird — a compound self-epithet unique to this song; quetzalli = quetzal feather; atl = water; xochitl = flower; tototl = bird; the singer in full adornment as a living jewel between sky and earth), chiucnauh atl ypempan (at the edge of the Nine Waters — the cosmological boundary where the living world meets the realm of the dead; nine rivers must be crossed to reach Mictlan), Xochitlalpan / Xochintlalticpac (flower-earth — the paradise realm of song and the dead; the flowering underside of the earth), Toltecayotl (the Toltec tradition — the inherited art of crafted song, poetry, and painted writing; to say "the Toltecayotl will be painted" is to say: this song, this art, will survive you; your craft enters the tradition even as you die), cozcatozpetlac ninotecatiuh (on a precious feather-mat I will lie down — cozcatl = jewel/precious; toz possibly related to toztli = parakeet/bright feathers; petlatl = mat; the deathbed as a mat of precious feathers; to lie down on it is to die adorned, to die as befits a singer and lord), Tlapallan (the Red Land — the mythic eastern destination of Quetzalcoatl/Nacxitl after the fall of Tollan; to go to Tlapallan where smoke rises is to follow the path of the feathered-serpent into the dawn and disappearance; the most exalted form of departure in Nahua tradition), notomioloxochio (the flowers of my Otomí-heart — a difficult compound; UNAM TEMOA renders it as "la flor de mi corazón, otomí"; the Otomí were the indigenous people of the Basin of Mexico preceding Nahua dominance; to scatter "Otomí flowers" may indicate wild, ungrafted, earth-born flowers distinct from the cultivated flowers of the Nahua court — a gesture of humility or earthy grief).
Song XLVI occupies folios 30v (rubric and drum only), 31r (§§576–587), and 31v (§§587–588, with §587 crossing the folio at the ¾ mark). Song XLVII begins on folio 31v with the major section heading "Nican ompehua in Chalcayotl" — here begin the Chalca Songs — marking a new genre division in the manuscript. 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.
[Drum preamble]
Tiquiti tiquiti tiquiti.
[§576 — Movement I: The War Opening]
The earth trembles.
The Mexica begins the song —
by it he makes the eagle dance,
the jaguar.
[§577]
Let the Huexotzinca
come here and see —
on the eagle-mat
the Mexica has cried out.
You, you are saying it:
all is new.
[§578]
At Chiquiuhtépetl
chalk-flowers are scattered,
given into the hands.
Before Eagle Mountain —
a mist of shields
settles down.
[§579]
In the place of the bells
the Mexica-Chichimec destroys.
A mist of shields
settles down.
[§580]
The bells rise.
Eagle and jaguar,
with rush shields, stand watching.
Quetzal banners spread
above the fighting Mexica.
[§§581–582 — Movement II: Self-Declaration]
Behold me —
I am Mexica.
I stand in the shield-house.
Here —
none of those who live beside us
will be my friend.
Where are we living?
What is your word
against the divine water,
the conflagration?
I am small.
I am only Mexica.
In Acolhuacan —
Nezahualcóyotl —
your divine water foams.
Your burning
rolls and smokes
there at the water's edge.
[§§583–585 — Movement III: The Singer as Bird]
I am the quetzal-water-flower bird.
I offer up the festival.
I am song.
In the sky, in Anahuac,
I live.
My heart — at the edge of the human world
I scatter my flowers.
By this the children of nobles
are intoxicated,
they are wrapped.
I grieve —
my heart alone suffers.
I am a singer,
at the edge of the Nine Waters,
in Xochitlalpan.
Those who are my friends —
they are carried away,
wrapped.
They are there.
Jade rounds —
I make myself a jade necklace.
I the singer.
My people.
Jades smoke.
I merely present the song —
it intoxicates my heart
on the flower-earth.
They are wrapped.
[§§586–587 — Movement IV: Grief on Earth]
I only sing,
suffering on earth.
I the singer —
from within,
my sorrow emerges.
The song intoxicates my heart
on the flower-earth.
They are wrapped.
They have gone.
The Toltec art
will be painted.
I the singer —
my song will live on earth,
by songs I will be remembered.
But I am going.
I will be lost.
On a precious feather-mat
I will lie down.
My mothers will weep.
Tears will drip.
The flowers of my Otomí-heart —
I scatter them
at the edge of the yellow water.
[§588 — Movement V: Departure to Tlapallan]
I grieve —
it swells within me.
Like a chest
I am to be carried
to Tlapallan,
where smoke rises.
There I will go.
I will be lost.
On a precious feather-mat
I will lie down.
Colophon
Song XLVI of the Cantares Mexicanos, manuscript heading XLIX, rubric "Ytotocuic Totoquihuatzin Tlacopan tlatoani" (Bird-Song of Totoquihuatzin, Ruler of Tlacopan), folios 30v–31v, sections 576–588 (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.
On Totoquihuatzin of Tlacopan: Tlacopan (modern Tacuba) was the third and smallest partner in the Triple Alliance. Totoquihuatzin received one-fifth of the war tribute while Tenochtitlan and Texcoco split the remainder. Despite his smaller share of imperial power, Totoquihuatzin appears in multiple Cantares songs as a named lord worthy of memorial address, often invoked alongside Moteucçoma and Nezahualcóyotl in the Triple Alliance formula. A "bird-song" (ytotocuicatl) in his name is unusual — the genre implies personal lyric and lightness of register, yet the song opens with sustained war imagery. The bird-song form may reflect Totoquihuatzin's own compositional identity or a court genre associated with Tlacopan's western ceremonial traditions.
On the war opening (§§576–580): The place names — Chiquiuhtépetl (Basket Mountain) and Cuauhtépetl (Eagle Mountain) — suggest a specific battle, possibly in the campaigns of Axayacatl or Ahuitzotl. Chiquiuhtli (basket) and quauhtli (eagle) form a geographic pair. The "place of the bells" (Oyohualpan) is the battlefield named for the oyohualli cascabels worn by warriors — the sound of battle rendered as bells. The "shield-mist" (chimalayahuitl) is one of the Cantares' finest war-images: the hail of projectiles at maximum range becoming atmospheric, settling like fine rain.
On §581 (the shield-house declaration): "Chimalcalco nicac" — I stand in the shield-house — is a compact self-placement on the battlefield or in a fortress. The question "what is your word against the divine water and conflagration?" (catliya motlatol — teoatl tlachinolli ipan nitlacaton) addresses an unnamed interlocutor — perhaps the Giver of Life, perhaps Nezahualcóyotl (addressed in §582), perhaps the Huexotzinca called to witness in §577. The "small" closing (nitlacaton — I am a small thing) is not self-deprecation in the colonial Christian mode but the Nahua humility-formula: acknowledging one's mortal smallness against the scale of divine war.
On §582 (address to Nezahualcóyotl): This is a remarkable address to the dead. Nezahualcóyotl died in 1472; if the song reflects the Axayacatl era (r. 1469–1481) or later, this is a posthumous address to a venerated ancestor-king. "Your divine water foams, your burning rolls" reports the state of war in Acolhuacan — perhaps the factional conflicts after Nezahualcóyotl's death, or the border wars between Texcoco and its rivals. The address is grief-tinged: the burning is happening in your realm, and you are gone.
On §583 (the pivot): The shift from "I am only Mexica" (§581) to "I am the quetzal-water-flower bird" (§583) is the song's structural hinge. The warrior identity dissolves into the singer identity. The quetzalaxochiatototl (quetzal-water-flower bird) is a compound of the three most precious registers in Nahua aesthetics: the celestial (quetzal), the nourishing (water), and the offering (flower). The singer in full adornment is more than a person — he is a living ceremony.
On §584 (Nine Waters / Xochitlalpan): The edge of the Nine Waters is the cosmological threshold — the nine rivers of Mictlan that the dead must cross. To stand there as a singer while friends are "carried away, wrapped, already there" (already in Xochitlalpan, the flower paradise) is to be the last one standing. The singer has watched his friends die; he sings from the edge of the world of the living.
On §587 (the Toltecayotl): "Toltecayotl mihcuilotehuaz" — the Toltec art will be painted/lifted. Mihcuilotehuaz fuses tlaihcuiloa (to write, to paint) with hua (to lift, to raise), suggesting the painted codex raised up and made visible. The Toltecayotl is the inherited tradition of crafted beauty — the poetry, the featherwork, the codex-painting of the Nahua. This line is both a claim (my tradition will survive me) and a grief (I will not survive to see it). The "Otomí flowers" (notomioloxochio) scattered at the yellow water are the singer's last earthly offering — wild, ungrafted, elemental flowers, not the jade-studded palace blooms of the court.
On §588 (Tlapallan): The chest-image (petlacotl nihuicaloni — I am to be carried like a chest) is striking. The singer is no longer walking to his fate but being transported, like freight, like goods — the ultimate passivity. Tlapallan (the Red Land) where smoke rises is the mythic east where Quetzalcoatl/Nacxitl went after Tollan's fall. The smoke may be volcanic (Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl visible from the Basin of Mexico) or the haze of the dawn horizon. To go to Tlapallan is to follow the greatest of the Toltec lords into the east — a departure into myth.
Boundary note: Song XLVI ends at §588. Folio 31v opens with the major genre header "Nican ompehua in Chalcayotl melahuac yexcan quiça melahuac yaocuicatl melahuac xochicuicatl yhuan ycnocuicatl" — "Here begin the Chalca Songs, true songs that come out from three directions: true war songs, true flower songs, and orphan songs." This heading marks one of the Cantares' major structural divisions. Song XLVII will be the first Chalcayotl war song. Kshatriya to note this major boundary in Library.md when the Chalcayotl section is entered.
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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, folios 30v–31v, sections 576–588. 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. UNAM TEMOA scribal cross-reference numbers (dlxxx, dlxxxi, dlxxxiv, dlxxxv, dlxxxvi, dlxxxvii, dlxxxviii, dxci, dxcii, dxciii, dxciv) have been omitted as editorial apparatus. Drum notation rendered as given in manuscript.
[Rubric — 30v]: XLIX — Ytotocuic Totoquihuatzin Tlacopan tla'toani
[Drum preamble — 30v]: Tiquiti tiquiti tiquiti
§576: Tlalla olini a quitzintia ycuic mexicatl an yca quinihtotia quauhtli ocelotl iayo
§577: [Ma] huallachia nica [o] huexotzincatl [y] quauhpetlapan [a] onayatla'toaya [in] mexicatl ye teh tic ytoa[ya] yancayo
§578: Chiquiuhtepetlan ayiahue tiçaxochitla temaco ya [in] Quauhtepetl ixpan aya [oo] chimalayahuitl ça hualmoteca ayio
§579: Oyohualpan tepoloa in mexicatl [y] chichimecatl a ayao chimalayahuitl çan hualmoteca ayo
§580: A oyohualehuaya quauhtli ya ocelotl tolchimaltica ya tlachixticac [y] quetzalpanitlan moyahua ya ypan mihcali mexicatl ayaho
§581: Ayaya hoyiye [ma] xiquitta nopan nimexicatl [y] chimalcalco [no] nicac aya nica aya ayac nocniuh yez [in] tonahuac onoque can tiyanemi catliya [in] motlatol [in] teoatl tlachinolli ipan nitlacaton çan nimexicatl ayo
§582: Acolihuacan [in] Neçahualcoyotzin moteoauh pohpoçontoc [in] motlachinol mimilintoc popocatoc [in] oncan [in] atl tempan aya
§583: [ya] niquetzalaxochiatototl ilhuiçolmana ya [in] nicuicatl ilhuicac Anahuac [in] nemi aya noyollo tlacatempan [in] nicmoyahua [in] noxochiuh aya yca yehua [in] ihuintihua tepilhuan [in] nequimilolo yayaye yahao
§584: Nicnotlamati [a] yaye yaha ohua çan nentlamati noyol nicuicanitl chiucnauh atl ypempan Xochitlalpan [in] annicuihuan [in] yahuiyelo [in] nequimilolo [in] onca yehueha
§585: Chalchiuhtli ololihuic [a] nicnocozcatia nicuicanitl [in] nomacehual [in] yyehuaya chalchiuhtlin popoca çan nictimalo [in] cuicatl aya quihuinti [in] noyol Xochintlalticpac [in] nequimilolo
§586: Çan noncuica nentlamati [in] tlalticpac aya nicuicanitl ohuaye çan niticpa quiçaya notlayocol aya cuicatl aya quihuinti [in] nol Xochintlalticpac [in] nequimilolo [in] ona yahue aya
§587: Toltecayotl [a] mihcuilotehuaz nicuicanitl nocuiyo nemiz [in] tlalticpac cuicatl ica [in] nilnamicoz ohua nopinohua niaz nipolihuitiuh cozcatozpetlac ninotecatiuh chocotiaz nonananhuan yxayotl piyauhtiaz [in] notomioloxochio nitepehui cocahuic atl itempan oha cayahue aya ohuaye
§588 [31v]: Ayao aya ohuaye nicnotlamati mopinoa yhui petlacotl nihuicaloni can [in] Tlapalla poctlantihuatoc ompa noyaz niyaz nipolihuitiuh cozcatozpetlac ninotecatiuh
Source Colophon
Nahuatl source text from the UNAM TEMOA digital facsimile (temoa.iib.unam.mx), Cantares Mexicanos manuscript, folios 30v–31v. 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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