Song XXII — XXIII (The Butterfly)
Song XXII carries manuscript heading XXIII and consists of a single section on folio 18r — the shortest song encountered thus far in this translation project. It has no descriptive rubric beyond the Roman numeral, and no named performers or lords. The manuscript heading XXIV appears immediately at the following section (§284), confirming that Song XXII is §283 alone.
The image is spare: a butterfly comes flying and quivering above the flowers, draws from them, and the heart opens in the flower-place. In Nahua cosmology, slain warriors were believed to transform into butterflies and hummingbirds after death, returning to the flowers of paradise to sip from them. This makes the butterfly (papalotl) a figure of the warrior-soul at rest in Tamoanchan or the flower-world above — not merely a decorative creature but a vision of what comes after the flower-death. The heart opening (yolcueponia — the heart turning, blooming, bursting open) in response to the butterfly's drawing is a participation: the listener's heart blooms in sympathy with the flower being sipped. To witness the butterfly-soul feeding in the flower-world is already to enter it.
Song XXII spans folio 18r, section 283 only. 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.
Here it comes, here it comes —
the butterfly!
Already it comes flying,
already it comes quivering,
going about above the flowers.
Already it draws from them —
may the heart burst open with it
in the place of flowers.
Ohuaya.
Colophon
Translated from Classical Nahuatl by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. The compound yolcueponia (yol- = heart + cuepo- = to burst open, turn, bloom) carries both senses: the heart turns (as in a sudden recognition) and the heart blooms (as a flower opens). The butterfly (papalotl) is the warrior-soul in post-mortem paradise across multiple Nahua sources; the action of drawing from flowers (tlachichina) describes the soul feeding in the afterlife garden. This single-section song is complete as received — not a fragment.
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: Manuscript Heading XXIII
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 18r — manuscript heading XXIII]
[Section 283, folio 18r]
Çan ye huitz ye huitz in papalotl huia ye ompatlantihuitz ye moçoçouhtihuitz xochiticpac nemi a ye ontlachichina ma yahuia ic y iolcueponia xochitla ohuaya Etcetera
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 XXII carries manuscript heading XXIII, spanning folio 18r section 283 only. Manuscript heading XXIV begins immediately at section 284. 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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