Song XXVI — XXVII (Now the Flowers Burst Open)

Song XXVI carries manuscript heading XXVII and spans twenty-two sections across folios 19v and 20r (§§316–337). No descriptive rubric accompanies the numeral — the same pattern as the preceding songs — but the song's internal movement is distinct: it is a court-praise hymn for Moteucçoma and the Triple Alliance, shot through with grief for the Acolhua lords.

The opening (§§316–317) names the wound: buds swell and flowers burst open, yet the song begins in lament — it is only their weeping the singer used to tell of: Acolmitztli and Techontlalatzin in Acolhuacan, Acamapichtli, Tezozomoc. Their speech was their burden and still it goes on. Then prayer rises, colonial-syncretic, on the eagle-mat and jaguar-mat — to Santa Maria.

The second movement (§§318–323) pivots to Tenochtitlan's cosmic invulnerability. The Giver of Life sends his shield down in the night to Mexico, chalk-white feathers spreading to the ground. Lords Quauhtlecohuatl and Cahualtzin have borrowed the glory of the divine. Tenochtitlan, water-and-mountain, is renowned and fears nothing — not the good death — for Ycelteotl commands it. The singer wonders who would dare scatter that water-mountain or push out the filth of heaven, and turns inward: while Tenochtitlan still truly spreads and the Giver of Life still covers us gently, I grieve — how will things be arranged?

The third movement (§§324–326) is the singer's arrival. They come to stand inside the flower-court, where the book blooms and the drum speaks. Song is their word; flower is their grief; what they long for waits here with God, awaited everywhere on earth. §325 delivers the song's single most arresting line: searching for the word — is it anger or grief? — the singer declares: I am Moteucçoma. The king and the singer merge. §326 opens the communal register: you have come — let us sing; the book-writing comes, Ycelteotl and God, the flower-court is spread.

The fourth movement (§§327–335) unfolds the flower-court vision. The Giver of Life shakes out turquoise-quetzal feathers; the çaquan butterfly arrives inside the house; Moteucçomatzin is fanned by flower-breezes on the flower-mat (§327). A red ear-of-corn blooms, twisted with quetzal-popcorn-flower (§328). The singer's heart is many-painted; they have come to give full joy to the Giver of Life (§329). In the night, Moteucçomatzin sings, his shield-armband gleaming — beat your flower-drum (§330). The eagle-mat spreads turquoise-written; various flowers scatter (§331). The life-sustaining flower-tree stands, dew-rain scatters, song refreshes it, quetzal-tassels adorn it in Mexico (§332). Only by it the golden bell-bird lives singing — Moteucçoma speaks (§333). The flower-mist has risen; there the flower-tree stands; quetzal-birds flutter in it — as if it were Moteucçomatzin himself, walking in flower-rain, making himself noble (§334). At the flower-spring of God, inside the writing-house, the flower-land moved (§335).

The close (§§336–337) names the triple alliance directly: Moteucçomatzin, Neçahualcoyotzin, Totoquihuatzi — you have come to braid and twine together the lordship. And then the final word, elegiac beneath the praise: come, borrow it still a little while — your water, your mountain, upon which the lords dwell. The song ends not with triumph but with the tenderness of borrowed time.

Song XXVI spans folios 19v–20r, sections 316–337. 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.

Now the buds swell,
the flowers burst open —
it is only their weeping
I used to speak of:
Acolmitztli and Techontlalatzin
in Acolhuacan,
where the great nopal stood,
Acamapichtli, Tlalhuacpan, Tezozomoc —
their speech was their burden.
Still it goes on.

On the eagle-mat,
on the jaguar-mat,
prayer rises
to Santa Maria.

Just the shield descends
from the Giver of Life —
it has come down in the night to Mexico:
chalk and feathers come spreading,
reaching the ground here.

You lords,
Quauhtlecohuatl, Cahualtzin —
your command, your riches:
you have borrowed the glory
of the Giver of Life.
The shield has descended here to Mexico.

Fame spreads everywhere —
the water and the mountain: Tenochtitlan.
By this it is wondrous.
Nothing makes it afraid —
the good death.
You, children of lords,
thus Ycelteotl commands you —
and God, your children.

The worthy — so be it.
Who then will raise up
the shield-mat,
the dart-throne of God?

Come, fashion it — remember it,
you children of lords.
Who will scatter the water and the mountain,
Tenochtitlan?
Who will push out the filth of heaven?

While the water and mountain,
Tenochtitlan, still truly spreads —
while still gently
the Giver of Life covers us —
I feel grief.
How will things be arranged here?

I have come to stand
inside the flower-court.
The book blooms,
my drum speaks,
song is my word,
flower is my grief,
what I long for — here,
with God,
awaited everywhere on earth.

I only go searching for the word —
is it anger, or grief?
What I send to you, lords,
children of lords,
you who take wing like eagles —
I alone feel sorrow.
I am Moteucçoma.

You have come here now —
let us sing.
The book-writing comes:
Ycelteotl, God —
the flower-court lies spread.

You shake out turquoise-quetzal feathers,
Giver of Life —
the çaquan butterfly
has arrived inside the house.
By the flower-breeze
it is fanned over Moteucçomatzin,
here on the flower-mat.

A red ear-of-corn comes blooming,
twisted with quetzal-popcorn-flower.
I bring it to arrive
at the flower-court that lies here.

Many-painted is my heart —
my song.
I have come here to delight,
to give full joy
to the Giver of Life,
here on the flower-mat.

In the night — written with turquoise-bird writing —
you sing, Moteucçomatzin:
your shield-armband gleams.
Beat your flower-drum.

Turquoise-written,
the eagle-mat spreads —
the flower-court lies spread.
We bring everything together
for the Giver of Life —
various flowers scatter everywhere.

The life-sustaining flower-tree stands.
There is all delight —
dew-rain scatters over it;
by song it refreshes;
quetzal-tassels adorn it —
Mexico, here.

Only by it dwells the golden bell-bird,
singing —
Moteucçoma speaks —
quetzal-tassels adorn Mexico here.

The flower-mist has risen.
There the flower-tree stands —
there quetzal-birds live, fluttering —
as if it were Moteucçomatzin himself,
walking in flower-rain,
making himself noble.

Only there, by the flower-spring of God —
inside the writing-house, it stands —
the flower-land moved.

Moteucçomatzin,
Neçahualcoyotzin,
Totoquihuatzi —
you have come to braid
and twine together the lordship.

Come, borrow it still a little while —
your water, your mountain,
upon which the lords dwell.

Colophon

Song XXVI (manuscript heading XXVII) of the Cantares Mexicanos, translated directly from Classical Nahuatl by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Source: UNAM TEMOA digital platform (temoa.iib.unam.mx), CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

The song spans folios 19v–20r, sections 316–337 (22 sections). No descriptive rubric accompanies the manuscript heading XXVII. The song follows immediately after Song XXV (MS XXVI, §§305–315), and Song XXVII (MS XXIX) begins with a new rubric on folio 20r after §337, with MS XXVIII absent from this portion of the manuscript.

Philological notes:

§316 — "itzmolintimani xotlancuepontimanian": The paired verbs itzmolinтi (to bud, to sprout) and cuepon (to burst open) create the song's opening paradox — floral renewal arriving in the same breath as grief. The song begins with beauty and lament inseparable.

§317 — Santa Maria: A colonial-syncretic introduction of the Virgin Mary, placed on the quauhpetlatl (eagle-mat) and ocelopetlatl (jaguar-mat) — the traditional mats of Nahua lordship and warrior ceremony. The Virgin occupies the space where Tezcatlipoca or Huitzilopochtli might once have received prayer.

§318 — chimaltemo: "Shield descends" (chimal = shield, temo = to descend). The image of God's shield falling from the sky to Mexico at night — chalk-white, feather-soft — is one of the Cantares' most distinctive celestial-military images: divine protection arriving not as thunder but as the drift of feathers.

§320 — yectlin miquiztli: "The good death" or "worthy death." In Nahua theology, the xochimiquiztli (flower-death, death in battle) was the most honored death, ensuring paradise (the flower-world of the sun). Tenochtitlan's greatness here lies partly in its citizens' readiness for this worthy death.

§323 — "maquintohcxxxiv nica": A scribal notation (Roman numeral CXXXIV / 134, cross-referencing a later section) intruding into the Nahuatl text. It has been omitted from the translation as a scribe's apparatus, not part of the song.

§325 — "niMoteucçoma": The singer's identification with Moteucçoma (ni- = first person singular prefix) is one of the most striking moments in the Cantares sequence. The court song collapses the distance between singer and lord; the first-person voice of grief IS the voice of the tlatoani. This is consistent with the Cantares tradition of composed speeches from historical figures' perspectives.

§327 — çaquanpapalotl: The çaquan butterfly — likely the large orange-gold butterfly associated with fallen warriors' souls in Nahua belief. Butterfly = slain warrior in paradise (as in Song XXII, "The Butterfly"). Its arrival inside the house brings warrior-paradise imagery into the flower-court.

§336 — the Triple Alliance close: Moteucçomatzin (Mexico-Tenochtitlan), Neçahualcoyotzin (Texcoco/Acolhuacan), and Totoquihuatzi (Tlacopan) — the three rulers of the Aztec Triple Alliance. Their appearance together as those who "braid and twine together the lordship" (tecpillotl) is a formal, canonical image of the alliance's political legitimacy.

§337 — "borrow it a little while": The verb tlaneuia (to borrow) carries a characteristic Nahua theological weight: life, power, beauty — all borrowed from the Giver of Life, to be returned. The song's elegiac final note — borrowed water, borrowed mountain, borrowed time — echoes the annochipa tlalticpac ("not forever on earth") theme central to Songs XX–XXV.

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Source Text: Manuscript Heading XXVII

Nahuatl — Classical Nahuatl, Cantares Mexicanos, MS XXVII, folios 19v–20r, §§316–337
UNAM TEMOA digital platform (temoa.iib.unam.mx). Reproduced for non-commercial archival use under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

§316
Ye itzmolintimani xotlancuepontimanian çan ca inchoquiz y nitla'toaya y in Acolmitztli ya i Techontlalatzin i in Acolihuacan y in Tenochtli manca in Acamapich in Tlalhuacpa y in Teçoçomoctli yehua yncococauh intlatol no çan onnemi a ohuaya

§317
Yn quauhpetlapan ocelopetlapa ontlatlauhtilo ya a in Santa Maria ohuaya

§318
Çan chimaltemo yehuan Ypalnemohuani oyohualtemoc Mexico ya tiçatl yhuitl moyahuatihuitz tlalpan ahci ye nican ohuaya

§319
Ammonahuatil ammonecuiltonol anteteuctinin Quauhtlecohuatl in Cahualtzin y oancontlaneuhque ymahuiçco yn Ipalnemoa chimaltemoc nican a in Mexico ya ohuaya ohuaya

§320
Çan ye tenyotimani atl on yan tepetl a in Tenochtitlan y ye ica mahuiçohua ayac quimacaci yectlin miquiztli antepilhuan huiya iuh amechnahuati Ycelteotl y yehuan Dios yn amipilhuan a ohuaya

§321
Y yectlin ma yhui ac nel quiciehuiz y chimalypetlatl y ya ytlacochicpal y yehuan Dios ohuaya

§322
Ye xicyocoyacan xiquelnamiquican antepilhuan huia ac quimoyahuaz atl o yan tepetla in Tenochtitlan i aquin quitopehuaz yn itlaxillo yn ilhuicatl a ohuaya

§323
Yn maoc huel omani ya atl o yan tepetl a in Tenochtitlan y maoc çan ihuiyan techmotlatilin Ipalnemohuani ohua yya yye ohuaye ninentlamati a nica in queni tlamamaniz a ohuaya

§324
Niyanoquetzaco ya xochiithualaitic ayahue amoxtlin cueponi ye nohuehueuh huiya cuicatl notlatol aya xochitl in notlayocol in nocoyachihua y nocoyachia nica yehuan Dios aya auh nohuian chialon tlalticpac ye nican ohuaya ohuaya

§325–326
Çan noconyatemoli a ohuaye a yn itlatol huiya cuix yellely cuix no ytlayocol in noconitlanilian teteuctin antepilhuan y anquauhtamocelo can ninentlamati a niMoteucçoma y ohuaya — Çan tiyaye'coc ye nican toncuica amoxtlacuilohtihuitz huiya Ycelteotl ye'huan Dios xochithuall imanica ohuaya

§327
Timoxiuhquecholtzetzeloa Ypalnemoa a ohualacico in çaquanpapalotl calitic ayahue xochie'cacehuaztica conehcapehuia in Moteucçomatzin çan can ye nican xochinpetlapan o ohuaya ohuaya

§328
Çan tlapalxilotl oncuepontihuitz huiya ic onmalintihuitz in quetzalizquixochitl çan nichualaxitia xochiithuall imanican ohuaya

§329
Nepapan tlacuilol noyollo yehua nocuic ay yeehuaya çan noconahuiltico niccemeltian Ypalnemohuani çan can ye nican xochinpetlapan o ohuaya

§330
Yoayan ohuaye xiuhtotocalyhcuilihuica toncuica yehua tiMoteucçomatzin chimalianmaquiztonaticac y xictzotzona moxochihuehueuh ohuaya

§331
Xiuhycuiliuhtimani quauhpetlatl onoc y xochithuall imanicatoconcenquixtian Ypalnemoani nepapan xochitica yehuan tzetzeliuhtimani ya ohuaya

§332
Tonacaxochinquahuitl a onicac aya a oncan ye moch ahuia ona'huachtzetzeliuhticac aya cuicatica ya ocecelizticac onquetzalmiyahuayoticac aya Mexico nican aya ohuaya

§333
Çan ye itech onnemia teocuitlacoyoliantototl oncuica ya tlatohua Moteucçoma ycccxlii onquetzalmiahuayoticac aya Mexico nican aya ohuaya

§334
Yn xochiayahuitl onquiztoc yan ye onca o a oncan ya icac y xochinnquahuitl aya a oncan ya nemian quetzaliantototl moçouhtinemi a in tlaca'ço yehuatl in Moteucçomatzin xochiahuactica yan aya moyectitinenemi a a ohuaya ohuaya

§335
Çan ye oncan o ohuaye yxochinquiapan yehuan Dios huiya ytlacuilolcalitec oncan ya icac y xochitla olinticatca ohuaya ohuaya

§336
Moteucçomatzin Neçahualcoyotzin Totoquihuatzi anquimalinaco anquilacatzoa y in tecpillotl a ohuaya ohuaya

§337
Maoc cuel achic xocontlaneuhcan amauh amotepeuh ypan a monoque a in teteuctin a ohuaya

Source Colophon

Nahuatl source text from the Cantares Mexicanos manuscript, UNAM TEMOA digital platform (temoa.iib.unam.mx/cantares-cantares-mexicanos/), folios 19v–20r. Reproduced for non-commercial archival use under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

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