Song XXVII — XXIX (Eagles Spread Out)
Song XXVII carries manuscript heading XXIX and spans six sections across folios 20r and 20v (§§338–343). Manuscript heading XXVIII is absent from this portion of the Cantares — Song XXVII follows Song XXVI (MS XXVII) directly, as Song XXVIII (MS XXX) begins immediately after.
The song is tightly compressed — a martial invocation rather than a narrative. Its structural backbone is the kenning atl y tepetl ("water and mountain"), the standard Nahuatl phrase for Tenochtitlan, the city rising from the lake. Six sections articulate the same vision from different angles: the eagle and jaguar warriors spreading out in battle formation; the flowers of war scattering; Moteucçoma governing at the center; dancing and the intertwining of eagle-nature and jaguar-nature; noble children bound together in that warrior identity; and finally the Triple Alliance lords — Totoquihuatzin of Tlacopan and Yohyontzin — declaring that by arrows and shields the water-mountain stands.
The song ends without elegy. Unlike the surrounding songs in the Cantares, which tend toward lamentation and the "not forever on earth" theme, Song XXVII closes with an affirmation: the city stands. The cross-references embedded in the Nahuatl text (§§338 and 343 each carry "etcetera" plus a section number pointing to §§345 and 350 respectively) indicate that the song's refrains were to be sung together with those sections of another song — a performance practice in which songs were interwoven rather than sung in isolation.
Song XXVII spans folios 20r–20v, sections 338–343. 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.
Eagles spread out,
jaguars spread out —
they stand, they move.
Arrows fly.
The water, the mountain —
Mexico —
ohuaya.
There is clamor.
The beautiful flowers of war
scatter everywhere —
so many flowers,
shaken out
by the very great one.
ohuaya.
The eagle is born there.
The jaguar roars there —
there in Mexico.
There you rule,
you, Moteucçoma.
ohuaya.
There is dancing there.
There they intertwine —
eagle-nature,
jaguar-nature —
they know each other.
ohuaya.
With eagle-flower cords
you stand here,
water and mountain.
In the jaguar-flower place
the noble children
are entwined —
Moteucçomatzin,
Cáhualtzin.
ohuaya.
Totoquihuatzin,
Yohyontzin —
by our arrows,
by our shields,
the water and the mountain
stands.
yhiya yyaho.
Colophon
Song XXVII (manuscript heading XXIX) 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 20r–20v, sections 338–343 (six sections). Manuscript heading XXVIII is absent from this sequence; Song XXVII follows Song XXVI (MS XXVII) directly, with Song XXVIII (MS XXX) beginning at the heading on folio 20v.
Philological notes:
§338 — quauhuimania / ocelomania: Compound verb forms: quauhtli (eagle) + -mania (to lie spread, to extend) and ocelotl (jaguar) + -mania. The verb mania specifically evokes warriors spreading across a field in formation — not random dispersal but the ordered deployment of a war-band. Eagle and jaguar warriors (quauhtli and ocelotl) were the two elite warrior societies of the Mexica; together they represent the full strength of the city.
§338 — ca'calihua: From cacalhuia or caca'loa — the noise and movement of arrows being launched. Onomatopoeic in register: the word carries the crack and whistle of flight. Spanish TEMOA gloss: "se lanzan flechas" (arrows are shot/hurled).
§338 — atl y tepetl: The canonical kenning for Tenochtitlan: atl (water) y (and) tepetl (mountain). The city built on an island in Lake Texcoco was its "water and mountain" — a standard Nahuatl metaphor for any settlement, but here specifically Tenochtitlan. The same kenning closes §§342 and 343, giving the song its structural refrain.
§339 — yectli yaohaye nepapan xochitl: "The beautiful flowers of war" — yectli (beautiful, worthy, good) modifying nepapan xochitl (various flowers). The "flowers of war" (yaoxochitl or the compound here) are the slain warriors themselves, fallen in the flower-death (xochimiquiztli). The war-flowers "scatter" and "make clamor" — a compressed image of battle and its aftermath.
§340 — tiMoteucçomay: Second-person singular identification with Moteucçoma, using the ti- prefix (you): "you are Moteucçoma." Parallel to niMoteucçoma ("I am Moteucçoma") in Song XXVI §325, where the singer merged identities with the king. Here the direct address maintains the reversal — the king is summoned as the song's addressee.
§341 — quauhyotl / oceloyotl: Abstract nouns formed with -yotl (suffix of essence/quality): quauhyotl = "eagle-hood," the quality of being an eagle warrior; oceloyotl = "jaguar-hood." The section describes these warrior essences intertwining and recognizing each other (onmiximati). In the ceremonial context, the dance (onnentotilo) would have been a warrior dance in which eagle and jaguar warriors moved and wove together in formation.
§342 — Cáhualtzin: Also appears in Song XXVI §319, listed as one of the lords through whom the "glory of the Giver of Life" is borrowed. A Texcocan or allied lord; the name recurs across the Cantares in the company of Moteucçoma. His appearance here binds this song to the court-praise sequence of the preceding songs.
§343 — Totoquihuatzin / Yohyontzin: Totoquihuatzin is the lord of Tlacopan, the third partner in the Triple Alliance (Tenochtitlan–Texcoco–Tlacopan). Yohyontzin is less certain — possibly a senior lord of Tenochtitlan or a Tlacopan noble. Together with Moteucçoma and Cáhualtzin in §342, these names form a Triple Alliance close that mirrors Songs XXIV and XXVI. The closing affirmation — mani atl y tepetl (the water-mountain stands) — is unusually confident for the Cantares, which more often speaks of borrowed glory and coming loss.
Cross-references: §338 ends "etcetera cccxlv" (cross-reference to §345, in Song XXVIII); §343 ends "etcetera cccl" (cross-reference to §350, also in Song XXVIII). These are scribal performance markers indicating that the refrain lines of this song were shared with or derived from those sections — a common practice in the Cantares, where songs were chained together by shared refrains in performance.
Source text note: The Nahuatl text of §§338–343 was accessed via the UNAM TEMOA digital platform. Some connecting particles and minor grammatical words (articles, emphatics) were partially obscured in the TEMOA interface; these have been reconstructed from context and are marked in the source text below with brackets. The significant content words — roots, verb forms, proper names — were all legible. No existing English translation was consulted during the translation process.
🌲
Source Text
Nahuatl — Classical Nahuatl, Cantares Mexicanos, MS XXIX, folios 20r–20v, §§338–343
UNAM TEMOA digital platform (temoa.iib.unam.mx). Reproduced for non-commercial archival use under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
Note: connecting particles in brackets were reconstructed from context; content words fully legible.
§338
Quauhuimania ocelomania manian huin ca'calihua huin [a] atl [y]an tepetl [a in] Mexico [a] ohuaya etcetera cccxlv
§339
Yhcahuaca yohui yyo ohuili yectli yaohaye nepapan xochitl çan quitzetzeloa [a] huel [in] huey aquin [on]mani ohuaya etcetera
§340
Quauhtli oncan tlacati ocelotl [oncan] tla'toaye oncan [a in] Mexico [a] oncan tontla'toa yehua tiMoteucçomay ohuaya etcetera
§341
[Nican a] oncan [a] onnentotilo [nican a] oncan [a] onmomamalina [in] quauhyotl [a] onmiximati oceloyotl [a] ohuaya etcetera
§342
Quauhuixochimecatica oye a'antoc [a in] atl [y]an tepetl oceloxochitla [in] onmomalintoque [in] tépilhuan [in] Moteucçomatzin [a] Cáhualtzin [aya] yya yyao ahuao ayeo ayeohuaya ohuaya
§343
[A in] Totoquihuatzin yehua Yohyontzin [in] tomiuh yca yan tochimal yca [y]ca mani atl [y]an tepetl yhiya yyaho etcetera cccl
Source Colophon
Nahuatl source text from the Cantares Mexicanos manuscript, UNAM TEMOA digital platform (temoa.iib.unam.mx/cantares-cantares-mexicanos/), folios 20r–20v. Reproduced for non-commercial archival use under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
🌲