Song XXXI — XXXIII (In the Flower-Courtyard)
Song XXXI carries manuscript heading XXXIII and spans eight sections across folios 22r through 22v (§§388–395). It is one of the shorter songs in the Cantares — tight, lyric, and in two clearly distinct movements.
The first movement (§§388–391) opens with an apostrophe to the red izquixóchitl: the fragrant flower blooms in Mexico, its perfume spreading over the world and falling upon the people. Jade scatters; a flower is born. The song rises. Then the register shifts to grief. Bells rang within the plain — and there Tlacahuepantzin was left. The same Acolhua lord mourned in Song XXI reappears here, hidden now in Quenonamican, spreading yellow flowers as his fragrance. §391 addresses him as a red quechol bird hiding in Chicomoztoc — the mythic seven-caved origin-mountain of the Chichimec peoples — while eagle and jaguar weep. The red quechol is the warrior's soul in the flower-afterlife: the soul flies within the plain, in the place of no return.
The second movement (§§392–395) turns entirely to the singer's own voice. He dwells in the flower-courtyard and lifts his song. He has arrived before God our Father, adorned with fan and jade ornament. The song and flowers have come — from within the sky. He approaches wearing a cord of cacao flowers and quetzal-blossoms. The movement is one of joyful presentness: the singer is here, before God, wearing beauty.
The izquixóchitl (Bourreria huanita) is among the most praised flowers in Nahuatl poetry — fragrant, white-petaled with an orange throat, worn in ceremonies and woven into garlands. The tlapali- prefix marks it as red or crimson-bright. The image of the flower blooming in Mexico and spreading fragrance over the world is an imperial cosmological claim: the Mexica world-center radiates sacred beauty outward.
Song XXXI spans folios 22r–22v, sections 388–395. 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.
You, red izquixóchitl —
you bloom here in Mexico.
Your fragrance spreads
over all the world;
it falls upon the people.
Jade scatters —
a flower is born.
It is your song:
you lift it here in Mexico.
Your flower blazes.
The bells rang out,
they rose within the plain.
There he was left —
Tlacahuepantzin.
With yellow flowers
he spreads his fragrance
in Quenonamican.
Ohuaya ohuaya.
You hide in Chicomoztoc
where the mesquite stands.
The eagle cries out;
the jaguar weeps.
You, red quechol bird —
you go flying
within the plain,
in Quenonamican.
Ohuaya ohuaya.
In the flower-courtyard I dwell —
in the flower-courtyard
I lift my song.
I, the singer.
Huiya.
Just now I came
into the presence of God our Father —
my precious fan,
my jade ornament.
Our song has arrived.
Our flowers have arrived.
I, the singer —
from within the sky.
Ohuaye.
With cacao flowers,
with a cord of quetzal-blossoms,
I come adorned —
I, the singer.
Colophon
Song XXXI of the Cantares Mexicanos. Manuscript heading XXXIII. Eight sections across folios 22r–22v (TEMOA §§388–395).
The song moves in two registers. §§388–389 open with the red izquixóchitl blooming in Mexico, jade scattering, the song rising — a cosmological image of Mexica beauty radiating outward. §§390–391 shift to elegy: Tlacahuepantzin, the Acolhua lord mourned also in Song XXI, has been left in Quenonamican. He is reimagined as a red quechol bird hiding in Chicomoztoc — the mythic origin-cave of the Chichimec — while eagle and jaguar weep. The red quechol is the conventional poetic figure for the warrior's soul in the flower-paradise. §§392–395 then turn entirely to the singer's arrival: he dwells in the flower-courtyard, lifts his song before God our Father, and comes adorned with cacao flowers and a cord of quetzal-blossoms. The colonial-syncretic figure "God our Father" (Dios yehuan totatzin) appears in §393.
The name Tlacahuepantzin (§390) recurs from Song XXI (§§274–275) — he is an Acolhua lord mourned in Quenonamican alongside Nezahualpilli and Ixtlilcuechahuac. His reappearance here suggests an Acolhua grief-tradition preserved across multiple songs.
Chicomoztoc (§391) — the seven-caved mountain of ancestral Chichimec mythology — is an unusual afterlife image. Quenonamican is the conventional paradise; Chicomoztoc is the origin. The soul hiding in Chicomoztoc may carry the sense of returning to a primordial origin, prior to and beyond the plain of Quenonamican.
Translated directly from Classical Nahuatl. Molina's Vocabulario (1571) and Karttunen's Analytical Dictionary consulted for lexical verification only. No prior English translation of the Cantares Mexicanos in its entirety existed at the time of this translation; all English independently derived from the Nahuatl source.
New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text: Manuscript Heading XXXIII
§388
Titlapalyhuixochitl aya ticueponticac y Mexico nica huiya tonahuiaxtimani cemanahuac y tepan motecaya
§389
Chalchiuhtlin chayahuac ye xochitl ya tlacati ye mocuic çan toconyaehuaya Mexico nica moxochiuh tonatiman
§390
Oyohualla ihcahuaca ixtlahuatl itic y oncan ye cahualoc Tlacahuepantzin coçahuic xochitica onahuiaxtia Quenonamican o ohuaya ohuaya
§391
Çan ye tonmotlatia in Chicomoztoc mizquitl yncaca quauhtlin tzatzi a ocelotl chocac y titlauhquecholin ye tonpatlantinemi a ixtlahuatl ytic in Quenonamican ohuaya ohuaya
§392
Xochiithualco ninemi xochiithualco niquehua nocuic nicuicanitl huiya tantili yao yyaoo
§393
Çani ya hualacico ixpan in Dios yehuan totatzin huiya noquetzalehcacehuaz nohualcalcozqui
§394
Ohualacic in tocuic ohualacic toxochiuh ohuaye in nicuicanitl huiya á ilhuicatliticpa
§395
Cacahuaxochitl y quetzalizquixochimecatica ninahpantihuitz aya y nicuicanitl
Source Colophon
Classical Nahuatl source text from the Cantares Mexicanos manuscript (folio 22r–22v, sections 388–395), as transcribed and made available by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México through the TEMOA digital platform (temoa.iib.unam.mx). Reproduced for non-commercial archival use under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
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