Song XXXII — XXXV (Will We Use It Up?)

Song XXXII carries manuscript heading XXXV and occupies folio 22v in full (§§396–403), immediately following Song XXXI. MS XXXIV is absent from the manuscript — a gap comparable to the missing MS XXVIII noted earlier in the sequence.

The song moves through three registers. §§396–397 open with a second-person address to Moquihuitzin: the lord goes seated on a golden flower-necklace mat; the singer names him — noble one, lord of men — and presents before him the turquoise-quechol throne and red-quechol mat of God. §§398–399 shift to the singer's own devotional voice: the broad quetzal feather turns and through it his beautiful song is known; he invites the children to rejoice with him; to the home they carry flowers, to the home the song descends. Then §§400–401 pivot sharply — the singer identifies himself as Moquihuitzin, wandering in grief on earth, composing alone, calling to mind joy and happiness. And twice he raises the refrain: "Will we use it up?" (cuix tictlamitazque). §§402–403 close on the cosmic: Tenochtitlan stands like a jade wheel; the lords glide alongside it; flower-mist settles upon the people; and God speaks his song through all of Anahuac.

The singer-as-lord identification ("niMoquihuitzi" — I am Moquihuitzin, §400) is a recurring Cantares gesture: in Song XXVI the singer declared "niMoteucçoma." Here the figure drawn upon is Moquihuixtli, last king of Tlatelolco, defeated and killed by Axayacatl in 1473 when Tlatelolco was absorbed into Tenochtitlan. He is a lord of grief, a fallen king — his name carried into poetry as the type of the noble soul who wanders bereft yet still composes. The identification is both royal and elegiac.

The refrain "cuix tictlamitazque" — will we use it up? will we exhaust it? — is a flower-song philosophical marker. Joy, beauty, song, life: these are given to us. Will we consume them? Will they run out before we do? The question recurs across the Cantares (cf. Song XVII) as a Nahuatl existential register distinct from grief alone — it carries desire, wonder, and apprehension in the same breath.

The colonial-syncretic layer is light here: §403 names "our Father" (totatzin) in what reads as a Nahuatl-Christian conflation of Ypalnemoani with God the Father. §402's jade-wheel image of Tenochtitlan (chalchimmalacatl — jade-spindle, jade wheel) is a striking cosmological figure: the city standing like a spinning jade disc, sunbeams radiating from it like light from a quetzal.

Song XXXII spans folio 22v, sections 396–403. 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.

On a golden flower-necklace mat you go —
there it stands.
You are the noble one,
you are the lord of men;
you are Moquihuitzin.
Huiya.

You spread out the turquoise-quechol throne,
the red-quechol mat of God.

Only the broad quetzal feather turns —
through it my beautiful song is known.
I, the singer, delight.
I see the flower; I take up my song.
Rejoice with it, you children.

To the home they carry flowers;
to the home the song descends.
What do your hearts know,
you children?

I alone compose it all.
I wander in grief on earth —
I am Moquihuitzin.
I call to mind joy and happiness.
Will we use it up?
Ohuaya ohuaya.

I walk everywhere; I speak everywhere.
Flowers turn back; songs circle.
There my heart lives.
Will we use it up?
Ohuaye ohuaye.

Like a jade wheel stands the water-mountain.
Quetzal-sunbeam radiates here in Mexico.
The lords glide alongside it;
flower-mist settles upon the people.
Ohuaya.

So this is your home, Giver of Life —
so here you speak, our Father.
Unique God,
through all of Anahuac your song has come;
it settles upon the people.

Colophon

Song XXXII of the Cantares Mexicanos. Manuscript heading XXXV. Eight sections on folio 22v (TEMOA §§396–403). MS XXXIV is absent from the manuscript sequence, continuing the pattern noted at MS XXVIII.

The song opens with a throne-presentation: the singer addresses Moquihuitzin seated on the teocuitlaxochincozcapetlatl — the golden flower-necklace mat — and declares him the lord of men. §397 presents the divine furnishings: xiuhquecholycpal (turquoise-quechol throne) and tlauhquecholpetlatl (red-quechol mat) belonging to God. The turquoise-quechol (xiuhquechol) and the red-quechol (tlauhquechol, likely the rose-spoonbill or a scarlet-tailed bird) are paired divine birds recurrent in the Cantares as furnishings of the sacred seat.

§§398–399 turn to the singer's own voice: the broad quetzal feather (quetzallin patlahuac) turns — a standard image for the quetzal plume in ceremonial motion — and through it the song is made known. He invites "the children" (antepilhuan) to rejoice. §399 closes with the flower-and-song carried home and the gentle question to the listeners: does your heart know it?

§§400–401 are the song's emotional center. "Çan mochi nicyoyocoya" — I alone compose it all (yoyocoya, to originate or invent). "ninenentlamaticon tlalticpac" — I wander in grief on earth (nentlamatini, the one who feels lacking, bereft). Then the identification: "niMoquihuitzi" — I am Moquihuitzin. This is the elegiac I, the wandering royal composer. Cuix tictlamitazque — will we use it up? — closes both §§400 and 401 as a structural refrain. Tlamia means to use up, exhaust, bring to an end; the first-person plural raises the question communally: we, singers and listeners together, calling to mind joy and happiness (ahuillotl, papaquiztli) — will we exhaust these before they exhaust us?

§402 shifts to the civic-cosmic register. Chalchimmalacayotimani — the jade-wheel stands (malacatl = spindle, wheel, disc): Tenochtitlan rendered as a spinning jade wheel. Quetzaltonameyotimani — quetzal-sunbeam radiates (tonameyotl = sunray). The lords (teteuctin) glide alongside (neyacalhuiloa). Flower-mist (xochiayahuitl — ayahuitl is fine rain, drizzle, mist) falls upon the people.

§403 completes the movement to God. "O anca ye mochan á Ipalnemoani" — so this is your home, Giver of Life. The Ipalnemoani / Ypalnemohuani epithet (He by Whom We Live, Giver of Life) is the supreme divine name in the Cantares. Through Anahuac — the entire Mexica world — God's song has come, and it settles (motecaya) upon the people: the same verb used in §402 for the flower-mist.

Folio boundary note: UNAM TEMOA places manuscript heading XXXV at the opening of folio 22v. The preceding song (Song XXXI, this archive) was filed as §§388–395, with §§392–395 on folio 22v. If XXXV begins at the very first section of 22v (§392), then §§392–395 formally belong to Song XXXII (MS XXXV), not Song XXXI (MS XXXIII) — making Song XXXII twelve sections, not eight. This boundary question has been escalated to Kshatriya for investigation. The present file conservatively begins at §396, the section following the last XXXIII-attributed material.

Translated directly from Classical Nahuatl. Molina's Vocabulario (1571) and Karttunen's Analytical Dictionary consulted for lexical verification only. No prior complete English translation of the Cantares Mexicanos 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 XXXV

§396
Çan teocuitlaxochincozcapetlatl o ipan tiya onca huiya timopiltzin o can titlacateuctli çan tiMoquihuitzin tilili ohama ayyo huiya

§397
Çan tocontimaloa yxiuhquecholycpal ytlauhquecholpetlatl yehuan Dios y tilili

§398
Çan quetzallin patlahuac y ye huitolihuic ipan ye momati a yectli nocuic huiya nicuicanitl nahahuia nic itta xochitl o nic ehua nocuic ma ica xonahuiacan antepilhuan ay yohuiya

§399
O a ichan itquihuan i xochitl o a ychan temohuilon cuicatl at ai uh quimati a anmoyol antepilhuan ay yohuiya

§400
Çan mochi nicyoyocoya yehuaya ninenentlamaticon tlalticpac y niMoquihuitzi nic eelnamiquin ahuillotl in papaquizyotl aya cuix tictlamitazque yehua ohuaya

§401
Çan nohuian nonne'nemi yehuaya nohuian nontlatoa yehuaya xochitl y cuepoya cuicatl y yahualiuhcan aya in oncan nemi a noyollo ahuayya ohuaye cuix tictlamitazque yehua ohuaya

§402
Chalchimmalacayotimanin atl o yan tepetl huiya çan quetzaltonameyotimani Mexico nican huiya itlan neyacalhuilotoc in teteuctin y xochiayahuitl in tepan motecaya ohuaya

§403
O anca ye mochan á Ipalnemoani o anca ye nican yntontla'tohua yehuan totatzin aya Ycelteotl y Anahuac in hualcaco mocuic intepan motecaya

Source Colophon

Classical Nahuatl source text from the Cantares Mexicanos manuscript (folio 22v, sections 396–403), 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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