Song XXXIII — XXXVI (Only an Orphan-Flower)

Song XXXIII carries manuscript heading XXXVI and occupies folio 23r in full (§§404–415), opening immediately after Song XXXII. The folio begins fresh with this song — no absent heading in the sequence here. Folio 23v opens with manuscript headings XXXVII and XXXVIII, placing the boundary of this song cleanly at §415.

The song unfolds in four movements. §§404–405 open with a nature image and a colonial-syncretic identification: the white willow and white reed stand in Mexico, and the matlalaztatototl — the blue water-bird, a heron of deep blue-green plumage — comes flying. The address shifts immediately: you are God, Holy Spirit. The identification of the Holy Spirit with the bird of the waters echoes the baptism narrative (John 1:32), here absorbed into the Nahuatl bird-world. §405 sustains the address — the Spirit hovers and makes beautiful with tail and wings, and speaks always to its people in Mexico.

§§406–408 turn to the political register. Let none wander in grief, the singer declares to Moctezuma and Totoquihuatzi: who would dare harm the Giver of Life? He came to seize sky and earth. §407 produces a striking image — the word of the lords spirals like war-fire (tlachinolmilini) to the four directions, making dawn for Tenochtitlan. Moctezuma and Nezahualpilli of Acolhuacan are named together, the Triple Alliance's east and center. §408 then pivots to grief: with quetzal-wing-fanning the sighs scatter; the rhetorical question is raised — how does it stand, the water-mountain Tenochtitlan? — and answered with a bare assurance: God is here.

§§409–412 are the song's emotional center, a four-section devotional humility sequence. The singer asks: why do I begin and sing before our Father in vain? I am only poor. §410 calls for those who are truly skilled — the turquoise-ones who can blow and coil the song — before acknowledging again: but I am poor. §§411–412 are the climax: the singer offers to God what he has, which is little. He is only a singer (çan nicuicanitl). Before God's face he sighs truly, in orphan-state (icnopillotica). And the offering is named in its full poverty: çan icnoxochitl yn çan icnocuicatl — only an orphan-flower, only an orphan-song. The formula repeats across §§411–412, the second asking "where do we walk, breathing out our sighs?" and noting that God is awaited everywhere in the whole world. Together the two sections form a doubled devotional antiphon — the same closing dedication offered twice as if to make certain it arrives.

The icnoxochitl / icnocuicatl formula is one of the most characteristic devotional phrases in the Cantares. Icno- derives from icnotl, the state of being an orphan or of being bereft, without kin, alone. The orphan's flower and orphan's song are genuine precisely because they are given from nothing — the widowed, the bereaved, the one who has no other resource. The singer's poverty before God is not false modesty; it is a Nahuatl category of authentic offering.

§§413–414 brief the singer's own craft: here I set up my singing; the flower stands, the song stands. He strings jade, works gold, blows and binds his song — the metalworker image for the poet fashioning his work. §415 brings the identity declaration that closes so many of the Cantares: God, I am poor yet I gladden you. I say this — niTotoquihuatzi — I am Totoquihuatzi. And the call repeats once more: let him come from everywhere who can truly gladden you; let him come from everywhere who can speak your song. The identity is both a royal claim and a self-offering — the singer takes on the name and weight of the Tlacopan lord and presents that identity, and its song, before the Giver of Life.

Totoquihuatzi (fl. c. 1430–1461) was the ruler of Tlacopan (Tacuba), the third and lesser partner of the Triple Alliance alongside Tenochtitlan and Texcoco. In the Cantares he is typically paired with Moctezuma and Nezahualpilli as the standard Triple Alliance invocation. His name recurs across many songs — but the declaration "I am Totoquihuatzi" is comparatively rare. It links Song XXXIII to Song XXVI ("I am Moctezuma") and Song XXXII ("I am Moquihuitzin") as part of a Cantares pattern of singer-king identification.

Scribal note: §§404, 408, 410, and 413 each carry the scribe's etcetera marker, indicating that the section continued in performance with a refrain not written out. The full refrain texts are not recoverable from this source.

Song XXXIII spans folio 23r, sections 404–415. 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.

White willow stands,
white reed stands here in Mexico.
You, the blue water-bird, come flying —
you are with us, you are God,
Holy Spirit.

It is you —
over them you hover,
over them you make them beautiful
with your tail, with your wings.
Your people, always —
you speak here in Mexico.

Let none wander in grief —
Moctezuma, Totoquihuatzi —
who would harm the Giver of Life?
He came to seize the sky,
he came to take the earth.

Like war-fire their word spirals,
resounding to the four directions,
dawning upon the water-mountain,
upon Tenochtitlan —
Moctezuma, Nezahualpilli of Acolhuacan.

With quetzal-wing-fanning
the sighs and griefs are scattered.
How does it stand —
the water-mountain, Tenochtitlan?
What does God say?
He is here.

Why in vain do I begin,
why in vain do I sing
before our Father, before God,
Giver of Life?
I am only poor.

Let him come from everywhere
who can truly gladden you, Giver of Life —
the turquoise-skilled,
those who blow and coil the song.
But I am poor.

May I gladden you —
may I not feel emptiness in vain.
I am only a singer,
sighing truly before your face in humility.
Only an orphan-flower,
only an orphan-song
I offer to you, O Lord,
Only God, Giver of Life.

Where do we walk,
breathing out our inner sighs,
O Giver of Life?
Everywhere in the whole world
you are awaited.
Only an orphan-flower,
only an orphan-song
I offer to you, O Lord,
Only God, Giver of Life.

Here I set up my singing —
the flower stands,
the song stands.

I string jade, I work gold —
I blow my song into being.
With jade I bind my song.

God — I am poor, yet I gladden you.
I say this: I am Totoquihuatzi.
Let him come from everywhere
who can truly gladden you;
let him come from everywhere
who can speak your song.

Colophon

Song XXXIII of the Cantares Mexicanos. Manuscript heading XXXVI. Twelve sections on folio 23r (TEMOA §§404–415).

The song opens with a nature setting — yztac huexotl (white willow) and yztac tolin (white reed), both water-margin plants of the lakeshore environment surrounding Tenochtitlan — and immediately introduces a colonial-syncretic bird identification. The matlalaztatototl is a deep blue-green water bird, likely the little blue heron (Egretta caerulea) or tricolored heron (Egretta tricolor). Its name derives from matlalli (deep blue-green) and aztatl (heron, white egret). Here the bird is named as God and Holy Spirit (titeotl Spiritu Santo) — a direct Christian identification of the Spirit's descent at baptism (John 1:32, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and remaining on him") transposed into the Nahuatl bird-world. The bird hovers and beautifies with its wings; it speaks always to its people in Mexico. §§404–405 are among the more purely Christian-register openings in the Cantares.

§§406–408 constitute a standard Triple Alliance political invocation, here framed as reassurance. Macac nenemi anmotlaocol — let none of you wander in grief — addressed to Moctezuma and Totoquihuatzi. Ac nel quitlacohtiz yn Ipalnemoa — who would harm the Giver of Life? The question is rhetorical: the answer is no one, because he came to seize sky and earth. §407's tlachinolmilini is a verbal noun from tlachino (to burn/scorch, as in war-burning) and milini (to revolve, spiral, twist): the lords' word spirals like battle-fire to the four directions and makes dawn (quitlahuizcallotia) for Tenochtitlan. The three named lords — Moctezuma, Totoquihuatzi, Nezahualpilli — are the Triple Alliance; their word collectively illuminates the city. §408 then introduces grief into this political confidence: elcicihuin tlaocoyan — sighs and a place of grief — and the rhetorical question about Tenochtitlan is answered only by "he is here." The confidence is real but fragile.

§§409–412 are the song's interior core — a devotional humility sequence structured as a rhetorical descent. The singer asks tle çan nen — why in vain, for nothing — as if questioning whether his offering is worthy at all. §410 gestures outward: let those come who are truly skilled, the xiuhtlamatiloltican (those possessing turquoise-wisdom). The word combines xiuhitl (turquoise, precious blue-green stone) with tlamatiliztli (knowledge, skill, wisdom) — those whose craft is as refined and precious as jade itself. Quipitzan quimamalin cuicatl: they blow and coil the song — pitza is to blow, as in blowing a flute, and mamalia is to twist or spiral. The song is here a physical act of breath and spinning.

§§411–412 produce the doubled orphan-flower formula. Çan nicuicanitl — I am only a singer. Icnopillotica — in orphan-state: this instrumental form (-tica) marks the manner, "with/in the condition of an orphan." Nelcicihui — truly sighing (nel = truly; cicihui = to sigh, to breathe out with effort). Mixpan — before your face (the honorific second-person-face locative). Then the offering: çan icnoxochitl yn çan icnocuicatl — only an orphan-flower, only an orphan-song. These paired terms are among the most culturally significant self-deprecation formulas in Nahuatl devotional poetry. Icno- derives from icnotl, orphanhood or bereavement, the state of being without one's family or without one's person (nopillotzin, my noble one). The flower and song the singer offers are poor, like what an orphan gives — yet precisely for that reason genuine. Nimitzonehuilian tlacatl in Icelteotl — I offer it to you, O Lord, Only God (Icelteotl, unique/only God, the supreme divine name also appearing in §417 across the folio boundary). §412 repeats the formula after the question canin tinemian — where do we walk — which frames the whole world as a place of waiting: nohuian tichialo cemanahuac, everywhere in the whole world you are awaited.

§§413–414 shift to craft imagery. Yan noncuicayan — here I set up my singing (the first-person reflexive noncuica- establishes a personal singing-place). Nichalchiuhmamali teocuitlatl — I string jade, I work gold: chalchiuhmamalia is to work or string jade (chalchihuitl), while teocuitlatl (divine-excrement, gold) is introduced as the second precious material. Nicpitza ye nocuic — I blow my song: the metalworker blowing the bellows and the musician blowing the flute share the verb. Chalchihuitl nicçaloa ye nocuic — with jade I bind my song (çaloa = to bind, lace together). The song is wrought like goldwork, strung like a jade necklace.

§415 closes with the identity declaration: niTotoquihuatzi — I am Totoquihuatzi. This echoes the singer-king identification pattern recurring across the Cantares: Song XXVI ("niMoteucçoma"), Song XXXII ("niMoquihuitzi"). Here the figure is Totoquihuatzi, the lord of Tlacopan, third member of the Triple Alliance, whose name appears throughout the Cantares as the companion of Moctezuma and Nezahualpilli. The declaration "I am poor, yet I gladden you" (ninotolinia nimitzonahuiltia) combines the devotional humility of §§409–412 with the royal identity — the king-singer offering his poverty and his name together. The song closes with the call: ma cuincan huitz huel in mitzahuiltiz / huel in quitomaz mocuic — let him come from everywhere who can truly gladden you / who can speak your song. The song ends as it opened: as invitation, as offering, as the word of Totoquihuatzi laid before the Giver of Life.

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 XXXVI

§404
Yztac huexotlaya yztac tolin y ye imanica Mexico nica huiya timatlalaztatototl tipatlantihuitz tehuan titeotl Spiritu Santo ohuaya etcetera

§405
O anca ye tehuatl aya ypan ticçohua ya ypan ticyectia in ye mocuitlapil yn ye matlapal aya yn momacehual y cemihcac in çan tontlatoa yehua Mexico nica huiya ohuaya

§406
Macac ano ya huia nenemi yehua anmotlaocol aya Moteucçomatzin in Totoquihuatzi ac nel quitlacohtiz yn Ipalnemoa ca quitzitzquico in ilhuicatl aya in tlalticpac ohuaya etcetera

§407
O anca tlachinolmilini intlatol ye coyaihtoa y nauhcampa yyaoo quitlahuizcallotia in atl o yan tepetl yn Tenochtitlan y Moteucçomatzin Necahualpillin Acolihuacan a ohuaya ohuaya

§408
Çan quetzalehcacehuaztica oneyacalhuilotoc y elcicihuin tlaocoyan ohuaye quen onmani yn atl o yan tepetl in Tenochtitlan y quen quitoa Dios a y yece ye nican ohuaya etcetera

§409
Tle çan nen nompehua noncuica ixpan in totatzin yehuan Dios Ypalnemoa huiya çan ninotolinia o aye o aye ohuaye

§410
Ma cuincan a huitz yn huelin mitzahuiltiz Ypalnemoa xiuhtlamatiloltican quipitzan quimamalin cuicatl auh in nehuan ninotolinia o aye o etcetera

§411
Tla nimitzonahuilti tla ca nen ninentlamati a çan nicuicanitl huia icnopillotica nelcicihui mixpan y çan icnoxochitl yn çan icnocuicatl yn nimitzonehuilian tlacatl in Icelteotl Ypalnemoa ohuaya ohuaya

§412
Canin tinemian tonelelquixtilon Ipalnemoani nohuian tichialo cemanahuac yn çan icnoxochitl yn çan icnocuicatl yn nimitzonehuilian tlacatl in Icelteotl Ypalnemoa ohuaya ohuaya

§413
Yan noncuicayan y on man ic y xochitl on man ic yn cuicatl ahua yya yya ayio huiya etcetera

§414
Nichalchiuhmamali teocuitlatl nicpitza ye nocuic chalchihuitl nicçaloa ye nocuic o ayio aya ayio huiya

§415
Dios aya ninotolinia nimitzonahuiltia nic ihtoa yeehuaya niTotoquihuatzi ma cuincan huitz huel in mitzahuiltiz ma cuincan huitz huel in quitomaz mocuic ohuaya ohuaya

Source Colophon

Classical Nahuatl source text from the Cantares Mexicanos manuscript (folio 23r, sections 404–415), 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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