Song XXXIV — XXXVII (Draw from the Painted Flower)

Song XXXIV carries manuscript heading XXXVII and occupies folio 23v, opening immediately after Song XXXIII on folio 23r. The folio boundary is confirmed by the sequence: Song XXXIII ended at §415 with "let him come from everywhere who can speak your song" — and §416 opens this song with a direct continuation of that invitation, Totoquihuatzi's song undulating as the singer wonders how a person can truly approach such music. Folio 23v carries two manuscript headings (XXXVII and XXXVIII); the boundary between them is treated as falling after §424, where the major thematic arc closes. Sections §§425–426 use a distinct closing refrain ("ohuaya aye huiya" vs. the standard "ohuaya ohuaya") and shift thematically toward the "joy with God" register that opens Song XXXV — they are tentatively assigned to Song XXXV, but Kshatriya should verify against the manuscript facsimile.

The song moves through six distinct registers. §416 is an extension of Song XXXIII's close: the invitation formula continues — Totoquihuatzi's song undulates like a wave, and the singer asks how a person truly approaches the turquoise-shield, how one scrapes at the flower-drum. The section forms a bridge, carrying the send-off energy of XXXIII into a new song.

§§417–418 introduce the central image that gives this translation its title. Three birds alight at the Giver of Life: the tzinitzcan (trogon, Trogon mexicanus — the brilliant mountain trogon of iridescent green and red), the quechol (roseate spoonbill or scarlet macaw, symbol of sacrificial red), and the xiuhtototl (the blue cotinga, Cotinga amabilis, whose name means "turquoise-bird"). Over these three the Giver of Life contemplates himself — his heart rejoices — and from below the birds draw from the tlacuilolxochitl, the painted or written flower. The term fuses two Nahuatl arts: tlacuiloa (to paint, to write, to draw images in codex-style) and xochitl (flower). The painted flower is the song itself — the codex-page, the sung poem, the image made of sound. §418 extends the image: God spreads only his quetzal-wing, winds himself in trogon-feathers, and the dark tayopalquechol (the blue-black quechol) is commanded to draw from the flowers already arriving on earth.

§419 is the song's devotional heart — a direct address to the Father, the Giver of Life, framed in radical personal poverty. The singer is troubled (ninentlamati — literally: I feel empty, I am without, I experience nothing-feeling). He asks God to be only his friend, to let them follow the good word together, and declares that because of this longing he grieves — and he goes seeking three things: God's xochiaahuiliz (flower-gladness, the joy that flowers carry), God's cuicapaquiz (song-happiness, the happiness in song), and God's necuiltonol (glory, riches, the state of being honored and enriched). The three-fold object of seeking — flower, song, honor — is characteristic of Cantares devotional structure.

§420 shifts to reported speech: "he says only this" — a formula for receiving the word of God or a messenger. The content is eschatological: in the beautiful place inside the sky (yeccan ilhuicatl ytec) those who live there are glad. The singer heard the drum, the song spreads. Then the reversal: it is only our weeping, only our grief — for those who lived in their homes. The contrast between the joy of those already in the celestial place and the grief of those still on earth is sharp and unsentimentalized. The section closes with an address to the nobles: "May thus know your hearts, O you nobles" — a call to sit with this truth.

§§421–422 introduce Tlacahuepan. The name appears in the Cantares as a warrior-figure associated with Quenonamican (the place where the dead dwell, literally "the place where it is known how things are"). Tlacahuepan in Nahuatl tradition is sometimes identified with Huitzilopochtli's brother, killed in war and dwelling in the afterlife; elsewhere he is a specific historical warrior. Here he is a warrior who paints the shield and the war-dart, scatters himself in chalk (the whiteness of bone, of death-preparation), and covers himself — then passes to Quenonamican. The eagle-quechol answers him from his mouth; the common man blows his flute. §422 closes: "O, already there in Quenonamican." The journey is complete.

§§423–424 close the song in paired images. The singer — or the addressed figure — is the oceloihcuiliuhquin, the jaguar-painted one: a warrior marked with jaguar-spots, the great Jaguar Knight. His song scatters like an eagle (quahuintzetzeliuhtoc, eagle-scattered, dispersed with eagle-force), his flower is offered, his drum is beaten with full force. §424 then turns to the eagle-flower (quahuixochitl): it is wound and coiled, its intoxicating cacao-drink (cacahuaoctli) spreads through the nobles and the common people alike, wrapping their songs and flowers — and by this act Quenonamican itself is made or constituted. The song closes: "Those who rise — the Mexica." Mach eehua in mexica — those who fly up, those who ascend — the warriors of Tenochtitlan entering the afterlife through the flower-death, the warrior-paradise.

Key vocabulary: tzinitzcan (mountain trogon), quechol (roseate spoonbill/scarlet macaw), xiuhtototl (blue cotinga/turquoise-bird), tlacuilolxochitl (painted/written flower, the song-codex image), tayopalquechol (dark blue-black quechol, from tayopal = very dark blue-purple), yeccan ilhuicatl ytec (beautiful place inside the sky, the Nahuatl paradise), Tlacahuepan (warrior figure associated with Quenonamican), Quenonamican (where the dead warriors dwell, "the place where it is thus"), oceloihcuiliuhquin (jaguar-painted one, reverential form), quahuixochitl (eagle-flower), cacahuaoctli (cacao-wine, ritual drink made from cacao), mach eehua (those who rise/fly up, the ascending dead).

Song XXXIV spans folio 23v, sections 416–424. 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.

How indeed —
a person of the turquoise-shield
scrapes at the quetzal-flower-drum.
Totoquihuatzi's song undulates.
Let him come from everywhere,
let him come from everywhere,
truly to speak your song.

The trogon, the quechol, the turquoise-bird —
upon them you contemplate yourself, O Giver of Life,
your heart rejoices.
They draw from the painted flower,
the written song.

You spread only your quetzal-wing,
you wind yourself in trogon-feathers.
O dark quechol —
draw from the flowers here,
the flowers that reach the earth.
They are already here.

Let me call to you, our Father,
O Giver of Life —
I am troubled.
May you only be our friend.
May we follow your good word,
may we go where it leads.
By this I grieve.
I go seeking
your flower-gladness,
your song-joy,
your glory.

He says only this:
in the beautiful place inside the sky,
those who live there are glad.
I heard the drum —
the song spreads wide —
and truly it is only
our weeping,
our grief,
for those who lived in their homes.
May thus know your hearts,
O you nobles.

Now you paint the shield,
now you paint the war-dart —
lordship, the burning field.
Then there you scatter in chalk,
you cover yourself —
Tlacahuepan —
therefore in our war,
in Quenonamican.

O, already you go to meet the lords —
Tlacahuepan —
from his mouth he speaks to you,
the eagle-quechol answers you,
the bird, the common man —
let him blow his flute.
O, already there in Quenonamican.

O jaguar-painted one,
your song scatters like an eagle —
your flower, O my noble child —
the common man's too —
the small shield,
your drum —
you pound it with full force.

You wind only the eagle-flower —
lordship there among them,
friendship,
the common man's too —
the cacao-drink intoxicates,
it wraps them:
now their song,
now their flower —
by this Quenonamican is made.
Those who rise — the Mexica.

Colophon

Song XXXIV of the Cantares Mexicanos. Manuscript heading XXXVII. Nine sections on folio 23v (TEMOA §§416–424).

The song opens by extending Song XXXIII's closing call (ma cuinca huitz huelin quitomaz mocuic — let him come truly to speak your song) into a rhetorical question: quenmach ami tlacatl — how indeed a person. Quenmach carries both wonder and uncertainty — "how is it?" or "what manner of person?" or "how wonderful." Ami may be read as amo (negative, rhetorical) or as an abbreviated ameh (emphatic particle). The sense is: How can a person truly approach this music? Ye xiuhtec — the turquoise-shield (xiuhtli = turquoise, precious blue; -tec = in/of) — invokes the warrior's most precious object. Ye quihchiquin cuicatl (ihtchiqu- = to scrape, scratch at; applied to song): the image is of a musician scratching or scraping at the flower-song as one coaxes notes from an instrument. Quetzalte huehuelin parses as quetzal-te-huehuetl-in — the quetzal-stone drum, or the drum adorned with quetzal feathers. Quicuecueyahua (from cuecueyahui = to undulate, wave, ripple) is used of water, of feathers, of song — Totoquihuatzi's music is a living thing.

§§417–418 form the heart of the song — the bird-meditation that names the painted flower. Tzinitzcan (Trogon mexicanus, the mountain trogon) with its iridescent green back and crimson belly was among the most prized birds in Nahuatl featherwork art. Quechol (the roseate spoonbill, Platalea ajaja, or possibly the scarlet macaw in ritual contexts) supplied the red and rose plumage central to ceremonial dress. Xiuhtototl (the blue cotinga, Cotinga amabilis, or possibly the indigo bunting) provided the turquoise blue of the highest-status featherwork. Together these three birds represent the full chromatic range of Nahuatl devotional aesthetics — red, green, turquoise-blue — and here they become the Giver of Life's contemplative companions. Ypan timomatia Ypalnemoa — upon them you contemplate yourself (ipan = over/upon, momati = to know/understand yourself): the birds are the medium through which God reflects. Moyol ahuia (moylolloa-huia = your heart rejoices): the Giver of Life is made glad by the birds.

Coyachichina ya tlacuilolxochitl: the verb chichina (to suck, to draw from) governs the birds' action — they draw from the tlacuilolxochitl, the painted/written flower. Tlacuiloa is the verb for the specialized art of the tlacuilo (scribe-painter): to draw images, to write in codex-style, to paint sacred images on bark paper and deer skin. The tlacuilolxochitl is the flower that has been painted — or the flower that is painting — the song-poem understood as a codex-image, a sacred picture made of sound. §418 continues: çan moquetzalahtlapal — God spreads only his quetzal-wing (ahtlapal = wing, quetzal-ahtlapal = quetzal-feathered wing). Timoçoçoa may be from moçohua (to extend, spread out) — God spreads himself. Tzinitzcan yhuitica timilacatzoa — with trogon-feather he winds himself (milacatzoa = to roll, twist into a cylinder or coil). The command xontlachichina (draw from) falls to the tayopalquechol — the dark-blue quechol, where tayopal = deep blue-purple (tayopaltic = very dark, like the indigo of twilight sky). The flowers it must draw from are the flowers that reach the earth — already arriving, already present.

§419's devotional address is among the most intimate in the entire Cantares. Macan nimitznotza — let me call out to you, let me beckon you. The verb notza (to call, to invite, to beckon) is used for calling a person by name or for the act of formal invitation. In ninentlamati — while I am troubled (nentlamati = to feel empty, to experience lack, to feel that one is nothing and has nothing): the word carries existential poverty, not merely sadness. The compound moxochiaahuiliz (mo- = your, xochi- = flower, ahuiliz = gladness, joy from ahuilia) and mocuicapaquiz (mo-cuica-paquiz — your song-happiness, from paqui = to be happy) pair as the twin objects of devotional seeking — the flower-joy and the song-joy that God holds and that the singer lacks. These parallel nouns appear nowhere else in the available Cantares sections, giving §419 a distinctive vocabulary.

§420 moves from inner address to reported wisdom. Çan quittoa — he says only this — introducing a meditation the singer has received rather than composed. Y yeccan ilhuicatl ytec — in the beautiful place inside the sky (yeccan = good, beautiful place; ilhuicatl = sky, heaven; ytec = inside, within): this is the Nahuatl celestial paradise, the realm above where the honored dead and the flower-warriors dwell. Nemoan pacoa — those who live and are glad (nemi = to live; paqui = to be glad): the residents of paradise are in perpetual joy. The drum heard below (onicac in huehuetl manian cuicatl) may be the drum of that celestial house — heard from earth as a distant sound, confirming the joy above. Yn ca çan nell ohuaye — and truly it is only: the rhetorical pivot. What is only? Çan ye tochoquiz — only our weeping. Çan ye totlaocol — only our grief. The juxtaposition of celestial joy and earthly grief without resolution or consolation is characteristic of the Cantares' emotional register. Yn nemia ychan — those who lived in their homes — the dead, those who once had houses and are now gone. The section closes with an address to the antepilhuan — you nobles — who must receive this knowledge into their hearts.

§§421–422 trace Tlacahuepan's war-passage. Ticchimalycuiloa — you paint-write the shield (chimalli-ihcuiloa = to paint/write the shield): the warrior marks his equipment with his identifying images before battle, both decorating and ritually charging it. Tocontlacochyhcuiloa — you paint the war-dart (tococh from tlacochtli = dart, javelin, lance; ihcuiloa = to paint). Tecpillotl (lordship, nobility) and tlachinolli (scorched field, war) are paired as the warrior's estate. Timopotonia tiçatica — you scatter yourself in chalk (potonia = to scatter, spray; tiçatl = chalk, white clay used in purification and in preparation of the dead): the chalk suggests the warrior is preparing for death, whitening himself for the underworld. Timoxconoa — you wrap/cover yourself. Then the name: Tlacahuepan. The Nahuatl Tlacahuepan combines tlacatl (person) with cahuia (to leave behind, to release) and pan (on, upon) — roughly "the one who leaves people behind" or "the one upon whom people are abandoned." He is the warrior who dies and leaves his community. §422 confirms the passage: the lords await him, the eagle-quechol answers, the common man blows his flute — and he arrives in Quenonamican.

§§423–424 bring the song to its image-close. Oceloihcuiliuhquin — the jaguar-painted one (ocelotl = jaguar + ihcuiliuhqui = painted-one, one who has been painted; -tzin reverential) is the Jaguar Knight at his most ceremonially marked — body painted with the black and yellow spots of the jaguar, weapon in hand. Quahuintzetzeliuhtoc — his song is scattered eagle-fashion (quahuin- = with eagle-force/manner; tzetzeliuh- = scattered, dispersed; -toc = ongoing state): the image of the eagle scattering something — its feathers, its prey, its impact — is used here for the dispersal of the song-flower. Chimalcocom combines chimalli (shield) with cocomin or a diminutive form — possibly the small shield carried by dancers and performers, or a rattling shield-decoration. Ticyahuelintzotzona — you pound with full force (yahueli = with force, vigorously + tzotzona = to beat a drum): the drum-strike is total.

§424's quahuixochitl (eagle-flower) is a compound not common in the Cantares — the flower of the eagle, perhaps the passion flower or another vine known for vigorous growth. Çan ticquahuixochilacatzoa — you only wind/coil the eagle-flower (lacatzoa = to twist, coil, wind into a cylinder): the eagle-flower is woven into something — a necklace, a garland, an offering bundle. Cacahuaoctli (cacao-pulque, cacao-wine — cacahuatl + octli = fermented cacao drink used in ritual) onteihuinti — intoxicates people (ihuinti = to be drunk, dizzy, transformed). Ontequimiloa — it wraps them (quimilo = to wrap, bundle, as in wrapping a corpse for burial, or wrapping a gift): the drink wraps the dead in their flowers and songs. Yc onmochiuhtia Quenonamican — by this Quenonamican is made/constituted: the afterlife paradise is not an automatic destination but something made real by the cumulative act of song, flower, drink, and warrior-passage. And the final image: mach eehua in mexica — "those who rise, the Mexica" (ehua = to rise, to fly up, to take flight; mach = who, those who). The Mexica warriors do not merely go to Quenonamican — they rise there.

Boundary note: §§425–426 (folio 23v final sections) open Song XXXV (MS XXXVIII) per the translator's judgment. Both sections use the distinct refrain ohuaya aye huiya (not the standard ohuaya ohuaya) and introduce the "joy with God" theme (ahuiltilon Dios) that opens Song XXXV's devotional arc. Kshatriya should confirm this boundary against the manuscript facsimile. If §§425–426 belong to Song XXXIV, the section count rises to eleven.

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 XXXVII

§416
Quenmach ami tlacatl ye xiuhtec ye quihchiquin cuicatlquetzalte huehuelin quicuecueyahua in Totoquihuatzi ma cuinca huitz ma cuinca huitz huelin quitomaz mocuic ohuaya ohuaya

§417
Tzinitzcan quechol xiuhtototl ypan timomatia Ypalnemoa moyol ahuia i yeehuaya coyachichina ya tlacuilolxochitl ihcuilihuin cuicatl a etcetera

§418
Çan moquetzalahtlapal o çan timoçoçoa tzinitzcan yhuitica timilacatzoa in tayopalquechol xontlachichina nican aya y ye xochitl in tlalpan aci ye nica ohuaya ohuaya

§419
Macan nimitznotza totatzin o Ypalnemoani in ninentlamati aya maçan titocniuh a ma tocontolhuican y yectli motlatol ma toconytoca yca nitlaocoya yeehuaya noconyatemoa moxochiaahuiliz o in mocuicapaquiz y ye monecuiltonol huiya o ayiahue yao ayiaha ohuaya ohuaya

§420
Çan quittoa y yeccan ilhuicatl ytec y nemoan pacoa o onicac in huehuetl manian cuicatl y yn ca çan nell ohuaye çan ye tochoquiz i çan ye totlaocol y yn nemia ychan y ma iuh quimat amoyoll antepilhuan y o ayahue

§421
Yan ticchimalycuiloa tocontlacochyhcuiloa a in tecpillotl a in tlachinolli ya nimanye oncan timopotonia tiçatica in ye timoxconoa ha in Tlacahuepa huiya yca toyao quenonamica huiya ahua yhua ya ohuaya aye ahua yio yahua

§422
O anca ye tinpatiuh in teteuctin a in Tlacahuepa huiya in camacpa tontlatoa yehuaya mitzoyananquilia quahuinquechol in tototl yehuan maceuhqui ya mapipitzo aya o anca ye onca Quenonamican huiya ahua yyao etcetera

§423
Oceloihcuiliuhquin a mocuic quahuintzetzeliuhtoc moxochiuh aya in tinopiltzin yehuan maceuhqui ya chimalcocom aye mohuehueuh ticyahuelintzotzona ahuay yyao

§424
Çan ticquahuixochilacatzoa yeehuayan tecpillotl in icniuhyotl yehuan maceuhqui ya cacahuaoctli ya onteihuinti a ontequimiloa ye yehua incuic ye yehua yxochiuh yc onmochiuhtia Quenonamican yn mach eehua in mexica y ahuayyao etcetera

Source Colophon

Classical Nahuatl source text from the Cantares Mexicanos manuscript (folio 23v, sections 416–424), 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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