Song XXXV — XXXVIII (Will Your Heart No Longer Bloom?)

Song XXXV carries manuscript heading XXXVIII and spans folios 23v–24r, sections 425–441 (seventeen sections). It begins on the same folio as Song XXXIV, immediately after the boundary where the prior song's eagle-flower and Mexica warrior-closing refrain ends. The opening two sections (§§425–426) use a distinct refrain — "ohuaya aye huiya" rather than the standard "ohuaya ohuaya" heard throughout much of the Cantares — marking this song's threshold clearly. From §427 onward the standard refrain returns. Manuscript heading XXXIX appears before §442 on folio 24v, confirming that Song XXXV ends at §441.

This is a grief-and-longing song in the tradition of the Cantares' most philosophically weighted flower-songs. Its tonal center is the question that opens §428: "Will your heart no longer ripen, O Giver of Life?" — yn cuix aoc ylotiz moyollon Ypalnemoa — asking whether God's heart has ceased to bloom toward the singer the way a milpa corn ear ripens in season. The verb ylotia (to ripen, to come to tender fullness, as the ilote — the unripe ear of corn) is not a word for divine transcendence or cosmic power; it is a word for intimate, seasonal, bodily nourishment. The singer is asking whether the warmth between them has gone cold.

The song moves in six movements. §§425–426 form a brief threshold passage: the heart stands in awe, unable to approach; yet already there, God is gladdened, and the place of dissolution (ximoa) awaits. §§427–428 introduce the central devotional pair — the singer lays out God's flower and lifts the song, asking for just a little while to gladden the Giver of Life before the inevitable wearying, the hiding, and death. §§429–432 descend into grief: others go on living in gladness while the singer weeps; everything his heart holds fails to satisfy; he feels tormented, even hated. §§433–434 pivot, cautiously: one more day beside you, O God — is it no longer truly that I am afflicted? The marigold may yet bloom. §§435–437 follow the soul outward: the quechol bird wanders to Tamoanchan, where God's soul-book and song already wait; only the singer's grief remains as the precious prince has turned away. §§438–441 close in two movements — a call to community joy before departure, and the final existential meditation: who knows what comes now, tomorrow, the day after? Those who have gone — those who scattered. Let us remember: cuix nellin tiyanemico — is it truly that we came here to live?

Key vocabulary: ylotia (to ripen, to come to tender fullness — the corn-ear metaphor for God's heart), ximoa (to dissolve, scatter, flow — the place of dissolution, a term for death or absorption into the divine), niicnotlamati (I am destitute, I am poor in spirit — from icnotl = orphan, poor, bereft), moyolamoxtli (soul-book, book of the heart — colonial syncretic image of a divine record), moyohualamox (night-book — the book of dreams and night, or God's nocturnal writing upon us), Tamoanchan (the mythic origin-paradise, place of descent — where the flowering tree of life grows and souls return), cempoalxochitl (the twenty-flower, the marigold — flower of the dead, used in ceremonies for the departed), Tloque Nahuaque (Lord of the Near and Nigh — the supreme divine name in Nahua theology, meaning the one who is beside and near everything, an attribute of Ometéotl/Ypalnemoani), neyocolo (to be tormented, to be afflicted at the heart — from yollo = heart), tlaçopilli (the precious noble, the beloved prince — a term for high-ranking deceased).

Song XXXV spans folios 23v–24r, sections 425–441. 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.

From your heart —
only my heart stands in awe.
We do not approach you.
Already there you are gladdened, O God.

Truly, we will go there —
to that place of dissolution.
Go and be one who dies there.
Already there you are gladdened, O God.

I take complete joy in my heart, O Giver of Life.
I lay out your flower,
I lift up your song.
Let me, just for a little while, gladden you.
Someday you will grow weary of me —
then you will hide yourself from me.
Then I will die.

Will your heart no longer ripen, O Giver of Life?
I lay out your flower,
I lift up your song.
Let me, just for a little while, gladden you.
Someday you will grow weary of me —
then you will hide yourself from me.
Then I will die.

You only mix things together —
you do not separate them completely,
O Only God, Giver of Life.
They only go on living in gladness,
only go on living in contentment,
here on earth.
Because of this I weep —
I am destitute.

Everything my heart says,
everything it remembers —
all of it fails to satisfy.
Oh — we are not content.
Because of this I weep,
I am destitute.

Truly, one is tormented on earth.
O God, your word truly spreads —
you afflict me, you hate me.
Only feel this wretchedness.

Only everywhere it is sought,
only everywhere called out and cried —
it is sought.
Your word truly spreads —
you afflict me, you hate me.
Only feel this wretchedness.

How do you see it,
O Only God, Giver of Life?
Not yet — one more day beside you,
near you.
Is it no longer truly that I am afflicted?

It is truly so —
it may yet come to be:
the spring flower will meet you.
Truly, it may yet be thought —
the flower will bloom,
the marigold.

To Tamoanchan the quechol wanders —
my child has risen,
already at his home in Tamoanchan.
God's soul-book,
God's song is already there.

Only you yourself truly know
what will rise from this —
by this it is said,
by this it writes upon us,
by this it calls us here:
the night-book, the soul-book.

Thus only our grief —
by this the precious prince has turned away.
God's song is already with him.

Joy —
shall we truly waste it as we depart?
We are going, already from here,
going as companions in flower-gladness.
The good friend —
let us take joy together.

Let our hearts still rejoice —
O you, our friends.
We will go.

Who knows?
Now, tomorrow, the day after —
those who have scattered and gone.
Let it come out clearly.
Let us remember:
is it truly that we came here to live?

O Tloque Nahuaque, O God —
you will grow weary of us your friends,
you will grow weary of our joy here on earth.
Not yet — you still lift up your song.
Not yet does our heart know it thus.

Colophon

Song XXXV of the Cantares Mexicanos, manuscript heading XXXVIII, spanning folios 23v–24r of the manuscript held at the Biblioteca Nacional de México. Sections 425–441 (seventeen sections). The Cantares Mexicanos is a colonial-era manuscript of 91 Nahuatl songs — flower-songs, war-songs, grief-songs, and syncretic devotional songs — compiled in the mid-sixteenth century by indigenous and colonial scribes in central Mexico. These songs preserve a living oral tradition that predates the Spanish conquest; they are among the most significant documents of pre-Columbian and early colonial Nahua literature.

This translation was made directly from Classical Nahuatl. Alonso de Molina's Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana (1571) and Frances Karttunen's An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl were consulted for lexical verification after the English draft was complete. No existing English translation was consulted during translation. The Blood Rule is maintained.

Song XXXV is a grief-and-longing song centered on the question of divine intimacy and human transience. Its opening question — "Will your heart no longer ripen?" — is one of the most tender and unusual addresses to the divine in the entire Cantares, using the agricultural image of corn-ear ripening (ylotia) to express longing for God's felt presence. The song closes with the Cantares' great existential refrain: "Is it truly that we came here to live?" — one of the foundational philosophical questions of Nahua poetry. Both the flower-death theology (the quechol's passage to Tamoanchan) and colonial-syncretic elements (God, Dios, Tloque Nahuaque used interchangeably) are present.

Note: §§425–426 use the distinct refrain "ohuaya aye huiya" in place of the standard "ohuaya ohuaya," marking the song's threshold. From §427 onward the standard refrain resumes. The two-refrain structure may indicate a ritual transition or a boundary song opening. Kshatriya should note this for possible structural commentary.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

🌲

Source Text: Cantares Mexicanos — In Cuicatl

Classical Nahuatl source text from the UNAM TEMOA digital platform (temoa.iib.unam.mx), Cantares Mexicanos manuscript, folios 23v–24r, sections 425–441. The Cantares Mexicanos is held at the Biblioteca Nacional de México. Digital facsimile and transcription by UNAM's Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

Moyolic çan timahui noyollo ahtonmotlahpaloa ye oncan a huiltilon Dios ohuaya aye huiya

Çanel a tonyaz in ompa Ximoa ye oncan aya xonmiquani ye oncan ahuiltilon Dios ohuaya aye huiya

Niccecemeltia noyollon Ypalnemoa nicmana moxochiuh nic ehua mocuic aya ma o cuel achic nimitzonahuilti quenmanian tontlatzihuiz yquac tinechonmotlatiliz iquac nonmiquiz yyao

Yn cuix aoc ylotiz moyollon Ypalnemoa nicmana moxochiuh nic ehua mocuic maocuel achic nimitzonahuilti quenmanian tontlatzihuiz yquac tinechonmotlatiliz iquac nonmiquiz yyao

Çan ticneneloa ahticcenquixtia Ycelteotl Ypalnemoani çan onnemin paqui çan onnemin huelamatin tlalticpac ye nican yca nichoca niicnotlamati a ohuaya ohuaya

Çan mochin quitoa noyollo mochin quilnamiqui ixquich ahtahuia ay atihuelamatih ica nichoca nicnotlamati a ohuaya ohuaya

Mach neyocolo in tlalticpac y Dios ytlatol huel on nemoa y timotolinian tinechcocolian çan xinentlamat a ohuaya ohuaya

Çan nohuian temolo ohuaye çan nohuian notzalo ontzatzililo ya temolo ytlatol huel on nemoa y timotolinia tinechcocolia çan xinentlamat

Quenin tiquittoa ya Icelteotl Ypalnemoani aya oc cemilhuitl y motloc monahuac y in cuix aoc nello ninotolinia yyao yyahue ohuaya

Y ca nel oc nomatia monamiquiz y xopanxochitl yya in canel oc nomatian cueponiz yn ye xochitl y y cempoalxochitl yyao yyahue ohuaya

Tamoannempoyon in quechol huia noconehuaya ye tamoan ycha y moyolamox y yehuan Dios ye mocuic ohuaya ohuaya

Çan ca tehuatl huel ticmati inic onmehua ya yca onmitoa yehua ic tonteyhcuiloa ic tontenotza ye nican y moyohualamox y

Anca çan totlaocol y yehuaya ica ya ommomalina in tlaçopilli yehuan Dios ye mocuic ohuaya ohuaya

Ahuillotl y mach ticpolotehuazque otiaque ye nica huiyaicniuhtihuaquiuh toxochipapac yec icnihuani mantonahuiaca ohuaya

Yn maoc ompapaquin toyollo yehuaya antocnihuany tiazque yehua ohuaya ohuaya

Ac quimatin Axcan moztlan huiptla Yacaçoctaque y ma tellel onquiça ma tiquilnamiquican cuix nellin tiyanemico ohuaya

TiTloque tiNahuaque Diose tonicniuhtlatzihuiz tonahahuiliztlatzihuiz tlalticpac aya tic ehua mocuic aya iuh quimatin toyol a ohuaya

Source Colophon

Nahuatl source text from the UNAM TEMOA digital platform (temoa.iib.unam.mx/cantares-cantares-mexicanos/), Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. The Cantares Mexicanos manuscript is held at the Biblioteca Nacional de México. UNAM TEMOA digitization licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Reproduced here for non-commercial archival use under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

🌲