Song XXXVII — XLI (Your Heart Desires the Obsidian-Death)

Song XXXVII carries manuscript heading XLI and appears on folio 25v of the Cantares Mexicanos, sections 464–469 (six sections). The UNAM TEMOA digital transcription places the XLI rubric at anchor cdlix (§459), indicating that MS XLI formally begins on folio 25r — five sections earlier than this translation's starting point. Those sections (§§459–463) were incorporated into Song XXXVI by the previous life (Life 40), which treated §463 as the final strophe of that song. The Kshatriya is directed to verify the boundary: the present translation begins Song XXXVII at §464 and accepts the prior life's §463 assignment to Song XXXVI as standing unless overruled. MS XL is absent from TEMOA's folio sequence — consistent with the earlier absences of XXVIII and XXXIV.

The song divides into two movements without pause. The first (§464) is a personal lament of unusual directness: the speaker weeps, afflicts himself, and puts the existential question of the Cantares plainly — will I truly go to Quenonamican? does my father live there? He turns to his companions with a tender warning, "do not die, my friends," before answering his own question with stoic resignation: I will not truly perish. I am destitute. This opening stands alone among the Cantares for naming Quenonamican as both a hoped-for afterworld (perhaps my father is there) and a feared one (where is the place of the dead? will I go?). The speaker's ambivalence about death-and-reunion is rarely so naked.

The second movement (§§465–469) is a memorial for Tlacahuepantzin — a name that appears repeatedly in the Cantares (Songs XXI, XXXI, XXXIII, XXXVI) as a beloved prince cut down in war. §§465–466 establish his fame and borrowed glory: only for a little while was his honor borrowed from the Giver of Life, who came to bear it forth on earth. §§467–468 move to the battlefield itself: banners flutter, obsidian-flowers lie woven in the heart of the plain, the white feathers are scattered, and there Tlacahuepantzin was struck. The refrain "your heart desires the obsidian-death" (§§467–468) is addressed to him — or possibly to any warrior who comes to see the plain. Death by obsidian is death in battle: xochimiquiztli, the flower-death, the warrior's culmination. §469 closes with collective voice: the Zacateca declare that together they die, their fame goes forth, and the Giver of Life knows them well before Shield Mountain (Chimaltepetl).

Key vocabulary: itzimiquiztli (obsidian-death — from itztli = obsidian + miquiztli = death; the warrior's death by obsidian blade, cognate with itzimiquiztla = toward the obsidian-death, used as the refrain object here), Quenonamican (the place of no name — from quen = how/in what manner + on = there + namican = place of meeting; the Nahua afterworld where the dead continue in some unnamed state), Tlacahuepantzin (a Mexica or Acolhua lord mourned across multiple Cantares songs; the name appears to mean "one who is well-made" or "a strong upright person"), pantli (banner, flag — military ensign carried into battle), ixtlahuatl (the plain — the open battlefield, the field where death occurs), itzimizquixochitl (obsidian-mesquite-flower — a battle-flower variant of itzimiquilxochitl; the flower of violent death), Çacateca (the Zacateca warriors — a northern Chichimec people incorporated into Triple Alliance military campaigns), Chimaltepetl (Shield Mountain — chimalli = shield + tepetl = mountain; a battle site associated with Zacateca campaigns), Ycelteotl (the Only God — ycelli = unique/only + teotl = god; the supreme epithet of the singular divine in these colonial-syncretic songs), moteyo (your fame — mo-teyo-tl = your honorable renown, your reputation among lords).

Song XXXVII spans folio 25v, sections 464–469. Nahuatl source text accessed from the UNAM TEMOA digital platform (temoa.iib.unam.mx), Cantares Mexicanos manuscript. The Cantares Mexicanos is held at the Biblioteca Nacional de México. Digital facsimile and transcription by UNAM's Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas. Translated directly from Classical Nahuatl by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

Even so I weep — I grieve and afflict myself.
How greatly my heart desires it.
Will I truly go to Quenonamican?

On earth our hearts say:
do not die, my friends.
Where is the place of the dead?
Will I go there?
Does my father dwell in Quenonamican?

I will not truly perish —
I am destitute.

You established your fame,
you, noble prince Tlacahuepantzin.
Only thus does one serve;
only thus is one raised before the Giver of Life.
He came to bear you forth, came to live
upon the earth.

Only for a little while
was his glory borrowed from the Giver of Life —
he came to bear it forth, came to live
upon the earth.

Banners flutter in the heart of the plain —
obsidian-flowers lie woven together,
the white feathers scattered.
There he was struck down — Tlacahuepantzin.
You have come to see it.
Your heart desires the obsidian-death.

Your golden shroud,
jade scattered all around —
now you are wrapped, now you are blessed,
in the heart of the plain.
You have come to see it.
Your heart desires the obsidian-death.

Together we die — we have spoken thus,
we the Zacateca.
Our fame has gone forth.
The Giver of Life alone knows us well,
before Shield Mountain.
These are the servants of Ycelteotl, the Only God.

Colophon

Song XXXVII of the Cantares Mexicanos, manuscript heading XLI, folio 25v, sections 464–469 (six sections). The Cantares Mexicanos is a colonial-era manuscript of 91 Nahuatl songs compiled in the mid-sixteenth century by indigenous and colonial scribes in central Mexico, preserved at the Biblioteca Nacional de México.

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 XXXVII is one of the briefer songs in this stretch of the Cantares, built around a structural pivot from personal existential lament to warrior memorial. The question that opens the song — "will I truly go to Quenonamican?" — is among the most unguarded in the manuscript, naming both the hope (my father may be there) and the dread (where is the place of the dead?). The refrain "your heart desires the obsidian-death" in §§467–468, addressed to Tlacahuepantzin or to any warrior who comes to the plain, does not mourn the flower-death as tragedy — it holds it as desire, the warrior's longing for the culminating act. §469's collective declaration — "together we die, we the Zacateca, before Shield Mountain" — closes the song with community: the flower-death is not solitary but shared, witnessed by Ycelteotl.

Boundary note: MS XLI formally begins at §459 (folio 25r, TEMOA anchor cdlix). §§459–463 were incorporated into Song XXXVI by Life 40. This translation accepts that assignment and begins Song XXXVII at §464. Kshatriya should verify whether §§459–463 properly belong to Song XXXVI or Song XXXVII, and whether any revision to the Song XXXVI file is warranted.

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, folio 25v, sections 464–469. The Cantares Mexicanos is held at the Biblioteca Nacional de México. Digital facsimile and transcription by UNAM's Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas. Reproduced for non-commercial archival use under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

Tla nel nichoca in yehuaya tlanicnotlamati a yehuaya tla nel cenca quen quihualnequian noyollo yeehuaya cuix nella noyaz Quenonamican huiya oyahueyo ahuayya ohuia Tlalticpac ahuaya ohuaye quittoa toyollo maca ic timiquini antocnihuan huiya can a'micohuayan cuix ompa nonyaz huiya cuix ompa nemi nota Quenonamican huiya huiyxihueya noyollo ça nel ahnipolihuiz ninotolinia ayahueyyo ahuayya ohuia

Tictlalitehuac in moteyo tehua titepiltzin a in Tlacahuepantzin anca çan ica ontlacotihua y anca çan ye ixpani onnequetzalo Ypalnemohuani quixihuaquiuh nemoaquiuh a yn tlalticpac a ohuaya ohuaya

Yn çan cuel achitzinca onnetlanehuilo ymahuiço o Ypalnemoani quixihuaquiuh nemoaquiuh a yn tlalticpac a ohuaya ohuaya

Pantli nenelihui yeehuaya ixtlahuatl itec y itzimizquixochitl nenepaniuhticac y inticalylhuitl tzetzeliuhticac y onca ye nimiac in Tlacahuepantzin otic yltaco quinequi a moyollo yehua in itzimiquiztla ohuaya

Moteocuitlaehuauh chalchiuhtzetzeliuhtoc ye tonmoquimiloa ye tonmotlamachtia ayxtlahuatl ytec y otic ytaco quinequi a moyollo yehua in itzimiquiztla ohuaya

Ocentlan in tomiquiz oti'toloque yn tiçacateca y onquiçan toteyo çan toca o huellamatin Ypalnemoani yn chimaltepetl yxpano ohuaye ye ilhuiçolohuan Ycelteotl ayiao yahaya ohuaya ohuaya

Source Colophon

Nahuatl source text from the UNAM TEMOA digital facsimile (temoa.iib.unam.mx), Cantares Mexicanos manuscript, folio 25v. The manuscript is held at the Biblioteca Nacional de México (MS 1628 bis). Transcription by UNAM's Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Reproduced for non-commercial archival use.

🌲