Song XXXVIII — XLII (Do Not Let Your Hearts Ache)

Song XXXVIII carries manuscript heading XLII and spans folios 25v–26r of the Cantares Mexicanos, sections 470–476 (seven sections, with §472 crossing the folio boundary). It follows immediately after Song XXXVII on folio 25v, sharing the same spatial setting — Shield Mountain (Chimaltepetl) and the Zacateca plain — before pivoting inward to personal lament.

§470 opens the song as a continuation of Song XXXVII's close: the earth turns, spears rain, dust settles before Shield Mountain. The repeated closing phrase "these are the servants of Ycelteotl, the Only God" anchors both songs to the same ceremony or battlefield context. With §471, the register shifts: the speaker drinks the mushroom drink (nanacaoctli) — the ritual intoxicant of Nahua ceremony — and weeps. The mushroom drink appears rarely in the Cantares; its presence here marks a ceremonial rite, possibly a remembrance feast or war ritual. The speaker's grief is internal and unresolved: "my heart weeps, I grieve on earth, I am only destitute."

§§472–476 develop the lament through three related images. §472: I only remember where it was joyful — I do not know it well on earth. §473: I gaze upon death; the existential question "how shall I truly make it through?" introduces the double refrain — "it is not yet real" and "you are troubled, you who grieve." §474 answers with a vision of wealth that passes: even if the quetzal-jewel and jade necklace were among us, they already lie before us, they already stay with us — and still it is not yet real. This paradox (precious things already given, yet loss not accepted) is the emotional core of the song. §475 turns to friendship: "my friend, my friend — only his words, only thus do we desire it; with them I remember him." The memory of a companion is preserved in his tlatoltzin (his honored speech), not his body. §476 closes in an address to the living: "do not let your hearts ache, my friends — thus too I know it, once more our life will go."

Key vocabulary: nanacaoctli (mushroom drink — nanacatl = mushroom, specifically the ritual teonanácatl [flesh of the gods], + octli = fermented drink; a ritual intoxicant used in Nahua ceremonial contexts), miquiztli (death — the noun form underlying xochimiquiztli [flower-death] and itzimiquiztli [obsidian-death]; here met face-to-face in §473), quetzalteuh (quetzal-jewel — quetzalli = quetzal feather + teuh = diminutive precious suffix; the most valued adornment), cozcateuh (jade-necklace — cozca = necklace/pendant + teuh = precious suffix), tlatoltzin (honored speech — tlatol = word/speech + -tzin = honorific suffix; the words of a beloved person that survive after their death), tonemiz (our life, our living — future form of nemi [to live] in the first person plural possessive; "our living" understood as fragile and impermanent), ayamo ya nelli (not yet real — ayamo = not yet, ya = already [ironic], nelli = true/real; the refrain of unresolved grief that names the gap between knowing and accepting).

Song XXXVIII spans folios 25v–26r, sections 470–476. 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.

The earth turns — it spirals.
Spears rain down,
the dust settles
before Shield Mountain.
These are the servants of Ycelteotl, the Only God.

I drank the mushroom drink —
my heart weeps.
I grieve on earth.
I am only destitute.

I only remember where it was joyful —
I do not know it well on earth.
I am only destitute.

I gaze upon death —
I am only afflicted.
How shall I truly make it through?

It is not yet real —
you are troubled,
you who grieve.

Even if the quetzal-jewel were among us,
already it lies spread before us.
Even if the jade necklace were with us,
already it stays with us.

It is not yet real —
you are troubled,
you who grieve.

My friend, my friend —
perhaps truly, my friend.
Only his words — only thus do we desire it.
With them I remember him.

Let it be so — let our flower not perish.
Here is our flower.

Do not let your hearts ache, my friends —
thus too I know it,
I know it just the same.
Once more our life will go.

Colophon

Song XXXVIII of the Cantares Mexicanos, manuscript heading XLII, spanning folios 25v–26r, sections 470–476 (seven sections, with §472 bridging the folio boundary). 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 XXXVIII belongs to a pair with Song XXXVII: both are set at Chimaltepetl, both carry the "servants of Ycelteotl" refrain, both move from battlefield imagery to private grief. Where Song XXXVII culminates in the warrior's flower-death desire, Song XXXVIII stays in the aftermath — the ritual mushroom drink, the weeping heart, the memory of a friend through his words alone. The refrain "it is not yet real, you are troubled" (ayamo ya nelli a yantlayocoya yn anquahqualani) names the unfinished grief that the Cantares return to again and again: the knowledge of loss exists, but the heart has not yet accepted it. The quetzal-jewel and jade necklace of §474 — already lying before the speaker, already with him, yet not yet real — make this refrain precise: the precious things are not lost. They are here. And still it is not enough.

The closing §476 turns outward: "do not let your hearts ache, my friends — I know it too, once more our life will go." This is the Cantares pastoral register at its most generous, offering what comfort there is: shared knowledge of loss, shared destination, shared flower.

Boundary note: Song XXXIX (MS XLIII) begins at folio 26r, §477 (TEMOA anchor cdlxxvii).

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

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Source Text: Cantares Mexicanos — In Cuicatl

Classical Nahuatl source text from the UNAM TEMOA digital platform (temoa.iib.unam.mx), Cantares Mexicanos manuscript, folios 25v–26r, sections 470–476. 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.

Tlalli mocuepa ya milacatzoa tlacochquiahui a yn teuhtli moteca y yn Chimaltepetl ixpan ohuaye ye ilhuiçolohuan Ycelteotl ayiao yahaya ohuaya ohuaya

Oyanoconic yn nanacaoctli ya noyol in choca nicnotlamatin tlalticpac oo çan ninotolinia yahueya yliyayie ohuaya ohuaya

Çan nichualelnamiqui yn honnahuia hanihuelamatin tlalticpac oo çan ninotolinia ohuaya ohuaya

Nicxiquitta miquiztli çan ninotolinian quen nel noconchihuaz ayamo ya nelli a yantlayocoya yn anquahqualani aiyohuiya

Yn ma nel quetzalteuh in nehuan in ye tonmani ohuaye ma nel ye cozcateuh nehuan y ye toncate ohuaye ayamo ya nelli etcetera ayamo ya nelli a yantlayocoya yn anquahqualani aiyohuiya

Nocniuh nocniuh ye y aço nellin nocniuh çan itlatoltzin çan ic tontonequi y yehuaya ye ica noconelnamiqui oa ma iuhta man polihui a yz can toxochiuh a ohuaya ohuaya

Maca cocoya amoyollo yehua in amotlatoltzin antocnihua huya no iuhqui nicmati no iuhqui nicmati ohuaye yia ynehuaya ceppa ye yauh in tonemiz ohuaya ohuaya

Source Colophon

Nahuatl source text from the UNAM TEMOA digital facsimile (temoa.iib.unam.mx), Cantares Mexicanos manuscript, folios 25v–26r. 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.

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