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What would happen if you didn’t believe in any gods? asked Buckhurst Hill Community Primary School. Read what Dr. Raúl Macuil Martínez had to say.
Flower-song glyph, Codex Borbonicus, p. 4 |
1. STAND UP, BEAT YOUR DRUM
By Nezahualcoyotl
Stand up, beat your drum:
give of yourself, know friendship. -Aya!-
Let your hearts be taken
with many colours -Yehuaya!-
only here perhaps are lent to us
our tobacco pipes, our flowers,
Ohuaya Ohuaya.
Stand up, my friend,
elated take your flowers to the drum:
your bitterness flees.
Adorn yourself with them:
the flowers raise their heads,
cocoa flowers of precious gold -Aya!-
are being scattered,
Ohuaya Ohuaya.
Beautifully sing here
the turquoise bird, the quetzal, the trogon:
the macaw’s song presides, and
all the jingling rattles and drums answer,
Ohuaya Ohuaya.
I drink cocoa:
with it I am glad -Aya!-
my heart takes pleasure, my heart is happy,
Ohuaya Ohuaya.
Romances de los Señores, poem #55.
XI MOQUETZA, XIC TZOTZONA
Xi moquetza, xic tzotzona
in tohuehueuh
in ma icniuhtlamacho
ma zan -Aya!-
cuicuili iyollo -Yehuaya!-
zaniyo nican
at on titlanehuico
zaniyo tacayeuh
ihuan toxochiuh,
Ohuaya Ohuaya.
Xi moquetza titocniuh
xocon cui moxochiuh huehuetitlan.
Ma melel quiza
inca xi mapana
zan quetzaloco xochitli
omaco mani -Aya!-
zan teocuitla cacahua xochitli,
Ohuaya Ohuaya.
Huel ya cuica ye nican
xiuhtototl quetzal tzinitzcan
ya quechol achtohua
moch on quinanquilia
ayacachlli huehuetl,
Ohuaya Ohuaya
0 ya niccua cacahuatl
ic nonpaqui -Aya!-
Noyol ahuiya noyol huellamati,
Ohuaya Ohuaya.
Romances de los Señores, poem #55.
2. FLOWERS ARE OUR ONLY GARMENTS
By Nezahualcoyotl
Flowers are our only garments,
only songs make our pain subside,
diverse flowers on earth,
Ohuaya ohuaya.
Perhaps my friends will be lost,
my companions will vanish
when I lie down in that place, I Yoyontzin -Ohuaye!-
in the place of song and of Life Giver,
Ohuaya ohuaya.
Does no one know where we are going?
Do we go to God’s home or
do we live only here on earth?
Ah ohuaya.
Let your hearts know,
oh princes, oh eagles and jaguars
that we will not be friends forever,
only for a moment here, then we go
to Life Giver’s home,
Ohuaya ohuaya.
Cantares Mexicanos, poem #5 and #40, and Romances de los Señores #52.
Note: This poem is found three times in the original manuscripts, with some variations. Because of that we can conclude it was a popular poem. In one version it has three verses, four in another, and ten in another. It is a call-and-response poem, a common form in Aztec flowersongs. Interspersed between some of the stanzas, are verses in which another singer or chorus answers the poet. The flowersongs were written down as the scribe heard them performed, two generations after Nezahualcoyotl’s death. The response verses were probably not part of the original poem, and are not included in my translation. Yoyotzin was Nezahualcoyotl’s nickname.
ZANIO IN XOCHITL TONEQUIMILOL
Zanio in xochitl tonequimilol,
zanio in cuicatl ic huehuetzin
telel in nepapan xochitla
a in tlalticpac,
Ohuaya Ohuaya.
In mach noca
om polihuiz in cohuayotl,
in mach noca
om polihuiz in icniuhyotl
in ononya yehua ni Yoyontzin -Ohuaye!-
on cuicatilo in ipalnemoani,
Ohuaya Ohuaya
Ayac on matia ompa tonyazque
o ye ichan o zanio ye nican
in tinemico tlalticpac,
A Ohuaya
In ma ya moyol iuh quimati
in antepilhuan
in ancuahtin amocelo
ah mochipan titocnihuan
zan cuel achic nican
timochi tonyazque
o ye ichan,
Ohuaya Ohuaya.
Cantares Mexicanos, poem #5 and #40, and Romances de los Señores #52.
3. THE SONG CHANTED EVERY EIGHT YEARS
AT THE FEAST OF THE WATER TAMALES
Sacred Hymn #14
Anonymous, transcribed by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún
My heart is a flower,
it bursts open,
Lord of Midnight,
Oaya ouayaye.
Already the Goddess has come,
our Earthmother has come,
Oaya ouayaye.
The god of corn, born in Paradise,
where flowers bloom,
on the day One Flower,
Yantala yantata ayyao ayyaue
tilili yyao ayaue oayyaue.
The god of corn,
born in the region of rain and mist,
where the children of men are conceived,
home of the Lords of Jewelled Fish,
Yyao yantala yantata ayyao ayyaue
tilili yyao ayaue oayyaue.
Dawn arrives, radiant sunrise.
Multi-coloured spoonbills
drink nectar from the standing flowers,
Yantala yantata ayyao ayyaue
tilili yyao ayaue oayyaue.
Here on earth,
in the market you appear.
I am the lord,
I, Quetzalcoatl,
Yantala yantata ayyao ayyaue
tilili yyao ayaue oayyaue.
Florentine Codex, Book 2
Note: The Atamalcualiztli ceremony included dances and deity impersonation. Its performance served to rejuvenate corn. It was celebrated every eight years on the day One Flower, when the cycle of the planet Venus crossed the 365-day sun cycle. According to the mythological story, on that day during the Creation epoch or First Sun, Tlazolteotl, the Earth Mother, gave birth to Cinteotl, the corn deity. Cinteotl and Quetzalcoatl are closely identified. Cinteotl was the Morning Star (planet Venus), and Quetzalcoatl became the Morning Star in the current epoch or Fifth Sun.
IZCATQUI IN CUICATL CHICUEXIUHTICA
MEUAYA IN ICUAC ATAMALCUALOIA
Sacred Hymn #14
Xochitl noyollo
cuepontimania
ye Tlacoyoalle,
Oaya ouayaye.
Yecoc ye Tonan,
yecoc ye Teutl Tlazolteutla,
Oaya ouayaye.
Otlacatqui Centeutl Tamiyoanchan
ni Xochitli cacani
Ce-Xochitli,
Yantala yantata ayyao ayyaue
tilili yyao ayaue oayyaue.
Otlacatqui Centeutl
atl yayahuicani
in Tlacapillachiualoya
Chalchimichuacan,
Yyao yantala yantata ayyao ayyaue
tilili yyao ayaue oayyaue.
Oyatlatonazqui tlauizcalleuaya
inan tlachichinya
nepapan quechol Xochitlacacan,
Yantala yantata ayyao ayyaue
tilili yyao ayaue o ayyaue.
Tlalpan timoquetzca
tianquiz nauaquia.
Nitlacatla,
ni Quetzalcoatla,
Yantala yantata ayyao ayyaue
tilili yyao ayaue oayyaue.
Florentine Codex, Book 2
Xochipilli (‘Flower Prince’), God of poetry, music, summer... Codex Vaticanus 3773, p. 10 (Click on image to enlarge) |
Text © 2008 John Curl. All rights reserved.
Picture sources:-
Florentine Codex (original in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence); image scanned from our own copy of the Club Internacional del Libro 3-volume facsimile edition, Madrid, 1994
Codex Borbonicus (original in the Bibliotheque de l’Assembée Nationale, Paris); images scanned from our own copy of the ADEVA facsimile edition, Graz, Austria, 1974
Codex Vaticanus 3773: image scanned from our own copy of the ADEVA facsimile edition, Graz, Austria, 1972
This article was uploaded to the Mexicolore website on Aug 20th 2009
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