A Chalcan Lordsong

The eighth cuicatl in Songs of the Lords of Anahuac, my English translation of the codex Romances de los señores de la Nueva España. This piece is noted as being both “chalcayotl”¹ and a “tlahtohcacuicatl.”²

The Chalcan king³ has come to fight,
spears move as one —
chalk and feathers.⁴

Beside the House of Holy Writ,⁵
there for a time they remain,
in the home of our god.

The flowers are dropping,
like our god’s own song
now drops down, too.

Here in your home warbles
a resplendent quetzal bird —
the Lord of Teohuahcan.⁶
Your bloom has burst open!

In the flowery courtyard,
on the terrace of mists,⁷
our god begins to whistle.

He finds cheer
in your song!

Notes

1. A type of poem which comes from Chalco (i.e. the Chalcan Confederacy, an alliance of city-states to the southeast of Mexica territory) or whose reciters mimicked the manners of the inhabitants of Chalco.
2. A genre of music or poetry, literally “song” (cuicatl) of a “king” (tlahtohqui).
3. The Nahuatl reads “in Chalco,” which can be read both as “the Chalco” and “the one [from] Chalco,” a…