Invoking the Self-Made God

The fourth cuicatl in Songs of the Lords of Anahuac, my English translation of the codex Romances de los señores de la Nueva España.

The Great Power of the Creator
(This has already been transcribed.)¹

The dwelling of the Self-Made God²
is in no single place,
but wherever he is invoked,
wherever he is awaited,
wherever his glory and his praise
are sought upon this earth.

He crafts “ohuaya,”³
that ecstatic shout divine,
wherever he is invoked,
wherever he is awaited,
wherever his glory and his praise
are sought upon this earth.

No one, absolutely no one
is Life Giver’s true friend.
He is only invoked.
Truly in his presence,
by his very side,
does life exist on earth.

What sort of person
finds him delightful?
He is only invoked.
Truly in his presence,
by his very side,
does life exist on earth.

No one is in truth your friend,
O Lord of All That Lives:⁴
we seem as naught but flowers,
heaped upon the earth,
by…