in xóchitl in cuicatl: Flower and Song

     This poem is a ritual chant used by priests to send a penitent Aztec off on his journey.  Oxomoco signifies Turpentine-Ointment-Two-Pine-Branches, and refers to the mythological primordial man who, along with his wife Cipactonal, created the various arts of divination (Alarcón 1992:34, 155). 
     The speaker in this poem, the priest, thus blends the two aspects of mythological creation, the masculine and the feminine, in himself in the final stanza, becoming both mother and father not only to the penitent, but to the entire Aztec people. 
     Also of note is the alliteration in the third stanza, with strong "n" sounds and the repetition of the "tla" grouping in all three lines.  The third stanza is echoed in the fourteenth line, with a re-emergence of the priest watching over the penitent, and the chant ends with a strong ritualistic phrase structure that will show up in many of the other poems that follow.












     In this poem we once again see the strong repetitive elements that characterize much of Nahuatl poetry, especially the repeated lines describing the speaker in the first person that are common throughout most of the poems that Alarcón cites. 
     The poem is also strongly marked by the presence of repeated line ending sounds, such as the "tl" in the first four lines of the first stanza, the "an" of the second stanza, the "nemi" of the third, and the "az" of the fifth.  Although not seeming to follow a strict rhyme pattern like those found in European poetry, this repetition of end sounds imparts a sense of strength and musical unity to the poem that seems especially appropriate given the musical nature of most Aztec poetry. 
     The content of the poem provides a fascinating glimpse of an Aztec traveler, perhaps a pochtecatl (traveling merchant), preparing himself for travel by seemingly challenging the various spirits and embodiments of nature to come out and fight him, saying he fears and respects nothing, while at the same time evoking the image of sacrifice in the fifth stanza, which is ambiguous as to the source of the blood described, at least in translation.  While it may be the blood of the foes the traveler faces, it may also reference an act of autosacrifice on the part of the traveler, an offering to the very spirits he defies, that they may not do him too much harm.








     Nanahuatzin is an honorific name for the Sun, a shortened version of Nanahuahuatl, "Pustulous-One", which references the Aztec creation myth in which a diseased god cast himself into a fire, being cleansed by the flame, and reborn in the form of the sun (Alarcón 1992:154). 
     The poem itself evokes the travels of the sun, crossing over desert and canyon, passing through the sky across the disk of the earth.  The first person "I" essentially becomes the sun, or invokes the power of the sun to easily pass by any obstacles that may be encountered, and the poem ends with an allusion, perhaps, to the fate of warriors who die in battle or women who die in childbirth, who accompany the sun in its' voyage across the sky (Berdan 2005:102). 
     Stylistically, the poem once again exhibits the repetition and parallelism that characterizes so much of Aztec poetry, the two first lines, for instance, beginning with the same word, while the last two lines also begin with the same words.  This is not explicitly reflected in the translation in the first stanza, but the parallelism is reflected in the second stanza in translation, where the English lines appear to directly reflect the original Nahuatl. 









     Centeotl is, literally, the "Ear-of-Corn-God", and is thus associated with bounty, the harvest, and food.  Olchipinque means "Ones-Dripping-With-Rubber", and is used as a metaphor in this case for birds, while Olpeyauhque means "Ones-Overflowing-With-Rubber", and is used similarly.  Chalchiuhcueye, "Jade-Skirt-Owner", is Goddess of the Water.  The huipil is a cotton garment worn by women (Alarcón 1992:151, 153, 155). 
     The poem starts out with the familiar first person invocation, associating the speaker with the gods while calling upon them for help, and then proceeds to describe the purpose of the speaker, who seeks to hunt birds, personified as members of the speakers' family. 
     The fourth through seventh stanzas are relatively obscure, but may represent a description of a method of trapping or otherwise ensnaring waterfowl, or, alternatively, an offering of some sort to the Goddess of Water, so that the hunter may be successful in the enterprise. 
     The use of the consonant "n" and the vowel "i" at the beginnings of lines is especially prevalent in this poem, "n" appearing eight times out of thirty, and "i" eleven times.  In fact, the lines only begin with the letters n, o, i, t, and c, which is relatively remarkable considering the length of the poem, and once again expresses the musical aspect of Aztec poetry.



















     This poem is rather similar to the proceeding poem, describing the hunt for Chicome-Xochitl, that is, "Seven Flower", a ritual name for male deer (Alarcón 1992:152). 
     The deer is apparently perceived as a clever or lucky animal, and is perhaps a difficult quarry, but in the poem the speaker expresses his own triumph over the deer in joyous and expressive language, describing the ensnarement of the deer in the night. 
     Of particular interest stylistically is the onomatopoeic eleventh line, which increases the excitement and speed of the poem, helping to represent the joyous feelings of the hunter, and increasing the auditory or musical element of the poem.  The second and third stanzas also seem to run together despite the line and stanza breaks, appearing as one thematic unit, despite their stylistic seperation.







    This poem is a chant designed to get rid of an unwanted infestation of ants, and describes various methods of achieving this end.  In the first stanza, the speaker threatens the use of water to wash the ants away, but this method seems to fail in the second stanza, where the speaker chastises the water for its inability to wash away the tiny ants when it can easily wash away trees.  In the third stanza, however, the speaker has turned to a different helper, tobacco, which would be sprinkled around the periphery of the infestation (Alarcón 1992:58). 
     The poem is marked by the strong presence of the "t" sound, which is present in every line except the second.  The first and third stanzas also parallel one another, each consisting of six lines, and beginning with the same "tla cuel!" invocation, reinforcing the ritual nature of the poem. 














    This brief poem invokes the Iztac-Tlamacazqui, the White Spirits, literally "White-One-Who-Gives-Something", that is, the earthworms that the speaker is about to use to try to catch fish by placing them on the red chichimec, used metaphorically for a fish-hook (Alarcón 1992:151,153,156). 
    The speaker wishes to catch not just a single fish, but rather as many fish as possible; the translation implies that the fisher wants to catch all of the fish that live in the meandering stream. 












     Tonacacihuatl, "Lady of Our Flesh", is here used as a ritual name for corn, while Tlalteuctli, "Ruler of the Earth", is a Goddess of the Earth (Alarcón 1992:156,157). The poem  describes the Aztec association with and personification of the various parts of nature as parts of themselves: birds, animals, plants, and all of nature are alternatively seen as members of the same family and as parts of the same whole as the human Aztecs. 
     In the poem, corn is described as the elder sister of the speaker, while the earth assumes the position of mother to both the corn and the speaker.  The poem is a plea for a good and bountiful harvest, and asks the earth to provide sustenance for the corn, which is honored and revered.
     Stylistically, the poem shows an interesting repetition of the name of the corn, Tonacacihuatl, as the last line of alternating stanzas:  it appears in stanzas two, four, six, and eight.  The middle stanzas, five and six, are also especially marked by a parallel word order and phrase construction.






















    Tlazopilli, "Beloved Prince/Princess", is a ritual name for corn, while Centeotl is, as described above, a corn god (Alarcón 1992:157).
     The poem appears to describe the ritual use of some sort of corn-based beverage to assuage anger, but is also stylistically interesting in that no line contains more than two words, most of the lines of poem actually consisting of only a single word.  The poem also exhibits a sort of alternating stanza construct of three line stanzas followed by stanzas which consist of an even number of lines. 
     It also exhibits a seemingly above average number of "z" sounds, which appear in every stanza, especially the fourth. 















     Xochiquetzal, "Flower-Plume", is a Love Goddess, and is also goddess of flowers, arts and crafts, which of course includes poetry (Alarcón 1992:157). 
     This longer poem is presented as a ritual chant for the finding of affection, but is also a wonderfully expressive love-poem in its own right, evoking the impatience of the speaker, who wants his lover not tomorrow or the day after, but "right now!".  The speaker describes himself as youthful, as a warrior, but also provides reminders of the importance of family and lineage, he is not issued from out of nowhere, but rather has relatives and ancestors.  The poem ends with a reflection on whether or not the speaker is truly as warlike and fierce as he has previously implied, and he plays up his gentle nature and association with the feminine mother, and, by extension, Xochiquetzal. 
     The poem is formally marked by repetition and parallelism to a very great extent, even more than most of the other poems presented on this page, the first stanza, for instance, made up of exclusively single-word lines, five of which begin with "n".  The third, fourth, fifth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth stanzas all feature strong parallel phrase structure and word repetition, but this is especially helpful in conveying the force of the speakers' feelings, and reinforces, once again, the inseparability of Aztec poetry and music.









































     Chalchiuhcueye, as mentioned above, is Goddess of Water; Cuaton, Caxxoch, Tlahui, and Xapel, are the four Tlazolteteo, Godesses of Love and Filth, while Tlaloc is the Rain God, who shared primacy in the Aztec pantheon with Huitzilopochtli (Alarcón 1992:151,152,156,157). 
     The poem is thus an invocation for the cleansing of both the body and the soul or the spirit.  While the speaker asks for the help of the various Goddesses, he seems to threaten Tlaloc, warning Tlaloc against turning away.  This warning, however, comes not necessarily directly from the speaker of the poem, but rather from the Enchanter, who is supposedly able to take the shape of the tonal, or guardian spirit, that accompanies people throughout their lives (Alarcón 1992:154). 
     Stylistically, this poem is also interesting for the focus on colour imagery, especially in the third and fifth stanzas, which, combined with the numerous deities mentioned, each of whom also has their own associated colour, provides an example of the Aztec love of colour and emphasis on visual stimuli for symbolic meaning.






















     This poem again invokes the Goddess of Water, and describes the process of divination performed for children, in which the child is held above a pool of water and the reflection is examined (Alarcón 1992:109). 
     While the Aztecs believed strongly in fate and destiny, they also had a worldview that was profoundly uncertain, and it was possible to influence and change fate, as reflected by this poem, in which Chalchiuhcueye is called on to help with the divination, to aid the diviner in determining the fate of the child, which hopefully will be a good one.
   















     This poem, though stylistically quite similar to many of the others presented in use of colour, repetition, and parallelism, is very interesting in that it consists, essentially, of one sustained metaphor for the entire poem.  The white eagle, which can be seen rather as a lack of colour than a colour in and of itself, is in opposition with the  snakes, all of whom are a specific colour. 
    The eagle is also associated with the Aztec empire as a whole, featuring strongly in the myth of the founding of Tenochtitlan.  Though it may be something of a stretch, the evocation of the eagle could suggest that the practice of acupuncture might have enjoyed a relatively distinguished place in Aztec medicine. 











     This poem relates part of the story of Yappan, "Black-Corn-Flag", metaphorically the Black Scorpion, who decides to live a life of abstinence in order to placate the gods and gain a better position after the coming cataclysm that will change humans into animals.  A few of the goddesses divine that if Yappan is successful, he will be transformed into a scorpion that will be deadly to everyone it stings.  They decide to send Xochiquetzal down to try and tempt him, and she is successful.  Yaotl had earlier been set to watch over Yappan, and at the end of the poem, he criticizes Yappan, then cuts his head off.  Yappan turns into a scorpion, but because he failed in his attempt at abstinence the goddess Citlalcueye, "Star-Skirt-Owner", one of the goddesses who had made the earlier divination, decreed that not all those who were stung by the scorpion would die (Alarcón 1992:136-138). 
      This poem has strong dramatic and theatrical aspects, with the presence of multiple characters speaking in the first person to one another, chronological elements, and a narrator.  Repeated and parallel elements are relatively subdued, but single-word lines are well represented, especially in the lines of Yappan, Xochiquetzal, and the Narrator.  It is interesting that Yaotl, "the Warrior", seems to have the most to say, while Xochiquetzal, Goddess of Arts, is relatively silent, though she does make a poetic repetition in the sixth and seventh lines, and is more eloquent than Yaotl.
     The poem suggests the importance for the Aztecs of both warfare and skillful oration, poetry and martial arts, and is indicative of the complexity and diversity of the Aztec civilization.