Mexíca Songs
Translated from Nahatl by John Paige
Mexíca Aztecs sang to their Mother and to the gods’ Mother, to Earth, during human offering ceremonies in the area around what is now Mexico City. The first song printed below predates Spanish contact and was probably sung in the 1400s. The other selections, composed after the Spanish Conquest, are excerpts from ghost songs in which Mexíca dance and sing to summon the ghosts of dead warriors. They danced the battle their friends had died in; they danced to exhaustion, collapse, and vision.
The Gods' Mother's Song
Ahuiya.A yellow flower
Opens.
Mother.
God-thigh mask.
You were born in Tamoanchan.
The yellow flower
is your flower,
Mother.
God-thigh mask.
You were born in Tamoanchan.
Ahuiya.
A white flower
Opens.
Mother.
God-thigh mask.
You were born in Tamoanchan.
The white flower
is your flower,
Mother.
God-thigh mask.
You were born in Tamoanchan.
Ahuiya. Ohoya.
God is on a barrel cactus.
Obsidian Butterfly,
Mother.
Sho. Ahua.
Let us find her now.
She will feed on hearts of deer
across the Nine Deserts.
Our Mother is Queen of the Earth.
Sho.
She is chalked and feathered.
Chalk is fresh,
down is fresh.
In four directions,
broken arrows.
Sho.
On the Great Desert
she changes into a deer.
Turquoise, Arrow Fish
come to find You.
God-thigh mask: Strip of skin excised from female sacrificial victims’ inner thigh, then worn by a Corn God impersonator.
Nobody Lives
Life Mover makes nobody solid,
nobody of quality.
Jaguar,
heart of the mountain,
dies a slave.
Eagle flies away.
I Am a Singer
My tongue is coral,
my lips are jade.
I’m rich!
We Don't Live Here
We are only renting.
Earth is not our home.
Look at Me
Born in ocean,
born in fire—
Mexíca!
Here the ghost uses ocean and fire as a metaphor for battle.
A Wall of Flwers
A wall of iridescent flowers.
Dust swirls up
and over the wall;
settles.
Prince Walking Timber
is carried down.
No more songs.
Earth is drunk.
Men hunt men.
Flower water simmers.
Jade shatters.
A firebird flickers.
Prince Walking Timber
is carried down.
No more songs.
Earth is drunk.
Men hunt men.
Afirebird is a ghost.