Acábese ya, señor, este humo y esta niebla de vuestro enojo. Apáguese ya este fuego quemante y abrasante de vuestra ira. Venga serenidad y claridad. Comiencen ya las avecillas de vuestro pueblo a cantar y a escogollarse al sol. Daldes tiempo sereno en que os llamen y hagan oración a vuestra majestad y os conozcan. ¡Oh señor nuestro, valerosísimo, piadosísimo, nobilísimo! Esto poquito he dicho delante de vuestra majestad. Y no tengo más que decir sino prostrarme y arrojarme a vuestros pies, demandando perdón de las faltas que en mi oración he hecho. Por cierto, no querría quedar en la desgracia de vuestra majestad, y no tengo más que decir.
\nLet this smoke and fog of your anger now cease, lord. Let this burning and blazing fire of your wrath now be extinguished. Let serenity and clarity come forth, and let those little birds who are your people now begin to sing and preen themselves in the sun. Grant them clear weather in which they may call upon you, say a prayer to Your Majesty, and know you. Oh, most brave, most pious, most noble lord of ours! I have said just these few words before Your Majesty, and I have nothing left to say but to prostrate myself and throw myself at your feet, pleading for forgiveness for the faults that I have committed in my prayer. For I certainly would not wish to remain in Your Majesty’s disfavor. And I have nothing more to say.
\nin poctli in aiavitl: ma cevi in tletl in tlachinolli: ma momanan tlalli, ma tlato ma moçoçooa in quechol, in çaquan: ma mjtznotza, ma mjtztlatlauhti, ma mjtziximati.
\nCa ixqujchtzin injc mjxpantzinco njvetzi, injc mjxpantzinco njnomaiauj, njnotlaça in anequetzaloian, in aqujxooaian, in temauhtican in maviziocan: ma melleltzin njcquetz, ma motlaveltzin ipan nja. Tlacatle, tlaçopille: totecue ma ximotlacotili, ma ximotequjtili.
\nthe smoke, the cloud [of thy ire] cease; may the fire, the blaze [of thy rage] be extinguished! May the earth be at rest! May the roseate spoonbill,1 the troupial2 sing; may they preen themselves. May [thy people] call to thee, supplicate thee, know thee!
\n“This is all. Thus I fall before thee, I throw myself before thee; I cast myself into the place whence none rise, whence none leave, the place of terror, of fear. May I not have aroused thy annoyance; may I not have walked upon thy fury. O master, O precious nobleman, O our lord, perform thy office, do thy work!”
\nQuechol: Ajaia ajaia (Linnaeus) in Herbert Friedmann, Ludlow Griscom, and Robert T . Moore: “Distributional Check-List of the Birds of Mexico,” Pacific Coast Avifauna, Nos. 29, 33 (Berkeley, Calif.: Cooper Ornithological Club, 1950, 1957; henceforth referred to as Friedmann et al.), Pt. I, p. 35.↩
Çaquan: Gymnostinops montezuma (Lesson), in ibid., Pt. II, p. 276. Both Friedmann et al. and Emmet Reid Blake, in Birds of Mexico (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953), p. 506, identify the çaquan as Gymnostinops montezuma (Lesson) or Montezuma oropendola. While troupial is not strictly exact (representing, rather, a term applicable to a number of species), we have ventured to use the term for convenience’s sake.↩