Ipalnemohua (Giver of Life)
“He by whom one lives”, a Nahuatl title of the highest god, used often in the songs of the Cantares mexicanos.
Songs of Flowers and Parting
Nahua singers, three songs from the Cantares mexicanos manuscript, as printed by Daniel G. Brinton, Ancient Nahuatl Poetry (Philadelphia, 1887), songs XXII–XXIV · sung before and after the Spanish conquest; written down in the sixteenth century; printed 1887
Quiyon quiyon caya nichocaya ya ni Nezahualcoyotl huiya queni yeno yaz o ya nipolihuiz oya miquitla ye nimitzcahua noteouh ypalnemo o tinechnahuatia ye niaz nipolihuiz aya, yo.
I wept, I, Nezahualcoyotl, thinking how I too will go, how I will perish in the place of the dead. Now I leave you, my god, Giver of Life. You command me, and now I will go; I will perish.
O ayac quitlamitaz monecuiltonol ypalnemoa a noyolquimati cuelachic otictlanehuico Nezahualcoyotzin ay oppatihua nican anaya y chan tlpc. Oon yn ay oppatihua in tlalticpacqui, zan nicuicanitl ayaho onnichocaya niquelnamiqui Nezahualcoyotl aya ho.
No one will use up your riches, Giver of Life. My heart knows it: we only borrowed Nezahualcoyotzin for a little while. No one comes back a second time to his home here on earth. No one lives twice on earth. I, only a singer, wept as I remembered Nezahualcoyotl.
Xo acico ye nican in teotl aya ypalnemoa, ayaho on nichocaya a niquelnamiqui Nezalhuacoyotl ayio.
Come here now, god, Giver of Life. I wept as I remembered Nezahualcoyotl.