tzapocuahuitl (FCbk11f120v)

According to the English translation of the alphabetic Nahuatl text, “the sopadilla tree (tzapoquahuitl) is smooth, thick, shiny on the surface. Its leaves are each rounded on the surface: round. Its wood is white, soft, light, buoyant. It comes up. Each bud swells; they swell, they enlarge, break, open, burst, blossom, form small fruit. It forms fruit; they extend, growing larger, enlarging. They are tender. They extend, becoming tender. They mature, they ripen; they extend, ripening. They become overripe, very soft; they fall to the ground; they fall down. Thus it is said of one who has excelled, when once again he falls down, ‘The fruit comes to earth; ripened, it falls to the ground.’” The artist who created the image perfectly captures the language of this text (or vice versa), showing fallen fruit on the ground and another in the act of falling. The English translation is found in Sahagún, Fray Bernardino, General History of the Things of New Spain: Book 11 – Earthly Things. Translated and edited by Charles E. Dibble and Arthur J. O. Anderson. Salt Lake City and Santa Fe: The University of Utah, The School of American Research and the Museum of New Mexico, 1963, 116.