Editor’s Note: World Literature Today dedicated its September 2023 issue to the indigenous literatures of the Americas. We are proud to feature a few texts from that issue, in multilingual edition, in the present issue of LALT.
These poems by Miriam Esperanza Hernández Vázquez were translated directly from Ch’ol to English by Carol Rose Little and Charlotte Friedman; they are therefore presented without translations into Spanish.
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K’uxbä kolel
Junp’ej k’iñ tyi chilbeñtyiyoñ jkolel.
CHe’ tyi ksäklä
tyi ktyaja tyi ipaty ibäk’ juloñib,
buts, butsñabä ibuts’il.
Jiñi jkolel chokol ya’ tyi bij,
ya’ tyi ixäk’ bij baki tyi ujtyi tsäñsaj,
tyi ichupil ibä’tyal ajsajtyel,
tyi ixujk jiñi matye’el.
Xtsäñsajob tyi ibä’tyisäyob
yik’oty ijuloñi’tyak jiñi jkolel,
tyi ijok’beyoñob lok’el tyi ktyojlel,
lajal tyi itsäñsäyob yik’oty iwäy kyum.
The Day They Stole My Childhood
I found the bullet
the barrel
still smoking
A murder on the road
a body
devoured by maggots
Frightened by rifles
my childhood
hid at the forest edge
They killed
me
and my grandfather’s wäy*
* wäy – personal guardian spirit that takes the form of an animal
X-ila
La’ixme, la’ixme tyi awotyoty,
la’ix k’uxu awaj awik’oty atyaty aña’,
mach iweñta ityä’lañety ajmoso,
¿baki kächä icha’añety?
¿baki choñkol ityä’lañety?
la’ix k’uxu awaj awik’oty atyaty aña’,
la’ix k’ele api’älob, la’ix tyi alas awik’otyob,
añba amul, añba atyajñal,
aläletyo, ma’añ chuki tyi axujch’ibeyob,
ma’añku tyi alowoyob,
ak’eñix ikoletyob tyälel tyi awotyoty,
la’ixme aläl, la’ix,
la’ix k’uxu awaj awik’oty atyaty aña’.
X-ila*
Come! Come home!
Eat with your parents. The boys can’t harm you.
Did they tie you up?
How did they hurt you? Come, eat
your food with your parents.
See your friends. Play! Are you at fault?
Have you sinned?
You are still young, nothing’s stolen.
They’re not hurt.
Let them free, you can return home.
Come, child—
your food, your father, your mother.
* healer, the one who cares
Translated by Carol Rose Little and Charlotte Friedman
Originally published in World Literature Today, vol. 97, no. 5 (September 2023)
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Photo: Tila, Chiapas, by Joan C Wrenn, Flickr.
Carol Rose Little is an assistant professor of linguistics at the University of Oklahoma. She has been working in Ch’ol communities in Chiapas, Mexico, since 2015. Her translations of Ch’ol poetry with Charlotte Friedman have been published in Exchanges, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and elsewhere.
