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Jaguar Tongues

October 2005

This collection presents a wealth of fiction, poetry, and prose written in the indigenous languages of the Americas, among them Comanche, Purépecha, Yucatecan Maya, Náhuatl and Classical Náhuatl, Zapoteco, Mazateco, Mixteco, Mazahua, Ñahñu, K’iche’, and Tztotzil, collected and translated by Earl and Sylvia Sasson Shorris.

The Indigenous Literature of the Americas

By Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

Guest editors Earl Shorris and Sylvia Sasson Shorris introduce WWB’s issue of writing from the indigenous languages of the Americas.

On Language

The Zapotec Language

By Francisco de la Cruz

They say that the ancient Zapotecs came downfrom the clouds. The center of the sky was their home.

Translated from Zapoteco by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

The Sacvi of Chinango

By Lorenzo Hernandez Ocampo

If we do not preserve our language, the time will come when we will lose what we know and who we are.

Translated from Mixteco by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

The Loss of Our Language

Today, few speak Comanche, its loss—a bitter lesson.

Translated from Comanche by Juanita Pahdopony

Poems on Traditional Themes

Opening Poem of the Cantares Mexicanos

Earl Shorris and Sylvia Sasson Shorris prosent a new translation of this Classical Náhuatl poem from the sixteenth century.

Translated from Náhuatl (Aztec) by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

Origins of the Indians in the New World

By Fray Gregorio García

In that time...there appeared, there was visible a god who was named 1-Deer

Translated from Zapoteco by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

Dreamhouse

By Auldárico Hernández

The power of your soul Comes from the stars

Translated from Yucatecan Maya by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

The Paths

By Juan Gregorio Regino

All paths arrive at the only road that exists.

Translated from Mazateco by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

Nothing Remains Empty

By Juan Gregorio Regino

There is a place in the Universe / where the memory of time / is recorded.

Translated from Mazateco by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

Learn

Chants

By Juan Gregorio Regino

The voice of the wise man reaches far, the singer, the cleanser of pains.

Translated from Spanish by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

Contemporary Poems

A rebozo photographed in black and white.

By Mónica Morales. License: CC by 2.0 Access at: https://flic.kr/p/rP5TJ

Purépecha Mother

By Gilberto Jerónimo Mateo

This poem from an indigenous Purépecha author celebrates the heroism of a seemingly ordinary woman.

Translated from Purépecha by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

Learn

“I am like a solitary star”

By Pancho Nácar

I am like a solitary star

Translated from Zapoteco by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

“I am like an otter”

By Pancho Nácar

I am like an otter

Translated from Zapoteco by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

Twelve Poems by Humberto Ak’abal

By Humberto Ak’abal

K'iche' (Mayan) poet and author, Humberto Ak'abal from Guatemala writes 12 poems of nature, life, loss, and remembrance.

Translated from K'iche' by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

Who Are We? What Is Our Name?

By Victor de la Cruz

To speak, to say yes to the night; / To say yes to the darkness.

Translated from Zapoteco by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

Memories

By Gerardo Can Pat

I asked permission of your father. He did not want togive it.

Translated from Yucatecan Maya by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

Six Variations on Love

By Victor Terán

Love / comes and goes like the night.

Translated from Zapoteco by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

Marías Mazahuas

By Fausto Guadarrama López

Where do you go, Marías, where do you go?

Translated from Mazahua by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

Learn

School

By Briceida Cuevas Cob

And the ants that sing, laugh, dance / and play in circles, began to cry.

Translated from Yucatecan Maya by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

The Owl

By Briceida Cuevas Cob

The owl is here. / He perches on the wall. And meditates.

Translated from Yucatecan Maya by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

Chatty Girl

By Javier Castellanos

Only your little words know how to cure me.

Translated from Zapoteco by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

The Lemon Seller

By Natalia Toledo Paz

To travel the seas of silence / becoming nothing in the foam...

Translated from Zapoteco by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

Stories

Dreams and Memories of a Common Man

By Marcos Matías Alonso

They squeezed us and they piled us up to fill up the city, to live like ants, like crazed lizards in the middle of trash.

Translated from Náhuatl (Aztec) by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

Learn

The Ash Vendors

By Rita Molina Elias

The masked man, seeing the other men running, chose to follow them, without realizing that he would frighten them even more.

Translated from Purépecha by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

No One Dies, Life Only Changes

By Juan López Palacios

What are you doing out in the street so late at night?

Translated from Náhuatl (Aztec) by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

Echeverría

By Enrique Pérez López

He left his village because he despaired of the life that he was living

Translated from Tzotzil by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

My Encounter with Xtabay

By Wenceslao Yeh & Marcos Xiu Cachon

Take care, teacher, do not walk around alone, because the spirits could grab you.

Translated from Yucatecan Maya by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

Juan and Xtabay

By Miguel Angel May May

Juan hardly remembered how he got to his house, but when he got there he did not go to sleep immediately.

Translated from Yucatecan Maya by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

The Story of Naxá

By Juan Gregorio Regino

The campesinos prepared their whetstones and machetes while their wives prepared posole and filled their gourds with water.

Translated from Mazateco by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

Fables

A Traveler’s Tale

By Jesús Salinas Pedraza

How awful, how awful!

Translated from Ñahñu by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

The One Who Went to Learn to Lie

By Victor de la Cruz

There was someone in the old days, they say, who wanted to learn to lie.

Translated from Zapoteco by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

Laziness

By Lázaro Márquez Joaquín

If I kill this deer, I will have money to buy a chicken.

Translated from Purépecha by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

Escape From Death

By Ismael García Marcelino

Who could be following me? It must be the wind in the fields that is causing this noise.

Translated from Purépecha by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

Poverty

By María Luisa Góngora Pacheco

May you get what you ask for! answered the old man, and left satisfied.

Translated from Yucatecan Maya by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

The Serpent of the Green Mountain

By Agustin Jimenez Garcia

In the old days, inside the Green Mountain, there lived a giant serpent who acted as if it were the master of the place, rixxo.

Translated from Zapoteco by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

Articles

El Temascal

By Librado Silva Galeana

Once the bath house has been constructed, a godfather is sought out and a priest is summoned.

Translated from Náhuatl (Aztec) by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

Alux

By Santiago Domínguez Aké

It is said that the alux is a clay doll that guards the farmer's field, scaring away thieves and making jokes to all the people who pass by or stop to rest near the place where he lives.

Translated from Yucatecan Maya by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris