One Monkey & One Artisan

The Popol Vuh is the sacred book of the Maya. I love studying language and enjoy reading different English translations of the Quiché text. While the Tedlock translation is easier for a contemporary English speaker to understand, I feel that Christenson's is likely a more direct translation. One can even read his complete literal translation of the entire Popol Vuh online, composed

after 25 years of research and field work among Mayan shaman-priests, aj q'ijab' , or daykeepers.

Hun Batz' & Hun Chouen or One Monkey & One Artisan were the older brothers of Hunahpu & Xbalanqué, the Hero Twins of the Popol Vuh. Hun Batz' & Chouen were turned into monkeys after mistreating their younger brothers and attempting to kill them out of jealousy. But as we can see, they were genius in their own right. Their greatness was never fully revealed because they created their own undoing.

Rebirth of Maize God, father of Hun Batz' & Chouen and Hunahpu & Xbalanqué. Rising from a turtle shell with the help of his sons, the Hero Twins, signified the return of maize to the world.

Hun Batz' & Chouen. Image from The Blood of Kings: Dynasty & Ritual in Maya Art by Linda Schele & Mary Ellen Miller. Kimbell Art Museum. 1986

English translation of Quiché text by Dennis Tedlock

"And One Monkey and One Artisan were great flautists and singers, and as they grew up they went through great suffering and pain. It had cost them suffering to become great knowers. Through it all they became flautists, singers, and writers, carvers. They did everything well. They simply knew it when they were born, they simply had genius. And they were the successors of their fathers who had gone to Xibablba, their dead fathers.

Since One Monkey and One Artisan were great knowers, in their hearts they already realized everything when their younger brothers came into being, but they didn't reveal their insight because of their jealousy. The anger in their hearts came down on their heads; no great harm was done".

English translation of Quiché text by Allen J. Christenson

"Now One Batz and One Chouen were great flautists and singers. They had grown in greatness. They had passed through great affliction and misfortune, and thus they had become great. They were sages. They were not only flautists and singers, but they had also become writers and carvers. Everything they did was successful for them.

For they know of the circumstances of their birth, and certainly they were ingenious. They were substitutes for their father who had gone to Xibalba and had died. Thus One Batz and One Chouen were great sages. In their hearts, they knew everything from the first, even before their younger brothers were created.

But nothing ever came of these enchanted abilities because of their envy. The abuses born in their hearts merely fell upon their own backs and nothing came of them".

Quiché text transcribed by Allen J. Christenson

Aj su',

Aj b'ix,

Ri Jun B'atz',

Jun Chowen.

Xenimaqir k'ut,

Nima k'axk'ol,

Ra'il,

Xe'ik'ow wi.

Xek'axk'ob'isaxik.

E nima'q eta'manel chik xe'uxik.

Xa wi xere e aj su'.

E aj b'ix,

E pu aj tz'ib'ab',

Aj k'ot xe'uxik.

Ronojel

Chutzin kumal.

Xa xketa'm wi xe'alaxik,

Xa xenawinaq.

E pu u k'exel

Ki qajaw

Ri web'e chi Xib'alb'a.

Kaminaq wi ki qajaw.

E k'u nima'q,

Eta'manel,

Ri Jun B'atz',

Jun Chowen.

Chi ki k'u'x

Ronojel nab'ek keta'm.

Ta xewinaqir

Ri ki chaq'.

Ma k'u apanoq ki na'wikil,

Rumal ki kaqwachib'al.

Xa chikij wqaj wi

U yoq' ki k'u'x.