Popol Vuh

Allen J. Christenson is the translator of this version of the Popol Vuh, basing his translations off Father Ximénez’s Spanish interpretation of the original Quiché text and his knowledge of the Quiché language. Discuss the ways in which he can access the text and, alternately, where and when the text is closed to him. What does his knowledge allow him to perceive? Where are the places where translation becomes especially difficult for him? 

In the Popol Vuh, the creation of the world manifests with Heart of Sky, Sovereign, and Quetzal Serpent’s collective utterance of the word, “Earth” (61). Language is not only significant to the creation of earth, but becomes an important facet of development on earth. Describe the role that language plays on earth with the eventual creation of people and their proliferation.

Creation and destruction play equally-important roles in the earth’s early beginnings. One cannot exist without the other to balance it. Discuss examples where creation follows destruction and vice versa. How does one process necessitate the other in the Popol Vuh? What balance do these forces achieve?