Popol Vuh: Sacred Book of the Quiché Maya - Mesoweb

To my wife, Janet
Xa at nu saqil, at nu k'aslemal
Chib'e q'ij saq
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This volume is the culmination of nearly twenty-five years of collaboration with friends and
colleagues who have been more than generous with their time, expertise, encouragement, and
at times, sympathy. It has become a somewhat clichéd and expected thing to claim that a
work would not be possible without such support. It is nonetheless true, at least from my
experience, and I am indebted to all those who helped move the process along.
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to my Maya teachers,
colleagues, and friends who have selflessly devoted their time and knowledge to help carry
out this project. Without their efforts, none of it would have ever gotten off the ground. I
would like to particularly recognize in this regard don Vicente de León Abac, who, with
patience and kindness, guided me through the complexity and poetry of K'iche' theology and
ceremonialism. Without his wisdom, I would have missed much of the beauty of ancestral
vision that is woven into the very fabric of the Popol Vuh. I dearly miss him. I would also like
to acknowledge the profound influence that Antonio Ajtujal Vásquez had on this work. It
was his kind and gentle voice that I often heard when I struggled at times to understand the
ancient words of this text. Others who have aided this work include Diego Chávez Petzey,
Nicolás Chávez Sojuel, Felix Choy, Gregorio Chuc, Juan Mendoza, Francisco Mendoza, and
Juan Zárate.
I am deeply indebted to Jim Mondloch for his extraordinary generosity in offering to read
through the translation. His depth of knowledge with regard to K'iche' grammar, syntax, and
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