Andrea Hellman, “The Colors I Give You”
translated from the Ch’ol
What does the world do in night’s cold
when the puyil sing to the rain?
February, loneliness
appears, an orphan
announcing forgottenness.
May, I saw rain
dance below the clouds,
and the world dark with desire
to shed its anger.
Again, the rain
and my life fleeting,
thoughts solitary.
From sky into fire,
the wound of lightning’s ax.
This is how it is.
I dance for the rain
and to hear the beating
of my heart.
puyil—a type of snail found in Chiapas
ISOÑIL JA’AL
¿Chuki mi imel jiñi pañumil che’ tyi tsuwañ ak’lel
che’ muk’ tyi k’ay puy tyi ityojlel isoñil ja’al?
Mi kubiñ tyi soñ ja’al che’ tyi pebrero,
ñäch’äl mi ityilel tyi kbajñelil,
ch’ijiyem mi ityilel che’ me’ba’ jiñi ch’ujlel,
o che’ yomjach imuku sub ñajäyel.
Tsa’ jk’ele tyi soñ ja’al che’ tyi mayo,
mäkäkña, mich’ikña,
ik’tyokañbä pañumil, weñ yom uk’el yilal,
che’ bajche’ yom ichokbeñ imich’ajel jiñi ik’.
Mi jk’el tyi soñ ja’al,
ñumeljachbä jkuxtyälel,
Pits’ilbä bajñal ña’tyayaj,
tyi yojlil its’äbts’äbñäyel k’ajk,
mi yajlel iwuty jiñi ja’al tyi ktyojlel,
mi iyajlel jiñi jacha chajk tyi ipam lum,
muk’ tyi low, muk’ tyi mil,
añkese che’ächi, mi ksoñiñ ja’al yik’oty its’äbts’äbñäyel kpusik’al.
Juana Peñate Montego, a lawyer by training, is a Ch’ol poet, writer, translator, educator, and cultural promoter from Emiliano Zapata, Tumbalá, Chiapas, Mexico. She has authored several books of poetry in Ch’ol with self-translations in Spanish including Mi nombre ya no es silencio (Coneculta 2002), Ipusik’al Matye’lum/Heart of a Wild Land, first published by Pluralia in 2013, and most recently Isoñil Ja’al/Dance of the Rain, which won the 2020 Premio de Literaturas Indígenas de América and will be published this year by the University of Guadalajara as well as Tsa’ Kñajle…Jump’ej K’iñ, Jump’ej K’iñ…/One Day, One Day…I Dreamed… to be co-published this year by Oralibrura and Lakñichimal.
Charlotte Friedman is a poet and author of The Girl Pages: A Handbook of Resources for Strong, Confident, Creative Girls (Hyperion). She taught Narrative Medicine at Columbia University for a decade and teaches writing and narrative medicine workshops for a variety of audiences. Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and published in the Connecticut River Review, Intima, Waterwheel Review, and elsewhere.
Carol Rose Little is an assistant professor of linguistics at the University of Oklahoma in the Modern Languages, Literatures and Linguistics department. She has been working with Ch’ol communities in Chiapas, Mexico, and has lived in the Ch’ol community of San Miguel for extended periods of time since 2015.