The book opens with the Ancient Word of Quiché, in which the K'iche' authors tell why they are writing down what was once hidden. Then comes the Stillness and the Making of the Earth: the calm sea beneath the empty sky, the word of the Creator and the Former, and the earth rising at a single command. Last, the Animals and the Creature of Mud: the beasts are given the forests and charged to speak the names of their makers, and when they cannot, the first creature of mud is tried, and dissolves. This is the K'iche' people's own book of creation, written down by K'iche' authors in the 1550s and preserved in Fr. Ximénez's copy.
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
Chapters:
0:00 Opening
0:05 The Ancient Word of Quiché
1:50 The Stillness and the Making of the Earth
7:47 The Animals and the Creature of Mud
From the Popol Vuh in the French translation of the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg (Paris, 1861), from the K'iche' text preserved in the copy of Francisco Ximénez — a fresh in-house English rendering.
Popol Vuh.
KacheliTV — world classics, read aloud.
