Part I
Chapter 1
This is the first account, the first narrative. There was neither man, nor animal, birds, fishes, crabs, trees, stones, caves, ravines, grasses, nor forests; there was only the sky.
The surface of the earth had not appeared. There was only the calm sea and the great expanse of the sky.
There was nothing brought together, nothing which could make a noise, nor anything which might move, or tremble, or could make noise in the sky.
There was nothing standing; only the calm water, the placid sea, alone and tranquil. Nothing existed.
There was only immobility and silence in the darkness, in the night. Only the creator, the Maker, Tepeu, Gucumatz, the Forefathers,[10] were in the water surrounded with light.[11] They were hidden under green and blue feathers, and were therefore called Gucumatz.[12] By nature they were great sages and great thinkers.[13] In this manner the sky existed and also the Heart of Heaven, which is the name of God and thus He is called.
Then came the word. Tepeu and Gucumatz came together in the darkness, in the night, and Tepeu and Gucumatz talked together.[14] They talked then, discussing and deliberating; they agreed, they united their words and their thoughts.
Then while they meditated, it became clear to them that when dawn would break, man must appear.[15] Then they planned the creation, and the growth of the trees and the thickets and the birth of life and the creation of man. Thus it was arranged in the darkness and in the night by the Heart of Heaven who is called Huracán.
[10] E Alom, literally, those who conceive and give birth, e Qaholom, those who beget the children. In order to follow the conciseness of the text here I translate the two terms as the "Forefathers."
[11] They were in the water because the Quiché associated the name Gucumatz with the liquid element. Bishop Núñez de la Vega says that Gucumatz is a serpent with feathers, which moves in the water. The Cakchiquel Manuscript says that one of the primitive peoples which migrated to Guatemala was called Gucumatz because their salvation was in the water.
[12] E qo vi e mucutal pa guc pa raxón. Guc or q'uc, kuk in Maya, is the bird now called quetzal (Pharomacrus mocinno); the same name is given to the beautiful green feathers which cover this bird's tail; in Náhuatl they are called quetzalli. Raxón, or raxom, is another bird with sky-blue plumage, according to Basseta; it is a bird with "chestnut-colored breast and blue wings," according to the Vocabulario de los Padres Franciscanos. In the common native language of Guatemala it is called ranchón, the Cotinga amabilis, a turquoise blue bird with purple breast and throat, which the Mexicans call Xiuhtototl. The feathers of these tropical birds, which abound especially in the region of Verapaz, were worn as decorations in the ceremonials by the kings and noblemen from the most ancient Maya times.
[13] E nimac etamanel, e nimac ahnaoh, in the original.
[14] X chau ruq ri Tepeu, Gucumatz. Here the word ruq indicates the reciprocal form of the verb.
[15] Ta x-calah puch vinac. With the conciseness of the Quiché language, the author says how the idea was clearly born in the minds of the Makers, how the necessity for creating man, the ultimate and supreme being of the creation, was revealed to them, according to the philosophy of the Quiché. Brasseur de Bourbourg interprets this phrase as follows: "et au moment de l'aurore, l'homme se manifesta." This interpretation is erroneous; the idea of creating man was conceived then, but as will be seen farther on in the account, it was not actually carried out until a much later time.
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