Texts

Né ajsiket ne ipal Kulalmumachtiani. Ajsiket inat ka kimatitiwit ka ne tiupan kipia tay yejemet nejnemitiwit kitemuat. Kiunij inak ne Palej:

One day some people came from the Students’ Circle. They said they had heard that the church had just what they had been looking for. The priest said:

Kwak niweli, nikpalewia Alan wan Cecy. Nusan Carlos, melka yaja techanchanej, pero uksan mumachtia Nawataketza. Yejemet tesu nechtashtawat, ka inat ka yejemet tesu kipiat tumin pal nechtashtawat.

When I am able I help Alan and Cecy. Carlos too, although he is a local, but he is still studying Nawat. They don’t pay me, because they say that they don’t have money to pay me with.

Ne techanchanejket tesu welituyat taketzat tik Español, nan welit katka tawawasuat nan amataketzat. Yajika, kwak ajsiket ne takamet istak, yejemet tesu kimatit tay inat ne takamet wan ne siwatket.

The inhabitants couldn’t speak Spanish, and they didn’t know how to read and write. So when the white men came, they didn’t understand what the men and women were saying.

Yejemet tesu kimatit, ken an tejemet tikmatit, ka nemi se Tiut ka te tikishmatit. Yejemet kishmatit katka tay kitat, ken ne tunal, ne at, ne tal, ne tawial, ne kwajkwawit, ne kojtan: ipal itakwal, ipal ne tapewil, wan ne kwajkwawit pal kisaluat itakil pal tikwat pal te tikseliat mayan.

They didn’t realise, as we now know, that there is a God whom we didn’t know. They recognised the things they could see, such as the sun, the rain, the land, maize, trees, and nature, which provided their food, game, and fruit-bearing trees for food so as not to endure hunger.

Yejemet tesu kimatit, ken an tejemet tikmatit, ka nemi se Tiut ka te tikishmatit. Yejemet kishmatit katka tay kitat, ken ne tunal, ne at, ne tal, ne tawial, ne kwajkwawit, ne kojtan: ipal itakwal, ipal ne tapewil, wan ne kwajkwawit pal kisaluat itakil pal tikwat pal te tikseliat mayan.

They didn’t realise, as we now know, that there is a God whom we didn’t know. They recognised the things they could see, such as the sun, the rain, the land, maize, trees, and nature, which provided their food, game, and fruit-bearing trees for food so as not to endure hunger.

Ellos trabajan en la milpa.

¡Son grandes para que te oiga bien, nieta mía!

— Uno de ellos es negro, el otro es blanco.

— Nikishmati, yejemet intukay Maria wan Enrique. Ne siwat itukay Maria wan ne ikunew itukay Enrique. Nikinhishmati.

— La conozco, se llama María, y su niño se llama Enrique. Sus nombres son María y Enrique. Los conozco.

— Teutaka. Yejemet yawita. Tiawita tejemet nusan.

— Ahora ya es tarde. Ellos ya se van a su casa. Nosotros también ya nos vamos [o: vámonos].

Qué tienen ellos?

Ellos no pueden comer maíz.

Pero ellos no quieren venir.

No bebas agua sucia, ni de la que haya estado mucho sin correr ni cambiarse, que esas pueden enfermarte.

—Ellas son muy mansas.

When the food was ready, since they had stayed up, they slept.

When they say there is going to be a big storm, so they say, in the wind that comes by there come men and women in the wind such that they come to carry off ears of corn for them to eat. Thus the milpas were left broken, quite flattened, with many ears of corn disfigured with a look like pustules. Those were the ears of corn that the Chilteopaners took, according to my grandfather and my grandmother.

But what they noticed was that the dog did not eat the turkey's bones and feathers. Then the whole family was left puzzled because the dog wouldn't eat the bones nor the feathers.

On the third day after the storm had passed and they had eaten the turkey, there came two men and a woman to look for it. They arrived at the house of the man who had caught it because they more or less already knew who had caught it.

But the did not tell the truth, but rather arrived asking if by chance he had seen a girl pass near his house the day of the big storm.