Popol Vuh

The attempts at understanding and translating the popol vuh into oral performance are speculated on by Dennis Tedlock.  The language was very specific having multiple voice, guttural, and unvoiced nuances.  The transcript of Popol Vuh was written in such a manner that these nuances were difficult and sometimes impossible to determine.  Instead, multiple possible translations existed for simple phrases.  At one point, a character either arrives or dies, the translation makes the verb unclear.  In order to reconstruct this performance and once again give it life, the use of a ethnopaleographer is employed.

It is the job of this translator to not only gain insight from those left in the culture as to the wording of the text, but also the context and implications as well.  It is not enough to simply transcribe as one would from Elizabethan to contemporary English.  Ethnopaleography accounts for the understanding of the shifting cultural dynamics such as power relations and religion.  This is essential for an accurate transcription and performance of the text.  More than a translation, it is a cultural reading and deciphering.  This is also essential to the field of performance studies.  Without this tool, the texts of indigenous or marginalized groups could be lost forever, or worse, over simplified in to oblivion.

I wonder how many people do this work for a living?  How dense is this field?  The performance space for such works seems limited in the contemporary world.  I fully agree with the implications and need to preserve this, but where does it go if not for National Geographic or a research journal.  I wish there was a stronger draw and mass appeal.  It seems very interesting.

- Hailey Drescher