Description: "A masterful bilingual collection of poems rooted in K'iche' Maya culture illustrating all the ways meaning manifests within our world, and how best to behold it"--
Brief description: Humberto Ak'abal (1952-2019) was a K'iche' Maya poet from Guatemala. His book Guardián de la caída de agua (Guardian of the Waterfall) was named book of the year by Association of Guatemalan Journalists and received their Golden Quetzal award in 1993. In 2004, he declined to receive the Guatemala National Prize in Literature because it is named for Miguel Ángel Asturias, whom Ak'abal accused of encouraging racism. Ak'abal, a recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, passed away on January 28, 2019.
Review Quotes: Praise for If Today Were Tomorrow
"These poems by a K'iche' Maya writer--translated from K'iche' to Spanish by the poet, then to English by Michael Bazzett--are odes to Guatemala's landscape: a bird who sings for rain, a "humpbacked tree," moonlight on adobe." --New York Times Book Review"Ak'abal hints at a landscape more vivid and palpable than what the eye can behold, one that is located deep in the folds of a thought."-- Janani Ambikapathy, Harriet Blog
"These poems are seeds, compact, succinct, stunningly rich, and containing more than meets the eye. They feel timeless in their embrace of the inheritance of the past, the urgency of the present, and a forward leaning gaze of the future. Each poem contains the key components to conveying the subject at hand and allow the full resonance and understanding to take root from the distilled, vital droplet of a poem. Bazzett has made a perennial garden of Ak'abal's work that will sing through many seasons of readers."--Claire Jussel, West Trade Review
"Ak'abal, drawing on the animated symbolism of his tradition, mixes a rawness with a passionate precision. The poems have occasion beyond observation."--Jesse Nathan, Poetry Society of America
Praise for The Popol Vuh
"Milkweed's Seedbank series is one of the most exciting and visionary projects in contemporary publishing. Taking the long view, these volumes run parallel to the much-hyped books of the moment to demonstrate the possibility and hope inherent in all great literature."--Stephen Sparks, Point Reyes Books"For nonscholars, the first test of any translation is simply whether it's pleasurable to read, and Bazzett's limpid, smoothly paced version is more than satisfying on that score. And it's a good thing to be reminded, perhaps especially now, and perhaps especially by a text originating in Guatemala, that 'However many nations / live in the world today, / however many countless people, / they all had but one dawn.'"--New York Times, Best Poetry of 2018"Mr. Bazzett's translation offers a welcome path into the power of The Popol Vuh as beautiful literature. . . . [his] arrangement and format give the work its own authentic-sounding rhythm and cadence, something that is lost a bit in the recent scholarly editions. . . . Mr. Bazzett writes that his intent was to create a more accessible source for students, 'a version of the myth they could disappear into, a verse version that truly sang.' He has succeeded."--Wall Street Journal"With Bazzett's translation, The Popol Vuh has been reincarnated . . . in a clear, elegant English that allows the reader to visualize the epic adventures of the Hero Twins and the universal story of human creation. It's a boon for readers everywhere."--Rain Taxi"[Bazzett's] translation of The Popol Vuh is a superb demonstration of literary translation, and the book, as a whole--containing an authentic and transparent translator's introduction, the creation epic itself, and a reader's companion--should be incorporated into every literary translation program."--Literary Review