FROM THE CHOL MAYAN

The Cave Dances


Long ago, they say,
a man danced in caves,
danced with the women
there in the caves.

The women danced, they say,
to become preachers,
to become foreigners.
To unlearn our ways.

It is said their skirts came off
when they were dancing.
That their shirts came off
when they were dancing
there in the caves.
That they took them off
to become foreign women
when they were dancing
there in the caves.

And they say they flicked
there in the caves.
They say that the one
who talks to the cave
would ask for pretty girls
to come to the cave,
would say that God

desired the pretty girls
to come to the cave,
or so they say.

And he'd throw them down
in the cave, and the girl
and he who talks to the cave
would fuck there, they say.
He fucked the wife of his friend,
he fucked the friend's daughter,
he fucked his daughter's friend.
He fucked them all, they say.
He fucked them many times, they say.
He fucked them all ways, they say.

And they danced there in the caves.
Danced with him and with each other.
Danced hard there in the caves.

And didn't want to go home, they say.
They wanted him to fuck them again,
wanted to stay in the cave,
wanted to learn how to preach,
learn how to be foreign,
learn how to wear round skirts,
learn to forget their ways.
That is what they say.

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The Chol Mayan dialect is spoken by a small group of indigenous people in the Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico. In an attempt to learn more about the dialect, El Instituto Linguistico de Verano recorded several local storytellers in the late 1940s and 1950s.These versions were eventually transcribed, annotated, and published in 1960 under the title Chol Texts of the Supernatural. Though rendered by the linguists in blocks of Chol prose many of the texts, particularly those pertaining to rituals, employed clearly poetic devices, and were most likely recited, even perhaps sung or danced. My adaptations attempt to restore some of the poetic, incantatory quality of the original versions.

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