A Comparative Analysis of Ch’orti’ Verbal Art and the Poetic Discourse Structures of Maya Hieroglyphic Writing

Couplet Deletion

Couplets in Ch’orti’ consistently make use of verbal phrase deletion in the second half of the couplet line. For example,

A’si wato’b’ tamar enyax alaguna      They come to play in the green lagoon
                           tamar ensak alaguna                                       in the white lagoon

The second half of the couplet truncates the verbal phrase and only a prepositional phrase follows. The lagoons referred to here are large basins of water in the sky in which evil spirits "play." There are varying opinions on how many of these basins there are but the number is usually put at between two and four. Some place them at each corner of sky. The constant repetition of enyax and ensak by Ch’orti’ curanderos is today primarily a poetic framing device for a given couplet. No curandero with whom I have spoken has offered an explanation for their usage in general. Most say they probably refer to the colors "green" (yaxyax) and "white" (saksak). Indeed, in references to water and watery places these color associations are directly relevant, e.g. enyax mar (sea), ensak playa (beach), enyax pila (trough), enyax corriente (gutter), ensak alaguna (lagoon). Such an explanation, however, simply does not fully explain the hundreds of contexts in which they can occur. (For example, enyax and ensak appear with table, temple, prince, shade, patio, corral, graveyard, oven, highway, intersection, street, chicken, cemetery, incensario, pan, house, grinding stone, lightning bolt, and cross of Christ, just to mention a few). Instead, I believe they are usually gratuitous and decorative and used as a stock structuring technique for encasing any reference within a poetic framework. A good example of the use of enyax and ensak can be seen in the following prayer which mentions different names of copal:

a’si tamar enyax de munición
                     ensak munición
a’si tamar enyax palanqueta
                     ensak palanqueta
a’si tamar enyax copal
                     ensak copal
a’si tamar enyax bamba
                     ensak bamba
a’si tamar enyax xarten
                     ensak xarten
a’si tamar enyax ollita
                     ensak ollita
a’si tamar enyax bambita
                     ensak bambita
a’si tamar enyax incensario
                     ensak incensario
a’si tamar enyax humazón
                     ensak humazón

Ch’orti’ curing rites and ceremonial prayers make use of common pairings of terms that together form that basic structure of a couplet phrase. Examples of this can be seen in antithetic parallelisms such as "day/night":

ch’a’r a’syob’ atz’i ya’ tamar e silencio día
                                        tamar e silencio noche

They are playing indeed in the silent day
                                               in the silent night

Another prominent couplet combination is jarari’/b’aki (woven-like pain/bones) that are used together to represent the idea of a ’pain over the whole body’ caused by the menacing spirits. Note their structural use in the following curing prayer for a patient with diarrhea:

war ijolchan jarari’
  war ixtijb’ya’n b’aki
war ixloch’te’yr b’aki
  war ixloch’te’yr jarari’
war ijolchan b’aki
  ch’a’r ijolchan jarari’
war ixtijb’ya’n b’aki
  war ixtijb’ya’n jarari’
ch’a’r ijolchan b’aki
  war ijolchan jarari’
war ixtijb’ya’n b’aki
war ixloch’te’yr b’aki
  war ixloch’te’yr jarari’
ch’a’r takar uch’ajrje’yr ixamb’ar
  ch’a’r takar umalairir ixamb’ar
ch’a’r ijolchan jarari’
  war ijolchan b’aki
war isaksak b’aki
  war isaksak jarari’
war ixjolchan b’aki
  war ixjolchan jarari’
ch’a’r takar e Niño Colerín de Cristo
                         Cristo Colerín de Cristo

The content of this section of the prayer provides a clear example of the often rigid couplet patterning found in Ch’orti’ and many other Mayan languages. In most of the couplets in this section of the prayer there is no alternation in the verbal phrase. The changes in the different couplet lines occur in the final element jarari’/b’aki and sometimes in the present participle war which can be substituted by ch’a’r (from a verb meaning "to be lying down" but in Ch’orti’ is used much like the verb "estar" in Spanish in many cases). "Niño Colerín de Cristo, Niño Colerín de Cristo" is the name of the "dueño de la enfemedad de diarrea" (the master of the sickness of diarrhea). It is interesting to note the variability between the second person singular (i-) and plural pronoun (ix-) on the intransitive verbs. The healer is speaking directly to the evil spirits causing the pains of this female patient. He uses both singular "you" and the plural "you all" interchangeably, even varying them within a single couplet phrase, e.g. war ijolchan jarari’, war ixtijb’ya’n b’aki, "you are ’evil heating’ with woven-like pains, you all are jumping (as from fright) on the bones." Such uses of paired terminology are frequent with curanderos from all different Ch’orti’-speaking areas I have worked and show them to be part of a common poetic tradition.

For illustrative purposes, here are just a few other regularly-encountered paired or triplet terms and phrases (note most of them are in Spanish) used by Ch’orti’ curanderos today:

puerta nacimiento de Cristo, puerta saliente de Cristo (birth door of Christ, eastern door of Christ)
camposanto mayor, camposanto real [graveyards in the other world where evil spirits reside]
mesa antibano, mesa anterior [altars in heaven]
sombra, nawalch’u’r (shade, house) [nawalch’u’r is a word for "house" only used by curanderos]
mesón del mundo, peteción del mundo [types of altars]
estumeka, sendeyu’t (this world, blurry eye disease)
silencio hora, silencio noche (silent hour, silent night, i.e. between 12:00-2:00 am)
silencio hora, silencio día (silent hour, silent day)
día, hora (day, hour)
ángel, criatura [both refer to an innocent person afflicted by an evil spirit]
espíritu, ángel [both refer to an innocent person afflicted by an evil spirit]
4 esquinero del mundo, 4 pilastre del mundo (4 corners of the world, 4 pillars of the world)
mediante cielo, mediante gloria (middle of the sky, middle of the heaven)
hierbita llana, nawalch’a’n [names for the tabacco used in curing]
ajxujch’a’n, nawalch’a’n [names for tabacco used in curing]
defensor, abogado (defender, lawyer)
mundo, cielo (earth, sky)
Santa Madre, Santa Tierra (Holy Mother, Holy Earth)
grado, estado (grade, level) [levels of the underworld]
pan, agua (bread, water)
oro, plata (gold, silver)
sagrado, bedecido (holy, blessed)
ángel, senteyo, estrella (angel, lightning bolt, star)
tijtijutir, b’ajk’ut (intimidation that weakens another’s spirit, fright)
sin falta, sin causa, sin delito (without fault, without cause, without sin)
jolchan, mundo (type of evil heat, world)
agua, mundo (water, world)
criatura, angelito [both refer to an innocent person afflicted by an evil spirit]
espíritu, umajín (spirit, ’soul’)
mesa olvidado, mesa desconocido [altars in heaven]

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