When
the greatest gods, those who birthed the world, the very first ones, thought
about how and for what they were going to do what they were going to do, they
made their assembly where each one took out their word to know it and for the
others to hear it. Like this, each one of the very first gods went taking out a
word and threw it to the middle of the assembly, and there it bounced and
arrived to another god who grabbed it and threw it again, and just like a ball
the word went from one place to another until everyone understood it and then
the greatest gods, who were those who birthed all the things which we call
worlds, made their agreement.
One
of the agreements which they found when they took out their words was that each
path have its walker and each walker its path. And so they went birthing
complete things, that is, each one with their each thing.
That
was how they birthed the air and the birds. In other words there was not first
air and then birds for them to walk it, nor were the birds made first and then
the air for them to fly it. They did the same with the water and the fish that
swim it, the earth and the animals that roam it, the path and the feet that
walk it.
But
speaking of the birds, there was one which protested a great deal against the air.
This
bird said that better and faster he would fly if the air was not opposed to
him. This bird grumbled a great deal because, although his flight was agile and
quick, he always wanted it to be more and better, and if it could not be so it
was because, he said, the air was turning into an obstacle. The gods were
disgusted by the great deal of bad talk coming from this bird which in the air
flew and about the air complained.
So,
as punishment, the first gods took away his feathers and the light from his
eyes. Naked they sent him into the cold of the night and blind he had to fly.
So his flight, before graceful and light, became disorderly and clumsy.
But
then situated and after many blows and stumbles, this bird got the trick of
seeing with the ears. Talking to the things, this bird, that is the tzotz,
orients its path and knows the world which responds to it in a language that
only it knows how to listen to. Without feathers that dress it, blind, and with
a nervous and hasty flight, the bat rules the mountain night and no animal
walks the dark airs better than it.
From
this bird, the tzotz, the bat, the true men and women learned to give great and
powerful worth to the spoken word, to the sound of thought.
They
learned also that the night contains many worlds and that it is necessary to
know how to listen to them to go taking them out and flourishing them. With
words the worlds which the night has are born. Being said lights are made, and
so many they are that they do not fit on the earth and many end up settling
down in the sky. That is why they say that the stars are born on the ground.
The
greatest gods birthed also the men and the women, not so that one would be the
other’s path, but rather so that they at the same time would be the other’s
path and walkers. Different they made them to be together. So that they would
love each other the greatest gods made the men and women. That is why the night
air is the most best for being flown, for being thought, for being talked to,
and for being loved.
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Originally
published on March 8th, 2000.
English translation copyright © 2014 by Henry Gales. All rights reserved.
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