Snichimal Vayuchil. North Dakota Quarterly Supplement 1.
Translated by Paul M. Worley.

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Experimental Poetry in Bats’i K’op

Snichimal Vayuchil or Flowery Dream is an experimental poetry workshop in bats’i k’op, or Tsotsil Maya, where writers create poetry in their own mother language and Spanish, sharing their work as a form of what they call relational poetry. The workshop is also a place where these young writers reflect upon the origins of literature in indigenous communities, as well as the contributions contemporary indigenous literary creation makes to social change.

As a collective, here individual workshop members present two of their poems in English translation with the goal of reaching as wide an audience as possible. You’ll find a good deal of sonic diversity, Tsostil and its twin, Spanish (translated here into English of course!), and in some cases multiple languages are used for poetic composition. This bilingualism underscores the writers’ abilities and knowledge across languages. Composing in free verse, the poets express their daily lives, painting landscapes from the urban and rural imaginaries, to share their thoughts about land, family, love, pain, death, la lucha, resistance, and many other things to give a voice to those usually denied a voice, music to the deaf, in poetic composition! We hope you enjoy.

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