Aquí era el paraíso / Here Was Paradise: Selección de poemas de Humberto Ak'abal / Selected Poems of Humberto Ak'abal

by Humberto Ak'abal, Amelia Lau Carling (Illustrator), Hugh Hazelton (Translator), Patricia Aldana (Editor)

Overview

A collection of poetry by one of the greatest Indigenous poets of the Americas about the vanished world of his childhood — that of the Maya K’iche’.

Aquí era el paraíso / Here Was Paradise is a selection of poems written by the great Maya poet Humberto Ak’abal. They evoke his childhood in and around the Maya K’iche’ village of Momostenango, Guatemala, and also describe his own role as a poet of the place.

Ak’abal writes about children, and grandfathers, and mothers, and animals, and ghosts, and thwarted love, and fields, and rains, and poetry, and poverty, and death.

The poetry was written for adults but can also be read and loved by young people, especially in this collection, beautifully illustrated by award-winning Guatemalan-American illustrator Amelia Lau Carling.

Ak’abal is famous worldwide as one of the great contemporary poets in the Spanish language, and one of the greatest Indigenous poets of the Americas. Ak’abal first composed his poems in K’iche’ in his mind before writing them down in Spanish.

 

Key Text Features

foreword

biographical information

poems

translation

 

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.2
Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.5
Explain how a series of chapters, scenes, or stanzas fits together to provide the overall structure of a particular story, drama, or poem.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.7
Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.5
Analyze how a particular sentence, chapter, scene, or stanza fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the theme, setting, or plot.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781773064956
Publisher:	Groundwood Books
Publication date:	08/03/2021
Pages:	172
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 8.31(h) x (d)
Lexile:	630L (what's this?)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

HUMBERTO AK'ABAL was born in the Maya K’iche’ village Momostenango in Guatemala in 1952. He worked as a blanket weaver (one of the activities for which Momostenango is renowned,) a shepherd, a sweeper, then a garment maker in a maquila in Guatemala City. When he was thirty-eight, he published his first book of poetry. Ak’abal is famous worldwide as one of the great contemporary poets in the Spanish language, and one of the greatest Indigenous poets of the Americas, having written over twenty-five books. 

He died in January 2019, leaving his widow, Mayulí Bieri, and son Nakil Ak’abal Bieri.

AMELIA LAU CARLING was born and brought up in Guatemala. Her parents' store sold the thread used by many Maya weavers in their extraordinary work. She was, therefore, in constant contact with Maya culture and creators from an early age. She is the author-illustrator of the celebrated books Alfombras de Aserrín(Sawdust Carpets) and La tienda de Mamá y Papá (Mama and Papa Have a Store) — winner of the Américas Award and the Pura Belpré Award for Illustration— and the illustrator of numerous other books. Though she now lives in the United States, she returns to Guatemala frequently.

HUGH HAZELTON is a Montreal writer and translator. He has written four books of poetry and translated over twenty works of fiction and poetry from Spanish, French and Portuguese into English. His translation of Vétiver, a book of poems by Joël Des Rosiers, won the Governor General’s Award. He is a professor emeritus of Spanish at Concordia Universityin Montreal and past co-director of the Banff International Literary Translation Centre. He was awarded the Linda Gaboriau Prize for his work on behalf of literary translation in Canada.

PATRICIA ALDANA was born and brought up in Guatemala. She came to Canada as an adult and founded Groundwood Books, of which she was the publisher for thirty-five years.

Read an Excerpt

Paraíso

Aquí era el paraíso.

Maíz, trigo, frijol,

no había fruto prohibido,

las culebras eran mudas.

Je’lik ch’umil y Kowilaj che’

hacían el amor sobre la hierba

y se cubrían con el cielo.

Hasta que hablaron

las serpientes,

prohibieron los frutos

y se repartieron entre sí

el paraíso.

Paradise

Here was paradise.

Corn, wheat, beans,

there was no forbidden fruit,

the snakes were mute.

Je’lik ch’umil and Kowilaj che’

made love on the grass

and covered themselves with sky.

Until the serpents

spoke,

forbade the fruit

and divided paradise

among themselves.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Praise for author Humberto Ak'abal, editor Patricia Aldana, translator Hugh Hazelton and illustrator Amelia Lau Carling for Aquí era el paraíso / Here Was Paradise:

CCBC Choices, 2022

Commended Junior Library Guild Selection, 2021

School Library Journal Best Poetry, 2021

"An excellent addition to poetry collections for youth, sure to also find fans among adult readers." — School Library Journal, starred review

"Beautiful imagery ushers readers into a complex conversation." — Kirkus Reviews

"Vital and refreshing." — Toronto Star

"[A] closely observant and at times mischievous ode to the small moments and details in quotidian life." — Booklist

“[T]o be savored and ruminated upon.” — CM Review of Materials

"Lovers of poetry will delight in perusing the pages of this book." — Winnipeg Free Press

"The poems have a collective evocative beauty." — A Fuse #8 Production Blog

Editorial Reviews

[T]o be savored and ruminated upon.

CM: Canadian Review of Materials

Vital and refreshing.

Toronto Star

Lovers of poetry will delight in perusing the pages of this book.

Winnipeg Free Press

[A] closely observant and at times mischievous ode to the small moments and details in quotidian life.

Booklist

The kind of poetry collection that will alter a young reader in the profound way that only fine books can.

Miramichi Reader

[T]o be savored and ruminated upon.

CM Review of Materials

The poems have a collective evocative beauty.

A Fuse #8 Production Blog

2021-07-27
An ode to nature and life from the late Guatemalan poet (1952-2019).

Ak’abal’s poems explore both nature and humanity as he writes about relationships, like the one between mother and child, or from the perspective of wildlife, such as a jaguar. Aldana’s selection of his poems provides a map for what a day (or a life) must be like in paradise. He considers Creation in “Al despertar,” substituting Eve for the gift of poetry, and delves into death in sections titled “Living and Dying” and “500 Years.” Aldana’s introduction presents the poet’s impressive legacy and justifies the need for young readers to have access to Ak’abal’s poetry. Further, it explains Ak’abal’s choice to first write in K’iche’ and then to translate and publish in Spanish, bringing a narrative about the Maya experience to a broad readership and facilitating a conversation about the poet’s identity and relationships with family members that had a “K’iche’ voice.” The side-by-side bilingual format of Ak’abal’s Spanish pieces alongside Hazelton’s English translation invites readers to further consider the impact that languages have on identity and the relationship between mother tongues and the surrounding natural world, as onomatopoeias are not translated. This relationship is further exemplified in Carling’s illustrations, which separate the thematic sections and plunge readers into the heart of a jungle ecosystem filled with human-made objects.

Beautiful imagery ushers readers into a complex conversation. (Poetry. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews