The Popol Vuh Audiobook By Michael Bazzett cover art

The Popol Vuh

Seedbank

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The Popol Vuh

By: Michael Bazzett
Narrated by: Michael Bazzett
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A NEW YORK TIMES BEST POETRY BOOK OF THE YEAR

In the beginning, the world is spoken into existence with one word: “Earth.” There are no inhabitants, and no sun—only the broad sky, silent sea, and sovereign Framer and Shaper. Then come the twin heroes Hunahpu and Xbalanque. Wielding blowguns, they begin a journey to hell and back, ready to confront the folly of false deities as well as death itself, in service to the world and to humanity.

This is the story of the Mayan Popol Vuh, “the book of the woven mat,” one of the only epics indigenous to the Americas. Originally sung and chanted, before being translated into prose—and now, for the first time, translated back into verse by Michael Bazzett—this is a story of the generative power of language. A story that asks not only Where did you come from? but How might you live again? A story that, for the first time in English, lives fully as “the phonetic rendering of a living pulse.”

By turns poetic and lucid, sinuous and accessible, this striking new translation of The Popol Vuh—the first in the Seedbank series of world literature—breathes new life into an essential tale.

©2018 Michael Bazzett (P)2024 Milkweed Editions Ancient, Classical & Medieval Literature Native American Poetry United States World Literature Maya Civilization Mexico Latin America
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Incredibly interesting story about how the world was created with all the animals, the multiple attempts to create humans, then the story of the Gods and how the sun and moon were created and then the eventual creation of modern humans. The story had a good plot and when the Gods go to the underworld called Xibalba in this and confront the Lord's of Death the story climaxes. The narrator did a good job especially given that he is the writer of the book. I saw some review bombing on some of the other comments but I found the book to be very informative. Another interesting aspect of this story was how there was water in the beginning before anything else and how everything was spoken into existence. There was even a flood and a virgin birth too. This book deserves more attention just for the fact it is a direct translation of the Popul Vuh. Keep in mind most of these types of texts were completely destroyed by Spanish colonizers thus making me wonder if the beginning that has many similarities to the stories in the Bible is not just by chance. This is an echo of older versions that were destroyed and this is an attempt to maintain the original story. Highly recommend.

Entertaining translation of the Popul Vuh. Creation and the Gods are brought to life.

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this is a great story, the rest of the popol vuh books were a bit dry. They were hard to follow and didn't really tell much of a story. This book was fantastic at telling the story in a way that was easy to follow. The story teller unfortunately, often stumbles his words. There are sometimes sounds in the background, and towards the end of the book he seems to swallow his spit repeatedly. The story makes the book worth it, but i wish the recording was given a little more thought.

Great story, great book!

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Like the ancient book, loved the commentary but the performance is poor, a lot of swaloving disturbs the epic

Great book, but performance is poor.

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I was very impressed with the prose and narration. I have no idea what the other reviewer found so lacking.

Very good.

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Terribly narrated, audio doesn’t sound very well; I highly suggest you look elsewhere for anything related to the Popol Vuh.

Not good

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