possum gonna getcha
While cruising around the Internets for info on the Mayan language Achí (and believe me, there's not much) I found the excellent Rosetta Project at Stanford's libraries, which is trying to assemble at least scanty information on every language out there, including dead ones; for instance, there's a monograph on Proto-Elamite, the language of love. Most living languages have a translation of Genesis, since everyone needs to know why women and snakes are bad, and also a glossed vernacular text, which in the case of Achí is a retired shaman interpreting dreams. If you think you see a lot of incidental Spanish words in there, you're quite right.
Y julaj xinwachic'aj jun wuch'. Ri wuch' cachic'axic na utz taj ma ri wuch' rire xa ral co chicop pero mera pícaro wi, o mas utz ajmanyo. Xu'an julaj wuc'a'am numeyo, pues xelek'axic. Ri wachic' elek', elek'om. Carelek'aj ri wuch' meyo y carekel'aj jal, carelek'aj quinak' y carelek'aj ac'. Ronoje carelek'aj ri wuch'. Y querelek'aj ixokib y querelek'aj cosas jik'obal. Ri wachic' re wuch'.
And once I dreamed about an opossum. To dream about an opossum is not good, because though an opossum is just a little animal, it is quite mischievous and crafty. So dreaming about an opossum is not good. Once when I carried my money, it was stolen. The dream meant robbery. Robbers. The opossum steals money and it steals corn. It steals beans and it steals chickens. The opossum steals everything. And it steals women and fruit. This is the significance of dreaming about opossums.
As a child, at my mother's encouragement, I touched the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum—which no, you are absolutely not supposed to do. My father hustled us out of the room before the guard took notice.
