The translation featured here uses the same version of the poem used by Alfred M. Tozzer (1877-1954), and draws upon his notes and annotations. A highly respected and influential anthropologist, archaeologist, linguist, and educator who specialized in Mesoamerican studies, Tozzer served as the president of the American Anthropological Society and was a member of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1974, Harvard renamed its Peabody Museum Library the Tozzer Library.
from the article:
A Blessing [From a 1902 text]
Before you, I offer my copal —it is for you. Offer it to the father —it is for you, raise it up to the father.
I shall fulfill, once more, my offering of pozol for you —it is for you, offer it to the father. Before you I lay my gift, once more, for your joy. I offer it so that my gift does not become spoiled, so it remains whole, remains worthy —that is at the head—of my gift, for you.
May my gift not break! May my gift not crack!
Watch me laying down my gift, Father! So that I do not sink into fever fires! I have placed you in the new fire pit, watch me, once more, lay down a gift for your joy, watch me lay down a gift for my children’s souls. That they may never be penned in, that they may never be held captive by illness, by cold, by fever. Come in then, walk toward my children, and heal them.