Nawal

La voz nawal no se puede traducir al español ni al inglés, como se ve en los esfuerzos de los padres dominicos Domingo de Basseta (1698) y Francisco Ximénez (1701), quienes traducen la palabra como "milagro" en español (Craveri 2013: 11n225; Coto). Conforme a la teología y tradición K'iche', cada elemento que existe en el mundo tiene un espíritu que se llama nawal, la cual esencia brinda el poder comunicativo e de interacción entre éste mundo y los demás planos. Se realiza tal acto de comunicación a través de una transformación física, por ejemplo al convertirse en un animal, terremoto, tormenta u otra forma natural. La expresión K'iche' radica del término nahual-, del idioma Náhuatl, con el significado de "transformarse" o "convertirse." No obstante, el investigador Allen J. Christenson (2007:72n70) conecta la idea del nawal con la morfema K'iche' na', es decir: "sentirse," "saber." En otras palabras, el préstamo náhuatl lleva su propio significado en el mundo sagrado de los Maya K'iche'. Por lo tanto, la edición del equipo Ajtz'ib'ab' en la base de datos del Proyecto Multepal, un equipo formado por investigadores K'iche', Tz'utujil y Q'eqchi', pone notas que explican los diversos significados del término nawal en varias escenas del Popol Wuj.

Mayanist scholar Allen J. Christenson (2007: 72n70) notes that the term nawal, which he translates as "spirit essence," is yet another case in which there is "no English equivalent." Spanish colonial friars also struggled to translate the term's spiritual registers into Castilian. Dominican priest Domingo de Basseta (1698), for example, renders nawal as "milagro" (miracle), and father Ximénez follows suit in his edition of the Popol Wuj (Craveri 2013: 11n225). As Christenson argues, K'iche' theology posits that "all things, both living and inanimate, have a spirit essence which they call nawal. This spirit essence is believed to give them power to act or communicate on a supernatural plane, for example, to transform their usual form into that of a powerful animal or force of nature. Father Coto ascribes this power to the devil, defining the word naual as 'the magical means whereby the devil spoke to the Quichés through their idols. Thus they would say that the life of the tree, the life of the stone, of the hill, is its naual, because they believed there was life in these objects. If a man asks his wife for something to eat or drink when there is nothing in the house, the wife would reply, xa pe ri tin haualih? (Do you expect me to perform miracles?)' (Coto 1983, 328, 369). Although nawal is borrowed from the Nahua language, where it means 'to transform' (Campbell 1983, 84), the Quiché interpretation of the word is derived from the root na', meaning 'to feel' or 'to know.'" In other words, the Nahuatl loan word has acquired its own, highly specific meaning within K'iche' thought. For this reason, in their edition of the text in the Multepal Project database, the Ajtz'ib'ab' team, formed by scholars from K'iche', Tz'utujil, and Q'eqchi' communities, wrote footnotes explaining the meaning of nawal when the term is used at different points in the Popol Wuj.