Incantation for Jaguar Macaw Madness, for the desire this madness brings

Translated from the Mayan by Dennis Tedlock

One Lord, one and only Four Lord, Sky
Lord would have been in chaos, Sky Lord
would have been dark when you were
born. Who are you, owner of chaos? Who
are you, owner of night? You are in chaos,
Great Lord of Days, the eye of the sun was
plucked out when you were born. Who is
your mother, what father begets you when
you do penance? She is Red Rainbow,
White Rainbow, she is the point of the
lancet, the tip of the penis, this is your
mother, your father, begetter,

together behind there, together behind
the sweat bath when you were born, the
desire in that chaos, desire in that darkness,
the spitting snake was in the tree,
the spitting snake was on the rock when
you were born, desire in the darkness.
Master of Drunken Madness, you are the
desire in the chaos, you are Master of
Stupid Madness, you are Lascivious Madness,
you are Jaguar Madness, you are
Master of Macaw Madness, you are Deer
Madness. Who is your tree? Who is your
bush? What served as your bed, your
bower when you were born?

If that doesn't get your blood boiling, well, there's no accounting for taste, right? Anyway, that's just the first two passages; you can read the rest in this PDF. Tedlock's book 2000 Years of Mayan Literature is forthcoming from the University of California Press (2010) and it looks (and reads, from what I've been able to glimpse so far) f'in amazing. Thunderstorm is still there in the sky, perhaps, closing his eyes as he slips behind Fire-Bellied Rainbow.