The Solitude of the Jaguar
This close identification of human-jaguar is also present in Humberto Ak’abal’s chapbook Tukelal Solitud. Ak’abal (1952–2019) was an Indigenous poet from Guatemala, identifying with the K’iché peoples. Many of Ak’abal’s poems deal with natural themes – the title of his first book, El animalero (1990), has been described as “an ode to nature” (Burrión 2018) – so it is no accident that Ak’abal devoted this short collection to the jaguar. As he declared in an interview, there is a connection between his last name, Ak’abal, and the jaguar as a sacred animal:
¿Qué significa ak’abal en k’ichee’? El término más propicio en castellano, aquí es “aurora.” Es exactamente eso porque el término en k’ichee’ se refiere al deslindamiento entre la oscuridad y la claridad. Es esa sutileza de la línea divisoria que hay entre ambas y de ahí entonces que el símbolo nuestro sea el jaguar. El jaguar es un animal sagrado; es el animal de la transición entre la noche y el día. Y el símbolo de eso es la piel del animal; por eso es amarillo y negro porque el negro es la noche y el amarillo es el día. Así que ésa es más o menos, ya no la etimología, sino la simbología del apellido nuestro que de hecho no es un apellido sino que es un nombre. (Ollé and Ak’abal 2004: 208)
Ak’abal, thus, already identifies with the jaguar. “Utukel,” from which the title of the collection derives, is a K’iché word meaning “is alone.” Five poems in this collection explore aspects of the jaguar’s life from mating and caring for the young, to drinking water and roaming the land. Though at times the poems appear to reflect the human perspective on the animal, and this is clearly indicated by the grammatical person and point of view, in two poems, “Solitud” and “Jaguar,” we clearly hear a voice that represents the jaguar:
SOLITUD
Esta vieja costumbre de andar solo,
no es de soledad;
es la solitud del jaguar que vive en mí (Ak’abal 2010: n/p).
1 The bilingual edition also includes the Ki’ché version as follows: TUKELAL / Wa jun ojer naq’atalik che / kinbin nutukel, man re tukeçaç ta wa; / xa utukelal ri balam ri kinnuk’aslemaj (Ak’abal 2010: n/p).JAGUAR
Otras veces soy jaguar
corro por barrancos
salto sobre peñascos
trepo montañas.
Miro más allá del cielo,
Más allá del agua
más allá de la tierra.
Platico con el sol
juego con la luna
arranco estrellas
y las pego a mi cuerpo.
Mientras muevo la cola
me echo sobre el pasto
con la lengua de fuera (Ak’abal 2010: n/p).
2 The Ki’ché version reads: BALAM / Jujun taq mul in inbalam / kink’am wanem cho taq siwan / kinch’opin cho taq pek / kinaq’an cho tan juyub. / Kinwil k’a jela che ri kaj / k’a jela che ri ja’ / k’a jela che ri ulew. / Kintzijon ruk’ri ri q’ij / kinetz’an ruk’ ri ik’ / kinboq taq ch’umil / xa che kinnak’ chwij. / Are jampa kinsilobaj ri nuje’ / kinq’oyi’ cho ri rex / kinkasowik (Ak’abal 2010: n/p).In both poems, the poetic “I” has been transformed and becomes (a) jaguar. “Solitud” explicitly speaks to the inner/outer appearance and true nature of the speaker. The appearance of a body roaming alone is the expression of the jaguar’s solitude inhabiting the speaker. In Spanish, Ak’abal choses to use three related but different words – “solo,” “soledad,” and “solitud” – which roughly translate as “alone,” “loneliness,” and “solitude,” respectively. The contrast between the last two words is perhaps the most telling, as “solitud” is an archaic, highly poetic form that derives from the Latin solitūdo, meaning both “solitude” and “deserted place” (Real Academia Española 2023). The connection with the environment thus becomes more apparent in the reference to place, as “solitude” is also a quality inherent to the nature of the jaguar rather than a mere fleeting state of “loneliness.”
In “Jaguar,” temporality is a key theme, as is the omission of the indefinite article in “soy jaguar” (not “soy un jaguar”). The temporal marker “otras veces” emphasizes the transformation and implies variability in the circumstances. The omitted article also signals that the speaker belongs to a genus – think I am human, not I am a human – a species, a category, rather than an individual. This is similar to the phrase “Tigre para siempre,” in the case of Quiroga’s ending of “Juan Darién” (Quiroga 1993: 601). In perspectivism’s terms, in his new bodily “garments,” the speaker is now able to perform all the actions of jaguars: run, jump, climb, and gaze beyond the sky, the water, and the earth. There is also a reference to more metaphoric and symbolic actions involving the heavens – namely, the myth that the spots on the jaguar’s skin come from the stars – yet, ultimately, the jaguar returns to rest on the ground, exhausted after his journey. This ending literally brings the myth down to earth, emphasizing the physicality and perhaps the environmental aspect of the poem. The jaguar is not just a mythical being embedded in Ak’abal’s last name and in Ki’ché cosmologies; he is also a creature of the wild that roams, often alone, and whose life is endangered by predatory human behavior. The identification of the human and the jaguar through the use of the first person and the focus on perspectival transformation emphasizes co-dependency, or to bring up tonalismo, a shared human-feline destiny.