Iq'i B'alam

Iq'i B'alam es el cuarto de los cuatro fundadores del pueblo K'iche'. Como jamás tenía hijos con su esposa, Kak'ixa Ja', los autores k'iche' no narran su historia en una manera detallada. En cambio, se presta mayor atención a los tres otros fundadores, B'alam Ki'tze', B'alam Aq'ab' y Majuk'utaj.

As historian Mallory Matsumoto (2017:201n186) summarizes, "According to the Popol Wuj, Ikib’alam was one of the first four men created." (See also Christenson 2003a:lines 4940–47). Unlike the other three, however, he died heirless and thus did not found a K’iche’ lineage (Christenson 2007:196n480; see Christenson 2003a:7240–41; also Carmack and Mondloch 1983:177). The origin of the first segment of Ikib’alam's name remains obscure. Christenson (2007:196n480) transcribes Ik’i B’alam as "Iqui Balam" in his prose translation and proposes the possible K’iche’ etymology ‘wind jaguar’ (cf. K’iche’ iq’ ‘wind’), although he allows that the name’s first segment may not even be morphologically analyzable in K’iche’, given its "probable" derivation from lowland Mayan languages. Edmonson (1965:12) translates the name as ‘moon jaguar’, whereas Carmack (1981:49) suggests that it may originate from Lowland Maya Eke, ‘black’. Tedlock (1996:289) similarly translates it as ‘Dark Jaguar’, from Proto-Ch’olan ik’ ‘black’ (see Kaufman 2003:231; cf. K’iche’ q’eq ‘black’)."