Paul Zolbrod | Paradise Revisited

12/7/2024

MYTHOLOGY • LITERATURE • VISIONARY

Paul Zolbrod taught humanities at the Crownpoint, New Mexico Campus of Diné College–the Navajo Nation Tribal College–and Native American Mythology at Pacifica Graduate Institute. The latter is where I met him. I was a wide-eyed graduate student, hanging onto every word as he recounted the story of Changing Woman and her lover, the Sun. I was thrilled to catch up with him for a feature in ORIGINS and to chat about Diné Bahane’, the Navajo creation story. Paul’s translation of the work (his most popular book to date) provides the most complete English version of the epic. It celebrates the oral tradition through the written word and offers a vibrant introduction to Diné culture.

Recently, Paul released a 300-page, full-color hardcover treasure at www.pleiadesbooks.com. His new work: Paradise Revisited, Lines from Milton's Paradise Lost and the Navajo Creation Story is celebrated as "the only work in the mythological and English literary disciplines ever to compare and contrast the Judeo-Christian creation story and the Navajo emergent-worlds myth—and only Dr. Zolbrod could have written it." Paul has been honored as "the only academician worldwide with so deep a knowledge of both myths that he can see their similarities and differences with such crystalline clarity."

For the Winter 24/25 issue of Soul Artist Journal, ORIGINS, Paul described his journey to discover the common threads that weave these two literary epics. One clarion theme kept rising through our conversation: the value of the oral recitation of story. Creative impulse led us to organize a small except from Paul's Paradise Revisited, into a dramatic reading. I am thrilled to share "No Harmony in the Universe Without Harmony Between the Two of Us: Dialogues from Diné Bahane’ & Paradise Lost," by Paul Zolbrod.