The Travels of Marco Polo Volume I Part 43

[22] _History of Printing in China and Europe_, in _Philobiblon_, vol. vi.

p. 23.

[23] See _Appendix L_. in First Edition.

[24] Ramusio himself appears to have been entirely unconscious of it, vide supra, p. 3

[25] This subject has been fully treated in _Cathay and the Way Thither_.

XIV. EXPLANATIONS REGARDING THE BASIS ADOPTED FOR THE PRESENT TRANSLATION.

89. It remains to say a few words regarding the basis adopted for our English version of the Traveller's record.

[Sidenote: Text followed by Marsden and by Pauthier.]

Ramusio's recension was that which Marsden selected for translation. But at the date of his most meritorious publication nothing was known of the real literary history of Polo's Book, and no one was aware of the peculiar value and originality of the French ma.n.u.script texts, nor had Marsden seen any of them. A translation from one of those texts is a translation at first hand; a translation from Ramusio's Italian is, as far as I can judge, the translation of a translated compilation from two or more translations, and therefore, whatever be the merits of its matter, inevitably carries us far away from the spirit and style of the original narrator. M. Pauthier, I think, did well in adopting for the text of his edition the MSS. which I have cla.s.sed as of the second Type, the more as there had hitherto been no publication from those texts. But editing a text in the original language, and translating, are tasks substantially different in their demands.

[Sidenote: Eclectic formation of the English Text of this Translation.]

90. It will be clear from what has been said in the preceding pages that I should not regard as a fair or full representation of Polo's Work, a version on which the Geographic Text did not exercise a material influence. But to adopt that Text, with all its awkwardnesses and tautologies, as the absolute subject of translation, would have been a mistake. What I have done has been, in the first instance, to translate from Pauthier's Text. The process of abridgment in this text, however it came about, has been on the whole judiciously executed, getting rid of the intolerable prolixities of manner which belong to many parts of the Original Dictation, but _as a general rule_ preserving the matter. Having translated this,--not always from the Text adopted by Pauthier himself, but with the exercise of my own judgment on the various readings which that Editor lays before us,--I then compared the translation with the Geographic Text, and transferred from the latter not only all items of real substance that had been omitted, but also all expressions of special interest and character, and occasionally a greater fulness of phraseology where condensation in Pauthier's text seemed to have been carried too far.

And finally I introduced _between brackets_ everything peculiar to Ramusio's version that seemed to me to have a just claim to be reckoned authentic, and that could be so introduced without harshness or mutilation. Many pa.s.sages from the same source which were of interest in themselves, but failed to meet one or other of these conditions, have been given in the notes.[1]

[Sidenote: Mode of rendering proper names.]

91. As regards the reading of proper names and foreign words, in which there is so much variation in the different MSS. and editions, I have done my best to select what seemed to be the true reading from the G. T. and Pauthier's three MSS., only in some rare instances transgressing this limit.

Where the MSS. in the repet.i.tion of a name afforded a choice of forms, I have selected that which came nearest the real name when known. Thus the G. T. affords _Baldasciain, Badascian, Badasciam, Badausiam, Balasian_. I adopt BADASCIAN, or in English spelling BADASHAN, because it is closest to the real name _Badakhshan_. Another place appears as COBINAN, _Cabanat, Cobian_. I adopt the first because it is the truest expression of the real name _Koh-benan_. In chapters 23, 24 of Book I., we have in the G. T.

_Asisim, Asciscin, Asescin_, and in Pauthier's MSS. _Hasisins, Harsisins_, etc. I adopt ASCISCIN, or in English spelling ASHISHIN, for the same reason as before. So with _Creman, Crerman, Crermain_, QUERMAN, Anglice KERMAN; Cormos, HORMOS, and many more.[2]

In two or three cases I have adopted a reading which I cannot show _literatim_ in any authority, but because such a form appears to be the just resultant from the variety of readings which are presented; as in surveying one takes the mean of a number of observations when no one can claim an absolute preference.

Polo's proper names, even in the French Texts, are _in the main_ formed on an Italian fashion of spelling.[3] I see no object in preserving such spelling in an English book, so after selecting the best reading of the name I express it in English spelling, printing _Badashan, Pashai, Kerman_, instead of _Badascian, Pasciai, Querman_, and so on.

And when a little trouble has been taken to ascertain the true form and force of Polo's spelling of Oriental names and technical expressions, it will be found that they are in the main as accurate as Italian lips and orthography will admit, and not justly liable either to those disparaging epithets[4] or to those exegetical distortions which have been too often applied to them. Thus, for example, _Cocacin, Ghel_ or _Ghelan, Tonocain, Cobinan, Ondanique, Barguerlac, Argon, Sensin, Quescican, Toscaol, Bularguci, Zardandan, Anin, Caugigu, Coloman, Gauenispola, Mutfili, Avarian, Choiach_, are not, it will be seen, the ignorant blunderings which the interpretations affixed by some commentators would imply them to be, but are, on the contrary, all but perfectly accurate utterances of the names and words intended.

The _-tcheou_ (of French writers), _-choo_, _-chow_, or _-chau_[5] of English writers, which so frequently forms the terminal part in the names of Chinese cities, is almost invariably rendered by Polo as _-giu_. This has frequently in the MSS., and constantly in the printed editions, been converted into _-gui_, and thence into _-guy_. This is on the whole the most constant canon of Polo's geographical orthography, and holds in _Caagiu_ (Ho-chau), _Singiu_ (Sining-chau), _Cui-giu_ (Kwei-chau), _Sin-giu_ (T'sining-chau), _Pi-giu_ (Pei-chau), _Coigangiu_ (Hwaingan-chau), _Si-giu_ (Si-chau), _Ti-giu_ (Tai-chau), _Tin-giu_ (Tung-chau), _Yan-giu_ (Yang-chau), _Sin-giu_ (Chin-chau), _Cai-giu_ (Kwa-chau), _Chinghi-giu_ (Chang-chau), _Su-giu_ (Su-chau), _Vu-giu_ (Wu-chau), and perhaps a few more. In one or two instances only (as _Sinda-ciu_, _Caiciu_) he has _-ciu_ instead of _-giu_.

The chapter-headings I have generally taken from Pauthier's Text, but they are no essential part of the original work, and they have been slightly modified or enlarged where it seemed desirable.

"Behold! I see the Haven nigh at Hand, To which I meane my wearie Course to bend; Vere the maine Shete, and beare up with the Land, The which afore is fayrly to be kend, And seemeth safe from Storms that may offend.

There eke my Feeble Barke a while may stay, Till mery Wynd and Weather call her thence away."

--THE FAERIE QUEENE, I. xii. 1.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[1] This "eclectic formation of the English text," as I have called it for brevity in the marginal rubric, has been disapproved by Mr. de Khanikoff, a critic worthy of high respect. But I must repeat that the duties of a translator, and of the Editor of an original text, at least where the various recensions bear so peculiar a relation to each other as in this case, are essentially different; and that, on reconsidering the matter after an interval of four or five years, the plan which I have adopted, whatever be the faults of execution, still commends itself to me as the only appropriate one.

Let Mr. de Khanikoff consider what course he would adopt if he were about to publish Marco Polo in Russian. I feel certain that with whatever theory he might set out, before his task should be concluded he would have arrived practically at the same system that I have adopted.

[2] In Polo's diction C frequently represents H., e.g., _Cormos_ = Hormuz; _Camadi_ probably = Hamadi; _Caagiu_ probably = Hochau; _Cacianfu_ = Hochangfu, and so on. This is perhaps attributable to Rusticiano's Tuscan ear. A true Pisan will absolutely contort his features in the intensity of his efforts to aspirate sufficiently the letter C.

Filippo Villani, speaking of the famous Aguto (Sir J. Hawkwood), says his name in English was _Kauchouvole_. (_Murat. Script._ xiv. 746.)

[3] In the Venetian dialect _ch_ and _j_ are often sounded as in English, not as in Italian. Some traces of such p.r.o.nunciation I think there are, as in _Coja, Carajan_, and in the Chinese name _Vanchu_ (occurring only in Ramusio, supra, p. 99). But the scribe of the original work being a Tuscan, the spelling is in the main Tuscan. The sound of the _Qu_ is, however, French, as in _Quescican, Quinsai_, except perhaps in the case of _Quenianfu_, for a reason given in vol.

ii. p. 29.

[4] For example, that enthusiastic student of mediaeval Geography, Joachim Lelewel, speaks of Polo's "gibberish" (_le baragouinage du Venitien_) with special reference to such names as _Zayton_ and _Kinsay_, whilst we now know that these names were in universal use by all foreigners in China, and no more deserve to be called gibberish than _Bocca-Tigris_, _Leghorn_, _Ratisbon_, or _Buda_.

[5] I am quite sensible of the diffidence with which any outsider should touch any question of Chinese language or orthography. A Chinese scholar and missionary (Mr. Moule) objects to my spelling _chau_, whilst he, I see, uses _chow_. I imagine we mean the same sound, according to the spelling which I try to use throughout the book. Dr.

C. Douglas, another missionary scholar, writes _chau_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MARCO POLO'S ITINERARIES, No. I.

(Prologue; Book I. Chapters 1-36; and Book IV.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: SKETCH SHOWING CHIEF MONARCHIES OF ASIA IN LATTER PART OF 13th CENTURY]

THE BOOK OF MARCO POLO.

PROLOGUE.

Great Princes, Emperors, and Kings, Dukes and Marquises, Counts, Knights, and Burgesses! and People of all degrees who desire to get knowledge of the various races of mankind and of the diversities of the sundry regions of the World, take this Book and cause it to be read to you. For ye shall find therein all kinds of wonderful things, and the divers histories of the Great Hermenia, and of Persia, and of the Land of the Tartars, and of India, and of many another country of which our Book doth speak, particularly and in regular succession, according to the description of Messer Marco Polo, a wise and n.o.ble citizen of Venice, as he saw them with his own eyes. Some things indeed there be therein which he beheld not; but these he heard from men of credit and veracity. And we shall set down things seen as seen, and things heard as heard only, so that no jot of falsehood may mar the truth of our Book, and that all who shall read it or hear it read may put full faith in the truth of all its contents.

For let me tell you that since our Lord G.o.d did mould with his hands our first Father Adam, even until this day, never hath there been Christian, or Pagan, or Tartar, or Indian, or any man of any nation, who in his own person hath had so much knowledge and experience of the divers parts of the World and its Wonders as hath had this Messer Marco! And for that reason he bethought himself that it would be a very great pity did he not cause to be put in writing all the great marvels that he had seen, or on sure information heard of, so that other people who had not these advantages might, by his Book, get such knowledge. And I may tell you that in acquiring this knowledge he spent in those various parts of the World good six-and-twenty years. Now, being thereafter an inmate of the Prison at Genoa, he caused Messer Rusticiano of Pisa, who was in the said Prison likewise, to reduce the whole to writing; and this befell in the year 1298 from the birth of Jesus.

CHAPTER I.

HOW THE TWO BROTHERS POLO SET FORTH FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO TRAVERSE THE WORLD.