The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Marco Polo and da Pisa Rusticiano

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 repetition 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-benán_. 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, Anglicè 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 _-tchéou_ (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. [Illustration] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [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 pronunciation 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 mediæval 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_. [Illustration: MARCO POLO’S ITINERARIES, Nᵒ. I. (Prologue; Book I, Chapters 1–36; and Book IV.) SKETCH SHOWING CHIEF MONARCHIES OF ASIA IN LATTER PART OF 13ᵗʰ CENTURY] THE BOOK OF MARCO POLO.