Page:Ollanta An Ancient Ynca Drama.pdf/22

14 nobles are conducted to the dungeon of Cusi Coyllur, who was supposed to have been long since dead. The unfortunate princess is restored to the arms of her lover, and receives the blessing of the Ynca.

I have endeavoured to give the bare literal meaning of the original, line by line, but it abounds in puns and double meanings which cannot be re-produced. Yet an idea will be conveyed to the mind of the reader, of the ancient literature of the Yncas, and of the poetic faculty to which they had attained, even by the present bald attempt at a translation. The Quichua and English are given in parallel columns. The different readings in the Von Tschudi version, of which there are many, are given in italics, and the passages in my version, which are omitted by Von Tschudi and Barranca, are also indicated. I cannot hope that the translation is free from numerous mistakes. The value of the present publication is that the text of an older and purer version than that already given to the world in the Kechua Sprache of Von Tschudi, will be preserved. The translation is the result of much careful study; and it does, I believe, in spite of many blunders which will doubtless be detected and corrected by future students, give the general sense of the original. Thus the purest and oldest text will now be accessible to inquirers in this field of research, while the translation will furnish additional material for judging of the sort of civilisation that was developed in this part of South America, before its discovery by Europeans. Such, at least, is my aim in this effort to give the old Ynca Drama an English dress.