Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 18.djvu/23

 INTRODUCTION, XIX

legend about KeresAsp, and the extracts relating to Khv^tCik-das. Other manuscripts, used for the remaining extracts translated in the Appendix, will be mentioned in § 4 of this introduction.

The existence of two versions of the text of the 'DSuRs- tdn-i Dinik would have been a source of much perplexity to the translator, had it not been soon apparent that the version represented by M14 was merely a revision of that in K35, attempted by some editor who had found much difficulty in understanding the involved phraseology of M^niijirihar. There are, undoubtedly, some corrupt words and passages in K35, where the revised version may be followed with advantage, but nine-tenths of the alterations, introduced by the reviser, are wholly unnecessary, and in many cases they are quite inconsistent with the context.

Under these circumstances it has been the duty of the translator to follow the text given in K35, wherever it is not wholly unintelligible after prolonged study, to note all deviations of the translation from that text (which are usually small), and merely to mention the variations of the revised text, so far as they are intelligible, in the notes.

The writings of Mdniij/feihar are certainly difficult to translate, not only from the involved and obscure style he affects, but also from the numerous compound epithets he uses, which are not easy either to understand with certainty, or to express clearly in English. The only other Pahlavi writings that approach them in difficulty are those of his brother, Z^-sparam, and those of the author of the third book of the Dinkarrf, who seems to have also been a con- temporary writer. To a certain extent, therefore, an involved style of writing may have been a failing of the age in which he lived ; and his works, being of an epistolary and hor- tatory character, would naturally be more abstruse and idiomatic than simple narrative ; but much of the obscurity of his style must still be attributed to his own want of clear arrangement of thought and inadequate, though wordy, expression of ideas, the usual sources of all obscure and rambling writing.

When to the difficulty of tracing the thread of an argument

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