IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
THE DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD. THE SPEECH OF MANGI • z 5 7.
And again I tell you that those of this city have a language for themselves . But you z
must know that through the whole province of Mangi one speech is preserved and one manner
of letters; yet in tongue there is difference by districts, as if, among laymen, between Lombards,
Provençals, Frenchmen, etc., yet so that in the province of Mangi the people of any district
can understand the idiom of the people of the next.' Now I have told you of this kingdom
of Fugiu which is one part of the nine parts of Mangi. Moreover I tell you that z
the great Kaan has as great duty from it and as great revenue as he has in any of z
the others except from the kingdom [7ib] of Quinsai, & greater; and this is only because z
of the revenue of the port of Çaiton. We have not indeed told you of all the nine kingdoms z z
of the province of Mangi but only of three, avoiding the weariness of long talking; these z z L
are Yangiu and Quinsai and Fugiu, and of these you have well understood. Of z
these three however we have told thus in order because Master Marc made his passage through
them, for his way was directed thither. But of the other six also he heard and learned many z
things, and we should know well how to tell you of them; but `because he was not in R
any of them as he was in Quinsai & Choncha, and. because he did not travel over them he would z
not have been able to tell so fully as about the others . Wherefore because it would be too
long an affair to mention we shall be silent about them now but keep the speaking VB
of them for another place. For we have told you well and sufficiently of the province in z
general and of a portion in particular, namely of Mangi; and of the nature of the province z
of Catai we have told generally and in particular orderly enough, according to what we were z
able to learn; and of many other provinces as our book tells you of them all clearly and in FB
right order and one after the other and without mistake, and of the people and of the beasts
and of birds and of all the gold found there and of all the silver and of precious stones FB FB FB Z
and of pearls and of the sorts of all the merchandise which go and come and which arrive FB FB
there and of many other things and of the manners and customs of the people, just as you z
have heard according to what you were able to understand. And yet because our book was z z
not yet filled with that which we wish to write there; for there were still wanting z
all the doings of the Indians and the things of Indie, which are indeed things to make FB
known to those who are ignorant and do not know them, for there are many strange z z
and wonderful things not to be passed by in silence which are not seen anywhere in all VB z
the rest of the world, and for this reason it does well to say and is very good and z
profitable to put in writing orderly in our book, that it may be more fair and strange. z FB
1 R: "yet there is difference in the speech by districts, as it would be to say Genovese, Milanese, Florentines, and Apulians, who though they speak differently can nevertheless be understood." This passage may perhaps show the degree of freedom with which the early translators or transcribers did their work.
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