Apu Ollantay | Page 2

Ollantay appeared in the Museo Erudito, Nos.
5 to 9, published at Cuzco in 1837, and edited by Don Jose Palacios.
The next account of the drama, with extracts, was in the 'Antiguedades
Peruanas,' a work published in 1851 jointly by Dr. von Tschudi and
Don Mariaiao Rivero of Arequipa. The complete text, from the copy in
the convent of San Domingo at Cuzco, was first published at Vienna in
1853 by Dr. von Tschudi in his 'Die Kechua Sprache. It was obtained
for him by Dr. Ruggendas of Munich. The manuscript was a corrupt
version, and in very bad condition, in parts illegible from damp. In
1868 Don Jose Barranca published a Spanish translation, from the
Dominican text of von Tschudi. The learned Swiss naturalist, von
Tschudi, published a revised edition of his translation at Vienna in
1875, with a parallel German translation. In 18711 printed the
Justiniani text with a literal, line- for-line translation, but with many
mistakes, since corrected; and in 1874, a Peruvian, Don Jose Fernandez
Nodal, published the Quichua text with a Spanish translation.
In 1878 Gavino Pacheco Zegarra published his version of Ollantay,
with a free translation in French. His text is a manuscript of the drama
which he found in his uncle's library. Zegarra, as a native of Peru
whose language was Quichua, had great advantages. He was a very
severe, and often unfair, critic of his predecessors.
The work of Zegarra is, however, exceedingly valuable. He was not
only a Quichua scholar, but also accomplished and well read. His notes
on special words and on the construction of sentences are often very
interesting. But his conclusions respecting several passages which are
in the Justiniani text, but not in the others, are certainly erroneous. Thus
he entirely spoils the dialogue between the Uillac Uma and Piqui
Chaqui by omitting the humorous part contained in the Justiniani text;
and makes other similar omissions merely because the passages are not
in his text. Zegarra gives a useful vocabulary at the end of all the words
which occur in the drama.
The great drawback to the study of Zegarra's work is that he invented a
number of letters to express the various modifications of sound as they

appealed to his ear. No one else can use them, while they render the
reading of his own works difficult and intolerably tiresome.
The last publication of a text of Ollantay was by the Rev. J. H. Gybbon
Spilsbury, at Buenos Ayres in 1907, accompanied by Spanish, English,
and French translations in parallel columns.
There is truth in what Zegarra says, that the attempts to translate line
for line, by von Tschudi and myself, 'fail to convey a proper idea of the
original drama to European readers, the result being alike contrary to
the genius of the modern languages of Europe and to that of the
Quichua language.' Zegarra accordingly gives a very free translation in
French.
In the present translation I believe that I have always preserved the
sense of the original, without necessarily binding myself to the words.
The original is in octosyllabic lines. Songs and important speeches are
in quatrains of octosyllabic lines, the first and last rhyming, and the
second and third. I have endeavoured to keep to octosyllabic lines as far
as possible, because they give a better idea of the original; and I have
also tried to preserve the form of the songs and speeches.
The drama opens towards the close of the reign of the Inca Pachacuti,
the greatest of all the Incas, and the scene is laid at Cuzco or at
Ollantay-tampu, in the valley of the Vilcamayu. The story turns on the
love of a great chief, but not of the blood-royal, with a daughter of the
Inca. This would not have been prohibited in former reigns, for the
marriage of a sister by the sovereign or his heir, and the marriage of
princesses only with princes of the blood-royal, were rules first
introduced by Pachacuti.[FN#4] His imperial power and greatness led
him to endeavour to raise the royal family far above all others.
[FN#4] The wives of the Incas were called ccoya. The ccoya of the
second Inca was a daughter of the chief of Sanoc. The third Inca
married a daughter of the chief of Oma, the fourth married a girl of
Tacucaray, the wife of the fifth was a daughter of a Cuzco chief. The
sixth Inca married a daughter of the chief of Huayllacan, the seventh
married a daughter of the chief of Ayamarca, and the eighth went to
Anta for a wife. This Anta lady was the mother of Pachacuti. The wife
of Pachacuti, named Anahuarqui, was a daughter of the chief of Choco.
There was no rule about marrying sisters when Pachacuti succeeded.
He introduced