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