he merchant brohters travelled for sixteen days finding neither sities nor fortilices.
they saw the high clay walls of noble Buchara.
Beforo the city stood the cemetry.
The city began with narrow alleys, caravansaries, blue domes of mosques whose entranses were decorated with ceramics, wiht the cries of the camels from the caravans, with the cool trees shading the green pools.
Rapid streams flowed through the streets.
At the city's centre there was a second fortress on a high peak.
Persians, Hindus, Tartars,Jews with their black robes, Chinese crowded the city.
The city of Buchara was the most beautiful in Persia.
It was placed among oases,
to one side of the river Zarafshan.
i racconta che una volta l'esercito di Buchara
si fosse recato in terre lontane per guerreggiare.
Il khan sgomino' i nemisi e chiamo' un poeta.
IL poeta doveva esaltarne la gloria in lingua persiana.
Ma il poeta persiano
non canto' un canto di glorificazione,
canto' invece il mormorare del fiume Zarafshan
nell'oasi di Sogdi.
Canto' in modo tale che il khan fu preso
da nostalgia della patria,
corce scalzo fuori del palazzo, sali' in sella
e mosse gli eserciti verso Buchara,
abbandonando le tende.
Tanto era bella la citta' di Buchara,
citta' di mercanti, architetti, giudici e poeti.
e did not provide a handred wise men to accompany them two monks from the Carmine mountain, delegated to wield the power of the pope in those faraway lands. On reaching Layas, they discovered that the Saracens were laying waste to the great Armenia. For this reason the two pious monks were too afraid to proceed, the documents and privileges to the two brothers and went no further.
he city where he was to be governor is found in Southern China and its women are very beautiful, but acting as governor turned out to be a very boring affair. "There are many warrios in the city and its environs". Marco Polo has nothing else to tell.
He was bored. He is a traveller.
Text by Victor Borisovic Sklovskij from Marco Polo, published in Italy by Il Saggiatore, Milano1972, translated from Russian by Maria Olsufieva.
English translation by Geraldine Volante.
Текст русского перевoда
со старофранцузского
"Путешествия Марко Поло"
издания 1902г.
Русского географического общества.
