THE X-PHILESNO.51
Sandy Balfour
guardian.co.uk
Friday 9 July 2004 00.00 BST
"Ye Emperors, Kings, Dukes, Marquises, Earls, and Knights, and
all other people desirous of knowing the diversities of the races
of mankind, as well as the diversities of kingdoms, provinces, and
regions of all parts of the east, read through this book and ye will
find in it the most marvellous characteristics of the people especially
of Armenia, Persia, India and Tartary."
It sounds like the introduction to a book of crosswords, but actually
it is the prologue to the Travels of Marco Polo, recently reissued by
Liveright, which I have been reading this week. Perhaps it is only
that he dictated the work while in prison following the defeat of
the Venetian fleet, but Polo appears to have been a somewhat dour and
humourless young man, primarily concerned with making money. And yet,
almost despite himself, he managed to write one of the most gripping
travel books of all time.
Which brings me to crosswords. It has never been entirely clear to me
why the Azed puzzle in the Observer is hidden away in the travel –
sorry "Escape" – section of the newspaper. Perhaps it is just that
you need to go on a very long journey to have a hope in Hades of
completing one. Or perhaps – a more charitable view – it is that each
puzzle itself represents a form of long-distance mental travel.
For Polo, of course, making money was inextricably tied up with
keeping on the right side of Kublai Khan, about whom he waxes lyrical
but who was anything but the "fine upstanding Emperor that Marco Polo
would have us believe". This comes from the introduction to the new
edition, written by Manuel Komroff, who goes on to describe Khan as a
"crafty schemer", "hated by many of his subjects, who only held the
throne by sheer force". Well, you wouldn’t necessarily guess that
from what Polo has to say. But then he was engaged in the business
(I use the word advisedly) of so many travel writers which, as Azed
put it, is to "Forge myths about the ego (6)".*
*Answers: SMITHY
� Sandy Balfour 2004.
Sandy Balfour is the author of Pretty Girl in Crimson Rose (8),
out now in paperback.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress