Piqui Chaqui. Such thoughts are prompted by Supay[1];
That evil being possesses thee.
All round are beauteous girls to choose
Before old age and weakness come.
If the great Inca knew thy plot
And what thou seekest to attain,
Thy head would fall by his command,
Thy body would be quickly burnt.
Ollantay. Boy, do not dare to cross me thus.
One more such word and thou shalt die.
These hands will tear thee limb from limb,
If still thy councils are so base.
Piqui Chaqui. Well! treat thy servant as a dog,
But do not night and day repeat,
'Piqui Chaqui! swift of foot!
Go once more to seek the star.'
Ollantay. Have I not already said
That e'en if death's fell scythe[2] was here,
If mountains should oppose my path
Like two fierce foes[3] who block the way,
Yet will I fight all these combined
And risk all else to gain my end,
And whether it be life or death
I'll cast myself at Coyllur's feet.
Piqui Chaqui. But if Supay himself should come?
Ollantay. I'd strike the evil spirit down.
- ↑ Supay, an evil spirit, according to some authorities.
- ↑ Ichuna, a sickle or scythe. The expression has been cited by General Mitre and others as an argument that the drama is modern, because this is a metaphor confined to the old world. But ichuna was in use, in Quichua, in this sense, before the Spaniards came. The word is from Ichu, grass.
- ↑ The Peruvians personified a mountain as two spirits, good and evil. In writing poetically of a mountain opposing, it would be referred to in the persons of its genii or spirits, and spoken of as two foes, not one.
