The Little Hunchback: Scott & Lang

The Little Hunchback

Scott Nights:

There was in former times at Casgar, on the extreme boundaries of Tartary, a tailor who had a pretty wife, whom he affectionately loved, and by whom he was beloved with reciprocal tenderness. One day while he was at work, a little hunch-back seated himself at the shop door and began to sing, and play upon a tabor. The tailor was pleased with his performance, and resolved to take him to his house to entertain his wife: “This little fellow,” said he, “will divert us both this evening.” He accordingly invited him, and the other readily accepted the invitation: so the tailor shut up his shop, and carried him home.

Lang Nights:

In the kingdom of Kashgar, which is, as everybody knows, situated on the frontiers of Great Tartary, there lived long ago a tailor and his wife who loved each other very much. One day, when the tailor was hard at work, a little hunchback came and sat at the entrance of the shop, and began to sing and play his tambourine. The tailor was amused with the antics of the fellow, and thought he would take him home to divert his wife. The hunchback having agreed to his proposal, the tailor closed his shop and they set off together.

Scott Nights:

Then they appeared in the sultan’s presence, the judge threw himself at the prince’s feet and after recovering himself, gave him a faithful relation of what he knew of the story of the hunch-backed man. The story appeared so extraordinary to the sultan, that he ordered his own historian to write it down with all its circumstances. Then addressing himself to the audience; “Did you ever hear,” said he, “such a surprising event as has happened on the account of my little crooked buffoon?” The Christian merchant, after falling down, and touching the earth with his forehead, spoke as follows: “Most puissant monarch, I know a story yet more astonishing than this; if your majesty will give me leave, I will relate it. The circumstances are such, that no one can hear them without emotion.” “Well,” said the sultan, “you have my permission:” and the merchant went on as follows:

Lang Nights:

When the procession reached the palace the chief of police prostrated himself at the feet of the Sultan, and related all that he knew of the matter. The Sultan was so much struck by the circumstances that he ordered his private historian to write down an exact account of what had passed, so that in the years to come the miraculous escape of the four men who had thought themselves murderers might never be forgotten.The Sultan asked everybody concerned in the hunchback’s affair to tell him their stories. Among others was a prating barber, whose tale of one of his brothers follows.

Analysis:

The Little Hunchback is a narrative that occurs in the kingdom of Kashgar or Casgar, and centers around the accidental murder of a little hunchback man and several characters who try to blame the killing on someone else. The narrative begins with introducing a tailor as someone who loves his wife very much. He encounters the little hunchback, enjoys his singing, and brings him home. As the tailor, his wife, and the hunchback are enjoying the meal the hunchback chokes and suffocates on a fish bone, leading to his death. The narrative then centers around characters swapping the corpse, to place blame on someone else. The tailor brings the corpse to the Jewish doctor, who after falling in the dark believes he has killed the hunchback. The Jewish doctor dumps the corpse in his neighbor the Mussulman’s chimney, who thinks he killed the hunchback. Lastly, the Mussulman purveyor dumped the corpse onto the street, and a Christian merchant assumed he had killed the hunchback. Ultimately the merchant was about to be hung for his crimes, but all of the other characters had cried out about their crimes and guilt. Everyone was astonished at the nature of the murder and quite shocked at how peculiar the story was. The Sultan had heard of this and demanded to meet with them all.

The main difference with these two translations is that the version by Scott is a lot more detailed and meticulous with the word choice. It was a lot longer, and a bit more perplexing to read as there were a numerous amount of run on sentences. The grammar and sentence structure was a bi difficult to understand. Whereas in the version by Lang, the everything was concise and succinct. Also the setting is spelled differently in both versions. In the version by Scott, the setting is referred to as Casgar. In the version by Lang, the setting is spelled as Kashgar. I also noticed that the role of a specific character was described differently. In the Scott version the head of the police who was in charge of the punishment for the crimes, was referred to as the “judge”, like on Judgement Day in the Quran. In the Lang version, this specific character is referred to as “chief of police”.