वासवदत्ता (महाकवि सुबन्धु - श्लेष-प्रधान शास्त्रीय गद्यकाव्य सान्वय सटीक)

PREFACE
THE precept of Horace, nonum prematur in annum, has been
more than obeyed in this volume, for it was on November 3,
1901, that I began the translation of the Vāsavadattā. From
that day Subandhu's romance has never been long absent from
my thoughts, although many practical exigencies, some of them
not wholly agreeable to a scholar, have forced me again and
again to lay the task aside, often for six months at a stretch.
Yet these clouds, too, have had their silver lining, for not only
has my work thus had time to ripen, but much has appeared
bearing on the novel during these intervals, or has been called
to my attention by friends. The first draft of the translation was,
for example, almost completed when, in March, 1903, Dr. George
C. O. Haas noted for me an entry in a catalogue of Stechert, of
New York, which enabled me to purchase a copy of the edition of
the Vāsavadattā printed in Telugu script at Madras in 1862. This
necessitated a renewed study of the text in comparison with the
edition of Hall, and ultimately led me to include a transliteration
of the ‘southern’ recension in my work, together with the variants
of all the other editions. Some of these would have been
inaccessible to me, had it not been for the courtesy of the India
Office, which, at the instance of Mr. F. W. Thomas, its librarian,
most generously loaned me the texts I needed, so that I might
use them at leisure in my own study.
Excepting the blank-verse renderings of the few Sanskrit stanzas
of the Vāsavadattā, I have sought to make the translation as literal
as the English language would permit, and throughout I have
spared no pains to facilitate reference to the original text, as
well as to explain each allusion that I could elucidate. In the
latter regard I have considered others than professed Sanskritists,
for I have ventured to hope that some copies of the work may
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