Status Updates From Mafarka the Futurist

Probably more confusingly, the chapter entitled 'The Price of Victory' has no victor paying any clear price. The French title is 'Le Prix de la Victoire', which could equally well be translated 'The Prize of Victory': The chapter closes with Mafarka receiving the sceptre of Tel-el-Kibir. The phrase 'le prix de la victoire' is used in French in both the cognate English sense & to refer to a prize or reward.

The translators have made a couple of choices that, I think, may mislead the reader. There's frequent reference to cupolas, translating French 'coupoles'. We should probably see this as a cognate choice made by the Italian Marinetti, based on 'cupole'. The intended oriental image seems to be domes. (See the Futurist Manifesto for a parallel case where the Italian use is clear.) (continued…)