Luis de Camoes Collected Poetical Works
Page 12
four times his lance before the final throw;
and, thrusting forceful, by that single thrust
lanceth such wounds that many bite the dust.
“For, see, his soldiers brent with ardour new, 39
honoured repentance, honourable fire,
who shall display most courage staid and true,
and dare the dangers dealt by Mars his ire
contend: The steel that catcheth flamey hue,
aims first at plate, then at the breast aims higher;
thus, wounds they give and wounds they take again;
and, dealing Death, in Death they feel no pain.
“Many are sent to sight the Stygian wave, 40
into whose bodies entered iron Death:
Here dieth Sanct’ Iágo’s Master brave,
who fought with fiercest sprite till latest breath;
another Master dire of Calatrave,
horrid in cruel havock, perisheth:
Eke the Pereiras foully renegate
die God denying and denouncing Fate.
“Of the vile, nameless Vulgar many bleed; 41
flitting with Gentles to the Gulf profound;
where hungers, rav’ening with eternal greed,
for passing human Shades the three-head Hound:
And humbling more that haughty, arr’ogant breed,
and better taming enemies furibund,
Castilia’s Gonfanon sublime must fall
beneath the forceful foot of Portugall.
“Here wildest Battle hath its cruel’est will, 42
with deaths and shouts, and slash and gory shower;
the multitud’inous Braves, who ‘re killed and kill,
rob of their proper hues the bloom and flower:
At length they fly! they die! now waxeth still
War’s note, while lance and spear have lost their power:
Castilia’s King the fate of pride must own,
seeing his purpose changed, his host o’erthrown.
“The field he leaveth to the Conqueror, 43
too glad his life had not been left in fight:
Follow him all who can; and panick sore
lends them not feet, but feather’d wings for flight:
Their breasts are filled with a wild dolour,
for Deaths, for Treasure waste in wanton plight;
for woe, disgust, and foul dishonour’s soil
to see the Victor rev’elling in their spoil.
“Some fly with furious curses, and blaspheme 44
him who the World with Warfare made accurst;
others that covetous breast all culp’able deem
for Greed enquicken’d by his selfish thirst.
That, alien wealth to win, with sore extreme
he plunged his hapless folk in woes the worst;
leaving so many wives and mothers, lorn
of sons and spouses, evermore to mourn.
“Camped our conqu’ering John the ‘customed days 45
on foughten field, in glory of the brave;
then with vowed pilgrimage, gift, pray’er, and praise,
he gave Him graces who such vict’ory gave.
But Nuno, willing not by peaceful ways
on human memory his name to ‘grave,
but by his sovran feats of war, commands
his men pass over to Transtágan lands.
“His gallant project favoureth Destiny, 46
making effect commensurate with cause;
the Lands that bordered by the Vandals lie
yielding their treasures bow before his laws:
Now Baetic banners which Seville o’erfly,
and flags of various princes, without pause,
all trail foot-trampled; naught their force availeth
whatever the forceful Portingall assaileth.
“By these and other Victories opprest, 47
Castilia’s lieges long deplored their woes;
when Peace by all desired and gentle Rest,
to grant their vanquisht fone the Victors chose;
then seemed it good to His almighty hest
that the contending Sovrans should espouse
two royal Damsels born of English race,
Princesses famed for honour, form, and grace.
“Nills the brave bosom, used to bloody broil, 48
the lack of foeman who his force shall dree;
and thus, Earth holding none to slay and spoil,
he carries conquest o’er the unconquer’d Sea.
First of our Kings is he who left the soil
patrial, teaching Africk’s Paynimry,
by dint of arms, how much in word and deed
the Laws of CHRIST Mafamed’s laws exceed.
“See! thousand swimming Birds the silv’ery plain 49
of Thetis cleave, and spurn her fume and fret,
with bellied wings to seize the wind they strain,
where his extremest mete Alcides set:
Mount Abyla, and dight with tow’er and fane
Ceita, they seize, ignoble Mahomet
they oust: and thus our gen’eral Spain secure
from Julian-craft, disloyal and impure.
“Death granted not to Portugal’s desire 50
Hero so happy long should wear the crown;
but soon th’ angelick Host and heav’enly Choir
a home in highest Heaven made his own:
To ward his Lusia, and to raise her higher,
He who withdrew him left the goodly boon, —
building our country on her broadest base, —
of noble Infants a right royal Race.
“Noways so happy was Duarte’s fate, 51
what while he rose the royal rank to fill:
Thus troublous Time doth ever alternate
pleasure with pain, and temper good with ill.
What man hath lived through life in joyous state,
who firmness finds in Fortune’s fickle will?
Yet to this Kingdom and this King she deigned
spare the vicissitudes her laws ordained.
“Captive he saw his brother, hight Fernand, 52
the Saint aspiring high with purpose brave,
who as a hostage in the Sara’cen’s hand,
betrayed himself his ‘leaguer’d host to save.
He lived for purest faith to Fatherland
the life of noble Ladye sold a slave,
lest bought with price of Ceita’s potent town
to publick welfare be preferred his own.
“Codrus, lest foemen conquer, freely chose 53
to yield his life and, conqu’ering self, to die;
Regulus, lest his land in aught should lose,
lost for all time all hopes of liberty;
this, that Hispania might in peace repose,
chose lifelong thrall, eterne captivity:
Codrus nor Curtius with man’s awe for meed,
nor loyal Decii ever dared such deed.
“Afonso, now his kingdom’s only heir, — 54
a name of Vict’ory on our Spanish strand, —
who, the haught fierceness of the Moor’s frontier
to lowest mis’ery tamed with mighty hand,
pardie, had been a peerless cavalier
had he not lusted after Ebro-land:
But still shall Africk say, ‘t were hopeless feat
on battle-plain such terr’ible King to beat.
“This could pluck Golden Apples from the bough, 55
which only he in Tiryns born could pluck:
He yoked the salvage Moor, and even now
the salvage Moorman’s neck must bear his yoke.
Still palms and greeny bays begird his brow
won from the barb’arous raging hosts that flock,
Alcacer’s forted town with arms to guard,
Tangier the pop’ulous, and Arzille the hard.
“All these by gallant deeds, in fine, were gained, 56
anent the Portingalls, now taught and trained
to throw the Pow’er that lists to try a fall:
Such extreme marvels by strong arms attained, —
right worthy el’oquent scripture one and all, —
the gallant Cavaliers, whose Gestes of glory
added a lustre to our Lusian story.
“But soon, ambition-madded, goaded on 57
by Passion of Dominion bitter-sweet,
he falls on Ferdinand of Aragon,
Castile’s haught kingdom hoping to defeat.
The swarming hostile crowds their armour don,
the proud and various races troop and meet,
from Cadiz fast to tow’ering Pyrenee,
who bow to Ferdinand the neck and knee.
“Scorned an idler in the realm to rest 58
the youthful John; who taketh early heed
to aid his greedy father with his best,
and sooth, came th’ aidance at the hour of need.
Issued from bloody battle’s terr’ible test
with brow unmoved, serene in word and deed
maugre defeat, the Sire, that man of blood,
while ‘twixt the rivals Vict’ory doubtful stood:
“For-that of valiant princely vein his son, 59
a gentle, stalwart, right magnan’imous Knight,
when to th’ opponents he such harm had done,
one whole day camped on the field of fight.
Thus from Octavian was the vict’ory won,
while Anthony, his mate, was Victor hight,
when they the murth’erers who the Caesar slew,
upon Philippi-field the deed made rue.
“But as thro’ gathered shades of Night eterne 60
Afonso sped to realms of endless joy,
the Prince who rose to rule our realm in turn
was John the Second and the thirteenth Roy.
This, never-dying Glory’s meed to earn,
higher than ventured mortal man to fly,
ventured; who sought those bounds of ruddy Morn,
which I go seeking, this my voyage-bourne.
“Envoys commiss’ioneth he, who passing o’er 61
Hispania, Gaul, and honoured Italy,
took ship in haven of th’ illustrious shore
where erst inhumed lay Parthenope;
Naples, whose Dest’iny was decreed of yore,
the var’ious stranger’s slave and thrall to be,
and rise in honour when her years are full
by sovereign Hispania’s noble rule.
“They cleave the bright blue waves of Sic’ulan deeps; 62
by sandy marge of Rhodos-isle they go;
and thence debark they where the cliffy steeps
are still enfam’d for Magnus here lain low:To Memphis wend they, and the land that reaps
crops which fat Nylus’ flood doth overflow;
and climb ‘yond Egypt to those AEthiop heights
where men conserve CHRIST’S high and holy rites.
“And eke they pass the waters Erythrean, 63
where past the shipless peoples Israelite;
remain arear the ranges Nabathean,
which by the name of Ishmael’s seed are hight:
Those odoriferous incense-coasts Sabaean,
dainty Adonis’ Mother’s dear delight,
they round, and all of Happy Ar’aby known,
leaving the Waste of Sand and Reign of Stone.
“They push where still preserveth Persic Strait, 64
confused Babel’s darkling memory;
there, where the Tygre blendeth with Euphrate,
which from their head-streams hold their heads so high.
Thence fare they his pure stream to find, whose fate
‘twill be to deal such length of history,
Indus, and cross that breadth of Ocean-bed
where daring Trajan never dared tread.
“Strange tribes they saw, and through wild peoples past 65
Gedrosian, and Carmanian, and of Inde;
seeing the various custom, various caste,
which ev’ery Region beareth in her kind.
But from such asp’erous ways, such voyage vast
man finds not facile safe return to find:
In fine, there died they and to natal shore,
to home, sweet home, returned they nevermore.
“Reserved, meseemeth, Heav’en’s clear-sighting will 66
for Man’oel, worthy of such goodly meed,
this arduous task, and stirred him onward still
to stirring action and illustrious deed:
Man’oel, who rose the throne of John to fill,
and to his high resolves did eke succeed,
forthwith when taken of his realm the charge,
took up the conquest of the Ocean large:
“The same, as one obliged by a noble Thought, 67
the debt of Honour left as ‘heritance
by predecessors, (who in life aye fought
their own dear land’s best interests to advance)
ne’er for a moment failed of his fraught, —
Obligement; — at what hour Day’s radiance
pales, and the nitid Stars on high that rise,
with falling courses woo man’s sleep-worn eyes;
“Already being on bed of gold recline’d 68
where Fancy worketh with prophetick strain;
revolving matters in his restless mind,
the bounden duties of his race and reign;
Sleep, soft restorer, comes his eyne to bind,
while thought and mem’ory both unbound remain;
for, as his weary lids sweet slumber sealeth,
Morpheus in varied forms himself revealeth.
“Here seems the King so high to soar away, 69
that touched his head the nearest primal Sphere,
where worlds of vision ‘neath his glances lay,
nations of vasty numbers, strange and fere:
and there right near the birthplace of the Day,
unto his outstretched eyne began appear,
from distant, olden, cloud-compelling mountains
flowing, a twain of high, deep, limpid fountains.
“Birds of the feral kind, and kine, and flocks, 70
‘bode in the shadows of the shaggy wood:
A thousand herbs and trees with gnarled stocks,
barring the paths of passing mortals stood.
Adverse had ever been those mountain-rocks
to human intercourse, and clearly show’d,
never since Adam sinned against our days,
brake foot of man this breadth of bosky maze.
“From out the Fountains seeded he to behold 71
for him inclining, with long hasty stride,
two Men, who showed old and very old,
of aspect rustick yet with lordly pride:
Adown their twisted pointed locks slow roll’d
gouts which their bodies bathed on ev’ery side;
the skin of earthy texture, dark and dull;
the beard hirsute, unshorn, but long and full.
These hoary Fathers round their foreheads bore 72
tree-boughs, with unknown shrub and herb entwine’d;
and one a worn and wearied aspect wore,
as though from regions lying far behind:
And thus his waters which did slower pour
seemed adown the further side to wind:
E’en thus Alpheus from Arcadia fled
to Syracuse and Arethusa’s bed.
“This, who with graver gait and gesture came, 73
thus from a distance to the Monarch crieth:
‘O thou! whose sceptre and whose crown shall claim,
of Earth a mighty part that guarded lieth;
we twain, who fly through mouths of men by Fame,
we, whose untamed neck ma
n’s yoke defieth,
warn thee, O King! ’tis time to send commands,
and raise large tribute from our natal lands.
“‘Illustrious Gange am I, whose farthest fount 74
in realms celestial, heav’enly heights, I trace:
And you stands Indus, King, who on the mount
which thou regardest, hath of birth his place.
Thou shalt hard warfare wage on our account;
but, still insisting ev’ery fear to face,
with ne’er seen conquests, and sans soil or stain,
the tribes thou viewest thou shalt curb and rein.’
“No more that holy noble River said; 75
both in a moment fade and disappear:
Awaketh Manoel in novel dread,
and big o’ercharged thoughts ybred of fear.
Meanwhile his glitt’ering mantle Phoebus spread
upon the sombre somn’olent hemisphere;
Dawn comes and o’er the gloomy welkin showers
blushings of modest rose, and fiery flowers.
“The King in counsel calls his lords to meet, 76
and of the vision’d figures news imparts;
the holy Elder’s words he doth repeat,
which with a mighty marvel heaves their hearts.
All straight resolve t’ equip a sturdy fleet,
that men, well skilled in navigator-arts,
should cut the stubborn Main and forth should fare
in search of novel climes and novel air.
“I, who right little deemed, forsooth, to find 77
myself attaining hopes my Sprite desired;
yet mighty matters of such cunning kind
my heart presaging promised and inspired;
e’en now ken not, or how or why design’d,
or for what happy chance in me admired,
that famous Monarch chose me, gave to me
of this grave, gracious enterprize the key.
“And with fair offer coucht in courteous phrase, — 78
lordly command obliging more than laws, —
he said: ‘In exploits dure and daring ways
who woo most perils win the most applause:
Riskt life enfameth man with highest praise
or lost in HONOUR’S, not in honours’, cause;
And, when to blighting Fear it never bends,
short it may be, yet more its length extends.
“‘Thee from a chosen host have chosen I 79
the dangers claimed by thee to undergo:
’Tis heavy travail, hard, heroick, high;
which love of me shall lighten, well I trow.’
I could not suffer more:—’ Great King!’ I cry,
‘ to face the steel-clad host, sword, lance, fire, snow,
for thee were thing so slight, my sole annoy
is to see trivial life so vain a toy.
“‘Imagine ev’ery wildest aventure, 80