Luis de Camoes Collected Poetical Works
Page 13
such as Eurystheus for Alcides plan’d:
Cleone’s Lyon, Harpies foul and dour,
and Boar of Erymanth and Hydra ban’d;
in fine to seek those empty shades obscure
where Styx surrounds of Dis the dire Dead-land;
the greatest danger and the deadliest brunt,
for thee, O King! this soul, this flesh would front.’
“His thanks and costly gifts on me bestows 81
the King, whose reason lauds my ready will;
for Valour fed on praises lives and grows,
Praise is the noble Spirit’s spur and spell.
At once to share my fortunes doth propose,
whom friendship and fraternal love compel,
nor less resolved to win him name and fame, a
dear trusty brother named Paul da Gama.
“Eke Nicholas Coelho volunteers, 82
trained to toilsome tasks and sufferings long;
both are in valour and in counsel peers,
in arms experienced, and in battle strong.
Now choicest hands in Youthtide’s gen’erous years,
lusting for Bravery’s meed around me throng;
doughty, high-mettled, as doth best become
advent’urous manhood that would tempt such doom.
“All these by Man’oel’s hand remun’erate were, 83
that Love through Duty might the more increase;
and with high words each heart was fired to bear
adventures, peradventure, sans surcease.
Thus did the Minyae for their feat prepare, —
to gain the glories of the Golden Fleece, —
orac’ulous Argo-ship, that dared the first
through Euxine waves her vent’urous way to burst.
“Now in famed Ulyssea’s haven man’d, 84
with raptures worthy of the great design
(where his sweet liquor and his snowy sand
our Tagus blendeth with Neptunian brine),
ride the ships ready. Here my strong young band
by fear unbridled glad in labour join;
for those of Mars and Neptune, one and all,
the world would wander did I only call.
“Fast by the foreshore comes the soldiery 85
in various colours prankt with various art;
nor less enforced by inner force are they
to seek and see Earth’s unexplored part.
Round the good Navy gentle breezes play
and blithely waves each airy estandart:
They swear, far-gazing on the breadth of brine,
‘mid stars Olympick Argo-like to shine.
“When all prepared according to this sort 86
with what of wants such lengthy way demandeth,
our souls we did prepare for Death’s disport
who before seaman’s eyne for ever standeth:
To the Most Highest, throned in Heaven’s court
which He sustains, whose glance this globe
commandeth, that He, our guard and guide, His aidance lend,
we prayed, and see our incept to its end.
“Thus we departed from the saintly Shrine 87
built on the margent of the briny wave,
named, for all mem’ory, from the Land Divine,
where God incarned came the world to save.
King! I assure thee when this mind of mine
rememb’ereth how ’twas ours those shores to leave,
filled are my sprite and heart with doubts and fears,
and eyes can hardly stay their trickling tears.
“The City-people on that saddest day 88
(these for their bosom-friends, and those for kin,
and others but spectators) thronged the way
sad and down-hearted at the dreary scene:
We, winding through the virtuous array
a thousand monks and priests of rev’erend mien,
praying, in solemn pageant, to the Lord,
afoot set forth the ready barques to board.
“On such long dubious courses sent to steer, 89
us deemed the people den’izens of the tomb;
the wailing women shed the piteous tear,
and sadly sighed the men to sight our doom:
Wives, sisters, mothers (most their hearts must fear
whose love is foremost) added to the gloom
Despair; and shudder’d with a freezing fright
lest we, their loved ones, aye be lost to sight.
“This, following, saith: ‘O son! I ever held 90
coolth of my sorrows and the sweet relief
of mine already weary way-worn eld
so soon to sink in glooms of need and grief;
why leave me thus to want and woe compel’d?
Why fly my love, fond child? whose days so brief
shall set in darkness, and in briny grave
shalt feed the fishes of the greedy wave.
“That, with loosed locks: ‘O douce and dearest 91 spouse,
lacking whose love Love willeth not I live;
why risk, when daring Ocean’s wrath to rouse,
thy life, my life which is not thine to give?
How canst forget our fond fair marriage-vows?
Why face the waves a homeless fugitive?
Our love, our vain content shall nought avail
thrown to the breezes as they blow the sail?’
“With such and sim’ilar words that spake the tongue 92
of love and human nature’s yearning woe,
followed our seaward path both old and young,
life’s two extremes by Time made weak and slow.
Sad Echo wailed the near wolds among,
as though hard hills were moved grief to show
And tears the snowy shore suchwise bedew’d,
drops rivall’d sands in equal multitude.
“Of us the Company, ne’er raising eye 93
on wife or mother, marcht in such a state,
we feared our hearts fall faint, and fain we fly
our fixt resolves, repenting all too late:
Thus I determined straight aboard to hie,
sans ‘Fare-thee-wells’ by custom consecrate;
which, though they be dear love’s own lovely way,
redouble grief to those who go or stay.
“But now an aged Sire of reverend mien, 94
upon the foreshore thronged by the crowd,
with eyne fast fixt upon our forms was seen,
and discontented thrice his brow he bow’d:
His deep toned accents raising somewhat keen,
that we from shipboard hear him speak aloud,
with lore by long experience only grown,
thus from his time-taught breast he made his moan: —
“‘Oh craving of Command! Oh vain Desire! 95
of vainest van’ity man miscalleth Fame!
Oh fraudulent gust, so easy fanned to fire
by breath of vulgar, aping Honour’s name!
What just and dreadful judgment deals thine ire,
to seely souls who overlove thy claim!
What deaths, what direful risks, what agonies
wherewith thou guerd’onest them, thy fitting prize!
“‘ Thou dour disturber of man’s sprite and life, 96
fount of backsliding and adultery,
sagacious waster, and consummate thief
of subjects, kingdoms, treasure, empery:
They hail thee noble, and they hail thee chief,
though digne of all indignities thou be;
they call thee Fame and Glory sovereign,
words, words, the heart of silly herd to gain!
“‘What new disaster dost thou here design? 97
What horror for our realm and race invent?
What unheard dangers or what deaths condign,
veiled by some name that soundeth excellent?
What bribe of go
rgeous reign, and golden mine,
whose ready offer is so rarely meant?
What Fame hast promised them? what pride of story?
What palms? what triumphs? what victorious glory?
“‘But oh! race ‘gendered by his sin insane, 98
whom disobedience of the high command,
not only chased from the heav’enly reign,
and doomed to distant and exited land;
but, eke, from other state too blest for men
where Peace with Innocence fared hand in hand,
that olden golden Age, his victims hurl’d
into an iron and an armed world:
“‘Since by this gustful Van’ity led astray, 99
lighter thou makest man’s light phantasy;
since his brute fierceness and his lust of prey
bear honoured names of Strength and Valiancy;
since thou wilt price and prize, in wildest way,
despisal of man’s life, which aye should be
esteemed of mortals, nay, held doubly dear,
when He who gave it, gave it up with fear:
“‘Neighbours thee not the hateful Ishmaelite, 100
with whom abundant strife shalt ever hold?
Follows he not th’ Arabian’s law unright,
an thou wouldst fight to fill of CHRIST the fold?
A thousand cities, regions infinite,
are they not his, an cov’etest earth and gold?
Is he not strong in warfare, high in name,
if Honour be, not greed of gain, thine aim?
“‘ Dost leave the foeman breeding at thy gate 101
who wendest foreign far-off fone to seek;
whereby this antique realm lies desolate;
whose strength, o’erstretched, waxeth ruinous weak?
Seekest thou dark and dubious chance of fate,
who hearest Fame with honey’d accents speak,
lauding thy lot, and hailing thee seignior
of Inde, Perse, Arab and AEthiopia-shore?
“‘ Oh, curst the Mortal, who the first was found 102
teaching the tree to wear the flowing sheet!
worthy th’ eternal pains of the Profound,
if just that justest law I hold and greet.
Ne’er may man’s judgment lofty and renown’d,
nor genius rare, nor harp sonorous sweet,
requite such gift with mem’ory, honour, fame;
perish thy glory, perish e’en thy name!
“‘Iapetus’ daring Son from Heaven brought 103
the fire he added human breast to bless;
fire, that inflamed to wars a world distraught,
with death and eke disgrace: (ah, sad distress!)
How better far for us and ours hadst wrought
Prometheus! and with loss of life the less;
had thy famed Statue never felt the fire
of great designs that ‘gender great desire!
“‘Ne’er had the Stripling, miserably brave, 104
‘tempted his Sire’s high car, nor empty Air
the mighty Mason and his boy, who gave
names which the Sea-gulf and the River bear.
No fierce emprize and fell, by land and wave,
through fire, steel, water, wind, frost, heat, to fare,
wherein the human race loves not to range.
Sorrowful sort condition strangest strange!’
CANTO V.
ARGUMENT OF THE FIFTH CANTO.
VASCO DA GAMA pursueth the recital of his voyage, and describeth to the King of Melinde his departure from Lisbon; the divers lands whereat they touched, and the peoples whom they saw as far as the Cape of Good Hope: The chance of Fernam Velloso: The tale of the giant Adamastor: Continuation of the voyage to Melinde, where the discourse endeth; peace and true friendship being established between the Gama and that King.
ANOTHER ARGUMENT.
Relata o Gama illustre ao Rei potente
Sua viagem long a, e incerta via,
As estranhas nacoes de Africa ardente,
E de Fernao Velloso a ousadia:
Como a Adamastor vio, Gigante ingente,
Que hum dos filhos da terra se dizia,
E as consas que passou ate seu porto
Onde repouso achou e sao conforto.
CANTO V.
“SUCH words that aged Sire of honoured mien 1
still was exclaiming, as we spread the wing
to catch the sea-breath gentle and serene,
and from the well-known Port went sorrowing:
After the manner of far-faring men,
when loosed the sail we garred the welkin ring
crying ‘Boon Voyage!’ whereupon the breeze
made every trunk glide off with ‘customed ease.
“Twas in the season when th’ Eternal Light 2
entered the Beast that workt Nemaea’s woe;
and rolled our Earth, consumed by Time’s long flight,
in her sixth epoch, feeble, cold and slow:
Now, in the wonted way, had met her sight
the suns that fourteen thousand courses show,
with seven and ninety more, wherein she ran,
as o’er the seas th’ Armada’s course began.
“Slow, ever slower, banisht from our eyne, 3
vanisht our native hills astern remaining:
Remained dear Tagus, and the breezy line
of Cintran peaks, long, long, our gaze detaining:
Remained eke in that dear country mine
our hearts with pangs of mem’ory ever paining:
Till, when all veiled sank in darkling air,
naught but the welkin and the wave was there.
“Thus fared we opening those wastes of tide, 4
no generation opened before;
sighting new islands and new airs we hied,
which gen’erous Henry had the heart t’ explore:
Past Mauritanian hills and homes we plied,
the realm Antaeus ruled in times of yore,
leaving to larboard; on our dexter hand
lay nothing surer than suspected land.
“Hard by the great Madeiran Isle we past, 5
whose wealth of woodland won her chryssome name;
where first our people did their fortunes cast,
for name more famous than for classick fame:
But not the least, although ’twas found the last,
the smiles of Venus shall this Island claim:
Nay, an ‘twere hers, scant cause it had to fear a
Cnidos or Cyprus, Paphos or Cythera.
“We left Massylia’s seaboard, sterile waste, 6
where Azeneguan herds their cattle feed;
a folk that never soft sweet waters taste,
nor doth the meadow-math suffice their need;
a land no luscious fruit’ery ever graced,
where birds spoil iron in their maws of greed,
a soil where nought save horrid Want abounds,
parting the Berber’s from the Blackmoor’s grounds.
“We past the limit where, his southing done, 7
Sol guides his chariot toward his northern goal;
where lie the Races whence Clymene’s son
the clear bright colour of the daylight stole;
Here laving strangest peoples loves to run
black Sanaga in tropick summer cool;
where th’ Arsenarium Cape its name hath lost,
yclept Cape Verd by us that keep the coast.
“Now past Canaria’s archipelago, — 8
‘ Fortunate Isles’ of olden mariners these, —
the waves that play around the Maids we plow
of aged Hesper, hight Hesperides:
Lands ever new, whose wonders greater grow
upon the sight, uprose our eyne to please:
Then with a prosp’rous wind we took the port,
to take provision of the wonted sort.
&n
bsp; “Now at his Island was the harbour tane, 9
that warrior Sanct’Iago’s name did take;
a Saint who often holp the sons of Spain
brave slaughtering of the Moorish man to make.
Hence while a favouring Boreas fanned the Main,
once more we sped to cut the vasty lake
of briny Ocean, while beneath the wave
settled the shore that sweet refreshment gave.
“Compast our courses thence the greater part 10
of Africk, eastward left her continent:
The province Joloff which, disposed athwart,
departs in tribes the Negro ‘habitant;
mighty Mandinga-land by whose good art
the rich and lucid ore for us is sent,
which curved Gambia’s wealth of waters drinketh
ere in Atlantis’ breadth his current sinketh:
“We past the Dorcades, those isles assign’d 11
of the Weird Sisters erst the home to be,
who born of several vision reft and blind,
made single eye-ball serve for all the three:
Thou, only thou, whose crispy locks entwin’d
frore Neptune fired’st in his realm, the sea,
than ev’ery foulest monster fouler still
the burning sand with viper-brood didst fill.
“In fine with pointed Prow t’oward Austral shore 12
across the vastest Guinea Gulf we stray’d,
leaving the rugged Range where Lyons roar
and Cape of Palmas called from palmy shade:
The Rio Grande, where the thund’erous Bore
roars on our noted coasts, we left and made
that goodly Island named from him who tried
to thrust his finger in the God-man’s side.
“There the broad shores of Congo kingdom show, 13
whilom by us convert to faith of CHRIST,
where long Zaire’s deep clear waters flow,
River by men of old unseen, unwist:
And now in fine the wide-spread seas I plow,
far from Callisto’s well-known Pole, and list
to pass the torrid heats beneath the Line,
which doth the centre of our Sphere define.
12a Not in Camoens. “S’a Leone,” August, 1874.
‘ What sights this lovely scene shall soon unbless,
the simiad Negro swaying Africk strand;
inhuman humans, slaves in Freedom’s dress;
Ah me! what rude and wild and couthless band:
Females with ne’er a ‘No,’ males dumb to ‘Yes,’
lust, superstition, ign’orance curse the land;
fair dwelling-places where the foulest dwell;
the Blackman’s Heaven, and the White Man’s Hell.”