Luis de Camoes Collected Poetical Works

by Luis de Camoes

  “And now our vision had afront descried, 14

  there in the new half-heaven a meteor new,

  unseen by other men, who or denied,

  or held it doubtful, an ‘twere false or true:

  We saw the Firm’ament’s darker, duller side,

  aye scant of stellar light where stars be few,

  and the fixt Pole where man may not agree

  if other land begin, or end the sea.

  “Thus passing forward we the regions gain, 15

  where twice Apollo’s yearly passage lies,

  twin winters making, and of summers twain,

  while he from Pole to Pole alternate flies:

  Through calms and storms, caprices of the Main,

  of angry AEolus sea-sent tyrannies,

  we saw the Bears, despite of Juno, lave

  their tardy bodies in the boreal wave.

  “To tell the many dangers of the deep, 16

  sea-changes landsman never apprehendeth,

  sudden Tornados, storms the seas that sweep,

  Levens, whose fire the depths of air accendeth;

  black nights when Heav’en in rain-flood seems to weep,

  and Thunders bellowing till the welkin rendeth,

  were but lost labour, and would do me wrong,

  e’en were I dower’d with an iron tongue.

  “Portents I witness’d, which rude mariners 17

  by long experience wont their lore to try,

  vouch for veracious, while each one avers

  things must be truthful when they meet his eye:

  These the sound judgment of the Sage prefers: —

  or taught by Science or pure Wits to ‘spy

  the hidden secrets which in Nature brood, —

  to judge misfacts, or facts mis-understood.

  “I saw, and clearly saw, the living Light, 18

  which sailor-people hold their Patron-saint,

  in times of trouble and the winds’ rude fight,

  and sable orcan when man’s heart is faint.

  Nor less to one and all ’twas exquisite

  marvel, surpassing power of wonderment,

  to see the sea-based clouds, with bulky shaft,

  upheaving Ocean’s depth with sucking draught.

  “Certes I saw it (nor can I presume 19

  my sight deceived me) as high it grew,

  an airy vapourlet, a subtle fume

  which, caught by windy currents, whirling flew:

  Thence tow’ering tall to circumpolar gloom

  a Tube appeared so thin, so faint of hue,

  that man’s unaided sight could hardly see it:

  Yet of some cloudy substance seemed to be it.

  “Little by little growing high in air, 20

  with bigger girth than biggest mast it loomed;

  here slim its middle, broad its bosom, where

  great gulps of water were in floods enwombed:

  The wave of ev’ery Wave it seemed to share;

  while gathered vapours o’er its summit gloomed;

  increasing ever more, and overcharged

  as the huge water-load its bulk enlarged.

  “E’en as a ruddy Leech sometimes is seen 21

  fixt on the lips of beeve (that careless stood

  to drink on frigid fountain’s hem of green),

  slaking her fire of thirst with alien blood:

  Sucking, she rounds her form with hunger lean;

  and swills and swells till full of gory food:

  Thus the grand column greater volume gaineth

  itself, and heavier weight of cloud sustaineth.

  “But, when ’twas wholly filled, and fully fed, 22

  withdrawn the footing planted on the Main,

  athwart the welkin pouring floods it fled,

  with water bathing ‘jacent watery plain;

  and all the waves it suckt in waves it shed;

  wherein no salty savour mote remain.

  Now let our Sages deft in Script expose

  what mighty secrets these which Nature shows.

  “Had the Philosophers, who fared of eld 23

  so far the Wonders of the World to find,

  the Miracles which I beheld, beheld;

  the canvas spreading to such divers wind;

  what many weighty volumes had they fill’d!

  what pow’er to Stars and Signs had they assign’d!

  what growth to knowledge! what rare qualities!

  and all the purest Truth that scorneth lies.

  “Five times the Planet, which maintains her place 24

  in the first sky, her swifter course had made,

  now showing half and then her full of face,

  while over Ocean our Armada sped:

  When poised on topmost yard, in giddy space,

  ‘Land!’ shouts a lynx-eyed sailor, ‘land ahead!’

  Hurry the crews on deck in huge delight

  and over Orient sky-rim strain their sight.

  “In misty manner ‘gan their shapes to show 25

  the highland-range attracting all our eyes;

  the pond’erous anchors stood we prompt to throw,

  and furl the canvas which now useless lies:

  And that with surer knowledge mote we know

  the parts so distant which before us rise,

  with Astrolabos, novel instrument,

  which safe and subtle judgment did invent:

  “We landed, lost no time, on long and wide 26

  Bight, and the seamen scattered ‘bout the shore,

  to see what curious things be there descried,

  where none descried or ever trod before:

  But with my Pilots I retired aside

  on farther sands, our landfall to explore;

  and lief the solar altitude would span,

  and map the painted world in chart and plan.

  “Here had our wand’ering course outrun, we found, 27

  of Semi-capran Fish the final goal,

  standing atween him and the gelid round,

  Earth’s austral portion, the more secret Pole.

  Sudden I see my crew a man surround,

  complexion’d sooty as the charred coal,

  tane as he hied him far from home to take

  combs of rich honey from the hilly brake.

  “He comes with troubled gest and gait, as though 28

  he ne’er had found him in such fell extreme;

  nor he our speech, nor we his jargon know,

  a salvage worse than brutal Polypheme:

  Of the fine fleecy store to him I show

  the Colchos-treasure, gentle ore supreme,

  the virgin silver, spices rich and rare,

  yet seemed the Sylvan nought for these to care.

  “Then bade I baser things be brought to his view, 29

  bunches of glassy beads transparent bright,

  of little tinkling falcon-bells a few,

  a cap of cramoisie that glads the sight.

  By signs and signals then I saw and knew,

  in such cheap trash he takes a child’s delight:

  I bid them loose him with his treasures all,

  when off he hurries for the nearest kraal.

  “His friends and neighbours on the following day, 30

  all mother-nude, with night-entinctur’d skin,

  adown their asp’erous hillocks fand their way,

  largesse and gifts their mate had won, to win:

  In crowds they gather’d and so tame were they,

  the show of softness bred much daring in

  Fernam Velloso’s brain to see the land,

  and thread the bushes with the barbarous band.

  “Now doth Velloso on his arm rely 31

  and, being arr’ogant, weens to wend secure;

  but when already overtime goes by

  wherein no sign of good I can procure;

  standing with face upturned in hope to ‘spy

  the bold Adv’entu
rer, lo! adown the dure

  hillocks appears he, making for the shore,

  with more of hurry than he showed before.

  “Coelho’s galley lightly rowed for land 32

  to take him off, but ere the shore she made

  a burly Blackmoor cast a bully hand

  on him, for fear their prisoner evade:

  Others and others coming, soon the band

  grappleth Velloso, who finds none to aid;

  I haste, our gallant oarsmen strenuous working,

  when shows a Negro flock in ambush lurking.

  “Now from the clashing cloud a rattling rain 33

  of shafts and stones began on us to pour,

  nor did they hurtle through the lift in vain,

  for thence my leg this hurt of arrow bore.

  But we, like men with causes to complain,

  send such thick-woven answer strong and sore

  that from their exploit gained some, perhaps,

  a blush of honours crimson as their caps.

  “And, saved Velloso from such imm’inent fate, 34

  fast to the Squadron both the boats retired,

  seeing the rude intent and ugly hate

  of brutes by bestial rage and malice fired;

  from whom no better tidings could we ‘wait

  anent that India-land, the dear-desired,

  save it lay far, far, far, the fellows said: —

  Once more the canvas to the breeze I spread.

  “Then to Velloso quoth a mate in jest 35

  (while all with meaning smile the jibe attend),

  ‘Hola, Velloso! sure that hilly crest

  is hard to climb as easy to descend/

  ‘Yea, true!’ the daring volunteer confest;

  ‘but when so many curs afar I ken’d

  packing, I hurried, for I ‘gan to doubt me

  ill-luck might catch you were ye there without me.’

  “He then recounted how, when duly made 36

  that wooded Mount, the blacks of whom I speak,

  his further travel o’er the land forbade

  threatening unless he turn death-wrong to wreak:

  Then, straight returning, ambuscade they laid,

  that we when landing a lost mate to seek,

  might straight be banisht to the Reign obscure,

  that at more leisure they the loot secure.

  “But now five other suns had come and gone, 37

  since from our landfall went we forth to plow

  seas to the seaman still unseen, unknown,

  while from astern the breezes favouring blow;

  when, as a night closed in, all careless strown

  the Crew kept watch upon the cutting Prow,

  deepening the welkin’s darkling hues, a cloud

  sails high o’erhead, and seems the sky to shroud.

  “It came so charged with such tem’erous stride 38

  in every falt’ering heart blank fear it bred:

  Roars from afar and raves the sombre tide

  as though vain thundering on some rocky head:

  ‘Almighty Pow’r, o’er worlds sublime!’ I cried,

  ‘ what threat from Heaven, or what secret dread,

  shall now this climate and this sea deform,

  what greater horror than the natural storm?’

  “These words I ended not, when saw we rise 39

  a Shape in air, enormous, sore the view o’it;

  a Form disformed of a giant size;

  frowned its face; the long beard squalid grew o’it;

  its mien dire menacing; its cavern’d eyes

  glared ghastly ‘mid the mouldy muddy hue o’it;

  stained a clayey load its crispy hair

  and coal-black lips its yellow tusks lay bare.

  “So vast its eerie members, well I can 40

  assure thee, all the double deemed to sight

  of Rhodes’ Colossus, whose inordinate span

  one of the world’s Seven Wonders once was hight.

  But when its gross and horrent tones began

  to sound as surged from Ocean’s deepest night:

  ah! crept the flesh, and stood the hair of me

  and all, that gruesome Thing to hear and see.

  “‘O rasher, bolder Race:’— ’twas thus it spoke, — 41

  ‘than all whose daring deeds have tempted Fate;

  thou, whom no labours tame nor war’s fell stroke,

  nor rest wilt grant on human toils to ‘wait:

  Since these forbidden bounds by thee are broke

  who durst my Virgin Seas to violate,

  which long I guarded, where I ne’er allow

  plowing to foreign or to native prow:

  “‘Since the dark secrets com’st thou here to ‘spy 42

  of Nature and her humid element,

  which from Man’s highest lore deep hidden lie,

  on noble or immortal mission sent;

  from me the Terrors which ye dare defy

  hear now, the sequence of thy rash intent,

  o’er ev’ery largest Sea, o’er ev’ery Land

  which still thy cruel conquest shall command.

  “‘This know, what ships shall sail my waters o’er 43

  and brave, as brav’est thou me, to work my worst;

  to them assured foe shall prove my shore,

  where blow the storm-winds, and the tempests burst:

  Hear! the first Squadron that shall dare explore

  and through my restless waves shall cleave the first,

  such improvised chastisement shall see,

  more than all dangers shall the damage be.

  “‘ An Hope deceive not, here I hope to deal 44

  consummate vengeance on th’ Explorer’s head;

  nor he the latest shall my fury feel

  by pertinacious confidence ybred;

  nay, ye shall ev’ery year see many a keel

  (if me my judgment here hath not misled)

  such wrecks endure, shall see such fate befall,

  that Death shall seem the lightest ill of all.

  “‘ And to the first illustrious Leader whom 45

  Fame’s favour raiseth till he touch the skies,

  I will give novel and eternal tomb,

  by the dark sentence of a God all-wise:

  Here of hard Turkish fleet that dree’d his doom,

  he shall depose the prideful prosp’erous prize;

  here shall at length my wrath and wrack surpass a

  Qufloa in ruins and a rent Mombasah.

  “‘ Shall come Another, eke of honour’d fame, 46

  a Knight of loving heart and liberal hand,

  and he shall bring his dainty darling Dame,

  Love’s choicest treasure bound by Hymen’s band:

  Ah, sore the sorrow, dark the day when came

  the pair to this my hard and hateful land,

  condemn’d from cruel wreck their lives to save

  and, suffer’ed toils untold, to find a grave.

  “‘Shall see slow starving die their children dear, 47

  sweet pledges bred of love, in fond love born;

  shall see the Caffres, greedy race and fere,

  strip the fair Ladye of her raiment torn:

  Shall see those limbs, as chrystal light and clear,

  by suns, and frosts, and winds, and weather worn,

  when cease to tread, o’er long drawn miles, the heat

  of sandy waste those delicatest feet.

  ‘“And, more, shall see their eyne, whom Fate shall spare

  from ills so dreadful, from so dire a blow, 48

  the two sad lovers left in mis’ery, where

  implac’able thorns and terr’ible thickets glow:

  There, when the stones wax soft at their despair,

  shown by their ceaseless woe, sigh, groan, tear, throe,

  in a last strained embrace their souls exhale

  from out the fairest, fondest, saddest ja
il.’

  “The fearful Monster would more ills unfold, 49

  our doom disclosing, when aloud cried I: —

  ‘Who art thou, whose immense stupendous mould,

  pardie, is mighty miracle to mine eye?’

  His lips and dingy orbs he wreathed and roll’d,

  and with a sudden frightful wailing cry,

  in slow and bitter accents he replied

  as though the question probed and galled his pride:

  “‘I am that hidden mighty Head of Land, 50

  the Cape of Tempests fitly named by you,

  which Ptol’emy, Mela, Strabo never fand,

  nor Pliny dreamt of, nor old Sages knew:

  Here in South Ocean end! Africk strand,

  where my unviewed Point ye come to view,

  which to the far Antarctick Pole extendeth;

  such he your daring rashness dire offendeth.

  “‘ Encelados, and Terra’s Titan brood, 51

  AEgaeon and the Centiman, the line

  of me, who Adamastor hight, withstood

  the hand that hurleth Vulcan’s bolt divine:

  Hill upon hill to pile was not my mood;

  to conquer Ocean-waves was my design;

  I went to seek, as Captain of the Main,

  the fleet of Neptune which I sought in vain.

  “‘For Peleus’ high-born spouse my burning love 52

  lured me rashly to such rude emprize;

  the belles of heaven ne’er my breast could move

  mine Ocean-Empress filled my yearning eyes:

  One day I saw her with the Nereids rove,

  all bare and beauteous, ‘neath the summer skies:

  and in such manner she bewitcht my will

  no other feeling can my bosom fill.

  “‘ But as my Ladye’s grace I could not gain 53

  for being homely, huge of form and face,

  I sware by forceful rape my want t’ obtain

  and so to Doris I disclosed my case:

  In dread she told her child my loving pain

  when modest Thetis, with her merry grace,

  replied:—’ What Nymph can boast, whate’er her charms,

  the strength to wrestle in a Giant’s arms?

  “‘ Algates, that Ocean may once more be free 54

  from this sad Warfare, I some mode will find,

  to gar mine honour with his suit agree;’

  thus was the message to mine ear consign’d.

  I, who no treach’erous snare in aught could see

  (for lovers’ blindness is exceeding blind)

  felt with a buoyant hope my bosom bound,

  and hopes of passion by possession crown’d.

  “‘Love madden’d, moonstruck, now I fled the war, 55

  and kindly Doris named the trysting-night;

  at length my lovely love I saw appear,

  my winsome Thetis, in her robeless white: