Luis de Camoes Collected Poetical Works

by Luis de Camoes

  Loud rattling through the hills of Cape Camore621*

  I hear the tempest of the battle roar!

  Clung to the splinter’d masts I see the dead

  Badala’s shore with horrid wreck bespread;

  Baticala inflam’d by treach’rous hate,

  Provokes the horrors of Badala’s fate:

  Her seas in blood, her skies enwrapt in fire,

  Confess the sweeping storm of Souza’s ire.

  No hostile spear now rear’d on sea or strand,

  The awful sceptre graces Souza’s hand;

  Peaceful he reigns, in counsel just and wise;

  And glorious Castro now his throne supplies:

  Castro, the boast of gen’rous fame, afar

  From Dio’s strand shall sway the glorious war.

  Madd’ning with rage to view the Lusian band,

  A troop so few, proud Dio’s towers command,

  The cruel Ethiop Moor to heav’n complains,

  And the proud Persian’s languid zeal arraigns.

  The Rumien fierce, who boasts the name of Rome,622*

  With these conspires, and vows the Lusians’ doom.

  A thousand barb’rous nations join their powers

  To bathe with Lusian blood the Dion towers.

  Dark rolling sheets, forth belch’d from brazen wombs,

  And bor’d, like show’ring clouds, with hailing bombs,

  O’er Dio’s sky spread the black shades of death;

  The mine’s dread earthquakes shake the ground beneath.

  No hope, bold Mascarene,623* mayst thou respire,

  A glorious fall alone, thy just desire.

  When lo, his gallant son brave Castro sends —

  Ah heav’n, what fate the hapless youth attends!

  In vain the terrors of his falchion glare:

  The cavern’d mine bursts, high in pitchy air

  Rampire and squadron whirl’d convulsive, borne

  To heav’n, the hero dies in fragments torn.

  His loftiest bough though fall’n, the gen’rous sire

  His living hope devotes with Roman ire.

  On wings of fury flies the brave Alvar

  Through oceans howling with the wintry war,

  Through skies of snow his brother’s vengeance bears;

  And, soon in arms, the valiant sire appears:

  Before him vict’ry spreads her eagle wing

  Wide sweeping o’er Cambaya’s haughty king.

  In vain his thund’ring coursers shake the ground,

  Cambaya bleeding of his might’s last wound

  Sinks pale in dust: fierce Hydal-Kan624* in vain

  Wakes war on war; he bites his iron chain.

  O’er Indus’ banks, o’er Ganges’ smiling vales,

  No more the hind his plunder’d field bewails:

  O’er ev’ry field, O Peace, thy blossoms glow,

  The golden blossoms of thy olive bough;

  Firm bas’d on wisest laws great Castro crowns,

  And the wide East the Lusian empire owns.

  “These warlike chiefs, the sons of thy renown,

  And thousands more, O Vasco, doom’d to crown

  Thy glorious toils, shall through these seas unfold

  Their victor-standards blaz’d with Indian gold;

  And in the bosom of our flow’ry isle,

  Embath’d in joy shall o’er their labours smile.

  Their nymphs like yours, their feast divine the same,

  The raptur’d foretaste of immortal fame.”

  So sang the goddess, while the sister train

  With joyful anthem close the sacred strain:

  “Though Fortune from her whirling sphere bestow

  Her gifts capricious in unconstant flow,

  Yet laurell’d honour and immortal fame

  Shall ever constant grace the Lusian name.”

  So sung the joyful chorus, while around

  The silver roofs the lofty notes resound.

  The song prophetic, and the sacred feast,

  Now shed the glow of strength through ev’ry breast.

  When with the grace and majesty divine,

  Which round immortals when enamour’d shine,

  To crown the banquet of their deathless fame,

  To happy Gama thus the sov’reign dame:

  “O lov’d of Heav’n, what never man before,

  What wand’ring science never might explore,

  By Heav’n’s high will, with mortal eyes to see

  Great nature’s face unveil’d, is given to thee.

  Thou and thy warriors follow where I lead:

  Firm be your steps, for arduous to the tread,

  Through matted brakes of thorn and brier, bestrew’d

  With splinter’d flint, winds the steep slipp’ry road.”

  She spake, and smiling caught the hero’s hand,

  And on the mountain’s summit soon they stand;

  A beauteous lawn with pearl enamell’d o’er,

  Emerald and ruby, as the gods of yore

  Had sported here. Here in the fragrant air

  A wondrous globe appear’d, divinely fair!

  Through ev’ry part the light transparent flow’d,

  And in the centre, as the surface, glow’d.

  The frame ethereal various orbs compose,

  In whirling circles now they fell, now rose;

  Yet never rose nor fell,625* for still the same

  Was ev’ry movement of the wondrous frame;

  Each movement still beginning, still complete,

  Its author’s type, self-pois’d, perfection’s seat.

  Great Vasco, thrill’d with reverential awe,

  And rapt with keen desire, the wonder saw.

  The goddess mark’d the language of his eyes,

  “And here,” she cried, “thy largest wish suffice.”

  Great nature’s fabric thou dost here behold,

  Th’ ethereal, pure, and elemental mould

  In pattern shown complete, as nature’s God

  Ordain’d the world’s great frame, His dread abode;

  For ev’ry part the Power Divine pervades,

  The sun’s bright radiance, and the central shades;

  Yet, let not haughty reason’s bounded line

  Explore the boundless God, or where define,

  Where in Himself, in uncreated light

  (While all His worlds around seem wrapp’d in night),

  He holds His loftiest state.626* By primal laws

  Impos’d on Nature’s birth (Himself the cause),

  By her own ministry, through ev’ry maze,

  Nature in all her walks, unseen, He sways.

  These spheres behold;627* the first in wide embrace

  Surrounds the lesser orbs of various face;

  The Empyrean this, the holiest heav’n

  To the pure spirits of the bless’d is giv’n:

  No mortal eye its splendid rays may bear,

  No mortal bosom feel the raptures there.

  The earth, in all her summer pride array’d,

  To this might seem a drear sepulchral shade.

  Unmov’d it stands; within its shining frame,

  In motion swifter than the lightning’s flame,

  Swifter than sight the moving parts may spy,

  Another sphere whirls round its rapid sky.

  Hence motion darts its force,628* impulsive draws,

  And on the other orbs impresses laws;

  The sun’s bright car attentive to its force

  Gives night and day, and shapes his yearly course;

  Its force stupendous asks a pond’rous sphere

  To poise its fury, and its weight to bear:

  Slow moves that pond’rous orb; the stiff, slow pace

  One step scarce gains, while wide his annual race

  Two hundred times the sun triumphant rides;

  The crystal heav’n is this, whose rigour guides

  And binds the starry sp
here:629* That sphere behold,

  With diamonds spangled, and emblaz’d with gold!

  What radiant orbs that azure sky adorn,

  Fair o’er the night in rapid motion borne!

  Swift as they trace the heav’n’s wide circling line,

  Whirl’d on their proper axles, bright they shine.

  Wide o’er this heav’n a golden belt displays

  Twelve various forms; behold the glitt’ring blaze!

  Through these the sun in annual journey towers,

  And o’er each clime their various tempers pours;

  In gold and silver of celestial mine

  How rich far round the constellations shine!

  Lo, bright emerging o’er the polar tides,

  In shining frost the Northern Chariot rides;630*

  Mid treasur’d snows here gleams the grisly Bear,

  And icy flakes incrust his shaggy hair.

  Here fair Andromeda, of heav’n belov’d;

  Her vengeful sire, and, by the gods reprov’d,

  Beauteous Cassiope. Here, fierce and red,

  Portending storms, Orion lifts his head;

  And here the Dogs their raging fury shed.

  }

  The Swan, sweet melodist, in death he sings,

  The milder Swan here spreads his silver wings.

  Here Orpheus’ Lyre, the melancholy Hare,

  And here the watchful Dragon’s eye-balls glare;

  And Theseus’ ship, oh, less renown’d than thine,

  Shall ever o’er these skies illustrious shine.

  Beneath this radiant firmament behold

  The various planets in their orbits roll’d:

  Here, in cold twilight, hoary Saturn rides;

  Here Jove shines mild, here fiery Mars presides;

  Apollo here, enthron’d in light, appears

  The eye of heav’n, emblazer of the spheres;

  Beneath him beauteous glows the Queen of Love —

  The proudest hearts her sacred influence prove;

  Here Hermes, fam’d for eloquence divine,

  And here Diana’s various faces shine;

  Lowest she rides, and, through the shadowy night,

  Pours on the glist’ning earth her silver light.

  These various orbs, behold, in various speed

  Pursue the journeys at their birth decreed.

  Now, from the centre far impell’d they fly,

  Now, nearer earth they sail a lower sky,

  A shorten’d course: Such are their laws impress’d

  By God’s dread will,631* that will for ever best.

  “The yellow earth, the centre of the whole,

  There lordly rests sustain’d on either pole.

  The limpid air enfolds in soft embrace

  The pond’rous orb, and brightens o’er her face.

  Here, softly floating o’er th’ aërial blue,

  Fringed with the purple and the golden hue,

  The fleecy clouds their swelling sides display;

  From whence, fermented by the sulph’rous ray,

  The lightnings blaze, and heat spreads wide and rare;

  And now, in fierce embrace with frozen air,

  Their wombs, compress’d, soon feel parturient throws,

  And white wing’d gales bear wide the teeming snows.

  Thus, cold and heat their warring empires hold,

  Averse yet mingling, each by each controll’d,

  The highest air and ocean’s bed they pierce,

  And earth’s dark centre feels their struggles fierce.

  “The seat of man, the earth’s fair breast, behold;

  Here wood-crown’d islands wave their locks of gold.

  Here spread wide continents their bosoms green,

  And hoary Ocean heaves his breast between.

  Yet, not th’ inconstant ocean’s furious tide

  May fix the dreadful bounds of human pride.

  What madd’ning seas between these nations roar!

  Yet Lusus’ hero-race shall visit ev’ry shore.

  What thousand tribes, whom various customs sway,

  And various rites, these countless shores display!

  Queen of the world, supreme in shining arms,

  Hers ev’ry art, and hers all wisdom’s charms,

  Each nation’s tribute round her foot-stool spread,

  Here Christian Europe632* lifts the regal head.

  Afric behold,633* alas, what alter’d view!

  Her lands uncultur’d, and her son’s untrue;

  Ungraced with all that sweetens human life,

  Savage and fierce they roam in brutal strife;

  Eager they grasp the gifts which culture yields,

  Yet, naked roam their own neglected fields.

  Lo, here enrich’d with hills of golden ore,

  Monomotapa’s empire hems the shore.

  There round the Cape, great Afric’s dreadful bound,

  Array’d in storms (by you first compass’d round),

  Unnumber’d tribes as bestial grazers stray,

  By laws unform’d, unform’d by reason’s sway:

  Far inward stretch the mournful sterile dales,

  Where, on the parch’d hill-side, pale Famine wails.

  On gold in vain the naked savage treads;

  Low, clay-built huts, behold, and reedy sheds,

  Their dreary towns. Gonzalo’s zeal shall glow634*

  To these dark minds the path of light to show:

  His toils to humanize the barb’rous mind

  Shall, with the martyr’s palms, his holy temples bind.

  Great Naya,635* too, shall glorious here display

  His God’s dread might: behold, in black array,

  Num’rous and thick as when in evil hour

  The feather’d race whole harvest fields devour,

  So thick, so num’rous round Sofála’s towers

  Her barb’rous hordes remotest Africa pours:

  In vain; Heav’n’s vengeance on their souls impress’d,

  They fly, wide scatter’d as the driving mist.

  Lo, Quama there, and there the fertile Nile

  Curs’d with that gorging fiend, the crocodile,

  Wind their long way: the parent lake behold,

  Great Nilus’ fount, unseen, unknown of old,

  From whence, diffusing plenty as he glides,

  Wide Abyssinia’s realm the stream divides.

  In Abyssinia Heav’n’s own altars blaze,636*

  And hallow’d anthems chant Messiah’s praise.

  In Nile’s wide breast the isle of Měrŏē see!

  Near these rude shores a hero sprung from thee,

  Thy son, brave Gama,637* shall his lineage show

  In glorious triumphs o’er the paynim638* foe.

  There by the rapid Ob her friendly breast

  Melinda spreads, thy place of grateful rest.

  Cape Aromata there the gulf defends,

  Where by the Red Sea wave great Afric ends.

  Illustrious Suez, seat of heroes old,

  Fam’d Hierapolis, high-tower’d, behold.

  Here Egypt’s shelter’d fleets at anchor ride,

  And hence, in squadrons, sweep the eastern tide.

  And lo, the waves that aw’d by Moses’ rod,

  While the dry bottom Israel’s armies trod,

  On either hand roll’d back their frothy might,

  And stood, like hoary rocks, in cloudy height.

  Here Asia, rich in ev’ry precious mine,

  In realms immense, begins her western line.

  Sinai behold, whose trembling cliffs of yore

  In fire and darkness, deep pavilion’d, bore

  The Hebrews’ God, while day, with awful brow,

  Gleam’d pale on Israel’s wand’ring tents below.

  The pilgrim now the lonely hill ascends,

  And, when the ev’ning raven homeward bends,

  Before the virgin-martyr’s tomb639* he pays


  His mournful vespers, and his vows of praise.

  Jidda behold, and Aden’s parch’d domain

  Girt by Arzira’s rock, where never rain

  Yet fell from heav’n; where never from the dale

  The crystal riv’let murmur’d to the vale.

  The three Arabias here their breasts unfold,

  Here breathing incense, here a rocky wold;

  O’er Dofar’s plain the richest incense breathes,

  That round the sacred shrine its vapour wreathes;

  Here the proud war-steed glories in his force,

  As, fleeter than the gale, he holds the course.

  Here, with his spouse and household lodg’d in wains,

  The Arab’s camp shifts, wand’ring o’er the plains,

  The merchant’s dread, what time from eastern soil

  His burthen’d camels seek the land of Nile.

  Here Rosalgate and Farthac stretch their arms,

  And point to Ormuz, fam’d for war’s alarms;

  Ormuz, decreed full oft to quake with dread

  Beneath the Lusian heroes’ hostile tread,

  Shall see the Turkish moons,640* with slaughter gor’d,

  Shrink from the lightning of De Branco’s sword.641*

  There on the gulf that laves the Persian shore,

  Far through the surges bends Cape Asabore.

  There Barem’s isle;642* her rocks with diamonds blaze,

  And emulate Aurora’s glitt’ring rays.

  From Barem’s shore Euphrates’ flood is seen,

  And Tigris’ waters, through the waves of green

  In yellowy currents many a league extend,

  As with the darker waves averse they blend.

  Lo, Persia there her empire wide unfolds!

  In tented camp his state the monarch holds:

  Her warrior sons disdain the arms of fire,643*

  And, with the pointed steel, to fame aspire;

  Their springy shoulders stretching to the blow,

  Their sweepy sabres hew the shrieking foe.

  There Gerum’s isle the hoary ruin wears

  Where Time has trod:644* there shall the dreadful spears

  Of Sousa and Menezes strew the shore

  With Persian sabres, and embathe with gore.

  Carpella’s cape, and sad Carmania’s strand,

  There, parch’d and bare, their dreary wastes expand.

  A fairer landscape here delights the view;

  From these green hills beneath the clouds of blue,

  The Indus and the Ganges roll the wave,

  And many a smiling field propitious lave.

  Luxurious here, Ulcinda’s harvests smile,

  And here, disdainful of the seaman’s toil,

  The whirling tides of Jaquet furious roar;

  Alike their rage when swelling to the shore,

  Or, tumbling backward to the deep, they force