The Lusiads (Oxford World's Classics)

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The Lusiads (Oxford World's Classics) Page 20

by Luis Vaz de Camoes


  Bidding him collect his scattered army

  And march back to the field just quit;

  The youth turns, with the old man,

  And the defeated become the victors:

  That fierce old man is Egas Moniz,

  The paragon of ancient fealties.

  14 ‘Watch him surrender with his sons,

  A noose on his neck, his silks discarded,

  Because the young king would not submit

  To Castile, as the old man pledged.

  With prudence and foresight, he raised

  The siege, by then all but forfeit;

  His sons and his wife will pay the cost:

  To redeem his liege lord, he must be lost.

  15 ‘Consul Postumius* did not match this,

  Caught by surprise in the Caudine Forks,

  And compelled to bow the head beneath

  The triumphal arch of the Samnites.

  With his army facing catastrophe,

  Steadfast and true, he surrendered himself;

  But Egas stood to forfeit more than life,

  Pledging himself, his sons, and his blameless wife.

  16 ‘Do you see this one, sallying from ambush

  To fall on the king besieging the fort?

  He takes the king and the town is relieved:

  An exploit worthy of Mars!

  Here you see him again, this time at sea

  With the fleet, overwhelming the Moors,

  Capturing their galleys, claiming the glory

  Of Portugal’s first naval victory:

  17 ‘It is Dom Fuas Roupinho,* who on land

  And sea was equally resplendent,

  When, under the heights of Ceuta itself,

  Fires rose from the Moorish galleys.

  See how in so just and holy a war

  He is content to die fighting;

  And so his soul, dispatched by Muslim arms,

  Triumphs in heaven with a victor’s palms.

  18 ‘Do you see this band in foreign armour*

  Disembarking from a powerful fleet

  To support our first king in the battle

  For Lisbon, and so fulfil their crusade?

  Look at Heinrich, famous German knight,

  With the palm springing next to his tomb!

  So with a miracle, God determines

  The great faith of the martyred Germans.

  19 ‘Now a priest, look, brandishing a sword

  Against Arronches, which he captures

  In revenge for Leiria, taken by those

  Who bloody their lances for Mohammed.

  He is Prior Teotónio.* Now study

  Santarém under siege, and observe

  The courage of the first to scale the wall

  Raising the five-shield flag of Portugal.

  20 ‘See him again, in Sancho’s campaign

  Against the Moors of Andalusia,

  Shattering the enemy, killing the ensign,

  And trampling the pennant of Seville:

  It is Mem Moniz,* whose valour copied

  That buried with his father’s bones;

  He earned those standards, for he never failed

  Trampling the enemy’s while his own prevailed.

  21 ‘Watch this one, shinning down his lance

  Back to the ambush, with the heads

  Of the two watchmen, and so captures

  Évora with subterfuge and daring;

  That city has taken for its armorial

  That warrior with the two heads

  Cold in his hand (unique and chilling sight!):

  Gerald the Fearless* is that fearful knight.

  22 ‘Do you see this Castilian?* He quarrelled

  With Afonso the Ninth over his feud

  With the house of Lara, and joined

  The Moors to become Portugal’s enemy.

  Here, with the infidels in his train,

  He seizes the town of Abrantes,

  But observe! A Portuguese with a small

  Detachment, captures him and routs them all!

  23 ‘Martim Lopes is that knight’s name

  Who stole the Castilians’ palm and laurel.

  Now watch this warrior Bishop* change

  His gold crosier for a steel lance:

  See him among the waverers, resolute

  In taking battle to the brave Moors;

  Behold God’s sign, manifest overhead,

  Putting heart into the scant troops he led.

  24 ‘See the kings of Córdoba and Seville

  Routed, and two others at a stroke.

  Routed? Killed rather: a miracle

  Wrought by God, not human hand!

  See also the town of Alcácer, humbled

  Despite its defences and walls of steel;

  Lisbon’s Dom Mateus, is that fighter,

  Adding a crown of palms to his mitre.

  25 ‘Here a Portuguese Master of the Order

  Of Santiago,* returns from Castile

  To conquer the land of the Algarves,

  Finding no one to withstand him;

  With guile, courage, and fortune’s blessing,

  See him capturing cities and castles.

  See Tavira taken for the abuse

  Of murdering Christians at a time of truce;

  26 ‘See how cleverly he wins back Silves

  Occupied by a host of Moors;

  He is Dom Paio Correia, envied

  By all for his skill and courage.

  And do not miss these three knights,*

  Perpetually famous for leaving behind

  Trophies of their prowess with sword and lance

  In jousts and tourneys throughout Spain and France.

  27 ‘Observe them descending on Castile,

  Preceded by reputation, and lifting

  Every prize in the serious game

  Of war, with great harm to some;

  See lying dead the proud knights

  Who challenged the chief of the three,

  Gonçalo Ribeiro, a name that will live on,

  Conquering Lethe’s rule of oblivion.

  28 ‘But now attend, for here is a man*

  Fame prefers beyond all the ancients;

  When the fatherland hung by a thread

  He sustained it on his strong shoulders.

  Do you see him, red with anger, rebuking

  The people for their leaden distrust,

  Goading them to accept the gentle rein

  Of their true king, and not a king from Spain?

  29 ‘Then observe how, with prudence and daring,

  Guided in his destiny only by God,

  Alone he did what seemed impossible:

  He defeated the might of Castile.

  Here you see fresh havoc, new victories

  Won by toil, strength, and valour,

  Against the countless people of Andalusia,

  Between the Guadiana and Guadalquivir.

  30 ‘Can you not see a Portuguese army

  On the verge of defeat, all because

  The devout captain has withdrawn in prayer

  To invoke the blessed Trinity?

  Look how his men pursue him in panic,

  Saying there is no resisting

  Such numbers, and pleading with him to act

  To restore them the fortitude they lacked.

  31 ‘Watch how, with saintly assurance, he

  Answers: “It is not yet the moment”,

  As one relying wholly on God

  For the victory He would shortly grant.

  So Pompilius,* learning with what forces

  The enemy were overrunning the land,

  Replied to those who brought such dire advice,

  “Now is the time for prayer and sacrifice.”

  32 ‘Should you wish to discover his name

  Who dares so much, with such faith in God,

  “Portugal’s Scipio” he could be called,

  But Dom Nuno Álvares is the greater title.
<
br />   Happy the fatherland with such a son,

  Or better, father; for while there exist

  Land or sea to shed its warmth upon,

  The sun itself will yearn for such a son.

  33 ‘Here in the same war, gathering booty

  Is another captain* with a small band;

  He defeats the commanders of two orders

  Retrieving the cattle they plundered;

  Witness his lance dipped yet again

  In Castilian blood, to liberate

  His captive friend, captive through being loyal;

  He is Pero Rodrigues do Landroal.

  34 ‘Note Paio Rodrigues* and how he paid

  For his treachery and foul deceit;

  Gil Fernandes from Elvas defeated him

  And exacted the supreme penalty;

  The fields of Jerez were saturated

  With the blood of their Castilian lords;

  While Rui Pereira, there in the tide race,

  Held off the galleys with his very face.

  35 ‘And here you see seventeen Portuguese*

  Holding this hill, and mounting defence

  Against four hundred Castilians

  Who encircle them, but cannot take them;

  Soon they find, to their cost, such men

  Can more than defend, they can attack:

  An action fit to be forever known

  As much in ancient times as in our own!

  36 ‘We know in the past a mere three hundred

  Battled against a thousand Romans,

  In the days when the virile deeds

  Of Viriathus* were so much on display

  When, beyond gaining memorable

  Victories, they left us this injunction,

  That size and strength should never be equated,

  As has a thousand times been demonstrated.

  37 ‘Now behold two princes,* Pedro

  And Henrique, the splendid sons of King João:

  Pedro in Germany won for himself

  The fame which eclipses death itself;

  Henrique, the renowned Navigator,

  Explored and charted oceans, starting

  At Ceuta, pricking the Moors’ vanity,

  Being the first to penetrate that city.

  38 ‘Here is Count Pedro,* defending Ceuta

  Twice against the might of Barbary;

  And here Duarte, his son, for strength

  And daring, a very Mars incarnate;

  It was not enough that he protected

  Alcácer-Ceguer from a mighty host,

  For he saved his king’s life, which he cherished

  More than his own, shielding him, and perished.

  39 ‘And there are many others the artist

  Might have elected to portray here,

  But brush and colours were lacking, I mean

  The rewards and favours which nourish art.

  It is the fault of their descendants

  Who have, beyond a doubt, abandoned

  Their forefathers’ gallantry and lustre,

  As vain in their tastes as in their bluster.

  40 ‘Those famous ancestors, from whom derive

  The lineages which bear their names,

  Founded by virtue of their virtues

  The houses which descend from them.

  How short-sighted they were! For though

  Their own deeds and their fame endure,

  They leave their descendants in obscurity,

  Heirs to indifference and apathy.

  41 ‘There are others among the rich and powerful

  Undistinguished in their lineage:

  Kings are to blame, rewarding favourites

  Many times more than valour and wisdom.

  Such do not wish their fathers painted

  For the colours would not be flattering;

  While nothing in nature so provokes their hate

  As painting with words, the poet’s fate.

  42 ‘I do not deny there exist offspring

  Of these noble lines and rich houses,

  Whose worthy, blameless conduct

  Sustains the name they have inherited;

  And if the torch of their ancestors

  Does not blaze as it did formerly,

  It has, at least, not completely died away,

  But the painter finds too few of them today.’

  43 So da Gama expounded the great deeds

  Rendered there in different colours

  By the skilled hand of the painter,

  With such rare and convincing artifice.

  The Catual’s eyes were spellbound

  By history so well displayed:

  He pressed hard upon our answers in his haste

  To learn of battles so much to his taste.

  44 But now in the divided light of dusk

  As the sun’s great beacon sank

  Slowly beneath the horizon, to dawn

  In the antipodes with another day,

  The Catual and the noble company

  Of Nairs took leave of the warship,

  Seeking that rest which furnishes respite

  To weary creatures in the peace of night.

  45 Meanwhile, the king’s soothsayers,

  Always venerated by the superstitious

  For reading in their false sacrifices

  Diabolical clues to the future,

  Were, at the king’s command, zealously

  Practising their office and art

  About the arrival of these strange men

  From Iberia, a land not known till then.

  46 The Devil, honest for once, revealed

  The newcomers would indeed impose

  A perpetual yoke, eternal bondage,

  Destroying the people and their power.

  Astonished, the augur rushed to the king,

  With his terrifying interpretation

  Of the dreadful portents he detected

  In all the victims’ entrails inspected.

  47 Allied to him was a priest, a devoted

  Follower of the law of Mohammed,

  Whose hatred for the supreme Faith

  Was as new-found as it was extreme;

  In the likeness of that false prophet,

  Descended from the line of Ishmael,

  To this priest, divine Bacchus, who kept

  His own hatred warm, appeared as he slept.

  48 And told him: ‘Be on your guard, my people,

  Against the designs of this enemy

  Who have travelled such watery highways

  Before danger looms any closer.’

  As he whispered, the Muslim

  Awoke suddenly, shocked by his vision;

  But then, thinking it but a dream, he went

  Quietly back to sleep, calm and content.

  49 Bacchus returned: ‘Do you not recognize.

  The great lawgiver, Mohammed,

  Who revealed to your fathers the faith

  You obey, rather than be baptized?

  I watch over you, peasant, yet you sleep on!

  Understand that, through these upstarts,

  The laws I gave to ignorant mankind

  Will soon be desecrated and maligned.

  50 ‘While they are still weak in number,

  Oppose them in every way you can;

  When the sun first rises, it is easy

  To stare directly at its beams;

  But when it is dazzling and incandescent,

  The eyes are forced to turn aside

  To avoid blindness: such will be the fruit

  Of this business if not attacked at root.’

  51 With these words, he and the vision vanished;

  The Ishmaelite was aghast. Leaping

  From bed, he called his servants for a lamp,

  With the poison coursing through his veins.

  As soon as dawn’s earliest light

  Unveiled her serene, angelic face,

  He summoned the priests of the unredeemed

>   And gave a strict account of all he dreamed.

  52 Many conflicting opinions were voiced

  As each proposed what he thought;

  Various plots, ingenious tactics,

  And treacheries were elaborated;

  But rejecting the more headstrong

  Methods of destroying the Portuguese,

  They took the option subtlety prescribes,

  Suborning the king’s counsellors with bribes.

  53 With bribes, of gold and other seductions,

  They co-opted the country’s rulers,

  And with sophistry persuaded them

  Of the ruin the Portuguese would bring,

  Declaring they were restless people

  Who, spilling from the seas of the west,

  Lived lawlessly by piracy and rapine,

  Without king or country, human or divine.

  54 To govern well, how much a monarch

  Must guard that his counsellors and friends

  Are men of rectitude and genuine

  Honour and absolute devotion!

  For placed as he is, elevated

  On his throne of state, he knows

  Little more of his kingdom or his court

  Than what his ministers choose to report.

  55 This is not to say he should take on trust

  That all-too-apparent rectitude

  Which wraps itself in a humble cloak,

  Disguising, perhaps, ambition.

  Even the truly righteous and saintly.

  Give poor advice on worldly matters;

  Such men, fixed wholly on what is holy,

  Have little wit for human vice and folly.

  56 And so these self-seeking Catuals

  The Hindu peoples’ governors,

  Were induced by those infernal priests

  To prevaricate with the Portuguese.

  But while the Muslims were conspiring,

  Da Gama, having fulfilled his

  Voyage, was preoccupied by one thing:

  To carry the sure proof back to his king.

  57 He worked only for this, well aware

  That as soon evidence reached his hands,

  Arms, ships, and people would be sent

  By King Manuel, as supreme commander,

  To reduce to his yoke and to Christ’s faith

  The whole expanse of lands and ocean;

  He, meanwhile, being merely a diligent

  Explorer of the distant Orient.

  58 He resolved to speak with the Samorin

  And finish his business and go home,

  For already he sensed a disposition

  To oppose him in whatever he wished.

  As for the king, from the lies and slurs,

  One could guess why he was aghast,

  For his trust in what his augurs had read

  Was reinforced by all the Muslims said.

  59 This fear chilled his ignoble heart;

  Countering it was the power of greed

  Which controlled his very nature,

  A burning greed which raged insatiably;

 

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