The Lusiads (Os Lusiadas), English translation, 2 vols
Luís de Camões, tr. Richard F. Burton, 1880
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Os Lusiadas is the Portuguese national epic, ten cantos of eight-line stanzas that follow Vasco da Gama's fleet sailing to India. The Olympian gods take sides: Venus protects the Portuguese, Bacchus tries to wreck them. Along the way Gama tells the king of Melinde the history of Portugal, from the first kings to the crisis of 1383-85, and the poem stops for set pieces such as the giant Adamastor, the storm, and the Isle of Love where the sailors are rewarded. This edition is Richard Burton's English version, which carries the first six cantos.
Where it happens
- Lisbon The fleet sails from here, and the Old Man of the Restelo warns the departing sailors against the voyage.1
- Cape of Good Hope The poem opens in medias res after the fleet has already rounded the Cape.1
- Mozambique Island Scene of the first clash, the so-called battle of the Island of Mozambique.1
- Mombasa Where Gama makes a speech at a moment of danger in Canto II.1
- Malindi The Sultan of Melinde welcomes the fleet, and Gama tells him the history of Portugal.1
- Calicut The Indian city the fleet reaches, where the Samorin receives Gama and the Catual holds him.1
- Aljubarrota Battle of the 1383-85 Crisis recounted in Canto IV, with Nuno Alvares Pereira at its centre.1
- Macau Camoes was an exile here when he wrote the poem.1
Through time
- 1383The crisis of 1383-85 begins; Gama tells its story in Canto IV, with Aljubarrota at its centre.1
- 1524Camoes is born around this date (given as c. 1524/5).1
- 1572Os Lusiadas is first printed, three years after the poet's return from the Indies.1
- 1580Camoes dies.1
- 1776Mickle's English verse translation appears, one of several before Burton.1
- 1880Burton's English translation is published in London by Wyman and Sons, the version on this site.2
Who is in it, and behind it
Luis de Camoes author
Portuguese poet (c. 1524/5 to 1580) who wrote the epic and dedicated it to King Sebastian.1
Richard F. Burton translator
Rendered the poem into English; his translation was published in London in 1880.12
Isabel Burton translator
Burton's wife, who edited the translation and wrote its editor's preface.2
Vasco da Gama character
The captain whose voyage to India is the subject, and who narrates Portugal's history to the king of Melinde.1
King Sebastian of Portugal patron
The young king to whom Camoes dedicated the poem.1
Adamastor character
A giant who confronts the fleet in the episode told in Canto V.1
Venus character
The goddess who favours the Portuguese and shields the fleet from Bacchus.1
Bacchus character
Opposes the Portuguese because he resents their coming into the East, which he treats as his territory.1
What it is about
A nation's founding epic
Camoes casts the Portuguese as the sons of Lusus, a people fated for great deeds, and sets their voyages beside the Aeneid and Homer.1
Gods divided over Portugal
Venus backs the fleet and Bacchus opposes it, echoing the split among the gods in the epics of Odysseus and Aeneas.1
Doubt inside the glory
The Old Man of the Restelo speaks against the voyage as the ships leave, a rare dissent in a poem of praise.1
Reward on the Isle of Love
Venus prepares an island where nymphs welcome the sailors, and Thetis shows Gama the universe and the future of Portuguese conquest.1
Poetry measured against glory
The poet laments in several places that his contemporaries scorn verse, tying fame itself to the poets who record it.1
In its own words
A wayfarer and voyager from his youth; a soldier, somewhat turbulent withal, wounded and blamed for his wounds; a moralist, a humourist, a satirist, and, consequently, no favourite with King Demos;
Cease Alexander, Trajan cease to ’joy the fame of vict’ories that have pass’d away: The noble Lusian’s stouter breast sing I, whom Mars and Neptune dared not disobey: Cease all that antique Muse hath sung, for now a better Brav’ry rears its bolder brow.
Thou biddest me, O King! to say my say anent our grand genealogy of old: Thou bidd’st me not relate an alien story; thou bidd’st me laud my brother Lusians’ glory. “That one praise others’ exploits and renown4 is honour’d custom which we all desire; yet fear I ’tis unfit to praise mine own;
Remained dear Tagus, and the breezy line of Cintran peaks, long, long, our gaze detaining: Remainèd eke in that dear country mine our hearts with pangs of mem’ory ever paining: Till, when all veilèd sank in darkling air, naught but the welkin and the wave was there.
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;
I have been daily and hourly consulted as to this expression, or this or that change of word, this or that peculiarity of Camoens. What, then, are those difficulties, you, the reader, will ask me? Let me try to explain. So many enterprising poet-authors have translated Camoens, and received their meed of praise and popularity.
The shape of the book
11 chapters, 44,528 words. Point at a bar.
How it came to be here
Luis de Camoes wrote the poem in the sixteenth century, partly while an exile in Macau, and it was first printed in 1572, three years after he came home from the Indies. He died in 1580. It borrows the form of Virgil's Aeneid to give Portugal a founding epic of sea voyages and is dedicated to the young King Sebastian. Richard Burton's English translation appeared in London in 1880, with a preface by his wife Isabel, and is the text here. It matters as the poem a nation reads about itself.
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Sources
Text: Burton translation, London 1880; vol. 1 = PG 77660, vol. 2 = PG 77661. Public domain in the USA (Project Gutenberg).