O nome lhe cortou na bocca fria.”
Canto IV. (after Stanza 35).
These Homeric stanzas on the deaths of Portuguese knights took
away interest from the central figure, the King.
“Pierced Giraldo’s vitals through and through 1
And eke the huge thick targe he snatcht away
From Perez whom he killed; his own with hew
And strangest hack of cutlass useless lay.
Dies Pedro, and Duarte dies (in lieu
Of death amid the Brigians): Born were they
Both in Braganza, brave in youthful pride
Together lived they, fought they, fell they, died.
“Lopo and Vincent de Lisboa bleed; 2
Sworn in the common cause to meet their fate;
Or both the crown to gain and Victory’s meed
To snatch from all whom most enfamed this bate.
Afonso flieth from his battle-steed;
For five Castilians (who in ambush wait
to’venge five comrades slain in earli’er strife)
Packing around him pluck his precious life.
“Down falls Hilario drilled by spear-heads three; 3
But first he took the vengeance of his spear;
He mourneth not because his Sprite goes free,
But for-that comes in it Antonia fair:
Flitteth the fug’itive Spirit fast, and flee
With it the thoughts sustaining all to dare;
And as life fled the service of his dame,
Fell from his clay-cold lips her broken name.”
Canto IV.
“Favorecem os seus com grandes gritas
O successo do tiro; e elle logo
Toma outra: (que jaziam infinitas
Dos que as vidas perderam neste jogo)
Corre enrestando-a forte; e d’arte incita
A brava guerra os seus, que ardendo em fogo
Vão ferindo os cavallos de esporadas,
E os duros inimigos de lançadas.”
Canto IV.
“Velasquez morre, e Sanches de Toledo, 1
Hum grande caçador, outro letrado:
Também perece Galbes, que sem medo
Sempre dos companheiros foi chamado:
Montanchez, Oropesa, Mondonhedo:
(Qualquer destro nas armas e esforçado)
Todos per mãos de Antonio, moço forte,
Destro mais que elles, pois os trouxe á morte.
“Guevara roncador, que o rosto untava,2
Mãos e barba, do sangue que corria;
Por dizer, que dos muitos que matava
Saltava nelle o sangue, e o tingia:
Quando destes abusos se jactava,
De través lhe dá Pedro, que o ouvia,
Tal golpe, com que ali lhe foi partida
Do corpo a vãa cabeça e a torpe vida.
Canto IV. (in lieu of Stanza 39).
“His foll’owers favour with a piercing cry
This goodly lunge of lance; nor is he slow
To snatch another (for innum’erous lie
The weapons lost by battle’s losing throw):
He runs with couched spear: His bravery
Urgeth his Braves who, brent with martial lowe,
Into the courser’s flanks keen rowels thrust,
And lance the foeman level with the dust.”
Canto IV. (after Stanza 40)
The corresponding deaths of Spanish knights.
“Velasquez dies with Sanches de Toledo, 1
A mighty hunter this, and that a clerke:
Galbes eke perisheth surnamed ‘Sem Medo,’
For thus his comrades called for countermark:
Montánchez, Oropésa, Mondonhedo
(Albeit skilled in arms, in sinews stark),
Fell by Antonio’s hand, stout youth and brave
Whose lance more dext’erous drave them to the grave.
“Braggart Guevára, who his front had dyed, 2
And hands and beard with blood that tinged the plain;
That he might bluster how the gory tide
Had spurted painting him with honour’d stain:
Him, bell’owing such bravados in his pride,
Pedro who heard the vauntings loud and vain,
Felled with such side stroke, that his empty head
Flew from his body and his base life fled.
3
“Pelo ar a cabeça lhe voou,
Inda contando a historia de seus feitos:
Pedro, do negro sangue que esguichou,
Foi todo salpicado, rosto e peitos;
Justa vingança do que em vida usou.
Logo com elle ao occaso vão direitos
Carrilho, João da Lorca, com Robledo;
Porque os outros fugindo vão de medo.
4
“Salazar, grão taful, e o mais antigo
Rufião, que Sevilha então sostinha;
A quem a falsa amiga, que comsigo
Trouxe, de noite só fugido tinha.
Fugio-lhe a amiga, emfim, para outro amigo,
Porque vio que o dinheiro com que vinha,
Perdeo todo de um resto; e não perdera,
Se huma carta de espadas lhe viera.
5
“O desprezo da amiga o desatina;
E o mundo todo, a terra, e o ceo vagante,
Blasphemando ameaça, e determina
De vingar se em qualquer que achar diante:
Encontra com Gaspar (que Catharina
Ama em extremo) e leva do montante,
Que no ar fere fogo; e certo cria,
Que um monte da pancada fenderia.
“Flew high in airy space his feckless pate 3
While still a-boasting of some blatant Geste:
Pedro, besprinkled by the squirt and jet,
Feels black blood trickling down his beard and breast;
Wherewith the mal’apert pays his vengeance debt,
Carrilho’s sun eke setteth in its west,
Joam de Lorca and Robledo follow;
While th’ other braves in flight their boasts must swallow.
“Salazar, famous par’asite, and the head 4
Pander who made Sevilha town infame;
Whom his false leman had at night-tide fled
Though to the ‘campment she had brought her shame;
Lief would with other friend this fair friend bed,
For-that the ducats wherewithal he came,
Were lost upon a cast; nor were they lost
Had but a hand of spades came uppermost.
“His she-friend’s treason gars him wits to tyne; 5
And threaten universe, earth and vagueing skies
Blaspheming; and resolve with rage indign
All who dare cross his valour to chastise:
Encount’ering Gaspar (who his Catherine
Loves as his life) the broadsword fast he plies,
Till air fire-smitten makes him fain believe
Such stroke of mighty blade a hill could cleave,
“Bem cuida de corta-lo em dous pedaços;
Porém Gaspar, vendo o montante erguido,
Cerra com elle, e leva-o nos braços:
Commettimento destro e atrevido.
Braceia o Castelhano, e de ameaços
Se serve ainda; e estando já vencido,
O Portuguez forçoso, em breve mora,
Lhe leva a arma das mãos, e salta fora.
“E porque elle não lhe use a propria manha
Que este lhe usara já, de ponta o fere:
Nos peitos o montante, emfim, lhe banha,
Porque de outra vingança desespere.
Fugio-lhe a alma indigna, e na montanha
Tartárea inda blasphema; ali refere
De mais não açoutar a imiga ingrata.
Que os açoutes de Alecto o pena e mata.
“E do metal de espadas aos damnados
Diz males e blasphemias sem medida;
Que já po
r não lhe entrar perde os cruzados,
E agora por entrar-lhe perde a vida.
Por pena quer Plutão de seus peccados,
Que se lhe mostre a amiga já fugida,
Em brincos de outro, e beijos enlevada:
Remette elle pera elles, e acha nada.”
“Fondly he hopes the foe to hew in twain; 6
But Gaspar, sighting overhead the blade,
Runs in, and catcheth him with gripping strain:
’Twas a fair feat of skill and hardihead:
The Spaniard clippeth, yet doth not restrain
His boastful threatening, although conquered;
The forceful Portingall with short delay
Unarms his hands and leaps from out his way.
“Then, lest his foeman use such crafty mode 7
Himself had used, he deals stoccado-thrust:
In fine the broadsword in his bosom-blood
He bathes that naught to vengeance mote he trust.
Flieth the furious ghost and in the wood
Tartarean still blasphemes; relates his lust
For vengeance, who no more can scourge his quean,
While him Alecto scourgeth long and keen.
“The Spatha’s metal to the damned host 8
Ill-names he calleth heaping curses dread;
Which, when it entered not, his ducats lost,
And lost his life when it had entered.
Pluto to gar him pay Sin’s scot and cost,
Shows him the trait’orous ladye-friend who fled
‘Joyed by his rival raining greedy kisses: —
He starts to strike them but the Shades he misses.”
Canto IV.
“Oh pensamento vão do peito humano!
Agora neste cego error cahiste?
Agora este fermoso e ledo engano
Da sanguinosa e fera guerra viste?
Agora que com sangue, e proprio dano,
A dura experiencia acerba e triste,
T’o tem mostrado. E agora, que o provaste,
Os conselhos darás, que não tomaste.
2”Dos corpos dos imigos cavalleiros,
Do matto os animaes se apascentaram;
As fontes de mais perto nos primeiros
Dias sangue com agua distillaram.
Os pastores do campo, e os monteiros
Da vizinha montanha, não gostaram
As aves de rapina em mais de hum ano,
Por terem o sabor do corpo humano.”
Canto IV.
Ponderando tamanho atrevimento
Disse a Neptuno então Protheo propheta:
“Temo que desta gente, gente venha,
Que de teus reinos o grão sceptro tenha.”
Canto IV. (after Stanza 44).
“Oh vain reflections’ guiling human sense! 1
How could this darkling error seal your sight?
How have ye hugged this gay and glad pretence
That lures to ‘sanguined hate and baneful fight?
And now of bloodshed dour experience,
A sore dread trial of the deadly blight
Is shown to thee. And now when known thy lot
Thou shalt give counsel which thou tookest not.
“The corpses of the Cavaliers, our fone, 2
Fed the foul creatures of the field and wood:
The nearest fountains till some days were gone
Distilled their chrystal black with human blood.
The meadow-shepherds, and the swains who wone
Upon the mountain, loathed the fulsome food,
The feral bird, — which for a year and more,
Smackt of the gorgèd flesh and human gore.”
Canto IV. (Stanza 49: varia lectio).
Pond’ering such mighty deeds of derring-do
Prophetick Proteus thus to Neptune cried: —
“I fear shall spring such Braves from Braves like these
Who the great sceptre of thy Reigns shall seize!”
“Já toma a forte porta inexpugnável,
Que o conde desleal primeiro abrio,
Por se vingar do amor inevitável
Que a fortuna em Rodrigo permittio.
Mas não foi esta a causa detestável
Que a populosa Hespanha destruio:
Juizo de Deos foi por causa incerta;
A casa o mostra per Rodrigo aberta.
“Já agora, ó nobre Hespanha, estás segura
(Se segurar te podem cavalleiros)
De outra perda come esta, iniqua e dura,
Pois que tens Portuguezes por porteiros.
Assi se deo á prospera ventura
Do rei Joanne a terra, que aos fronteiros
Hespanhoes tanto tempo molestara;
E vencida ficou mais nobre e clara.”
Canto IV.
“Da prospera cidade de Veneza:
Veneza, a qual os povos, que escaparam
Do gothico furor, e da crueza
De Attila edificaram pobremente,
E foi rica despois, e preeminente.”
“He gaineth now the Porte inexpugnable 2
Whereof the Traitor-Count first oped the gate,
In blood to wash the love inevitable
Fired in Rodrigo’s heart by hand of Fate.
Yet this was not the cause abominable
That wasted populous Hispanian State:
God for some hidden judgment gave command
The house be opened by Rodrigo’s hand.
“But now thou livest safe, O noble Spain! 3
(If knightly force can save its land a fall)
From other loss like this, from shame and stain,
Who for a Porter hast the Portingall.
This happy Fortune waited on the reign
Of King Joannd, who the bounding wall
Of Spanish-lond molested many years;
And conquered a higher crest uprears.”
Canto IV. (Stanza 61: varia lectio)
“Of Venice, splendid in prosperity,
Venice, whereto the fisher peoples fled
From Gothic fury, and the cruelty
Of Attila, and built the pauper town
Now raised to rich estate and high renown.”
Canto IV.
“Não foi sem justa, e grande causa eleito
Para o sublime throno e governança,
Este, de cujo illustre e forte peito
Depende uma grandissima esperança:
Pois não havendo herdeiro mais direito
No reino, e mais por esta confiança,
Joanne o escolheo, que só o herdasse,
Não tendo filho herdeiro, que reinasse,”
Canto IV.
“Ali lhe promettemos, se em socego
Nos leva ás partes onde Phebo nace,
De, ou espalhar sua fé no mundo cego
Ou o sangue do povo pertinace.
Fizemos para as almas sancto emprego
De fiel confissão, pura e verace,
Em que, postoque hereges a reprovam,
As almas, como a Phenix, se renovam.
2Tomámos o divino mantimento,
Cum cuja graça sancta tantos dias,
Sem outro algum terrestre provimento,
Se sustentaram já Moysés e Helias:
Pão, de quem nenhum grande pensamento,
Nem sutis e profundas phantesias
Alcançam o segredo, e virtude alta,
Se do juizo a fé não suppre a falta.”
Canto IV. (after Stanza 66).
“Nor chosen was sans justest cause and care
To fill the lofty throne of governance,
This King, whose noble heart and spirit rare
Pledgèd and promised highest esperance:
For him, there being no directer heir
And urged mostly by such confidence,
Joanné chose as heir to reign alone,
Having no son-inheritor to the throne.
Canto IV. (after Stanza 86).
“
There did we promise, if His mercy deign 1
To bear us safe where Phoebus bursts the womb,
Or to blind worlds we would His faith ordain,
Or headstrong Heathenesse to death would doom.
All for our Souls’ eternal health were fain
With pure, veracious shrift our Sprites t’ illume,
Whereby, though Her’eticks may its power decry,
Souls like the ren’ovate Phoenix heav’enward fly.
“Then to partake of Ghostly Meat we went, 2
By whose most gracious boon so many days,
Sans taste of other earthly nutriment,
Erst were sustained Elias and Moysès:
Bread, whose deep secrets ne thought eminent
Ne subtle lore, ne soaring phantasies
Shall ever fathom, ever plumb its might,
An to dark Reason Faith deny her light.”
Canto VI.
Lá na sublime Italia hum celebrado
Antro secreto está, chamado Averno;
Por onde o capitão Troiano ousado
As negras sombras foi do escuro inferno.
Por ali ha também um desusado
Caminho, que vai ter ao centro interno
Do mar, aonde o deos Neptuno mora:
Por ali foi descendo Baccho agora.
Canto VI.
A dor do desamor nunca respeita,
Se tem culpa, ou se não tem culpa a parte;
Porque se a cousa amada vos engeita,
Vingança busca só de qualquer arte.
Porém quem outrem ama, que aproveita
Trabalhar que vos ame, e que se aparte
De seu desejo, e que por outro o negue,
Se sempre fuge amor de quem o segue?
Canto VI.
“De que serve contar grandes historias
De capitães, de guerras afamadas,
Onde a morte tem asperas victorias
De vontades alheas sujugadas?
Outros farão grandissimas memórias
De feitos de batalhas conquistadas:
Eu as farei (se for no mundo ouvido)
De como só de huns olhos fui vencido.”
Canto VI. (after Stanza 7).
There, in sublime Italia, yawns a cave,
Secret and celebrate, Avernus hight,
Wherethrough the Trojan leader bold and brave
Gained Infernus-realm of gloomy Night.
And als this Antre easy adit gave,
By road untrod, to Ocean’s middle site,
The Sea-god Neptune’s proper tenement:
Now thither Bacchus ‘gan the long descent.
Canto VI. (after Stanza 24).
Dolour of fell Dislove hath no respect
For fault or for unfault on either part;
If what thou lovest lief thy love reject
Only some sore revenge shall salve the smart.
But say, What profit shall thy love expect,
When she thou lovest hath bestowed her heart?
How shall for others Love himself deny
Luis de Camoes Collected Poetical Works Page 30
