The Lusiads (Oxford World's Classics)
Page 25
He will punish proud Ormuz for revolt
By making it pay double tribute.
You, too, da Gama, as prize for this
And your future exile, will return
With a count’s title, honoured overlord
To govern the great region you explored.
54 ‘But Death, that dire necessity
No human being can avoid,
Will remove you, amid royal dignity,
From this world and all its deceit.
Then a second Meneses,* a youth
Far wiser than his years, will rule
And the fortunate Henrique will perform
Such deeds as will keep his memory warm.
55 ‘Defeating not just the Malabaris,
Destroying Ponnani along with Coulete,
Spiking guns whose volleys could target
Only the bodies which stormed them;
Rarer still, he will overcome
The seven enemies of the human soul;
He will conquer greed and concupiscence,
In one so young the sum of excellence.
56 ‘He, too, will be summoned to the heavens,
And you, brave Mascarenhas,* will succeed,
And though enemies oust you from power
I vouch your fame will be eternal.
For even they are forced to confess
Your immense courage, as Fortune
Reinstates you in command, but made great
More by your victories than a just fate.
57 ‘On the island of Bintan, for so long
The scourge of Malacca, your valiant
Company will avenge in a single day
The injuries of a thousand years.
Superhuman toils and dangers,
Iron caltrops, narrow tracks,
Will be overcome and mastered, as all
Ramparts will be scaled, all stockades fall.
58 ‘But in India, envy and ambition
Boldly setting their faces against God
And all justice, will cause you—
No, not shame, no—but sorrow!
He who abuses his powers to commit
A vile and irrational crime
Will not win—for victory’s truly won
When full, transparent justice is seen done.
59 ‘But I do not deny Sampaio,* the usurper’s,
Valour and distinction, as he drops
Like lightning on an ocean packed
With a thousand enemy ships.
In Bacanore he will strike such a blow
Against Malabar that ever afterwards
Kutti Ali, for all his enormous fleet,
Will sail in terror of a fresh defeat.
60 ‘Likewise, Diu’s ferocious armada,
Whose size and daring daunts Chaul,
The mere sight of Heitor de Silveira,
Will be enough to rout and destroy it:
—That Portuguese, they prophesy,
Raiding along the Cambay coast, will
Be to the Gujeratis such a spectre
As haunted the Greeks in mighty Hector.
61 ‘To fierce Sampaio there will succeed
Da Cunha,* at the helm for many years;
He will build the fortress of Chale
Making famous Diu quake at his name;
Strong Bassein will surrender to him
Though not without much blood,
Its governor grieving, as with swords alone
His mighty palisade is overthrown.
62 ‘After will come Noronha,* destined
To repulse from Diu the Turkish siege
—Diu, defended by the strategy
And courage of Antonio da Silveira.
When death in turn claims Noronha,
Your son,* da Gama, will try his hand
At ruling the empire, when at his sight
The Red Sea will turn yellow in sheer fright.
63 ‘From your Estêvão the reins will pass
To one already honoured in Brazil,
Martim Afonso de Sousa,* scourge
Of French pirates infesting the seas;
As captain-general of the Indian Ocean,
He will scale the ramparts of Daman
And, breaching the gate, be furthest forward
Though a thousand bowmen have it covered.
64 ‘The King of Cambay, for all his pride,
Will surrender rich Diu’s citadel,
In return for protecting his kingdom
From the all-conquering Mogul;
Later, in a tactic of great daring,
He will block the Samorin in Calicut,
Despite the multitudes he brings that day,
Driving him back in bloody disarray.
65 ‘He will destroy the city of Etapilly
Routing the king with his many followers,
Then afterwards, off Cape Comorin,
Performs his most famous exploit;
The Samorin’s first fleet, cocksure
It would sweep the world’s oceans,
Is vanquished in a hail of fire and iron,
And Beadala city, too will burn.
66 ‘Having cleared India of enemies
He will take up the viceroy’s sceptre
With no opposition, nor any danger,
For all fear him and none complain,
Except Bhatkal, which brings on itself
The pains Beadala already suffered;
Corpses will strew the streets, and shells burst
As fire and thundering cannon do their worst.
67 ‘So Martinho, his mighty name deriving
From deeds themselves derived from Mars,
As famed, throughout the empire, for arms
As for wise and thoughtful counsel.
João de Castro* will follow him
Hoisting Portugal’s banner high;
The inheritor will match the inherited;
One building Diu, the other saving it.
68 ‘Ferocious Persians, Abyssinians, and Turks
(Rumes, they are called, after ancient Rome),
Varied in faces, varied in dress
(A thousand nations will join the siege),
Will curse the heavens that a mere handful
Down on earth withstands them,
Vowing in Portuguese blood and ashes
To baptize their scimitar moustaches.
69 ‘Outfacing ordnance and cannon,
Fierce catapults and buried mines,
Mascarenhas and the heroes
Delight in their certain death,
Until, where the crisis is greatest,
Castro the liberator will sacrifice
His dear sons, asking of each the same
—To give their lives to God and eternal fame.
70 ‘Fernando, the elder, true to his lineage,
There where a land-mine blasts the rampart
To fragments in a ball of fire,
Will be snatched away and ascend to heaven;
Álvaro, his brother, despite winter’s
Waves blocking the ocean roads
Will force them open, subduing the sea
With its gales to confront the enemy.
71 ‘And here in his wake, their father comes
Ploughing the waves with reinforcements,
And with power and skill, which counts for more,
Prospers and prevails in battle.
Some leap the walls, dodging the gate;
Others, hacking savagely, breach it.
Their deeds that day will live in memory,
Greater than verse records, or history.
72 ‘Afterwards, he will battle again,*
Intrepid conqueror of the all-powerful
King of Cambay, striking panic
Into his squadrons of elephants;
Not even Hidel Khan will secure
His kingdom from that triumphant arm,
Which sacks both Dabhol on its coastal sand,
And Ponda too, despite being far inland.
73 ‘All these heroes, and others worthy
In different ways of fame and esteem,
Performing great feats in war
Will taste this island’s pleasures,
Their sharp keels cutting the waves
Under triumphant banners, to find
These lovely nymphs, these tables richly furnished
The glorious rewards for tasks accomplished.’
74 So sang the nymph: and all the others
Gave voice in sonorous applause,
Rejoicing in the happy vows
Pledged with such mutual delight:
‘For longer than Fortune’s wheel revolves’
(All sang, blending their voices)
‘Most noble people, just will be your claim
To honour, esteem, and everlasting fame.’
75 When all had feasted to the full
From the noble dishes set before them,
And from the nymph’s harmonious strains
Had glimpsed those noble deeds to come,
Then, radiant in her serious grace
And eager to redouble the glory
And pleasures of that bright and joyful day,
Tethys addressed da Gama in this way:
76 —‘God in supreme wisdom* favours you,
O hero, to behold with bodily eyes
What is beyond the shallow knowledge
Of erring and wretched mortals.
Follow me, with courage and wisdom,
You and your men, by this mountain path’:
And saying this, she led him through a wood
Too dark and dense for humans to intrude.
77 Soon they found themselves on a summit
And in a meadow so thickly sown
With emeralds and rubies, they perceived
They were treading on holy ground.
Here, in the air, they saw suspended
A lustrous and translucent globe,
Its brilliant centre shining just as clear
As the bright surface of the outer sphere.
78 Its substance they could not discern,
But saw plainly it was composed
Of different spheres the divine rod
Had shaped with one fixed centre.
As each revolved, falling or rising,
The whole neither rose nor fell,
But looked the same all round, while every part
Revealed a handiwork of sacred art,
79 Uniform, perfect, and self-sustained
As the very Creator who fashioned it.
Da Gama, seeing it, stood transfixed,
Torn between fear and eagerness.
Then the goddess spoke: ‘This sphere
I set before you, represents
The whole created world, so you may see
Where you have been, and are, and wish to be.
80 ‘This is the great machine of the universe
Ethereal and elemental, as made
By the deepest and highest Wisdom,
Who is without beginning and end.
He who with his very essence
Hedges this polished and perfect globe
Is God; but who God is none comprehends
For human wit cannot attain such ends.
81 ‘The first sphere which circles round
The lesser orbs which it contains
And which radiates with such brightness
It dazzles mortal sight and mind,
Is named the Empyrean, where pure souls
Dwell and enjoy that infinite Good
Whose essence is entirely self-defined;
Nothing resembles it among mankind.
82 ‘Here dwell in glory only the genuine
Gods, because I, Saturn and Janus,
Jupiter and Juno, are mere fables
Dreamed by mankind in his blindness.
We serve only* to fashion delightful
Verses, and if human usage offers
Us more, it is your imagination
Awards us each in heaven a constellation.
83 ‘Given, however, that Sacred Providence
—Represented here by Jupiter—
Governs the whole world it sustains
By means of a thousand prescient angels
(Prophetic knowledge speaks of them
With many examples, showing how
The good are favoured in the sacred plan;
The bad they try to hinder if they can);
84 ‘The painter with words, in his varied aims,
At times to delight, at times instruct,
Applies to them names the ancient poets
Once gave their imagined gods;
Even the Bible describes as “gods”
The angels of the sacred company,
Though this pre-eminent name is misapplied
To fallen angels, wrongly deified.
85 ‘Ultimately, one all-powerful God
Works in the world through His agents.
Now, turning to speak of the profound
Handiwork of the mysterious Creator,
Inside this first, motionless sphere
Where the pure souls live in their bliss,
Another, too swift and volatile to see,
Spins round: it is the Primum Mobile.
86 ‘Each of the spheres that lie within
Is impelled by this rapturous movement:
The sun, obeying a course not its own.
Meticulously creates day and night;
Within this, another rotates
Measuredly, on so tight a rein*
That, ever generous with its light, the sun
Circles two hundred times while this makes one.
87 ‘Look further inside at the next sphere,
Enamelled with radiant, polished bodies,
Moving on its predestined course
As it turns on its shining poles.
See how it dazzles and is adorned
With the starry belt of the Zodiac.
Twelve beasts are represented, and their signs
Are the twelve stages from which Phoebus shines.
88 ‘Look in these other parts at the pictures
The glistening stars are fashioning;
Behold the Great and Little Bears,
Andromeda, and Cepheus the Dragon;
See Cassiopeia in all her beauty,
And the wild countenance of Orion;
See Cygnus sighing, before she must expire,
The Hare, the Dogs, the Argo, and sweet Lyre.
89 ‘Beneath this spacious firmament
Is the heaven of the old god Saturn;
Jupiter is revolving close by,
Above Mars, his belligerent enemy;
Fourth is the heaven of the sun’s brilliance,
Then Venus with all her loves in tow;
Sweet-tongued Mercury is next in line,
Then Diana (huntress, moon, and Proserpine).
90 ‘Each of these planets moves in a different
Course, some ponderous, others swift,
Wandering far off from the centre
Or just a short distance from earth,
Following the almighty Father’s plan,
Who made fire, air, wind, and snow,
Which can be seen located right within
At the centre where sea and land begin.
91 ‘This is the hostel of humanity,*
Who, too ambitious to be content
With the afflictions of solid land,
Have launched out on the restless oceans.
Look at the various regions, divided
By turbulent seas, where there are lodged
Nations and tribes with various kings and chiefs,
Contrasting customs, various beliefs.
92 ‘Here is Christian Europe, advanced and envied
For its might and for its governance;
Here is Africa, desperate to share
The world�
��s goods, and racked by violence,
With the Cape which till now has barred
All passage, nature’s southern home;
Look at this huge, inhabited region
Without boundaries, without religion;
93 ‘Look at the empire of Monomotapa*
With its forest peoples, black and naked,
Where Gonçalo da Silveira* will undergo
Insult and death for the holy Church.
This unknown hemisphere abounds
With the metal for which men most sweat;
Behold the lake which is the Nile’s source
And the green Zambesi, too, begins its course.
94 ‘See how the Negroes’ houses are like nests,
Without doors, entirely confident
Of royal justice and protection
And the honesty of their neighbours;
Then see this brutal multitude,
Like a thick black cloud of starlings,
Besieging the fortress at Sofala,*
Well built, and well defended by Anhaia.
95 ‘Yonder are the great lakes, unknown
To the ancients, where the Nile springs;
Watch it watering, with its crocodiles,
The Christian peoples of Abyssinia;
Look how their defence takes the novel form
Of living without any defences;
And see Meroé,* that island of such fame
Which now has Nubia as its local name.
96 ‘In that remote land, your unborn child*
Will win great victories over the Turks
(Dom Cristovão will be his name),
But his death will be the price.
Note here on the coast, rich Malindi
That received you with such kindness;
And give the river Rapto, too, your glance,
Also called Obi; its bar is at Quilmance.
97 ‘Now see Cape Guardafui, once known
By its inhabitants as Aromata,
Guarding the entrance to the famous
Red Sea, so named for its coloured sands.
Its waters mark the frontier
Where Africa ends, and the best towns
Just where Asia is about to begin,
Are Massawa, Arkiko, and Suakin.
98 ‘Far to the left is Suez, known of old
(Some maintain) as Heroopolis
(Arsinoe, say others), and which today
Harbours the mighty Egyptian fleet.
Behold waters where in olden times
Great Moses opened a causeway.
Here Asia starts, the famous Orient
With its many kingdoms, vast and opulent.
99 ‘See Mount Sinai,* further ennobled
By the sepulchre of St Catherine.
See Tur and Jiddah, a town starved
Of refreshing, crystal fountains,
And the portals of that strait which ends
In Aden’s desert kingdom, bordering
The mountains known as Asir, living stone
Where heaven’s refreshing rains are never known.