The Lusiads (Oxford World's Classics)
Page 26
100 ‘See the three Arabias, so bountiful
With land for their dark nomads;
From there come the noble steeds prized
By warriors for their fire and pace;
Look how the coast barricades
The Straits of Ormuz, and marks out
The promontory of Ras Fartak, so named
From its city which is equally famed.
101 ‘Notice Dhofar,* source of the loveliest,
Most aromatic of all altar-incense;
But now attend; for there opposite
Ras el Hadd with its barren beaches,
Begins the coast of the kingdom
Of Ormuz, shores destined to be known
When a fleet of galleys, with Turks aboard,
Confronts Castelo-Branco’s naked sword.
102 ‘This Cape nearby is Asaborus, now
Known to sailors as Ras Mussendum;
It marks the entrance to that gulf enclosed
By Arabia and opulent Persia;
See Bahrain Island where the ocean bed
Is bedecked with pearls, matching the dawn,
And watch the Tigris and Euphrates merge,
Sharing one delta in their seaward surge.
103 ‘See mighty Persia,* that noble empire,
Its warriors for ever in the saddle,
Scorning the use of smelted bronze,
Or to have hands uncalloused by weapons.
Note Gerum, the island which reveals
What the passage of time can do;
While old Ormuz was green in memory,
It stole the name and with it all the glory.
104 ‘Here Dom Filipe de Meneses, the governor,
Will show his aptitude for battle
When, with a handful of Portuguese,
He routs a Persian host at Lar;
They will know further blows and reverses
From Dom Pedro de Sousa, who showed
His powers at Ampaza, brought to heel
By soldiers armed with nothing more than steel.
105 ‘But we leave the Straits of Ormuz
And Cape Ras Jaskah, formerly Carpela,
And the land nearby, so ill-favoured
By nature and her customary gifts
(Carmania this desert was once called);
Instead, gaze now on the beautiful
Indus,* its source high amid yonder snows
While, from the nearby crest, the Ganges flows.
106 ‘See the most fertile land of Sind
And the deep-seated Gulf of Cutch
Where the flood tide is like a torrent
And the ebb retreats as impetuously;
See the treasure-laden land of Cambay
Where the sea bites deeply into the coast;
I pass by a thousand other cities
Awaiting you with their amenities.
107 ‘See how the famous Indian coast runs
All the way south to Cape Comorin,
Once called Cape Cori, with Taprobana
(Afterwards Ceylon) lying offshore;
These are the coasts where Portuguese
Who come in your wake will levy war,
Conquering cities and kingdoms in their prime,
And holding them in partnership with time.
108 ‘The realms between the two rivers
Are beyond count and thronged with peoples,
Some kingdoms Muslim, others Hindu,
The devil himself writing their laws.
Now behold the land of Narsinga
Where lie the most blessed remains
Of St Thomas,* whom our risen Christ defied
To thrust his hand into His very side.
109 ‘Here was an elegant city named.
Mylapore,* vast and prosperous,
Worshipping its ancient idols;
As the pagans do to this day.
It was far inland in those days,
And the religion of the risen Christ
Was newly broadcast, when St Thomas trod
A thousand regions with the word of God.
110 ‘As he came here, preaching, and dispensing
Health to the sick, life to the dead,
One day the sea threw up on shore
A tree-trunk of enormous girth.
The king, who was building, sought
To use it as timber, never doubting
To drag it ashore through the contrivance
Of strong men with machines and elephants.
111 ‘So heavy was the trunk that nothing
The king devised could shift it;
But the ambassador of the true Christ
Made little work of the matter:
He simply tied his girdle to the log,
Raised it, and carried it for use
As the corner-post of a splendid shrine
Which would serve to the future as a sign.
112 ‘He understood that, if perfect faith
Could move even a deaf mountain,
It would respond at once to Christ’s
Injunction, and so it came to pass.
Excitement spread among the people;
The Brahmins took it as a miracle;
But eyeing such wonders and such sanctity,
They feared to forfeit their authority.
113 ‘These are the priests among the Hindus
And them envy had pierced the most;
They cast around for a thousand means
To silence Thomas, or to kill him.
Their leader, who wore their threads of office,*
Did a fearful thing—showing the world
There is nothing false virtue will eschew
When it fights without scruple with the true.
114 ‘He killed his own son and laid the crime
At the innocent hands of Thomas;
They called false witnesses, as could be done;
They condemned him promptly to death.
The saint, who could see his only recourse
Lay in his all-powerful father,
Before the king and lords in the packed hall
Prayed for the greatest miracle of all.
115 ‘He ordered the corpse brought before him
And restored it to life, and enquired
Who was his killer, as the one witness
Whose testimony would be credited.
All saw the youth alive, raised up
In the name of the crucified Christ;
He thanked Thomas as his true deliverer
And denounced his father as the murderer.
116 ‘This miracle so astounded everyone
The king submitted at once to baptism,
And many more; some kissed his gown,
Others sang hymns to Thomas’s God.
But the Brahmins were hostile, and envy
So poisoned their thinking, they resolved
To use the rabble to enforce their will
Inciting mayhem with the aim to kill.
117 ‘One day as St Thomas was preaching
They feigned a disturbance among the people
—Now Christ had, in that hour, ordained
His martyr should join him in glory—
As the multitude of stones descended
The saint was a willing sacrifice;
One of the villains, to fulfil his part
With a cruel lance stabbed the apostle’s heart.
118 ‘The Ganges and Indus mourn you, Thomas;
Every land weeps where you trod;
But those souls lament the most who remain
Clothed in the holy faith you taught them!
God’s angels, with joy and singing,
Welcomed you to your glorious reward;
And with God we pray you will intercede
To help your Lusitanians in their need.
119 ‘As for you others, who usurp the name
Envoy of God, as was Thomas, tell me:
If you are missionaries, why do you
not
Go forth to preach the holy faith?
If, being earth’s salt,* you lose savour
At home, where no man is a prophet,
Wherewith will you salt, in times like these
(Forget the infidel), such heresies?
120 ‘But I pass over such perilous matters
To return to the coast* passing below:
For with this famous city of Mylapore
The Bay of Bengal begins its curve;
Pass by rich and mighty Narsinga,
Pass by Orissa, with its busy looms;
At its head, the famous and (to some) occult
River Ganges joins the domain of salt;
121 ‘The Ganges, in which when people die
They are baptized, it being their creed
That, even having been great sinners,
That sacred water will cleanse them.
Behold Chittagong, the finest city
Of Bengal, a province which boasts
Of its wealth, just beyond the Ganges’s mouth,
Where the coastline turns sharply to the south.
122 ‘See the Arakan kingdom and the throne
Of Pegu, once peopled by monsters
—Children of the horrible coupling
Of a solitary woman and a dog:
Today, men wear on their genitals
Tiny tinkling bells, a custom
Invented very subtly by their queen
To put pay to behaviour so obscene.
123 ‘See the city of Tavoy, on the border
Of the long, broad empire of Siam;
Then Tenasserim, and Kedah, where
The region’s pepper is harvested.
But you must go further on to view
Malacca, that vast sea’s emporium,
Where every kingdom of whatever size,
Dispatches all its richest merchandise.
124 ‘There is a saying that in ancient times
The noble isle of Sumatra was joined
To the main, until mountainous seas
Eroded its base and cut it off.
It was known as “The Chersonese”
And, from its seams of the precious metal,
The epithet “Golden” came to adhere
(Some think it was the biblical Ophir).
125 ‘The peninsula’s tip is Singapore
Where the straits are at their narrowest;
Then, curving to face the Lesser Bear,
The coast points east* towards the dawn.
See Pahang and Patani, and the shores
Of Siam to which these are subject;
And behold the Menam River flowing by
From a lake in Siam named Chieng-Mai.
126 ‘In this vast land are a thousand nations
Of which even the names are unknown:
The Laos, mighty in extent and numbers;
The Avas and Burmese, high in their hills.
And the Karens, rumoured to be savages,
Remoter still in the mountains beyond:
They eat human flesh (inhuman!) and they char
Their own flesh with iron brands (bizarre!).
127 ‘Look: dividing Cambodia is the great
River Mekong,* the “prince of waters”;
Its tributaries are such, it floods
The wide plains even in summer;
Its inundations resemble the Nile’s;
Its people believe, in their ignorance,
That at death, even animals are consigned
To be punished or rewarded, like mankind.’
128 Gently, compassionately, he will receive
On his broad bosom these Cantos, snatched
Soaking from sad, wretched shipwreck,
Surviving treacherous shoals, and hunger
And countless other dangers, when
An unjust mandate is imposed on him
Whose lyre, played with such sweet dexterity
Will bring him fame, but not prosperity.
129 ‘The coast beyond is called Tsian Pa;
In its forests grow fragrant aloes;
See Cochin-China, still scarcely known,
And Hainan in its undiscovered gulf.
Here begins the mighty, famous empire
Of China, its lands and riches
Unimaginable, its dominion felt
From the Arctic Circle to the tropic belt.
130 ‘See the Great Wall, incredible structure,
Dividing one empire from another,
Most certain and obvious proof
Of sovereign power in its pride and wealth.
Yet their emperors are not born princes,
Nor do sons succeed their fathers,
But they elect one already famous,
Accomplished, discerning, and virtuous.
131 ‘There are lands beyond, veiled from you
Until the time is ripe to reveal them;
But do not omit the oceans’ islands
Where nature seems most inventive;
This one, half hidden, facing the coast
Of China, from whence it may be reached,
Is Japan, with its reefs of silver ore,
And soon to be illumined by God’s law.
132 ‘Look there, how the seas of the Orient,
Are scattered with islands beyond number;*
See Tidore, then Ternate with its burning
Summit,* leaping with volcanic flames.
Observe the orchards of hot cloves
Portuguese will buy with their blood;
And birds of paradise, which never alight,*
But fall to earth the day they end their flight.
133 ‘Behold the Banda Islands, enamelled
With the changing colours of the nutmeg;
And the various birds which leap about
Exacting their own tribute in nuts.
See Borneo where will be found
Tear-drops of a liquor that sets,
Oozing from the bark of the camphor tree,
Which gives the island its celebrity.
134 ‘And here is Timor, with its forests
Of scented, invigorating sandalwood.
Look at Java, so vast its southern
Mountains to this day are unexplored.
The forest people who travel the land
Talk of a magic river, in whose
Uppermost reaches, where it flows alone,
The twigs that fall in it are turned to stone.
135 ‘And again, Sumatra, made an island
By time, with its tremulous crest of fire;
Here is a spring which issues oil,
And the marvel of the aromatic tears,
Wept by a tree, which surpass
In fragrance all Arabia’s myrrh;
And matching what the other have, behold
It yields as well soft silks and finest gold.
136 ‘Observe in Ceylon, a mountain so high
It tops the clouds and eludes sight;
It is believed sacred, for there
On a rock is the footprint of a man.
In the Maldive Islands, the coconut palm
Springs from the sea-bed, its milk
For the most atrocious poison, take note,
Being said to be the perfect antidote.
137 ‘Further on, facing the Red Sea strait,
Is Socotra, with its bitter aloes;
And other islands, subject to you
Along the desert coast of Africa,
Are the source of ambergris, most secret
And precious perfume known to man.
And here is Madagascar, better famed
When it honoured St Lawrence and was so named.
138 ‘Such are the new regions of the East
You Portuguese are adding to the world,
Opening the gates to that vast ocean
Which you navigate with such courage.
But it is fitting you glance westwards*
To observe the ex
ploit of a Portuguese
Who, believing himself snubbed by his king,
Made another voyage beyond imagining.
139 ‘Behold a vast continent which stretches
From the Great Bear to the opposite pole,
Soon to be famous for its mines
Of metal gleaming like Apollo’s hair;
Castile, your friend, will have the honour
Of bringing these rough lands under her sway;
Various peoples in the various regions,
All differ in their customs and religions.
140 ‘Here where it bulges, you will colonize
Brazil, named for its red brazil-wood,
Though first christened Santa Cruz
When your fleet is the first to find it.
Along this coast, which you will own,
Will sail, exploring the remotest parts,
Magellan—in all his actions Portuguese
If not completely in his loyalties.
141 ‘After crossing more than half-way
From the equator to the Antarctic pole
He will come upon men, in the lands
Of that latitude, giants in their stature.
Further still, in the straits now bearing
His own name, his voyage will lead
To another sea, and to those dominions
The South hides under her frozen pinions.
142 ‘Thus far, Portuguese, you are permitted
To see into the future, learning
Of the deeds heroes will accomplish
On oceans no longer unmapped.
Now, having glimpsed the scale
Of your exploits, so admired
By your inseparable and loving wives
Who weave the coronets that crown your lives,
143 ‘Now you may embark, with following winds
And a tranquil sea, for your homeland.’
So she spoke: and at once they made ready
To set sail from that happy lovers’ isle.
They took cool water and the finest food;
They took the delectable company
Of the nymphs, bound to them eternally
Longer than sunlight warms the earth and sea.
144 So behold them ploughing the calm seas,
With friendly winds, not a hint of a storm,
Until their homeland, the country long
Yearned for, rose before their sight.
They entered the pleasant Tagus, and gave
Their country and their honoured king
The prize for which they sailed at his command,
Placing still greater titles in his hand.
145 No more, Muse, no more,* my lyre
Is out of tune and my throat hoarse,
Not from singing but from wasting song
On a deaf and coarsened people.
Those rewards which encourage genius
My country ignores, being given over
To avarice and Philistinism,
Heartlessness and degrading pessimism.
146 I do not know by what twist of fate