The Lusiads (Oxford World's Classics) by Luis Vaz de Camoes

Author:Luis Vaz de Camoes [Camoes, Luis Vaz de]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780192801517
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2001-02-15T07:00:00+00:00

Canto Seven

1 At long last, they were nearing the land

So many others before had longed for,

Spread out between the River Indus

And the Ganges which rises in Eden.

Courage, heroes! You have aspired

So long to bear the victor’s palm,

You have arrived! The land of your pleasure

Extends before you, with all its treasure!

2 To you, heirs of Lusus, I have this to say:

Your share of the earth is a small one,

And small, too, your portion of Christ’s

Fold,* shepherded from Heaven;

You, whom no forms of danger

Prevented from conquering the infidel,

Nor greed, nor reluctance in sacrifice

To the Holy Mother of God in paradise;

3 You, Portuguese, as few as you are valiant,

Make light of your slender forces;

Through martyrdom, in its manifold forms,

You spread the message of eternal life;

Heaven has made it your destiny

To do many and mighty deeds

For Christendom, despite being few and weak,

For thus, O Christ, do you exalt the meek!

4 Consider the Germans,* haughty stock

Who graze on such rich meadows,

In revolt against Peter’s successor

Devising a new pastor, a new creed;

Look at the hideous wars they wage

(As if blind error were not enough!),

And not against the overbearing Turk

But against the Emperor in his holy work.

5 Look at that rough Englishman,* self-styled

King of the ancient, most Holy City,

Where the Muslims are now in control

(What title was ever so fraudulent?),

Disporting amid his northern snows

With a new brand of the faith, as against

Christ’s people he directs his stratagem

Instead of winning back Jerusalem.

6 While an infidel monarch occupies

The earthly city of Jerusalem,

He violates the most sacred law

Of the Jerusalem in the heavens.

And what of you, unworthy Gaul?*

You took the name ‘most Christian’

Not to defend and cherish and enjoy it

But to rise up against and destroy it!

7 You lay claim to other Christian lands

As if your own were not enough,

So why not to Barbary and Egypt

Historic enemies of the sacred name?

The sword’s razor edge should be tested

On whoever rejects earth’s corner-stone.

Are you Charles’s heir? and Louis’s? You degrade

Their name and land, denying their crusade?

8 And what of those who, in luxury

And the indolence which partners it,

Waste their lives pursuing wealth,

Forgetful of their ancestors’ valour?

Then tyranny gives birth to feuding

As a brave people turns against itself.

It is you I have in mind, Italy,

Enslaved by vice, your own worst enemy!

9 Wretched Christians! Are you sprung

From the dragon’s teeth* sowed by Cadmus,

That you deal murder one to the other

When all are sprung from the same womb?

Do you not see the Holy Sepulchre

Occupied by dogs who now encroach

With one accord against your own terrain,

Their credit soaring with each new campaign?

10 You see how, by practice and requirement

Which they follow to the last degree,

They keep their restless army united

By fighting the followers of Christ.

But with you, the Furies never cease

Sowing the hateful tares of discord.

What safety lies in such a stratagem

—To have two enemies, yourselves and them?

11 If it is greed for vast dominions

Sends you conquering lands not your own,

Have you forgotten the Pactolus and Hermus

With their gold-bearing sands?

In Lydia* they weave with threads of gold;

Africa buries it in shining seams;

Perhaps dreams of such riches will spur you

If the Holy Sepulchre cannot stir you.

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