Frasi di Luís de Camões

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Luís de Camões

Data di nascita: 1524
Data di morte: 10. Giugno 1580

Luís Vaz de Camões è considerato il principale poeta portoghese. Per la sua padronanza della poesia, è stato paragonato ad Omero, Virgilio, Dante e Shakespeare. Il suo lavoro più noto è il poema epico Os Lusíadas.

Frasi Luís de Camões

„È un foco Amor, che ascoso tien l'ardore; | è ferita, che punge, e non si sente; | è un piacer, che tien l'alme discontente; | è acerbo duol, di cui non si ha dolore: || è un non voler, chè cio che vuole Amore; | è un andar solitario tra la gente; | è un godere con voglie non mai spente; | è un credersi felice ove si more: || è un suggettarsi i vincitori a i vinti; | è uno stare in prigion, perchè si vuole; | è un esser fidi a chi ci brama estinti. || Come mai de l'Amor si grande amico | è il core uman, chè senza lui si duole, | se Amore de gli amanti è si nemico?“

— Luís de Camões

da Descrizion dell'Amore
Origine: Riportata in Gianfrancesco Masdeu, Poesie di ventidue autori spagnuoli del Cinquecento http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Itlq5n6MbzAC&printsec=frontcover&hl=pt-PT#v=onepage&q&f=false, Tomo II (1786), p. 473.

Sull'amore, Sul piacere, Sul dolore

„The more I pay you, the more I owe.“

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— Luís de Camões

Quoted by Elizabeth Bishop in the dedication of Questions of Travel (1965) to Lota de Macedo Soares, her Brazilian lover.
Lyric poetry, Não pode tirar-me as esperanças, Quem vê, Senhora, claro e manifesto
Contesto: Since it gives me so much bliss
to give you everything I can
The more I pay you, the more I owe.

„O glory of commanding! O vain thirst
Of that same empty nothing we call fame!“

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— Luís de Camões

Stanzas 94–95 (tr. Richard Fanshawe); the Old Man of Restelo.
Epic poetry, Os Lusíadas (1572), Canto IV
Contesto: But an old man of venerable look
(Standing upon the shore amongst the crowds)
His eyes fixed upon us (on ship-board), shook
His head three times, overcast with sorrow's clouds:
And (straining his voice more, than well could brook
His aged lungs: it rattled in our shrouds)
Out of a science, practice did attest,
Let fly these words from an oraculous breast:O glory of commanding! O vain thirst
Of that same empty nothing we call fame!

„Go, gentle spirit! now supremely blest“

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— Luís de Camões

(anonymous translation)
Meek spirit, who so early didst depart,
Thou art at rest in Heaven! I linger here,
And feed the lonely anguish of my heart;
Thinking of all that made existence dear.
(tr. Robert Southey)
My gentle spirit! thou who hast departed
So early, of this life in discontent,
Rest thou there ever, in Heaven's firmament,
While I live here on earth all broken-hearted.
tr. John James Aubertin, in Seventy Sonnets of Camoens (1881), p. 17
Dear gentle soul, you that departed
this life so soon and reluctantly,
rest in heaven eternally
while I remain here, broken-hearted.
tr. Langed White, in The Collected Lyric Poems of Luis de Camoes (2016), p. 357
Lyric poetry, Não pode tirar-me as esperanças, Alma Minha Gentil, que te Partiste
Contesto: Go, gentle spirit! now supremely blest,
From scenes of pain and struggling virtue go:
From thy immortal seat of heavenly rest
Behold us lingering in a world of woe!

„Love is a fire that burns unseen“

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— Luís de Camões, libro Rhythmas de Lvis de Camoes

Rimas, Sonnet 81 (as translated by Richard Zenith)

Lyric poetry, Não pode tirar-me as esperanças, Amor é fogo que arde sem se ver
Contesto: Love is a fire that burns unseen,
A wound that aches yet isn't felt,
An always discontent contentment,
A pain that rages without hurting,A longing for nothing but to long,
A loneliness in the midst of people,
A never feeling pleased when pleased,
A passion that gains when lost in thought.It's being enslaved of your own free will;
It's counting your defeat a victory;
It's staying loyal to your killer.But if it's so self-contradictory,
How can Love, when Love chooses,
Bring human hearts into sympathy?

„I spoke, when rising through the darkened air,
Appalled, we saw a hideous phantom glare“

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— Luís de Camões

Stanzas 39–40 (tr. William Julius Mickle); description of Adamastor, the "Spirit of the Cape".
Epic poetry, Os Lusíadas (1572), Canto V
Contesto: I spoke, when rising through the darkened air,
Appalled, we saw a hideous phantom glare;
High and enormous over the flood he towered,
And thwart our way with sullen aspect lowered.
An earthy paleness over his cheeks was spread,
Erect uprose his hairs of withered red;
Writhing to speak, his sable lips disclose,
Sharp and disjoined, his gnashing teeth's blue rows;
His haggard beard flowed quivering on the wind,
Revenge and horror in his mien combined;
His clouded front, by withering lightnings scared,
The inward anguish of his soul declared.
His red eyes, glowing from their dusky caves,
Shot livid fires: far echoing over the waves
His voice resounded, as the caverned shore
With hollow groan repeats the tempest's roar.
Cold gliding horrors thrilled each hero's breast,
Our bristling hair and tottering knees confessed
Wild dread, the while with visage ghastly wan,
His black lips trembling, thus the fiend began...

„The lover becomes the thing he loves“

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— Luís de Camões

Lyric poetry, Não pode tirar-me as esperanças, Transforma-se o amador na cousa amada
Contesto: The lover becomes the thing he loves
By virtue of much imagining;
Since what I long for is already in me,
The act of longing should be enough.

„Better deserve them, and to go without;
Than have them undeserved“

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— Luís de Camões

Stanza 93, lines 5–8 (tr. Richard Fanshawe)
Epic poetry, Os Lusíadas (1572), Canto IX
Contesto: For these vain honours, this false gold, give price
(Unless he have it in himself) to none,
Better deserve them, and to go without;
Than have them undeserved, without doubt.

„For, though in science much contained be,
In special cases practice more doth see.“

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— Luís de Camões

Stanza 152 (tr. Richard Fanshawe); the poet advising King Sebastian of Portugal, then eighteen years of age.
Epic poetry, Os Lusíadas (1572), Canto X
Contesto: Great Sir, let never the astonished Gall
The English, German, and Italian,
Have cause to say, the fainting Portugal
Could not advance the great work he began.
Let your advisers be experienced all,
Such as have seen the world, and studied man.
For, though in science much contained be,
In special cases practice more doth see.

„Time changes, and our desires change.“

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— Luís de Camões

Selected Sonnets: A Bilingual Edition (2008), ed. William Baer, p. 70
Lyric poetry, Não pode tirar-me as esperanças, Mudam-se os tempos, mudam-se as vontades
Contesto: Time changes, and our desires change. What we
believe—even what we are—is ever-
changing. The world is change, which forever
takes on new qualities.

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„A sad event and worthy of Memory,
Who draws forth men from their (closed) sepulchres,
Befell that piteous maid, and pitiful
Who, after she was dead was (crowned) queen.“

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— Luís de Camões

O caso triste, e dino da memória,
Que do sepulcro os homens desenterra,
Aconteceu da mísera e mesquinha
Que depois de ser morta foi Rainha.

Stanza 118, lines 5–8 (tr. Ezra Pound); of Inês de Castro.
Epic poetry, Os Lusíadas (1572), Canto III

„You saw, with what unheard of insolence
The highest heavens they did invade of yore:
You saw, how (against reason, against sense)
They did invade the sea with sail and oar:
Actions so proud, so daring, so immense,
You saw; and we see daily more, and more:
That in few years (I fear) of heaven and sea,
Men, will be called gods; and but men, we.“

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— Luís de Camões

Vistes que, com grandíssima ousadia,
Foram já cometer o Céu supremo;
Vistes aquela insana fantasia
De tentarem o mar com vela e remo;
Vistes, e ainda vemos cada dia,
Soberbas e insolências tais, que temo
Que do Mar e do Céu, em poucos anos,
Venham Deuses a ser, e nós, humanos.
Stanza 29 (tr. Richard Fanshawe); council of the sea gods.
Epic poetry, Os Lusíadas (1572), Canto VI

„Who has seen on so small a theatre as my poor bed, such a representation of the disappointments of fortune? And I, as if she could not herself subdue me, I have yielded and become of her party; for it were wild audacity to hope to surmount such accumulated evils.“

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— Luís de Camões

Quem ouviu dizer que em tão pequeno teatro como o de um pobre leito, quizesse a fortuna representar tão grandes desventuras? E eu, como se elas não bastassem, me ponho ainda da sua parte; porque procurar resistir a tantos males pareceria espécie de desavergonhamento.
Letter "written a little before his death", as quoted in The Lusiad; Or, The Discovery of India: An Epic Poem (1776) by William Julius Mickle, p. cxvi
Letters

„That sad and joyful dawn,
light full of pity and grief,
while the world wakes in loneliness
I'll praise it and remember it.“

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— Luís de Camões

Aquela triste e leda madrugada,
Cheia toda de mágoa e de piedade,
Enquanto houver no mundo saudade,
Quero que seja sempre celebrada.
tr. David Wevill
Lyric poetry, Não pode tirar-me as esperanças, Aquela triste e leda madrugada

„How sweet is praise, and justly purchased glory,
By one's own actions, when to Heaven they soar!
Each nobler soul will strain, to have his story,
Match, if not darken, all that went before.
Envy of other's fame, not transitory,
Screws up illustrious actions more, and more.
Such, as contend in honorable deeds,
The spur of high applause incites their speeds.“

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— Luís de Camões

Quão doce é o louvor e a justa glória
Dos próprios feitos, quando são soados!
Qualquer nobre trabalha que em memória
Vença ou iguale os grandes já passados.
As invejas da ilustre e alheia história
Fazem mil vezes feitos sublimados.
Quem valerosas obras exercita,
Louvor alheio muito o esperta e incita.
Stanza 92 (tr. Richard Fanshawe)
Epic poetry, Os Lusíadas (1572), Canto V

„[But] to sing of your face, a composition
in itself sublime and marvelous,
I lack knowledge, Lady, and wit and art.“

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— Luís de Camões

Porém, pera cantar de vosso gesto
A composição alta e milagrosa
Aqui falta saber, engenho e arte.
The Collected Lyric Poems of Luis de Camoes (2016), trans. Landeg White, p. 25
Lyric poetry, Sonnets, Eu cantarei de amor tão docemente

„Ever in this world saw I
Good men suffer grave torments,
But even more—
Enough to terrify—
Men who live out evil lives
Reveling in pleasure and in content.“

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— Luís de Camões

Os bons vi sempre passar
No mundo graves tormentos;
E para mais me espantar,
Os maus vi sempre nadar
Em mar de contentamentos.
"Esparsa ao Desconcerto do Mundo", translation from Luís de Camões and the Epic of the Lusiads (1962) by Henry Hersch Hart, p. 111
Lyric poetry, Songs (redondilhas)

„The last words which I uttered on board of the vessel were those of Scipio—'Ungrateful country! thou shalt not even possess my bones'.“

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— Luís de Camões

As derradeiras palavras que na náu disse foram as de Scipião Africano: Ingrata patria, non possidebis ossa mea!
Letter written from India (1553) to a friend at Lisbon, as quoted in Poems, from the Portuguese of Luis de Camoens (1808) by Percy Smythe, pp. 16–17
Letters

„To be a lion among sheep, 'tis poor.“

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— Luís de Camões

É fraqueza entre ovelhas ser leão.
Stanza 68, line 8 (tr. Richard Fanshawe)
Epic poetry, Os Lusíadas (1572), Canto I

„p>To this old song:
Partridge lost his quill,
there's no harm won't befall him.Partridge, whose winged fancy
aspired to a high estate,
lost a feather in his flight
and won the pen of despondency.
He finds in the breeze no buoyancy
for his pennants to haul him:
there's no harm won't befall him.He wished to soar to a high tower
but found his plumage clipped,
and, observing himself plucked,
pines away in despair.
If he cries out for succor,
stoke the fire to forestall him:
there's no harm won't befall him.</p“

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— Luís de Camões

Perdigão perdeu a pena
Não há mal que lhe não venha.Perdigão que o pensamento
Subiu a um alto lugar,
Perde a pena do voar,
Ganha a pena do tormento.
Não tem no ar nem no vento
Asas com que se sustenha:
Não há mal que lhe não venha.Quis voar a üa alta torre,
Mas achou-se desasado;
E, vendo-se depenado,
De puro penado morre.
Se a queixumes se socorre,
Lança no fogo mais lenha:
Não há mal que lhe não venha.
"Perdigão que o pensamento", tr. Landeg White in The Collected Lyric Poems of Luis de Camoes (2016), p. 251
Listen to the poem in Portuguese https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P4_2W-ZwV8&feature=youtu.be&t=10m31s
Lyric poetry, Songs (redondilhas)