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Luis de
Camões |
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Portugal's greatest
poet, Luis
de Camões (c.1524-1580), wrote near-perfect
sonnets
and
canzones, but is best remembered for Os
Lusíadas
(sons of Lusas, i.e. Portugal). an epic of national
identity. Amorous, quarrelsome and unsuccessful
in any wordly sense, Camões lost an eye in Morocco,
served in India
and was deported from China, struggling back in 1570 to
Lisbon, infirm and penniless. But throughout misfortune
he worked on the manuscript that was to bring a meagre royal
pension and the unreserved love of his countryman. Partly
modeled on Virgil
and Ariosto,
and glorifying the events in Vasca
da Gama's voyages and Portugal's history, Os
Lusíadas provided a vigorous and realistic
narrative by someone who knew the countries
at first
hand.
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Os
Lusíades |
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Os
Lusíadas is a a national epic in ten octava rima cantos. Vasco
da Gama's expedition to India forms its principal subject,
but the heroes are the Portuguese
people. Events real (da
Gama's voyages),
historical (founding of the Portuguese kingdom, battle of
Aljubarrota, death of Inès de Castro) and legendary
(Twelve of England, Island of Love, Lusitanian prophecies)
are interwoven, and the poem also uses classical mythology
and Christian allusion. But the poem is made unforgettable
by the grandeur of conception, the patriotism, the quotable
lines, the erudition, and the author's own reflections on
an eventful
life. |
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Reading the Portuguese |
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Neither Camões
nor Portuguese literature in general is
very well-known to English readers, and the most popular translation
of Os
Lusíadas may still be Sir
Richard Fanshaw's of 1655. More modern translations include
those of Leonard Bacon (1950) and Landeg
White (2001). Also worth reading are verse translations
by W. C. Atkinson (1962) and Keith Bosley (1990), and literary
studies by Alfred Hower and Richard Preto-Rodas (1985) and
by Kurt Levy, Ricardo Sternberg and Laura Bulger (1987). Portuguese
is the second language of Latin America, and can be learned
from books,
tapes,
CDs
and the Internet.
Students of Portuguese literature may find these sites useful:
Portuguese
literature, Instituto
Camões,
Lisbon National Library, Rio
de Janeiro National Library, Projecto
Vercial, University
of Coimbra, Kings
College, Illinois
Library Gateway, PennState
University Library University
of Texas, WESS
and Porto
de Abrigo. |
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