The Lusiads

This has been lurking on the shelf for a long time, uniquely orange among the other varicoloured Penguin Classics, so I thought I had better read it in case it was an undiscovered gem in the collection. No. Basically it is a comprehensive and jingoistic history of Portugal, framed loosely in a narrative of the voyage of Vasco da Gama to East Africa and India, and cast as an epic poem in imitation of Virgil's Aeneid.

Atkinson's translation is deeply unpoetic, and very much in the style of old English prose renderings of Virgil, which highlights Camoens' slavish imitation of his classical models, and often becomes faintly ridiculous (As she moved--Cupid waxing sportive unseen--the nipples on her breasts danced). Little of the poetic imagery was interesting or memorable in its own right, though I did like the image of the universe as a miniature globe in the tenth canto. The clash between the Christian-Moslem conflict and the machinations of classical gods are truly bizarre, and culminate in a magnificent speech in which, after giving a lengthy summary of the future history of the Portuguese Empire, the nymph Tethys expounds her own non-existence: We are but creatures of fable, figments of man's blindness and self-deception. Our only use is for the turning of agreeable verses. It is also odd to find the Roman pantheon so far outside their usual territory: I found a curious frisson in reading a line such as From there Mercury continued to Mombasa... The poet's contrivances are so artificial, and his obsessions so driven home, that it became a little wearisome: so many expostulations about how the Portuguese were the greatest nation that history had ever seen (with the sole fault that they paid insufficient attention to their poets!), their king the mightiest potentate of the West, and how each of their military heroes was greater than the last in crushing another thousand Moslem warriors (plus a few Spaniards) into the dust. The nymph resumed her long [sic] story, beginning to sing of Soares de Albergaria, who was to hoist his banner and strike terror all along the shores of the Red sea. "Loathsome Medina will come to fear him, and Mecca and Jidda no less, and the farthest strands of Abyssinia.".

My expectation was, in a way, fulfilled. It was a book worth reading once; but, I would add (like Samuel Johnson on the Giant's Causeway), not a book worth buying in order to read it. I would put it on the "Out" pile, but it is Mrs Bookworm's copy and I am not permitted to unburden the shelves.

MB 9-iv-2013 ( )

The Lusiads was a book I dreaded reading. It's old. And an epic poem. And written by some unheard-of (by me) Portuguese poet. With the right translation, it is a surprisingly quick, delightful read. This translation, by Landeg White, kept the structure of the original poem intact by sacrificing the rhyme scheme. The translator also chose to structure the English translation using the sentence structures of the English Language, rather than the Portuguese. The result is a fluid poem that doesn't feel "old" or "difficult". Camões' tale of Vasco da Gama's 1498 voyage around Africa to India in is a fascinating combination of mythology, history, and literature. The detailed history of Portugal was not boring (and I always find straight-up history books boring). The passages about the Greek gods, including their oblique and overt references to The Aeneid and Metamorphoses are beautiful. I was intrigued by the coincidence of the world of the Greek gods and the Catholicism of the sailors; the gods are portrayed as personally involved in the fate of this voyage while the Portuguese are completely unaware of their involvement. And it ends with a huge love-fest, what can be better?
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Although I gave this book one star, it wasn't for being bad, far from it. I actually like the core of the story and the part that refers to the council of the gods. However, I just can't stand the style in which is written. I feel it's too rigid and exact rather than more free and flowing. A matter of tastes I suppose. ( )

A brilliant and spirited translation! ( )

A ação central da obra é a viagem de Vasco da Gama para a Índia. Dela se serve o poeta para nos oferecer a visão épica de toda a História de Portugal até à sua época, ora sendo ele o narrador, ora transferindo essa tarefa para figuras da viagem. Para outras figuras - as míticas - transfere os discursos que projetam a ação no futuro em forma profética.
O Poema interpreta os anseios dos humanistas numa linha de continuidade das epopeias clássicas, cantando o triunfo do Homem contra as forças da Natureza, e do Homem que "deu novos mundos ao Mundo", iniciando assim um novo período da História.