Luís Vaz de CamõesRecensioni

Los lusiadas es una epopeya en verso escrita por Luís de Camões. Es una obra maestra de la literatura en portugués. Se publicó en 1572, tres años después del regreso del autor de Oriente. Se compone de diez cantos de tamaño variable dividido en octavas reales. Se la considera una de las mejores epopeyas de épica culta del Renacimiento.

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Os Lusíadas é uma obra de poesia épica do escritor português Luís Vaz de Camões, a primeira epopeia portuguesa publicada em versão impressa. Provavelmente iniciada em 1556 e concluída em 1571, foi publicada em Lisboa em 1572 no período literário do Classicismo, ou Renascimento tardio, três anos após o regresso do autor do Oriente, via Moçambique.

It is difficult to understand why anyone would want a text like this for one’s national epic: a pompous imitation of Virgil's Aeneid, itself a dubious piece of imperialist propaganda to begin with. I admittedly am unable to judge the quality of the original Portuguese, but this excellent Dutch verse translation gives enough of an impression of the epic's aggressive xenophobia and violent content, including the unprovoked destruction of African villages by cannon (I.88 ff.), the repeated slaughter of non-Christians, and the crew’s happy engagement in the mass rape of local "nymphs" (IX.219 ff.). The role of the Olympian gods is totally preposterous.

I read this because Slauerhoff romanticized and wrote beautifully about Luís de Camões. And because I have a professional interest in the history of empires. Os Lusíadas is indeed an interesting historical source for the study of early modern globalization, just as the Aeneid is an interesting source for the study of Roman imperial ideology -- but as a work of art it is no longer very enjoyable.

Os Lusíadas é uma obra de poesia épica do escritor português Luís Vaz de Camões, a primeira epopeia portuguesa publicada em versão impressa.

Uma das mais famosas obras de Camões. Dividida em 10 cantos. O autor exalta os bravos feitos dos antigos navegadores lusitanos. Todas as conquistas e glórias dos portugueses estão descritas em sublimes versos que enaltecem Camões como o maior dos clássicos da língua portuguesa.

Enfrentando os perigos do mar e cruzando os limites do mundo conhecido, o capitão Vasco da Gama e sua tripulação empreendem uma viagem que ficaria marcada na história portuguesa. Em sua jornada, os navegantes terão de escapar dos ardis de Baco e da ira dos mouros; para tanto, contarão com o favor de Júpiter e Vênus, bem como da Divina Providência – na epopeia, a fé cristã e a mitologia greco-latina coexistem. Os Lusíadas têm uma importância central na literatura de língua portuguesa: trata-se da obra que consolidou o português moderno e elevou o idioma ao patamar de língua de cultura. Com sua epopeia, Camões consagrou-se como nosso maior poeta. Mais do que sintetizar os anseios de uma nação e de todo um período histórico – glória reservada a poucos –, com “Os Lusíadas”, Camões imortalizou-se como um tesouro português legado à humanidade.

Enfrentando os perigos do mar e cruzando os limites do mundo conhecido, o capitão Vasco da Gama e sua tripulação empreendem uma viagem que ficaria marcada na história portuguesa. Em sua jornada, os navegantes terão de escapar dos ardis de Baco e da ira dos mouros; para tanto, contarão com o favor de Júpiter e Vênus, bem como da Divina Providência – na epopeia, a fé cristã e a mitologia greco-latina coexistem. Os Lusíadas têm uma importância central na literatura de língua portuguesa: trata-se da obra que consolidou o português moderno e elevou o idioma ao patamar de língua de cultura. Com sua epopeia, Camões consagrou-se como nosso maior poeta. Mais do que sintetizar os anseios de uma nação e de todo um período histórico – glória reservada a poucos –, com “Os Lusíadas”, Camões imortalizou-se como um tesouro português legado à humanidade.

Comparecem nesta coletânea mais de meia centena de sonetos de Luis de Camões. Sua leitura revela a outra face do cantor das façanhas lusitanas - a do irremediável namorado, dando voz à glória de amar, que em seus versos imortais suplanta a pena de não ser amado e justifica a vida.

Livro recomendado no programa de português do 8º ano de escolaridade, destinado a leitura orientada na sala de aula.
Os Lusíadas, de Luís de Camões, são magistralmente transformados por João de Barros em prosa fácil e clara sem desvirtuar a beleza, o espírito e a inspiração poéticas da obra original.

I confess to reading this book to round out my collection of national epics. This book is what the Portuguese seem to have. This edition is a prose translation and thus several features of its attraction are missing. Not being literate in either Spanish or Portuguese, I am judging this work with the stated strictures. Frankly, I'm not impressed. This is not Homer or delightfully quirky, as Malory's king Arthur is. If you are looking for an example of a poem that uses Classical tropes and allusions, this is....not bad. In truth however the original de Gama voyage was not, aside from some bad storms, filled with incidents likely to appeal to the literary audience's appetite for exotic detail, skullduggery or sex or violence. Read, it, but with the caveat that there is nothing here to offend anyone except those disliking steady bad-mouthing of Islam. It is shorter than the Iliad.½

«Volto às palavras iniciais: este é o mais fascinante livro da nossa poesia, a suprema festa da língua. E não apenas isso: estão aqui alguns dos raros versos – como dizer? – que participam da respiração do mundo e da pulsação das estrelas. Temos de pensar em nomes máximos, Virgílio, Dante, Shakespeare, S. João da Cruz, para encontrar igual esplendor. Igual, não maior. E não são exageros nacionalistas, que nunca tive, nem creio que venha a ter.» Eugénio de Andrade

O renascimento literário atingiu o ápice em Portugal durante o período conhecido como Classicismo, entre 1527 e 1580. Coube a Camões aperfeiçoar as novas técnicas poéticas e criar, de um lado, poemas líricos que superam de longe a pioneira perfeição formal de Petrarca, de outro o poema épico por excelência, Os Lusíadas, que, imitando Homero e Virgílio, traduz em versos a história do povo português e suas grandes realizações marítimas. Tem por tema central a descoberta do caminho para a Índia por Vasco da Gama, em 1497/99. Para cantar a história do povo português, Camões buscou na antiguidade clássica a forma mais adequada: a epopeia eloquente, desenvolvida na Antiguidade. Publicado em 1572, Os Lusíadas copia a estrutura narrativa da Odisseia de Homero e da Eneida de Virgílio, usando a 'oitava rima' que, inventada por Ariosto, consiste de oito estrofes rimadas sempre da mesma forma: abababcc.½

The Lusiad is an epic poem about Portugal’s Vasco de Gama’s voyage from Portugal, to India. The author was a Portuguese sailor who also fought for Portugal against the moors. The book is an interesting blend of Christian themes and classic Roman mythology.
This was not the easiest read. In order to fully understand and appreciate this poem, I think you need to have a strong understanding of classic mythology and a love of reading history. I have a moderate understanding of classic mythology (having taken some courses in school) but still had to look up multiple references. The edition I read had lots of footnotes (that were more lengthy than the story itself). I also don’t enjoy reading history books so it wasn’t the most engaging read for me. I did enjoy reading the descriptions of the locations and scenery. I think if you enjoy reading history and have a solid foundation in classic mythology you will enjoy this book.

There’s no doubt that this deserves its place on the 1001 books list. There’s no doubt that this is one of history’s greatest works, an epic poem of both literary and historical proportions rightly famed. And there’s no doubt that this is one of the most laborious books I’ve read in a long time.

This is a hagiography of early Portuguese explorers who not only did no wrong, but quite rightly stamped out any wrong they found, installing in its place enlightenment where there was before only darkness. The baddies are very definitely the conquered (although not referred to as such of course), the goodies, are, quite deservedly, the Portuguese.

No mention of genocide or syphilis here. No mention of forced abductions or looting of local resources. This depicts the first tantalising groundswell of world colonisation. Not only was there a divine mandate, the people themselves were in fact divine!

It must be a confusing text for the modern-day Portuguese to read. Much of what was their former empire is still riven with poverty and internal strife (think Madagascar and Mozambique). As my mother lives in the land of Lusitania, I’ve visited it many times. Lovely though much of it is, there is very little there to support the belief these days that they were descended from gods. It displays a far humbler countenance.

I certainly found this work confusing as much of the narrative consists of lengthy speeches by both dwellers of earth and heaven. As with much classical literature, the gods can’t help getting involved. Their speeches are even harder to fathom. Through this, in patches, you get glimpses of the voyages that da Gama undertook. But that’s certainly not easy to follow or the main thrust of the work.

A difficult text and one very much a product of the 16th century when the white man, it seemed, could do no wrong.

Los Lusíadas es el relato del viaje de Vasco de Gama, pionero de la ruta marítima de Portugal a India en 1498. Se compone de diez cantos de tamaño variable dividido en octavas reales. Se la considera una de las mejores epopeyas de épica culta del Renacimiento. El poema comienza cuando ya los navegantes se encuentran en el Océano Índico. A continuación se refieren las aventuras anteriores, desde la desembocadura del Tajo, a lo largo de las Canarias, Cabo Verde, Sierra Leona, el Congo, el extremo de África y la punta oriental de este continente, una travesía marcada por innumerables avatares

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.

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-2013½

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?

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.

Livro interessante para quem se interessa por poesia medieval. A edição da Hedra dessa vez não me agradou. Como a tradução, atribuída a Camões, não é completa, o livro acaba no meio. Seria mais interessante se outro tradutor tivesse terminado o trabalho, marcando devidamente a quebra. Ou mesmo se tivessem deixado o texto original (a edição é bilíngüe até o fim).

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.

Idealised history of Portugal from the beginning up to the Renaissance with special attention to the conquests in Asia. The stages of the author, Ceuta, Goa, and Macao, influenced his work. I read this book, when I was a boy, and still hold the copy, published in Reclam 1881. Portugal then became for me something great like America. In 1968, I visited Portugal the first time, a bit disappointed in my own imaginative overshoot of Camões’s promised land.