Os Lusiadas

The other day I finished Duolingo's Portuguese "language tree" course.  I felt rather disappointed:  I was hoping it would go on longer.  So what do I do now?  (Duolingo doesn't have a higher-level course.) I found a blog where someone suggested Readlang and Memrise.  I got into Readlang, and read a Portuguese version of Aesop's "The Fox and the Grapes." The problem with that site is that it needs an App made for my Chrome browser, where my ebook Googleplay app hasn't been working. (Actually, it hasn't been working on my regular Firefox browser either.)

Out of curiosity I found Os Lusiadas on the Gutenberg website.  That's Portugal's national epic, written in the 16th century by the one-eyed poet Luis Vaz de Camoes. (There's a bust of him in the Portuguese neighborhood on College Street.) The language wasn't as tough as I feared, considering that this was the age of Shakespeare.  I've even started doing my own translation of it!

The Lusiades is written in iambic pentameter, with each stanza using an ABABABCC rhyming scheme.  I've managed to use a similar scheme, except that I also use ABBAABCC and BAABABCC and such.  Lucky for me the Romance languages tend to be more verbose than English, so you can often say the same thing in English with fewer syllables.  It's easier to pad out a line to fit the same length than to cut it down.

Here's my translation of the first stanzas:

1

I sing of arms, I sing of barons outstanding

Who from Lusitania's western shore

Set out on oceans never sailed before,

Yet beyond Taprobana sailing, landing, [Taprobana: ancient name for Sri Lanka]

Perils grave and many a war withstanding,

Beyond mankind's familar strength to endure,

Among those faraway lands to erect

The New Kingdom so sublime, and protect;

2

And also of the memories sacred, glorious,

Of those successive dauntless sovereigns spreading

The Faith, the Empire, in desperate war victorious,

Africa and Asia's vicious lands left bleeding;

And of those others with their work so valorous

Winning immortality, not conceding;

My song shall spread away through every part,

Should I be blessed now with the skill and art.

3

No longer do the wise Greek and the Trojan

Sail great voyages on the threatening seas;

No more do Alexander and great Trajan

Reap glory from their armies' victories;

I sing of Lusitania on the ocean

Whom even Neptune, even Mars obeys;

The song of the ancient Muse at last ceases

When a new, higher valor in my breast rises.

4

And you, my Tagides, you who created [Tagides:  classical nymph-muses]

In me a new and blazing inspiration,

Your joyful river of odes and declamation

Ever in my humble verse celebrated,

Give me now a high sound, sublimated,

A grandiloquent, flowing style of creation,

Because great Phoebus decrees that your waters [Phoebus:  classical sun god]

Shall be unmatched in Hippocrene's quarters. [Hippocrene:  spring on Mt. Helicon sacred to the Muses]

5

Give me a fury grand and sonorous,

No tones of rustic oats and rude fruit's seeds,

But a tuba singing and bellicose,

Sparking hearts with the sound of daring deeds;

Give me a song that's worthy of your valorous

People, that in honoring Mars succeeds;

Which spreads and sings all through the universe,

If words sublime enough can be fitted to verse.