First the nuts and bolts. The Lusiads (Os Lusiadas) was published in Portuguese in 1572. 'The Lusiads' would be more understandably translated 'The Portuguese'. Lusiads means inhabitants of the Roman region called Lusitania - after the legendary founder Lusus who was a companion of the Roman god Bacchus. It is an epic (long poem where a hero or heroes in a wide-ranging adventure embody representative national characteristics). It would be similar to the Odyssey, El Cid, or Divine Comedy.
The first English translation was in 1655, and multiple translations have ensued. Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton even did a Victorian age translation. This translation is by Landeg White and is my favorite translation.
The story is of the voyage of Vasco da Gama from Portugal to India. This was the beginning of a world-wide Portuguese trade empire and was a seminal world event in mixing Western and Eastern Cultures.
The author was a low-grade officer/noble who lost an eye battling the Moors, and spent most of his life in the East as a bureaucrat and soldier for the Portuguese empire. His first-hand knowledge of the countries described in the epic along with his experiences as a soldier, prisoner, ship-wreck survivor etc. gave him unmatchable insight into his subject.
In the original Portuguese, the book is written in rhyming, eight line paragraphs called 'ottava rima'. Since Portuguese is a Romance language with a few common endings for most words, it is very easy to rhyme. The same is not true of English. Rather than force this translation to rhyme and using odd word orders and odd words to fit the rhyme scheme, White has used a non-rhyming format that only has the last couplet of the eight lines rhyming. This is the perfect compromise and makes reading the
English translation fairly close to reading in the original language.
Now for the specifics. Multiple famous literary figures have praised this book for hundreds of years. Some have even said it is worth learning Portuguese just to read Camoes in the original. The reasons for this are several. First, Camoes tells a good story. This is not a sterile, boring recitation. Second, the described events are adventurous and illuminate history, cultures and human nature.
But most importantly, this book allows the personality of the author to shine through. The best parts, in my opinion, are where the author comments on the happenings, or adds his advice to the Portuguese people and rulers. The last few stanzas of the book show you the feelings of the author when he exclaims,
"No more, Muse, no more, my lyre
Is out of tune and my throat hoarse,
Not from singing but from wasting song
On a deaf and coarsened people.
Those rewards which encourage genius
My country ignores, being given over
To avarice and philistinism,
Heartlessness and degrading pessimism.
I do not know by what twist of fate
It has lost that pride, that zest for life,
Which lifts the spirits unfailingly
And welcomes duty with a smiling face."
It is Camoes that makes this a matchless epic - not the subject and not his poetry. As the Brittanica puts it, "His best poems have the unmistakable note of genuine suffering and deep sincerity of feeling. It is this note that places him far above the other poets of his era.
In short, this is a wonderful work of art that can be profitably revisited over and over. This translation is one of the best and the explanatory text and notes make the reading much easier.
Highly recommended.
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Top reviews from other countries
USAF Veteran
Dynamic epic that speaks to modern-day readers
Reviewed in the United States on 23 March 2006Verified Purchase
James E. Kennedy
The Lusíads (Oxford World's Classics)
Reviewed in the United States on 3 March 2010Verified Purchase
Amazon Customer
Good read
Reviewed in the United States on 1 April 2013Verified Purchase
Luisa
well worth reading
Reviewed in the United States on 17 November 2016Verified Purchase
