Product Description

First published in 1572, The Lusiads is one of the greatest epic poems of the Renaissance, immortalizing Portugal's voyages of discovery with an unrivalled freshness of observation. At the centre of The Lusiads is Vasco da Gama's pioneer voyage via southern Africa to India in 1497-98. The first European artist to cross the equator, Camoes's narrative reflects the novelty and fascination of that original encounter with Africa, India and the Far East. The poem's twin symbols are the Cross and the Astrolabe, and its celebration of a turning point in mankind's knowledge of the world unites the old map of the heavens with the newly discovered terrain on earth. Yet it speaks powerfully, too, of the precariousness of power, and of the rise and decline of nationhood, threatened not only from without by enemies, but from within by loss of integrity and vision. The first translation of The Lusiads for almost half a century, this new edition is complemented by an illuminating introduction and extensive notes.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #553258 in Books
• Published on: 2001-02-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
"Arms are my theme, and those matchless heroes Who from Portugal's far western shoresBy oceans where none had ventured Voyaged to Taprobana and beyond."

So begins Landeg White's excellent new translation of one of the greatest epic poems of the Renaissance, Camoens' The Lusiads, which tells the story of the creation of the Portuguese Empire through the feats of one of its greatest voyagers, Vasco da Gama, as he recounts his voyage to India in 1497.

As its opening lines suggest, Camoens' poem drew on the classical heritage of Homer and Virgil in fashioning a poem of national and imperial identity. The geographical scope of the poem is truly epic as it surpasses its classical forebears, taking in West Africa, the Cape of Good Hope, the Indian Ocean and the Far East, and culminating in Camoens' extraordinary global vision of the world in Canto 10. Yet as White points out in his excellent introduction, the tone of the poem is also deeply elegiac; published in 1572, the poem is written at the point of the waning of the Portuguese Empire to which Camoens' was so passionately committed.

White's translation should be complimented for rescuing the poem from the indifferent prose version of William Atkinson's 1952 translation. In retaining the power of Camoens' octavos, White avoids always rhyming his couplets, which prevents the sense of lines becoming mangled. This is a fine translation, which provides a new and accessible version of the epic of Portuguese nationhood. --Jerry Brotton

About the Author
Landeg White is Former Director, Centre for Southern African Studies, University of York and former editor of Journal of Southern African Studies (OUP); published poet and author of works on colonialism, Apartheid and African poetry. His latest book is Bridging the Zambezi: a Colonial Folly (Macmillan 1993)

Customer Reviews

Great epic poetry
This is a great piece of epic poetry. I sat down with it one day and didn't put it down for two weeks. You've got to love eavesdropping on the conversations between Venus and Zeus as she puts in a good word for the portuguese mariners. However I am not familiar with this translation. I've only read it in the original Portuguese, which is the way to go, but I won't blame if you don't want to put in the extra effort of learning a new language before reading this poem....This is not a narrative of Camões' travels, but rather a historical fiction of the travels of Vasco da Gama.

Holiday reading for Portugal
I took this as holiday reading to Portugal. Epic poetry is not everyone's cup of tea, but if you enjoy Homer's Odyssey or Virgil's Aeneid, you'll like this. At only ten "cantos" long this was shorter to read than them, especially as the translation seeks to recapture the natural language and "readability" of the original.

Classical gods, nymphs and a giant mixed in with what was the historical voyage of Vasco de Gama in the fifteenth century sounds like a weird hybrid. But Camoes really does pull it off!

The gods embellish the story, but any intervention of theirs can be accounted for in other ways (the weather, for example). It becomes a more exciting way of describing what happened historically. The giant Adamastor symbolizes the dangers in rounding the Cape.

There are some heavy going bits (for example, the stories of each Viceroy at the start of Canto Ten). But there's battles and there's erotica. There's the adventure of new discovery. The excitement of the new knowledge and the new age really does come across.

The Elizabethan Edmund Spencer was writing "The Fairy Queen" at around the same time as Camoes. If you've ever had to study that, let me tell you that this is far more real and far less moralistic. Genuinely a good sailor's yarn, well written. Within the classical structure sounds the authentic voice of first hand experience.

Portuguese pride and glory at it's very best
This is probably the most classical book you can get from Portugal. Camões traveled in the 16th century through many continents and here he recounts all his adventures in verse. It is an amazing book that every Portuguese peson has studied or at the very least knows about. Camões incarnates the very soul of Portuguese pride. Genial book if you care to understand any of the above.