## THE LUSIADS

*(Excerpt from the opening)*

### CANTO I

**1**

I shall sing of the courage and the struggles
of noble heroes who, from the West
and the shores of Portugal,
crossing seas never sailed before,
passed beyond Taprobane.
Through dangers and through wars,
showing a courage greater
than human strength could promise,
among distant and unknown peoples
they founded a new and glorious kingdom.

**2**

I shall praise the heroic virtues
of those rulers
who conquered infidel lands
in Asia and Africa
and, upon the ruins of paganism,
established kingdoms of the faith.
I shall celebrate those warriors
whose courage made them immortal.
And if art and inspiration assist me,
their fame shall spread throughout the world.

**3**

Let no more be said
of the celebrated wanderings
of the cunning Ulysses
or the pious Aeneas.
Let the hundred-tongued goddess cease
to proclaim the victories of Alexander
and Trajan.
I sing instead of the sons of Lusus,
whom only Mars and Neptune
could surpass.
Heroes of Virgil and Homer,
listen to their deeds:
they exceed those of your own heroes.

**4**

And you who have kindled
my imagination with renewed zeal,
Nymphs of the Tagus,
if you were my first loves,
if I once sang upon your enchanting banks,
grant my voice a loftier tone.
Give to my verses a harmony
so radiant and so pure
that the god of Pindus
may abandon, for the sake of our own waters,
the springs of Hippocrene.