Cost what it might
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Formei o firme proposito de vel-a e de falar-lhe, custasse o que custasse.
I formed the firm resolve to see her and to speak with her, cost what it might.
The lover's vow — 'custasse o que custasse', cost what it might — is the language of Romantic determination, and it is also, unknowingly, the language of pursuit. Álvaro, the tender suitor, resolves to track down and reach a woman who is doing everything to remain unreachable; his devotion mirrors, in miniature and in innocence, the very hunt Leôncio has launched. Guimarães lets the parallel stand without comment: two men, one loving and one cruel, both bent on finding the same hidden woman. The difference is everything and yet the pressure on Isaura is, in a sense, doubled — even love comes at her as a search she cannot escape.
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