'The claws of an executioner'
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Soccorrei-me neste transe afflictivo, por que neste mundo ningem pode valer-me. Livrae-me das garras de um algôz, que ameaça não só a minha vida, como a minha innocencia e honestidade.
Succour me in this afflicting pass, for in this world no one can help me. Deliver me from the claws of an executioner who threatens not only my life, but my innocence and honesty.
Isaura names Leôncio to heaven exactly as she named him to his face: 'algôz', executioner — and now his cruelty wears 'garras', claws, the hands of a beast of prey. The prayer's precision is moral. She distinguishes the two things he threatens: 'a minha vida' and 'a minha innocencia e honestidade' — her life and her chastity — and it is telling which she puts second and defends hardest. She can bear to lose her life; the honour is what she begs heaven to guard. 'Neste mundo ningem pode valer-me' — in this world no one can help me — is the flat truth of her situation, and the whole reason the prayer must go where it goes.
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A Escrava Isaura 9.109 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/escravaisaura/9.109/