The ships dare the doubtful sea
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Agora vedes bem que, cometendo O duvidoso mar num lenho leve, Por vias nunca usadas, não temendo De Áfrico e Noto a força, a mais se atreve: Que havendo tanto já que as partes vendo Onde o dia é comprido e onde breve, Inclinam seu propósito e porfia A ver os berços onde nasce o dia.
Now you see well that, venturing upon the doubtful sea in a light vessel, by ways never before used, not fearing the force of the southwest and south winds, it dares still more: for, having long since seen the regions where the day is long and where it is short, they bend their purpose and their striving toward seeing the cradles where the day is born.
The angel-like figure (in the poem's mouth) praises the Portuguese who now venture into unknown waters. This stanza sets up the goal of the whole voyage: to reach the East, where the day is born.
The stanza is a piece of praise mounting into an aim. First it lists what the sailors defy: an uncertain sea, untried routes, the named storm-winds Áfrico and Noto. Then it turns those dangers into a springboard with "a mais se atreve" (dares still more), and finally states the goal in a single image, the "berços onde nasce o dia," the cradles where the day is born, meaning the East, India, the sunrise lands.
What a first reader misses is that the winds are not weather but persons. Áfrico and Noto are the classical wind-gods (Latin Africus, Notus), so the crew is defying named divine forces, not just gusts. That personification quietly sets up the whole machinery of the poem, where the voyage is fought over by gods, and it lets Camões measure Portuguese daring against a supernatural opposition rather than mere risk.
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