Taking in Sail
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Co'os panos e co'os braços acenavam As gentes Lusitanas, que esperassem; Mas já as proas ligeiras se inclinavam Para que junto às ilhas amainassem. A gente e marinheiros trabalhavam, Como se aqui os trabalhos se acabassem; Tomam velas; amaina-se a verga alta; Da âncora, o mar ferido, em cima salta.
With their cloths and with their arms the Lusitanian people were signaling for the ships to wait; but already the swift prows were leaning in toward the islands, so that they might lower sail close by. The people and the sailors labored, as if here their toils were coming to an end; they take in the sails, the high yard is lowered, and from the anchor the sea, struck, leaps up above.
As the fleet nears the islands off the East African coast, the Portuguese on shore wave cloths and arms to signal it to wait, while the crews eagerly furl sail and drop anchor.
The stanza is pure arrival mechanics. Camões films the fleet coming to rest: the shore-people wave to slow it, the prows tilt toward the islands, and the crews furl sails, lower the yard, and drop anchor. Each half-line is one nautical action, laid down in order, so the eight verses read like a checklist of making port.
What a first reader misses is the ambush hidden in the calm. The men labor "como se aqui os trabalhos se acabassem" — as if their trials were ending here — and the whole point is that they are not. This is Mozambique, and the welcome is a trap: the Muslim governor will soon turn on them. That small conditional, "as if," is Camões quietly telling us the rest is coming while the sailors relax.
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Os Lusíadas 1.48 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/lusiadas/1.48/