The Moor's Hidden Hatred
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Porém disto, que o Mouro aqui notou, E de tudo o que viu com olho atento Um ódio certo na alma lhe ficou, Uma vontade má de pensamento. Nas mostras e no gesto o não mostrou; Mas com risonho e ledo fingimento Tratá-los brandamente determina, Até que mostrar possa o que imagina.
But from this, which the Moor observed here, and from everything he saw with attentive eye, a settled hatred lodged in his soul, an evil will of intent. In his outward looks and in his face he did not reveal it; but with a smiling, cheerful pretense he decides to treat them gently, until he can act on what he is plotting.
At Mozambique the local Muslim official, having watched Gama's fleet closely, conceals a growing hatred behind a friendly mask.
The Moor at Mozambique has been watching the fleet closely, and everything he saw has hardened into a fixed hatred and a malicious resolve. Outwardly he shows none of it: with a smiling, cheerful pretense he decides to treat the Portuguese gently, biding his time until he can act on what he is scheming.
The stanza is built on one hinge, the split between the soul and the face. Camões sets "na alma" (in the soul) against "nas mostras e no gesto" (in the shows and the expression), and it is dissimulation, not open force, that marks the voyage's first real enemy. The friendly mask here is the opening move of the treachery that will shadow Gama on down the African coast.
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