The dwelling of humankind
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Neste centro, pousada dos humanos, Que não somente, ousados, se contentam De sofrerem da terra firme os danos, Mas inda o mar instábil exprimentam, Verás as várias partes, que os insanos Mares dividem, onde se apousentam Várias nações que mandam vários Reis, Vários costumes seus e várias leis.
In this center, the dwelling-place of humankind, who are not content merely, being so daring, to suffer the harms of the solid land, but also try the unstable sea, you will see the various regions divided by the wild seas, where dwell many nations ruled by many kings, each with its own customs and its own laws.
Near the close of the poem, Tethys shows Gama a vision of the globe. She names the Earth itself as the restless home of humans, who are not content with dry land but dare the unstable sea, and points to the many peoples, kings, and laws scattered across it.
This is Tethys narrating the map of the world to Gama, and the stanza sets the stage: the Earth is named not as solid ground but as a "center" and a lodging where restless humans refuse to stay put. Camões frames the whole geography lesson that follows around one human trait, the refusal to be content with dry land, which is the exact impulse that sent the Portuguese onto the ocean.
What a first reader misses is how loaded "instábil" is. The sea is unstable, but so is the ambition that braves it, and the repeated "vários" that closes the stanza, various parts, kings, customs, laws, quietly measures the smallness of any one nation against the crowded, divided globe. The daring that the poem praises is also the daring that scatters humankind into all these separate laws.
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