The Barren Coast of Aden
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Olha o monte Sinai, que se ennobrece Co sepulcro de Santa Caterina; Olha Toro e Gidá, que lhe falece Água das fontes, doce e cristalina; Olha as portas do Estreito, que fenece No reino da seca Ádem, que confina Com a serra d'Arzira, pedra viva, Onde chuva dos céus se não deriva.
Look at Mount Sinai, ennobled by the tomb of Saint Catherine; look at Tor and Jeddah, which lack sweet, crystalline spring water; look at the gates of the Strait, which end in the kingdom of parched Aden, that borders the range of Arzira, bare living rock, where no rain from the heavens ever falls.
Still on the Isle of Love, the sea-nymph Tethys shows Gama a map of the world's coasts. Here she traces the Red Sea and the Arabian shore around Aden, a land so dry no rain ever falls on it.
Tethys is running her finger down the Arabian coast for Gama, naming the ports of the Red Sea and its mouth. The stanza is a gazetteer set to verse: Sinai crowned by St. Catherine's monastery, then Tor and Jeddah, then the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb narrowing down to Aden. The repeated "Olha" (look) is the map-tour rhythm that runs through this whole passage of Canto 10, where the goddess previews the empire Portugal will touch.
What a first reader misses is that every place here is defined by its thirst. Tor and Jeddah lack fresh water, Aden is "seca," and Arzira is "pedra viva" where rain never comes. Camões is not just labeling the coast; he is warning what kind of world lies past the goal of the voyage. The prize the Portuguese sailed toward is a shore of naked stone and dry ports, a sober counterweight to the lush Isle of Love where Tethys is speaking.
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