The Curious Moor Draws Near
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Mas depois de ser tudo já notado Do generoso Mouro, que pasmava Ouvindo o instrumento inusitado, Que tamanho terror em si mostrava, Mandava estar quieto e ancorado N'água o batel ligeiro que os levava, Por falar de vagar co'o forte Gama, Nas cousas de que tem notícia e fama
But after everything had been noted by the generous Moor, who marveled at hearing the unfamiliar instrument that carried in itself such great terror, he ordered the swift boat that bore them to stay quiet and anchored on the water, so that he might speak at leisure with the mighty Gama about the matters of which he has both news and fame.
At Melinde, after Gama's fleet has escaped the treachery of Mombasa. A generous Moor, marveling at the unfamiliar sound of the Portuguese trumpets, halts his boat so he can speak at leisure with the captain.
The stanza is a pause before conversation. A Moor, struck by the sound of the Portuguese trumpet, tells his rowers to stop, drop anchor, and hold still so he can talk with Gama without hurry. Nothing dramatic happens; the action is a boat being told to wait.
What a first reader misses is where this sits. It comes right after Mombasa, where Moors urged on by Bacchus had schemed to sink the fleet. Here at Melinde the word is generoso, and the Moor's reaction to the trumpet is curiosity, not menace. The terror in the instrument's sound is the awe it inspires, not a threat; Camões is quietly marking the difference between the harbor that plotted and the harbor that welcomes.
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Os Lusíadas 2.107 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/lusiadas/2.107/