The Nereids Cut the Sea
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Já na água erguendo vão, com grande pressa, Com as argênteas caudas branca escuma; Doto co'o peito corta e atravessa Com mais furor o mar do que costuma. Salta Nise, Nerine se arremessa Por cima da água crespa, em força suma. Abrem caminho as ondas encurvadas De temor das Nereidas apressadas.
Already they go, in great haste, raising white foam from the water with their silver tails; Doto cuts and crosses it with her breast, driving through the sea with more fury than it is wont to move. Nise leaps, Nerine flings herself over the ruffled water with all her strength. The arching waves open a path before them, out of fear of the hurrying Nereids.
Venus has sent her sea-deities to speed Gama's fleet. Here the Nereids and sea-nymphs surge through the waves, driving the ships onward faster than the water itself would move.
The stanza is pure motion. Camões names three sea-nymphs and lets verbs carry them: they raise foam, cut, cross, leap, and fling themselves through the water. It is a set-piece of the sea coming alive to help Gama, the ocean itself parting to let his ships run.
The detail a first reader skips is the last line's logic. The waves open not out of reverence but out of fear (temor) of the Nereids rushing at them. Camões inverts the usual epic image: instead of the sea threatening sailors, the sea-goddesses now frighten the sea into obedience. It is Venus's power made visible, the water bullied into clearing a road.
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