A Treacherous Welcome
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E porque está em extremo desejoso De te ver, como cousa nomeada, Te roga que, de nada receoso, Entres a barra, tu com toda armada: E porque do caminho trabalhoso Trarás a gente débil e cansada, Diz que na terra podes reformá-la, Que a natureza obriga a desejá-la.
And because he is exceedingly eager to see you, as one already so renowned, he begs you that, fearing nothing, you cross the harbor bar with your whole fleet; and because from the toilsome voyage you will bring your crew weak and worn, he says that on land you can restore them, for nature itself compels a man to long for such rest.
At Mombasa a messenger from the hostile Muslim king urges Gama to bring his whole fleet across the harbor bar, promising rest for his weary crew. The honeyed invitation is really a trap, set with Bacchus's help.
The stanza is the honeyed message the ruler of Mombasa sends out to Gama's ships. He claims to burn with eagerness to meet the now-famous captain, invites the whole fleet to cross the harbor bar, and promises the exhausted crew rest and refreshment ashore. Every clause is an argument for coming in.
What a first reader misses is that this welcome is a trap. The king, worked on by Bacchus, means to destroy the Portuguese once they are safely inside the bar. The tenderness is the lure: "weak and weary," "restore them," "nature compels one to long for it" all aim straight at the sailors' real exhaustion, which is exactly the lever a betrayer uses. Camões lets us feel the pull of the offer before he shows the knife behind it.
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