Fame Spreads the Lusitanian Name
Read the full text in our reader
Consigo a Fama leva, por que diga Do Lusitano o preço grande e raro, Que o nome ilustre a um certo amor obriga E faz, a quem o tem, amado e caro. Desta arte vai fazendo a gente amiga, Co'o rumor famosíssimo, e preclaro. Já Melinde em desejos arde todo De ver da gente forte o gesto e modo.
Fame carries the news along with it, so that it may tell of the Lusitanian's great and rare worth, for the illustrious name compels a certain love and makes whoever holds it beloved and dear. In this way it goes on making the people friendly, with a report most famous and bright. Already Melinde burns entirely with desire to see the strong people's bearing and manner.
Still off the East African coast, the poem shows Fame flying ahead of Gama's fleet, so that by the time the Portuguese reach the port of Melinde (Malindi), the city already burns to see them.
The stanza is a bridge: it moves the fleet toward the friendly port of Melinde by sending an abstraction ahead of it. Fame, personified, flies out first and reports the Portuguese "worth," and that report does practical work, turning strangers into welcomers before a single ship anchors. The logic runs name to love to affection: an illustrious reputation obliges love, and love makes its bearer dear.
What a first reader can miss is how neatly this launders self-praise. Camões wants to celebrate his countrymen without seeming to boast, so he assigns the celebrating to Fame, an independent voice, and lets Melinde's eagerness confirm the verdict. The people are admirable because a famous rumor says so, and the rumor is trustworthy because the people are admirable. It is the same trick Virgil uses when Fama races through Libya in the Aeneid, here bent to the softer job of arranging a warm reception rather than spreading alarm.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Os Lusíadas 2.58 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
You are reading a page of the Os Lusíadas — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Os Lusíadas 2.58 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/lusiadas/2.58/