Duty Over Desire
Read the full text in our reader
De não sair em terra toda a gente, Por observar a usada preminência, Ainda que me pese estranhamente, Em muito tenho a muita obediência; Mas, se lho o regimento não consente, Nem eu consentirei que a excelência De peitos tão leais em si desfaça, Só porque a meu desejo satisfaça.
As for not letting all my men disembark, so as to observe the customary protocol — though it grieves me exceedingly — I hold their great obedience in high esteem; but if the royal orders do not permit it, neither will I consent that the excellence of hearts so loyal should undo itself, merely to satisfy a desire of my own.
At friendly Melinde, just after Mombasa tried to trap the fleet, Gama explains why he will not let all his men go ashore. He grounds the refusal in his royal orders, not distrust.
Gama has been invited ashore by a friendly king, and here he explains, courteously, why he will keep his men aboard. He casts the refusal as respect for protocol and for his written orders, and he insists that his men's obedience is a thing to be honored, not spent on a passing wish. The tone is deferential; the decision is firm.
What a first reader misses is the timing. This speech comes right after Mombasa tried to lure the fleet into a trap, so the politeness is caution in courtly dress. The load-bearing word is regimento — the royal instructions Gama carries — which he sets deliberately above his own desejo, his desire. He would rather bind himself to the letter of his orders than risk loyal men to satisfy himself. Discipline, not suspicion, is the note he wants heard.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Os Lusíadas 2.87 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 2.87 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/lusiadas/2.87/