Noble Spain, Head of Europe
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Eis aqui se descobre a nobre Espanha, Como cabeça ali de Europa toda, Em cujo senhorio o glória estranha Muitas voltas tem dado a fatal roda; Mas nunca poderá, com força ou manha, A fortuna inquieta pôr-lhe noda, Que lhe não tire o esforço e ousadia Dos belicosos peitos que em si cria.
Behold, here noble Spain reveals herself, standing there like the head of all Europe; in whose dominion strange glory has spun the fatal wheel of Fortune many times. But restless Fortune, for all her force or cunning, will never be able to set a stain upon her that could strip away the valor and daring of the warlike hearts she breeds within herself.
As Gama surveys Europe for the King of Melinde, the tour opens with the Iberian peninsula — 'Spain' in the old, wider sense that includes Portugal — set at the head of the whole continent.
Gama has begun his tour of Europe for the King of Melinde, and he starts at the far west with the Iberian peninsula. He gives it the old, broad name "Espanha" and calls it the head of the continent, then reaches at once for the Wheel of Fortune: strange glory has turned that wheel through many revolutions across the land's history. The whole octave is one long boast wrapped in a single grammatical sentence, and it ends by locating Iberia's strength not in luck but in the fighting spirit of the men it raises.
The thing a first reader misses is that "Espanha" is not the modern country. In Camões' usage it means the entire peninsula, Portugal included — so this praise of Spain is really praise of the poet's own homeland as part of a larger whole. The turn in the second half is the real point: Fortune can spin her wheel and raise or topple kingdoms, but she cannot put a "noda," a stain, on the innate valor bred into these hearts. Camões sets human courage above the classical goddess of chance, and Portugal will be the proof.
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