Grant My Desire, Nymph
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Põe tu, Ninfa, em efeito meu desejo, Como merece a gente Lusitana; Que veja e saiba o mundo que do Tejo O licor de Aganipe corre e mana. Deixa as flores de Pindo, que já vejo, Banhar-me Apolo na água soberana; Senão direi que tens algum receio, Que se escureça o teu querido Orfeio.
Bring my desire into effect, Nymph, as the Lusitanian people deserve: let the world see and know that from the Tejo runs and wells the liquor of Aganippe. Leave the flowers of Pindus, for already I see Apollo bathing me in the sovereign water; otherwise I will say that you have some fear that your beloved Orpheus be eclipsed.
Still invoking the Tágides (the nymphs of the Tejo), the poet asks them to fulfill his ambition: to prove that Portugal's own river can rival the sacred springs of Greek poetry.
The poet keeps pressing the river-nymph to grant his wish, and the wish is boldly specific: make the world admit that Portugal's Tejo now yields the same poetic water as Aganippe, the Greek Muses' spring on Helicon. He even sees Apollo, god of poetry, bathing him in his own native river rather than in the classical fountains of Mount Pindus.
The sting is in the last two lines, which are a dare. Orpheus, whose song moved stones, was the nymphs' famous darling. Camões tells his nymph: help me, or I will conclude you are afraid that my Portuguese verse will outshine your old favorite. It is flattery turned into a challenge, and it quietly stakes the whole poem's claim that a modern epic in Portuguese can stand beside Greece.
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