The Young Prince's Appetite
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E com esta vitória cobiçoso, Já não descansa o moço até que veja Outro estrago como este, temeroso, No Bárbaro que tem cercado Beja. Não tarda muito o Príncipe ditoso Sem ver o fim daquilo que deseja. Assim estragado o Mouro, na vingança De tantas perdas põe sua esperança.
And, made greedy by this victory, the young man no longer rests until he sees another slaughter like this one, just as dreadful, dealt to the Barbarian who has laid siege to Beja. The blessed Prince does not delay for long without seeing the end of what he longs for. The Moor, routed in this way, pins his hope on vengeance for so many losses.
Canto III, in the roll-call of Portugal's early kings. Fresh from one victory, the young prince craves another rout of the Moor besieging Beja; the beaten Moor, meanwhile, pins his hopes on revenge.
Camões is running through Portugal's early kings, and here the young prince, fresh from one win, is already hungry for the next. The stanza keeps that appetite moving forward: he will not rest, he does not delay, he wants to see the thing finished. Victory does not satisfy him; it sharpens him.
What a first reader can miss is the swivel in the last two lines. Up to here we have watched only the Portuguese momentum, but the closing couplet drops us inside the defeated Moor, who "routed in this way" now stakes everything on revenge. The same event that feeds one side's appetite feeds the other side's grudge, and Camões lets both hungers stand in the same frame without choosing between them.
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