The Almohad Caliph Marches In
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Entrava com toda esta companhia O Miralmomini em Portugal; Treze Reis mouros leva de valia, Entre os quais tem o ceptro imperial; E assim fazendo quanto mal podia, O que em partes podia fazer mal, Dom Sancho vai cercar em Santarém; Porém não lhe sucede muito bem.
The Almohad Caliph was entering Portugal with this whole host; he brings thirteen Moorish kings of standing, and among them he holds the imperial sceptre. And so, doing all the harm he could, and doing harm in whatever places he could, he goes to lay siege to Dom Sancho at Santarém. But it does not turn out very well for him.
The Almohad commander enters Portugal with thirteen vassal Moorish kings and lays siege to King Sancho I at Santarém. It goes badly for him.
The stanza introduces the enemy at full strength and then quietly undercuts him. The Almohad ruler pours into Portugal with a whole army and thirteen tributary kings, wielding an imperial sceptre; Camões lets the numbers pile up so the reversal in the final couplet lands harder. He besieges Sancho I at Santarém and simply fails.
What a first reader misses is the flat, almost dismissive tone of that last line. "Porém não lhe sucede muito bem" is understatement, not epic clash: the great host with its thirteen crowned kings amounts to little. The 1184 siege of Santarém was indeed lifted, and the Caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf died of wounds taken there. Camões withholds the drama on purpose, so the reader feels the invasion deflate rather than be defeated in open battle.
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