The First King to Exile Himself
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Não sofre o peito forte, usado à guerra, Não ter imigo já a quem faça dano; E assim não tendo a quem vencer na terra, Vai cometer as ondas do Oceano. Este é o primeiro Rei que se desterra Da Pátria, por fazer que o Africano Conheça, pelas armas, quanto excede A lei de Cristo à lei de Mafamede.
The strong heart, accustomed to war, cannot bear having no enemy left to harm; and so, with no one on land to conquer, it goes to assail the waves of the Ocean. This is the first King who exiles himself from his homeland, in order to make the African know, by force of arms, how far the law of Christ surpasses the law of Muhammad.
Gama is telling the King of Melinde how King João II's ambition outgrew the Portuguese mainland. With no more enemies to fight on land, the warrior spirit turns toward the sea — and the Atlantic becomes the next battlefield.
This is the stanza that explains why a king would leave. The strong heart is described almost as a medical condition: it cannot tolerate peace, so when the land runs out of enemies it picks a fight with the sea. Camões then narrows that appetite to one man — the first Portuguese king to exile himself from his own country in order to carry the war across the water.
The thing a first reader misses is the word desterra. It does not mean he sailed; it means he unlanded himself, cut himself off from the terra he just ran out of enemies on. Camões is praising a king by using the vocabulary of punishment — exile was a sentence, not a career move. The crusade against Mafamede at the end is the justification offered, arriving after the restlessness has already been named as the real cause.
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