The King Calls the Council
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Chama o Rei os senhores a conselho, E propõe-lhe as figuras da visão; As palavras lhe diz do santo velho, Que a todos foram grande admiração. Determinam o náutico aparelho, Para que com sublime coração Vá a gente que mandar cortando os mares A buscar novos climas, novos ares.
The King calls his lords to council and lays before them the figures of the vision; he tells them the words of the holy old man, which were a great wonder to them all. They decide on the fitting-out of the fleet, so that the people he sends may go with lofty heart, cutting the seas, to seek new climes and new airs.
The morning after his dream of the two river-gods, King Manuel summons his lords and reports what he saw and heard. The council decides to fit out the fleet that will become Gama's voyage.
The dream ends and the paperwork begins. Manuel repeats what he saw, the council hears it, and the vision turns into a decision: outfit the ships. Camões moves in four lines from a river-god's speech to a procurement order, and the verb that carries the weight is determinam, they determine — a council word, not a prophetic one.
What a first reader can miss is who is missing. The stanza never names Gama. It says a gente que mandar, the people he shall send — a future subjunctive, the tense for what is not yet settled. The voyage is authorized here before its captain exists, which is exactly how the poem wants it: the enterprise is the kingdom's, and the man will be chosen in the next stanza to fit it.
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