The Twelve Are Outfitted
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" Lá na leal Cidade, donde teve Origem ( como é fama) o nome eterno De Portugal, armar madeiro leve Manda o que tem o leme do governo. Apercebem-se os doze, em tempo breve, De armas, e roupas de uso mais moderno, De elmos, cimeiras, letras, e primores, Cavalos, e concertos de mil cores.
There in the loyal City, from which (so the story goes) the eternal name of Portugal took its origin, the man who holds the helm of government orders a light ship fitted out. In a short time the twelve equip themselves with arms, and with clothes of the newest fashion, with helmets, crests, mottoes and fine devices, horses, and trappings of a thousand colors.
Veloso is telling the crew a story to pass the night watch: twelve Portuguese knights sail to England to answer an insult offered to twelve English ladies. Here King Joao I gives the order and the twelve get ready.
The order comes down and the gear goes on. The loyal City is Porto; the man at the helm is King Joao I, named only by his office; the twelve are the knights sailing to England to fight for the ladies insulted there. Six of the eight lines are a list, and the list is what a reader remembers: helmets, crests, mottoes, horses, a thousand colors.
What is easy to miss is the aside in the parentheses. Porto was Portus Cale, and the country took its name from a harbor — so the sentence that names the nation and the sentence that orders a ship are the same sentence. Camoes lets the pun sit there unremarked while Veloso, telling this on the deck of another ship, keeps talking about crests and colors.
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