Galatea and the South Wind
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Assim mesmo a formosa Galateia Dizia ao fero Noto, que bem sabe Que dias há que em vê-la se recreia, E bem crê que com ele tudo acabe. Não sabe o bravo tanto bem se o creia, Que o coração no peito lhe não cabe, De contente de ver que a dama o manda, Pouco cuida que faz, se logo abranda.
In just this way the beautiful Galatea was speaking to fierce Notus, who knows very well that for days now he has taken his pleasure in watching her, and firmly believes that with him the whole thing will be settled. The wild one cannot take in so much good fortune enough to believe it: his heart will not fit inside his chest, he is so glad to see that the lady is giving him orders. He reckons it a small thing to do, if he slackens at once.
The storm off the Cape is at its worst, and Venus has sent her sea-nymphs to disarm the winds one by one. Here the nymph Galatea works on Noto, the south wind, who has been watching her for days.
This is the second of the nymph-and-wind pairings: while another nymph works on one wind, Galatea talks down Notus, the south wind. The stanza does almost nothing physically — it just reports what the wind knows, believes, and feels. The storm gets stopped by a wind being flattered into obedience.
What a first reader can miss is where the comedy sits. "Dias há que em vê-la se recreia" tells you Notus has been watching Galatea for days without acting; the moment she finally speaks to him, the fact that she is ordering him around reads to him as encouragement, and he obeys instantly, thinking it costs him nothing. Camões is running the storm's end through the psychology of a suitor who mistakes being commanded for being wanted — and the fleet is saved by it.
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