Venus Plans a Divine Island
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Isto bem revolvido, determina De ter-lhe aparelhada, lá no meio Das águas, alguma ínsula divina, Ornada de esmaltado e verde arreio; Que muitas tem no reino, que confina Da mãe primeira com o terreno seio, Afora as que possui soberanas Para dentro das portas Herculanas.
This well pondered, she resolves to have prepared for him, there amid the waters, some divine island, adorned with enameled and green ornament; for she has many in her realm, which borders the earthly bosom of the first mother, besides the sovereign ones she possesses within the Herculean gates.
Her scheme settled, the sea-goddess resolves to raise an island in mid-ocean to reward Gama's weary sailors. The whole octave is one unbroken sentence of divine planning, the prelude to the Ilha dos Amores.
Venus has made up her mind. The octave is a single sentence of divine planning: her scheme settled, she resolves to raise an island in the open sea, dress it in green, and place it in the sailors' path. This is the machinery behind the famous Ilha dos Amores that follows, the reward Camões grants Gama's crew after the whole voyage.
The closing geography does quiet work. The "portas Herculanas" are the Pillars of Hercules, the Straits of Gibraltar, which for the ancients marked the edge of the world. Camões notes that Venus owns islands both inside that old boundary and out in the ocean beyond it, and the throwaway detail marks that Portugal now works past the limit Antiquity set. The "mãe primeira" is the primal earth, from whose bosom the sea is parted.
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Os Lusíadas 9.21 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/lusiadas/9.21/