The Nymphs Are Set to Wait
Read the full text in our reader
Ali quer que as aquáticas donzelas Esperem os fortíssimos barões, Todas as que têm título de belas, Glória dos olhos, dor dos corações, Com danças e coreias, porque nelas Influirá secretas afeições, Para com mais vontade trabalharem De contentar, a quem se afeiçoarem.
There he wills that the water-nymphs should await the mightiest heroes—all those who bear the title of beauties, glory of the eyes and grief of hearts—with dances and choral rounds, because through them he will instill secret affections, so that with greater eagerness they may strive to please the men they come to love.
On the Isle of Love in Canto 9, Cupid arranges the sea-nymphs to greet Gama's sailors as their reward, planting secret desire so the women will strive to please the men.
The stanza sets the stage for the reward that closes Gama's voyage. Cupid arranges the nymphs of the Isle of Love to receive the sailors with dance, and he himself will plant "secret affections" in them so the welcome turns to love. The women are named by what they do to men—"glory of eyes, grief of hearts"—balanced antithesis that treats beauty as a force that both lifts and wounds.
What a first reader slides past is that none of this is spontaneous. The nymphs' desire is engineered by a god, and the stated purpose is that they will "work" (trabalharem) harder to please. The island is Camões' mythological wrapping for an earthly prize, and the machinery is right on the surface: love here is administered, a reward issued to the heroes rather than a meeting of equals. The word coreias (Greek khoreia, choral dancing) marks the classical staging.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Os Lusíadas 9.22 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
You are reading a page of the Os Lusíadas — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Os Lusíadas 9.22 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/lusiadas/9.22/