The Prize for the Sea's Toil
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E porque das insídias do odioso Baco foram na Índia molestados, E das injúrias sós do mar undoso Puderam mais ser mortos que cansados, No mesmo mar, que sempre temeroso Lhe foi, quero que sejam repousados, Tomando aquele prémio e doce glória Do trabalho, que faz clara a memória.
And because they were harassed in India by the hateful snares of Bacchus, and by the assaults of the billowy sea alone could sooner be killed than merely worn out, in that same sea, which was always dreadful to them, I want them to be given rest, taking that prize and sweet glory of their toil, the glory that makes memory bright.
In canto 9 Venus prepares the Isle of Love. Here she reasons that the mariners, harried by Bacchus in India and battered by the ocean, have earned rest and reward in the very sea that always frightened them.
Venus is doing the arithmetic of reward. She tallies what the sailors have endured — Bacchus's plotting in India, the sea's battering that could kill before it merely tired them — and rules that in the very ocean that always terrified them she will grant repose. This is the setup for the Isle of Love that follows: the pleasure ahead is being framed, in advance, as owed.
The quiet move is in the vocabulary of accounting. "Prémio" (prize) and "trabalho" (toil) turn the coming delights into wages, not indulgence, so Venus can license the erotic episode as justice earned. And the last line points past the island: what really pays the labor is "memória" made "clara" — lasting fame. That is the poem's true currency, the thing Camões is actually offering Portugal.
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