For when the _Sun_ is in his
_nonage_
yit,
Upon his _morning beauty_ men may gaze;
But let him once up to his _zenith_ git,
He strikes them _blind_ with his _meridian rays_;
So _blind_ will ye be, if ye look not too't,
If ye permit these _cedars_ to take root.
Upon his _morning beauty_ men may gaze;
But let him once up to his _zenith_ git,
He strikes them _blind_ with his _meridian rays_;
So _blind_ will ye be, if ye look not too't,
If ye permit these _cedars_ to take root.
Camoes - Lusiades
It is the sigh of indignation over the unworthy
fate of the unhappy Camoens.
[535] _The ghost-like aspect and the threat'ning look. _--Mohammed, by
some historians described as of a pale livid complexion, and _trux
aspectus et vox terribilis_, of a fierce threatening aspect, voice, and
demeanour.
[536]
_When, softly usher'd by the milky dawn,
The sun first rises. --_
"I deceive myself greatly," says Castera, "if this simile is not the
most noble and the most natural that can be found in any poem. It has
been imitated by the Spanish comedian, the illustrious Lopez de Vega, in
his comedy of Orpheus and Eurydice, act i. sc. 1:--
"_Como mirar puede ser
El sol al amanecer,
I quando se enciende, no. _"
Castera adds a very loose translation of these Spanish lines in French
verse. The literal English is, _As the sun may be beheld at its rising,
but, when illustriously kindled, cannot_. Naked, however, as this is,
the imitation of Camoens is evident. As Castera is so very bold in his
encomium of this fine simile of the sun, it is but justice to add his
translation of it, together with the original Portuguese, and the
translation of Fanshaw. Thus the French translator:--
_Les yeux peuvent soutenir la clarte du soleil naissant, mais lorsqu'il
s'est avance dans sa carriere lumineuse, et que ses rayons repandent les
ardeurs du midi, on tacherait en vain de l'envisager; un prompt
aveuglement serait le prix de cette audace. _
Thus elegantly in the original:--
"Em quanto he fraca a forca desta gente,
Ordena como em tudo se resista,
Porque quando o Sol sahe, facilmente
Se pode nelle por a aguda vista:
Porem despois que sobe claro, & ardente,
Se a agudeza dos olhos o conquista
Tao cega fica, quando ficareis,
Se raizes criar lhe nao tolheis. "
And thus humbled by Fanshaw:--
"_Now_ whilst this people's strength is not yet knit,
Think how ye may resist them by all ways.
For when the _Sun_ is in his _nonage_ yit,
Upon his _morning beauty_ men may gaze;
But let him once up to his _zenith_ git,
He strikes them _blind_ with his _meridian rays_;
So _blind_ will ye be, if ye look not too't,
If ye permit these _cedars_ to take root. "
[537]
_Around him stand,
With haggard looks, the hoary Magi band. --_
The Brahmins, the diviners of India. Ammianus Marcellinus, l. 23, says,
that the Persian Magi derived their knowledge from the Brachmanes of
India. And Arrianus, l. 7, expressly gives the Brahmins the name of
Magi. The Magi of India, says he, told Alexander, on his pretensions to
divinity, that in everything he was like other men, except that he took
less rest, and did more mischief. The Brahmins are never among modern
writers called Magi.
[538] _The hov'ring demon gives the dreadful sign. _--This has an
allusion to the truth of history. Barros relates, that an anger being
brought before the Zamorim, "_Em hum vaso de agua l'he mostrara hunas
naos, que vin ham de muy longe para a India, e que a gente d'ellas seria
total destruicam dos Mouros de aquellas partes. _--In a vessel of water
he showed him some ships which from a great distance came to India, the
people of which would effect the utter subversion of the Moors. " Camoens
has certainly chosen a more poetical method of describing this
divination, a method in the spirit of Virgil; nor in this is he inferior
to his great master. The supernatural flame which seizes on Lavinia
while assisting at the sacrifice alone excepted, every other part of the
augury of Latinus, and his dream in the Albunean forest, whither he went
to consult his ancestor, the god Faunus, in dignity and poetical
colouring, cannot come in comparison with the divination of the Magi,
and the appearance of the demon in the dream of the Moorish priest.
[539] _Th'eternal yoke.
fate of the unhappy Camoens.
[535] _The ghost-like aspect and the threat'ning look. _--Mohammed, by
some historians described as of a pale livid complexion, and _trux
aspectus et vox terribilis_, of a fierce threatening aspect, voice, and
demeanour.
[536]
_When, softly usher'd by the milky dawn,
The sun first rises. --_
"I deceive myself greatly," says Castera, "if this simile is not the
most noble and the most natural that can be found in any poem. It has
been imitated by the Spanish comedian, the illustrious Lopez de Vega, in
his comedy of Orpheus and Eurydice, act i. sc. 1:--
"_Como mirar puede ser
El sol al amanecer,
I quando se enciende, no. _"
Castera adds a very loose translation of these Spanish lines in French
verse. The literal English is, _As the sun may be beheld at its rising,
but, when illustriously kindled, cannot_. Naked, however, as this is,
the imitation of Camoens is evident. As Castera is so very bold in his
encomium of this fine simile of the sun, it is but justice to add his
translation of it, together with the original Portuguese, and the
translation of Fanshaw. Thus the French translator:--
_Les yeux peuvent soutenir la clarte du soleil naissant, mais lorsqu'il
s'est avance dans sa carriere lumineuse, et que ses rayons repandent les
ardeurs du midi, on tacherait en vain de l'envisager; un prompt
aveuglement serait le prix de cette audace. _
Thus elegantly in the original:--
"Em quanto he fraca a forca desta gente,
Ordena como em tudo se resista,
Porque quando o Sol sahe, facilmente
Se pode nelle por a aguda vista:
Porem despois que sobe claro, & ardente,
Se a agudeza dos olhos o conquista
Tao cega fica, quando ficareis,
Se raizes criar lhe nao tolheis. "
And thus humbled by Fanshaw:--
"_Now_ whilst this people's strength is not yet knit,
Think how ye may resist them by all ways.
For when the _Sun_ is in his _nonage_ yit,
Upon his _morning beauty_ men may gaze;
But let him once up to his _zenith_ git,
He strikes them _blind_ with his _meridian rays_;
So _blind_ will ye be, if ye look not too't,
If ye permit these _cedars_ to take root. "
[537]
_Around him stand,
With haggard looks, the hoary Magi band. --_
The Brahmins, the diviners of India. Ammianus Marcellinus, l. 23, says,
that the Persian Magi derived their knowledge from the Brachmanes of
India. And Arrianus, l. 7, expressly gives the Brahmins the name of
Magi. The Magi of India, says he, told Alexander, on his pretensions to
divinity, that in everything he was like other men, except that he took
less rest, and did more mischief. The Brahmins are never among modern
writers called Magi.
[538] _The hov'ring demon gives the dreadful sign. _--This has an
allusion to the truth of history. Barros relates, that an anger being
brought before the Zamorim, "_Em hum vaso de agua l'he mostrara hunas
naos, que vin ham de muy longe para a India, e que a gente d'ellas seria
total destruicam dos Mouros de aquellas partes. _--In a vessel of water
he showed him some ships which from a great distance came to India, the
people of which would effect the utter subversion of the Moors. " Camoens
has certainly chosen a more poetical method of describing this
divination, a method in the spirit of Virgil; nor in this is he inferior
to his great master. The supernatural flame which seizes on Lavinia
while assisting at the sacrifice alone excepted, every other part of the
augury of Latinus, and his dream in the Albunean forest, whither he went
to consult his ancestor, the god Faunus, in dignity and poetical
colouring, cannot come in comparison with the divination of the Magi,
and the appearance of the demon in the dream of the Moorish priest.
[539] _Th'eternal yoke.
