This revised and updated bilingual edition of Sonnets and Other Poems offers a cross-section of lyric poetry by Portugal's Luís de Camões, author of The Lusiads (1572), the great Renaissance epic memoralizing Vasco da Gama's inaugural voyage to India (1497-99). A selection of forty sonnets is followed by poems using other metrical patterns and rhyme schemes, including terza rima, ottava rima, the sestina, the canzone, and the redondilha, a verse form typical of Portuguese poetry. Richard Zenith's fluid renditions, far from attempting to "update" Camões, closely adhere to the original text, employing modern English but resisting the temptation to expand on the relatively small and simple lexicon of the Portuguese. Along with discussing his method of translation, Zenith's illuminating introduction shows how Camões's life and work were intimately entwined.

LUÍS DE CAMÕES (1524?–1580) lived a life full of love and adventure on three continents. His experiences are vividly woven into his poetry,which drew its formal inspiration from Virgil, Ovid, Petrarch and other poets, both classical and modern. A conceptualizing artist, Camões's extraordinary ability to forge his thought and experience into verses at once crystalline and compelling accounts for his status as one of the foremost poets in the European tradition. While The Lusiads (1572), his epic poem celebrating Portugal's maritime exploits, brought him immediate and enduring renown (there are more than fifteen translations of the work into English), his equally splendorous lyric poetry may hold more appeal for today's reader. 

RICHARD ZENITH, a long-time resident of Portugal, has won prizes from the PEN Club and the Academy of American Poets for his translations from the poetry of Portugal's Fernando Pessoa and Brazil's João Cabral de Melo Neto. He has published his own poetry in reviews, a book of short stories titled Terceiras Pessoas, and numerous essays.

1. A Poet on the Edge Richard Zenith

Sonnets

24. Enquanto quis Fortuna que tivesse
25. As long as Fortune wanted me

26. Eu cantarei de amor t.o docemente
27. So sweetly will I sing of love

28. Amor é um fogo que arde sem se ver
29. Love is a fire that burns unseen

30. Tanto de meu estado me acho incerto
31. The state I’m in is so unsteady

32. Transforma-se o amador na cousa amada
33. The lover becomes the thing he loves

34. Um mover d’olhos, brando e piadoso
35. Eyes that flash with gentle pity

36. Pois meus olhos n.o cansam de chorar
37. Since my eyes don’t tire of weeping

38. Erros meus, m. fortuna, amor ardente
39. My errors, cruel fortune and ardent love

40. Oh! como se me alonga, de ano em ano
41. Oh how long, year after year

42. No mundo poucos anos, e cansados
43. Few and wearisome years I lived

44. Correm turvas as .guas deste rio
45. Cloudy waters flow in this river

46. O tempo acaba o ano, o m.s e a hora
47. Time swallows the year, the month, the hour

48. Busque Amor novas artes, novo engenho
49. Let Love devise new ways, new wiles

50. Alegres campos, verdes arvoredos
51. O happy fields and green woods

52. Sete anos de pastor Jacob Servia
53. For seven years as a shepherd Jacob

54. Alma minha gentil, que te partiste
55. O most gentle soul who left

56. Males, que contra mim vos conjurastes
57. Afflictions that conspired against me

58. Mudam-se os tempos, mudam-se as vontades
59. Times change, desires change

60. Por sua Ninfa, C.falo deixava
61. Although she ushers in the day

62. Ditoso seja aquele que somente
63. Happy the man who only complains

64. Em pris.es baixas fui um tempo atado
65. Bound for a time in deep prisons

66. Que poderei do mundo j. querer?
67. What can I want from the world now?

68. Despois que quis Amor que eu só passasse
69. After Love made me suffer, alone

70. O raio cristalino s’estendia
71. The crystalline ray of dappled Dawn

72. Com grandes esperanças já cantei
73. Once I sang with hopes so strong

74. Eu cantei já, e agora vou chorando
75. I used to sing and now I weep

76. No tempo que de Amor viver soía
77. Back in the days when I lived for Love

78. Verdade, Amor, Razão, Merecimento
79. Truth, Love, Reason and Virtue

80. Na ribeira do Eufrates assentado,
81. Sitting beside the Euphrates River

82. Cá nesta Babilónia donde mana
83. Here in this Babylon flowing with gold

84. Doces lembranças da passada glória
85. O sweet memories of my past glory

86. Quando de minhas mágoas a comprida
87. When endless dwelling on my sorrows

88. Lembranças que lembrais meu bem passado
89. O memories that deepen my present sorrow

90. —Como fizeste, Pórcia, tal ferida?
91. “How did you suffer such injury, Portia?”

92. Aquela triste e leda madrugada
93. Oh let that sad and joyful dawn

94. Aqueles claros olhos que, chorando
95. Those pale eyes that kept on crying

96. Dai-me ũa lei, Senhora, de querer-vos
97. Grant me a law of having to love you

98. Quem vê, Senhora, claro e manifesto
99. Whoever, Lady, sees plain and clear

100. Dizei, Senhora, da Beleza ideia
101. Give me, Lady, an idea of Beauty

102. O céu, a terra, o vento sossegado
103. The sky, the earth, the wind blowing softly

Other Poems

Songs

106. Descalça vai para a fonte
107. Walking barefoot through the grass

108. Quem disser que a barca pende
109. If someone tells you my boat lists

110. Aquela cativa
111. That lovely slave

Ode

114. Pode um desejo imenso
115. A fierce desire can rage

Sestina

122. Foge-me pouco a pouco a curta vida
123. I’m slowly losing this short life

Elegy

126. O Poeta Simónides, falando
127. The Poet Simonides, talking

Canzones

142. Já roxa manh. Clara
143. The bright red dawn

148. Junto de um seco, fero e est.ril monte
149. By a dry, wild and barren mountain

156. Manda-me Amor que cante docemente
157. Love urges me to sweetly sing

164. Vinde c., meu t.o certo secret.rio
165. Come here, my faithful confidant

Song

180. Sôbolos rios que vão
181. By the rivers that flow

Poem in Octaves

206. Quem pode ser no mundo tão quieto
207. Who in this world can be so calm

223. Notes to the Poems