The Lusï¿1/2ads (Oxford World's Classics) [Paperback]

Luï¿1/2s Vaz de Camï¿1/2es (Author), Landeg White (Translator)

Book Description

Series: Oxford World's Classics | Publication Date: November 14, 2002

1998 is the quincentenary of Vasca da Gama's voyage via southern Africa to India, the voyage celebrated in this new translation of one of the greatest poems of the Renaissance. Portugal's supreme poet Camoes was the first major European artist to cross the equator. The freshness of that original encounter with Africa and India is the very essence of Cam�es's vision. The first translation of The Lusiads for almost half a century, this new edition is complemented by an illuminating introduction and extensive notes.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Portugese --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Landeg White is Former Director, Centre for Southern African Studies, University of York and former editor of Journal of Southern African Studies (OUP); published poet and author of works on colonialism, Apartheid and African poetry. His latest book is Bridging the Zambezi: a Colonial Folly (Macmillan 1993)

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (November 14, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192801511
• ISBN-13: 978-0192801517
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,297,753 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #72 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Portuguese

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Camoes: The Portuguese Shakespeare, September 14, 2001

By 

Kendal B. Hunter (Provo, UT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Lusï¿1/2ads (World's Classics) (Paperback)

At some point in life we realize why "The Classics" ARE classic. At some point the great literature and words reach out and touch us to the very core of our being, that special spark that is real you. The Lusiads has done that to me.

Being written in a minor tongue and focusing on a minor nation's history, this rhyming wall of words has not had much circulation out side of the lusophonic orbit, which is a shame. This work deserves its proper place behind the Iliad, The Odyssey, the Aeneid, and the Divine Comedy. This English translation enables anglophonics to understand Camoes, the Portuguese Shakespeare.

Unlike the Aeneid, which focuses on one mans journey from Troy to Rome, this story focuses on the Portuguese in the plural as a collective people. It celebrates their special history, using Vasco Da Gama's 1497 voyage to India as the focus of drama.

The only drawback to the book is that you need to read a survey of Portuguese history and geography to savor this book. I lived in Portugal for two years, therefor I understood the allusions and the story. It is not, however, as bad as the Divine Comedy where almost every paragraph is foot-noted, but a perusal of the encyclopedia would help before, during, and after the reading.

Lastly, I have read the Lusiads in Portuguese. Since it is written in poetic form with cantos, and in a second tongue, it was grueling work. I can only compare it to reading Milton or Pope in another language. Poetry by nature is dense writing, and if the reader is also dense, trouble occurs. Therefore, I endorse this English translation to mono- and polyglots alike.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dynamic epic that speaks to modern-day readers, March 22, 2006

By 

Mark E. Baxter "Inquirer" (Layton, UT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Lusï¿1/2ads (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

First the nuts and bolts. The Lusiads (Os Lusiadas) was published in Portuguese in 1572. 'The Lusiads' would be more understandably translated 'The Portuguese'. Lusiads means inhabitants of the Roman region called Lusitania - after the legendary founder Lusus who was a companion of the Roman god Bacchus. It is an epic (long poem where a hero or heroes in a wide-ranging adventure embody representative national characteristics). It would be similar to the Odyssey, El Cid, or Divine Comedy.

The first English translation was in 1655, and multiple translations have ensued. Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton even did a Victorian age translation. This translation is by Landeg White and is my favorite translation.

The story is of the voyage of Vasco da Gama from Portugal to India. This was the beginning of a world-wide Portuguese trade empire and was a seminal world event in mixing Western and Eastern Cultures.

The author was a low-grade officer/noble who lost an eye battling the Moors, and spent most of his life in the East as a bureaucrat and soldier for the Portuguese empire. His first-hand knowledge of the countries described in the epic along with his experiences as a soldier, prisoner, ship-wreck survivor etc. gave him unmatchable insight into his subject.

In the original Portuguese, the book is written in rhyming, eight line paragraphs called 'ottava rima'. Since Portuguese is a Romance language with a few common endings for most words, it is very easy to rhyme. The same is not true of English. Rather than force this translation to rhyme and using odd word orders and odd words to fit the rhyme scheme, White has used a non-rhyming format that only has the last couplet of the eight lines rhyming. This is the perfect compromise and makes reading the
English translation fairly close to reading in the original language.

Now for the specifics. Multiple famous literary figures have praised this book for hundreds of years. Some have even said it is worth learning Portuguese just to read Camoes in the original. The reasons for this are several. First, Camoes tells a good story. This is not a sterile, boring recitation. Second, the described events are adventurous and illuminate history, cultures and human nature.

But most importantly, this book allows the personality of the author to shine through. The best parts, in my opinion, are where the author comments on the happenings, or adds his advice to the Portuguese people and rulers. The last few stanzas of the book show you the feelings of the author when he exclaims,

"No more, Muse, no more, my lyre
Is out of tune and my throat hoarse,
Not from singing but from wasting song
On a deaf and coarsened people.
Those rewards which encourage genius
My country ignores, being given over
To avarice and philistinism,
Heartlessness and degrading pessimism.

I do not know by what twist of fate
It has lost that pride, that zest for life,
Which lifts the spirits unfailingly
And welcomes duty with a smiling face."

It is Camoes that makes this a matchless epic - not the subject and not his poetry. As the Brittanica puts it, "His best poems have the unmistakable note of genuine suffering and deep sincerity of feeling. It is this note that places him far above the other poets of his era.

In short, this is a wonderful work of art that can be profitably revisited over and over. This translation is one of the best and the explanatory text and notes make the reading much easier.

Highly recommended.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A lyric account of Vasco da Gama's voyage to India, January 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Lusï¿1/2ads (World's Classics) (Paperback)

The name "Os Lusíadas" (The Lusiads) means sons of Lusos.

Lusos were the inhabitants of Lusitania. Lusitania was the ancestral name for Portugal; therefore the title really means "The Portuguese".

This book is excellent for those interested in both poetry and history. This is an epic account of the voyage made by Vasco da Gama around the cape of Good Hope (southern tip of Africa) on his way towards the discovery of the maritime route to India.

Luis de Camões uses his best "ingenuity and art" to enshroud his lyrics with the myths of that time and to put the "naus" in the hand of the nimphs.

This reading by the way was mandatory in the Portuguese educational curriculum.

Luis de Camões died on June 10 1580, and that is now celebrated as Portugal's day.