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Luís de Camões Quotes

1520–1580 Portugal

Luís Vaz de Camões (or de Camoens) (c. 1524 – June 10 1580) is considered the national poet of Portugal and the Portuguese language's greatest poet. He wrote a considerable amount of lyrical poetry and drama, but is best remembered for his epic work Os Lusíadas (The Lusiads), the influence of which is so profound that Portuguese is sometimes called the "language of Camões".

Portugal
Playwrights
Poets

Also known as: Camões, Luis de Camoëns, Luis de Camõens, Luís Vaz de Camões, Camoens, Camoes

Random Luís de Camões quote

65 quotes

A scene so solemn, and the tender woe
Of parting friends, constrained my tears to flow.
To weigh our anchors from our native shore—
To dare new oceans never dared before—
Perhaps to see my native coast no more—
Forgive, O king, if as a man I feel,
I bear no bosom of obdurate steel.
(The godlike hero here suppressed the sigh,
And wiped the tear-drop from his manly eye...

Os Lusíadas (1572)

Love is a fire that burns unseen,
A wound that aches yet isn't felt,
An always discontent contentment,
A pain that rages without hurting, A longing for nothing but to long,
A loneliness in the midst of people,
A never feeling pleased when pleased,
A passion that gains when lost in thought. It's being enslaved of your own free will;
It's counting your defeat a victory;
It's staying loyal to your killer. But if it's so self-contradictory,
How can Love, when Love chooses,
Bring human hearts into sympathy?

And you, fair nymphs of Tagus, parent stream,
If ever your meadows were my pastoral theme,
O come auspicious, and the song inspire
With all the boldness of your hero's fire:
Deep and majestic let the numbers flow,
And, rapt to heaven, with ardent fury glow.

Os Lusíadas (1572)

You saw, with what unheard of insolence
The highest heavens they did invade of yore:
You saw, how (against reason, against sense)
They did invade the sea with sail and oar:
Actions so proud, so daring, so immense,
You saw; and we see daily more, and more:
That in few years (I fear) of heaven and sea,
Men, will be called gods; and but men, we.

Os Lusíadas (1572)

Just like Love is yonder rose.

Attributed

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Luís de Camões (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.