Ricardo_b
10-18-2005, 07:12 AM
I was wondering if anyone here knows the work of Luís Vaz de Camões, "one of the greatest literary figures of the sixteen century".
Onde pode acolher-se um fraco humano,
Onde terá segura a curta vida,
Que não se arme e se indigne o Céu sereno
Contra um bicho da terra tão pequeno?
[Where may frail humanity shelter
Briefly, in some secure port,
Where the bright heavens cease to vent their rage
On such insects on so small a stage?]
It was the only translation I was able to find online.
http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5587
His most famous work is "Os Lusíadas" or The Lusiads and it speaks about portuguese achievements in the discoveries in the homeric fashion.
Being Portuguese I am able to read the words as they were written and I was somewhat curious in knowing if the translated work could be as apprecited as the original-not only in this case but with other works.
After some reading I understand that not many people understand or capture the power of those words complaining many times about their construction, about they not rhyming. The truth is they do rhyme and the words are still as powerful and meaningful as when they were written, maybe even more.
As I was browsing I found in amazon what appears to be a very informed commentary about this issue, which I will quote:
"Had Camoens been "Englishened" shortly after his own lifetime, no doubt some English translator could have grasped the proper tone, meter and spirit for his work to be presented in English grab. However, since he died in 1580, just when Spain absorbed Portugal into the Iberian Union, his poem in praise of the Portuguese exploits in India was not to be Englishened when the English where busy trying to undone what he had praised. Therefore he lost his chance with the English language. As it is, all English translation of Camoens have been at best exercises in creative anachronism (such as Richard Francis Burton's Victorian one) or simply inadequate (such as the Penguin trans., which is _in prose_!). Also, there is the problem that a translation of the high degree required is best achieved between cognate languages (such as the German trans. of Shakespeare, or the Portuguese trans. of the D.Quixote). Be as it is,Camoens didn't fail to attract the attention even of Marx & Engels, who quote the opening section of the Lusiads (in Portuguese) in the _German Ideology_. Therefore I advise reading _any_ English trans., but only to get a foretaste before learning Portuguese and reading the original.Finally, for those who think the poem's "hero" Vasco da Gama to be unintersting: the hero of the poem is the Portuguese people in general, therefore the name of the poem - the _Lusiads_ (from Lusitania, i.e. Portugal) and not the "Gamaeid"."-C. E. R. Mendonça "Carlos Eduardo Rebello de Mendonça"
Any translated work you have read in the original and translated?
I know how to speak Portuguese, English and French and I must say that even the greatest book should always be read in the original if possible.
Onde pode acolher-se um fraco humano,
Onde terá segura a curta vida,
Que não se arme e se indigne o Céu sereno
Contra um bicho da terra tão pequeno?
[Where may frail humanity shelter
Briefly, in some secure port,
Where the bright heavens cease to vent their rage
On such insects on so small a stage?]
It was the only translation I was able to find online.
http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5587
His most famous work is "Os Lusíadas" or The Lusiads and it speaks about portuguese achievements in the discoveries in the homeric fashion.
Being Portuguese I am able to read the words as they were written and I was somewhat curious in knowing if the translated work could be as apprecited as the original-not only in this case but with other works.
After some reading I understand that not many people understand or capture the power of those words complaining many times about their construction, about they not rhyming. The truth is they do rhyme and the words are still as powerful and meaningful as when they were written, maybe even more.
As I was browsing I found in amazon what appears to be a very informed commentary about this issue, which I will quote:
"Had Camoens been "Englishened" shortly after his own lifetime, no doubt some English translator could have grasped the proper tone, meter and spirit for his work to be presented in English grab. However, since he died in 1580, just when Spain absorbed Portugal into the Iberian Union, his poem in praise of the Portuguese exploits in India was not to be Englishened when the English where busy trying to undone what he had praised. Therefore he lost his chance with the English language. As it is, all English translation of Camoens have been at best exercises in creative anachronism (such as Richard Francis Burton's Victorian one) or simply inadequate (such as the Penguin trans., which is _in prose_!). Also, there is the problem that a translation of the high degree required is best achieved between cognate languages (such as the German trans. of Shakespeare, or the Portuguese trans. of the D.Quixote). Be as it is,Camoens didn't fail to attract the attention even of Marx & Engels, who quote the opening section of the Lusiads (in Portuguese) in the _German Ideology_. Therefore I advise reading _any_ English trans., but only to get a foretaste before learning Portuguese and reading the original.Finally, for those who think the poem's "hero" Vasco da Gama to be unintersting: the hero of the poem is the Portuguese people in general, therefore the name of the poem - the _Lusiads_ (from Lusitania, i.e. Portugal) and not the "Gamaeid"."-C. E. R. Mendonça "Carlos Eduardo Rebello de Mendonça"
Any translated work you have read in the original and translated?
I know how to speak Portuguese, English and French and I must say that even the greatest book should always be read in the original if possible.