Today marks exactly 530 years that the late great Luís Vaz de Camões died in his death-bed; he was the greatest poet ever in the history of the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves and also in the Portuguese speaking world, despite only publishing 7 poetic works throughout his poetic career; his most famous publish poetic work was “Os Lusíadas”, which translates in English to “The Lusiads”; it was published sometime in the year 1572; it had received little attention during its release, unlike today where it receives a lot of attention and is considered by many as his best published poetic work ever; his best poetic work could have actually been his unpublished poetic work “The Parnasum of Luís Vaz”, but it got lost whilst he was working on it, hence why it was unpublished; he still remains the greatest Portuguese and Portuguese speaking poet ever and may most likely always remain the greatest ever; his poetry is compared to that of Homer, Publius Vergilius Maro, Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, and Joost van den Vondel. In fact, Luís Vaz de Camões’ Portuguese epic poem “Os Lusíadas”, which “Os Lusíadas” means the sons of Lusus, companion of Bacchus and mythical first settler in the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves, hence the Portuguese, is considered to be much in the way as Publius Vergilius Maro’s “Aeneid” was for the Ancient Romans, as well as Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey” for the Ancient Greeks. The Aeneid was to Luís Vaz de Camões at once model and challenge, but from the opening words of “Os Lusíadas” he made clear that his would be an Aeneid with a difference. “Arms and the men” was the theme, the epic exaltation of a whole race of heroes. What the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves had accomplished in the East was incomparably greater than the heroic themes of antiquity, which eventually turned out to be true. Nor was it great merely in isolation, then achievement of a handful of stalwarts. It had a national significance, for those stalwarts were the product of all their country’s past, and the enterprise was itself, but the coping-stone of the logic of that past. It boasted an even wider significance still, inasmuch as the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves was engaged in a fight for the true faith, for the spiritual values of Europe, against the forces of error and darkness. It was against this double background that the heroic narrative had to be set, thus involving a range alike in time and in space greater than the career of any one hero could span.
Luís Vaz de Camões, commonly known as Camões, or even as Luís Vaz Camões, sometimes known as Luís Camões, sometimes his surname is translated in English as Camoens, is the only Portuguese figure where many details concerning his life remain unknown and may most likely always remain unknown; his birth date is unknown and his birth place is debatable; it is believed he was born sometime in the year 1524 and that his birth place was either in Alenquer, or in Coimbra, or in Lisbon, but those places are based on what may be an incorrect interpretation of one of his poems. Although it may be an incorrect interpretation of one of his poems, Lisbon is the only place of the two other places where it is believed his birth place possibly took place.
Camões was born into the lesser nobility; his grandmother from his father’s side was Guiomar Vaz da Gama, who was related to Vasco da Gama by bloodline, hence why he was born into the lesser nobility; his mother was Ana de Sá de Macedo and his father was Simão Vaz de Camões, who was a Portuguese navigator, so, Camoes had an early interest in the creation of the Portuguese empire and knowledge of its dangers, as his father was shipwrecked and drowned off the coast of Goa shortly after Camões’ date of birth.
Camões went to Universidade de Coimbra; he received a through grounding in Latin, mythology, and history, and read some Italian literature and became conversant with Spanish; he returned to Lisbon in the year 1544 and frequented court and aristocratic circles, but an unfortunate love affair led to his banishment from the capital in the year 1546; he then went to Ceuta as a common solider in the year 1547; it was there at Ceuta that his real involvement with the adventure of empire began, the reality of which was brought home by the loss of his right eye after firing a cannon; he returned to Lisbon in the year 1549 as a tougher, rougher man; he was so tough and rough that a street brawl he was involved in sent him to prison for nine months in the year 1522.
In May of 1553, he sailed for Portuguese India, now known as the Republic of India, to head to Goa where he wrote these exact words about heading there:
“I set out as one leaving this world for the next.”
After some years of soldering and hardship, he was posted in the year 1566 to Macau, now known today as Macau Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, but the hostility of the settlers there drove him back to Goa in the year 1561; he had long been working on “Os Lusíads” and became anxious to return home and see it published; he set out sometime in the year 1567; it was not until sometime in the year 1570 he reached Lisbon to find what would later be his most favourite boy-king, Dom Sebastião I de Portugal, on the throne, who was the 16th king of the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves.
“Os Lusíads” was published sometime in the year 1572; it had received little attention; he fell ill in the year 1578, or 79, after being broken-hearted when he was told of the appalling defeat of Dom Sebastião and his Portuguese army from the Batalha de Alcácer-Quibir, which had occurred on the date of Monday, August 4, 1578, which the battle killed Dom Sebastião and destroyed the entire Portuguese army; it was the defeat from the Batalha de Alcácer-Quibir that would change the face of the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves, for good, because it was a sign that the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves’ global empire was beginning to decline gradually, but in a slow and study pace, after the independence from the Kingdom of Spain. Camões wrote from his death-bed these exact words:
“All will see that so dear to me was my country that I was content to die not only in it, but with it.”
He died on the date of Friday, June 10, 1580, in his death-bed, shortly before the Kingdom of Spain invaded Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves by June; his date of death is a national holiday in his reorganisation for his epic poem “Os Lusíadas”, because his epic poem is a national epic poem in the Portuguese Republic in celebration of Portuguese history and achievements.
Rest in peace!
Pork Chop 4 Life! <:o)
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