'Many to see the Stygian lake they send,
Whose bodies piercèd are by sword to death;
There St. Iago's master meets his end,
Who fought most bravely to his latest breath;
Fierce Calatrava's master, too, doth bend,
Great slaughter while he causeth, fate beneath;
The renegade Pereiras also die,
Renouncing heaven and cursing destiny.
And many of the vulgar without name,
And nobles, too, are sent to shades below,
Where hungering stands the dog of three-mouthed fame
For souls that from this world departing go;
And that they may more dominate and tame
The proud presumption of the furious foe,
Castilia's flag sublime, so high displayed,
Is at the feet of Lusitania's laid.
Here the hot fight they stubbornly maintain
With deaths, blood, cutlass wounds, and shoutings strange, The multitudes that perish on the plain
E'en of the flowers the very colour change;
Their ground and lives they yield; few foes remain,
And the hurled lance finds little within range :
Castilia's King his ruin now must own,
And see his purpose altered and o'erthrown.
'Now to the conqueror he leaves the ground, Contented that he leaves not life a prey;
All follow him who still alive are found,
Fear gives them wings, not feet, for flight; while they
Deep in their bosoms hide the bitter wound
Of slaughter and of fortune thrown away;
With anguish, shame, annoyance they recoil
From seeing others triumph in their spoil.
'Alguns vão maldizendo, e blasphemando
Do primeiro, que guerra fez no mundo :
Outros a sêde dura vão culpando
Do peito cubiçoso, e sitibundo,
Que, por tomar o alheio, o miserando
Povo aventura ás penas do Profundo ;
Deixando tantas mãis, tantas esposas,
Sem filhos, sem maridos, desditosas.
'O vencedor Joanne esteve os dias Costumados no campo em grande gloria: Com offertas despois, e romarias
As graças deo, a quem lhe deo victoria.
Mas Nuno, que não quer por outras vias
Entre as gentes deixar de si memoria,
Senão por armas sempre soberanas,
Para as terras se passa Transtaganas.
'Ajuda-o seu destino de maneira,
Que fez igual o effeito ao pensamento;
Porque a terra dos Vandalos fronteira
Lhe concede o despôjo, e o vencimento :
Já de Sevilha a Betica bandeira,
E de varios senhores n'hum momento
Se lhe derriba aos pés, sem ter defeza,
Obrigados da força Portugueza.
'Destas e outras victorias longamente
Eram os Castelhanos opprimidos,
Quando a paz, desejada já da gente,
Deram os vencedores aos vencidos,
Despois que quiz o Padre omnipotente
Dar os Reis inimigos por maridos
Ás duas illustrissimas Inglezas,
Gentis, formosas, inclytas Princezas.
'Some imprecate and angrily blaspheme
'Gainst him who in the world made war the first ;
Others the craving, grasping bosom blame
Which, with a hardened and a selfish thirst,
Because another's kingdom it would claim,
The hapless people subjects to be cursed;
Leaving so many mothers, wives, to fate,
Widows, and childless, and unfortunate.
'The conqueror John remained the accustomed days Upon the field, in glory of the brave,
And then with offerings, pilgrimage and praise,
Gave thanks to Him, who him the victory gave.
But the great Nuno, who in other ways
To leave his memory with mankind would crave
Than by his arms, successful to the last,
Into the lands beyond the Tagus passed.
'His destiny in such wise helps his hand,
That the result is equal to the thought;
Because the Vandals of the frontier land
Are with their spoil to quick submission brought :
Neither can Seville's Bætian ensign stand:
And those of various lords, as if 'twere nought,
Lie prostrate at his feet, without resource,
Subjected by the Lusitanian force.
'With these and other victories obtained
Th' oppressed Castilians for a long time bled,
When peace, so much desired by all, was gained
Giv'n by the victors to the vanquishèd,
After that the Omnipotent ordained
That the contending Kings should now be wed
With the two English ladies of high race,
Princesses fair, renowned, and full of grace.
'Não soffre o peito forte, usado á guerra,
Não ter imigo já, a quem faça dano ;
E assi, não tendo a quem vencer na terra,
Vai commetter as ondas do Oceano.
Este he o primeiro Rei, que se desterra
Da patria, por fazer que o Africano
Conheça pelas armas, quanto excede
A lei de Christo á lei de Mafamede.
'Eis mil nadantes aves pelo argento
Da furiosa Thetis inquieta
Abrindo as pandas azas vão ao vento,
Para onde Alcides pôz a extrema meta :
O monte Abyla, e o nobre fundamento
De Ceita toma, e o torpe Mahometa
Deita fóra, e segura toda Hespanha
Da Juliana, má, e desleal manha.
'Não consentio a morte tantos annos,
Que de Heroe tão ditoso se lograsse
Portugal; mas os córos soberanos
Do Céo supremo quiz que povoasse :
Mas para defensão dos Lusitanos
Deixou, quem o levou, quem governasse,
E augmentasse a terra mais, que d'antes,
Inclyta geração, altos Infantes.
'Não foi do Rei Duarte tão ditoso
O tempo, que ficou na summa alteza :
Que assi vassi alternando o tempo iroso
O bem co'o mal, o gosto co'a tristeza.
Quem vio sempre hum estado deleitoso?
Ou quem vio em fortuna haver firmeza ?
Pois inda neste reino, e neste Rei
Não usou ella tanto desta lei.
'The valorous breast, which warfare had pursued,
Is chafed, for want of chance to wound a foe,
And, having every one on shore subdued,
Against the ocean waves the King must go ;
First King was he who, with these thoughts imbued,
Banished himself that Africans might know,
By force of arms, how greatly doth exceed
The law of Christ the law of Mahomed.
'Lo! like a thousand swimming birds they sail
O'er angry restless Thetis' silver wave,
Their curling wings they spread before the gale,
To where Alcides utmost limit gave.
O'er Ceuta's noble city they prevail,
And o'er Mount Abyla, and forth they drave
Vile Mahmoud, saving thus the whole of Spain
From the disloyal craft of Julian."
'Death granted not that Portugal should boast
Hero so favoured for too many years,
But willed that 'midst th' exalted choral host
He should be numbered in the heavenly spheres ;
But, that the Lusitanians be not lost,
He who removed him a new ruler rears,
Who more than ever should the land augment,
Distinguished race, successors eminent.
'While King Duarte held the post sublime
The period not so happily did flow,
For thus alternating goes angry time,
Good mixed with evil, happiness with woe.
Who ever saw a constant happy prime?
To whom did Fortune ever firmness show?
However, in this reign and 'neath this King
She did not keep this law in every thing.
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