THE LUSIADS OF CAMOENS TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH VERSE BY J. J. AUBERTIN KNIGHT OFFICER OF THE IMPERIAL BRAZILIAN ORDER OF THE ROSE C. KEGAN PAUL & CO., I PATERNOSTER SQUARE 285. 26. ΤΟ HIS MOST FAITHFUL MAJESTY DOM LUIZ 1o KING OF PORTUGAL AND THE ALGARVES THIS TRANSLATION INTO ENGLISH POETRY OF THE GREAT EPIC POEM OF PORTUGAL IS BY SPECIAL PERMISSION DEDICATED BY HIS MAJESTY'S MOST OBEDIENT AND MOST OBLIGED SERVANT THE TRANSLATOR PREFACE. THE following translation of the 'Lusíadas,' written at various intervals, was undertaken as a literary pastime, and arose from associations of several years with those who speak the language of the poem. The publication of the work, however, happens to be singularly coincident with the European perturbations of the present moment, much of the surpassing importance attaching to which belongs to the leading subject of Camoens' epic-the road from Europe to India. At the period of Vasco da Gama's momentous discovery, trade with the East was alone in question. It had fallen into the almost exclusive power of the Turks, from which bondage his voyage relieved it. But to-day, not only trade, but a vast and wealthy Empire are involved; and the course of events, which it would be out of place to dwell on here, has long since, and lately more than ever, re-established England's path to India through that portion of the globe from which Vasco da Gama, by his discovery, withdrew it. A poem, therefore, almost new in itself and in its style to the English reader, may perhaps be found to possess some living interest, belonging to the present hour, while treating of a great event which came to pass now nearly four hundred years ago. March 1878. J. J. A. |