With this the sailors wound the heaven with cries,
From sudden terror and disunion blind
For, sails all torn, the vessel over lies,
And ships a mass of water in the wind;
'Cast overboard,' the master's order flies;
'Cast overboard, together, with a mind!
Others to work the pumps! no slackening!
The pumps, and quick! for we are foundering.'
The soldiers, all alive, now hasten fast
To work the pumps, but scarcely had essayed,
When the dread seas, in which the ship was cast,
So tossed her that they all were prostrate laid :
Three hardy powerful sailors, to the last,
To guide the wheel but fruitless efforts made;
With cords on either side it must be bound,
For force and art of man but vain are found.
The winds were such that scarcely could they show
With greater force or greater rage around,
Than if it were their purpose, then, to blow
The mighty tower of Babel to the ground.
Upon the aspiring seas, which higher grow,
Like a small boat the valiant ship doth bound,
Exciting wonder that on such a main
She can her striving course so long sustain.
The valiant ship with Gama's brother Paul,
With mast asunder snapped by wind and wave,
Half under water lies; the sailors call
On Him Who once appeared the world to save ;
Nor less, vain cries from Coelho's vessel all
Pour on the air, fearing a watery grave,
Although the master had such caution shown,
That ere the wind arose the sails were down.
Agora sobre as nuvens os subiam
As ondas de Neptuno furibundo :
Agora a vêr, parece, que desciam
As intimas entranhas do profundɔ.
Noto, Austro, Boreas, Aquilo queriam
Arruinar a machina do mundo :
A noite negra, e fea se allumia
Co'os raios, em que o polo todo ardia.
As Halcyoneas aves triste canto
Junto da costa brava levantaram,
Lembrando-se de seu passado pranto,
Que as furiosas aguas lhe causaram :
Os delphins namorados entretanto
Lá nas covas maritimas entraram,
Fugindo a tempestade, e ventos duros,
Que nem no fundo os deixa estar seguros.
Nunca tão vivos raios fabricou
Contra a fera soberba dos gigantes
O grão ferreiro sordido, que obrou
Do enteado as armas radiantes :
Nem tanto o grão Tonante arremessou
Relampagos ao mundo fulminantes
No grão diluvio, donde sós viveram
Os dous, que em gente as pedras converteram.
Quantos montes então que derribaram
As ondas, que batiam denodadas !
Quantas arvores velhas arrancaram
Do vento bravo as furias indignadas !
As forçosas raizes não cuidaram,
Que nunca para o céo fossem viradas,
Nem as fundas areas, que podessem
Tanto os mares, que em cima as revolvessem.
Now rising to the clouds they seem to go,
O'er the wild waves of Neptune borne on end;
Now to the bowels of the depths below,
It seems to all their senses, they descend;
Notus and Auster, Boreas, Aquilo,
The very world's machinery would rend ;
While flashings fire the black and ugly night,
And shed from pole to pole a dazzling light.
The Halcyon birds their notes of mourning told
Along the roaring coast, sad scene of woe,
Calling to mind their agonies of old,
Which to the like tempestuous waves they owe ;
The amorous dolphins, all, from sports withhold,
And to their ocean-caves' recesses go,
Such storms and winds unable to endure,
Which, e'en in refuge, leave them not secure.
Never such living thunderbolts were framed
Against the Giants' fierce rebellious pride,
By the great sordid forger, who is famed
His step-son's brilliant arms to have supplied :
Nor ever 'gainst the world such lightenings flamed,
Hurled by the mighty Thunderer far and wide,
In the great flood which spared those only two,
Who, casting stones, did humankind renew.
How many mountains, then, were downward borne
By the persistent waves that 'gainst them strove !
How many aged trees were upward torn
By fury of wild winds that 'gainst them drove !
But little dreamed their roots that, thus forlorn,
They e'er would be reversed towards heaven above,
Nor the deep sands that seas such power could show,
As e'en to cast them upwards from below!
Vendo Vasco da Gama, que tão perto
Do fim de seu desejo se perdia:
Vendo ora o mar até o inferno aberto,
Ora com nova furia ao céo subia :
Confuso de temor, da vida incerto,
Onde nenhum remedio lhe valia,
Chama aquelle remedio sancto, e forte,-
Que o impossibil pode, desta sorte:
'Divina Guarda, angelica, celeste,
Que os céos, o mar, e terra senhoreas,
Tu, que a todo Israel refugio déste
Por metade das aguas Erythreas:
Tu, que livraste Paulo, e defendeste
Das syrtes arenosas, e ondas feas,
E guardaste co'os filhos o segundo
Povoador do alagado e vacuo mundo :
'Se tenho novos medos perigosos
D'outra Scylla, e Charybdis já passados,
Outras syrtes, e baixos arenosos,
Outros Acroceraunios infamados :
No fim de tantos casos trabalhosos
Porque somos de ti desamparados,
Se este nosso trabalho não te offende,
Mas antes teu serviço só pretende?
'Oh ditosos aquelles, que poderam
Entre as agudas lanças Africanas
Morrer, em quanto fortes sostiveram
A santa Fé nas terras Mauritanas :
De quem feitos illustres se souberam,
De quem ficam memorias soberanas,
De quem se ganha a vida, com perdel-a,
Doce fazendo a morte as honras della !'
Vasco da Gama, seeing that so near
The end of his desire he still might die,
That now to hell the waves to gape appear,
Now with new fury mount into the sky:
Of life uncertain, all confused with fear,
With nought of aid whereon he could rely,
Calls upon that all-powerful sacred Aid,
Which can the impossible; and thus he prayed :
'Divine, Angelic, Heavenly Guard and Friend!
Whom Heavens and Earth and Ocean all obey,
Thou, Who all Israel didst succour lend
Through Erythræan sea to take their way;
Thou, Who deliveredst Paul, and didst defend
'Gainst ugly flood and quicksand, many a day,
Him with his sons who were, by Thy decree,
New parents of the drown'd, void world, to be;
'If I new dangerous fears have dared to oppose,
Have other Scylla and Charybdis passed,
And other shoals where sandy water flows,
Other Acroceraunian dangers vast ;
With such laborious works about to close,
Why dost Thou now forsake us at the last,
If this our labour do not Thee offend,
But rather only to Thy service tend?
'O blest! to whom the privilege remained,
On the sharp point of Afric's lance to die,
While they with power the Sacred Faith maintained In Moorish lands of infidelity;
Whose deeds, illustrious, reputation gained;
Who must survive supreme in memory;
Who gained their life e'en when they laid it down,
Death being sweetened by its own renown!'
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