#lusiads

The Embark and the Goodbye Having done everthing practical To make ready for so long a voyage, We prepared our souls to meet death Which is always on a sailor's horizon. To God on high who alone sustains The heavens with his loved presence, We asked His favour that He should endorse our every enterprise and steer our course. The holy chapel from which we parted Is built there on the very beach, And takes its name, Belém, from the town Where God was given to the world as flesh. O King, I tell you, when I reflect On how I parted from that shore, Tormented by to many doubts and fears, Even now it is hard to restrain my tears. That day, a vast throng from the city (As friends, as family, others Only to watch), crowded the shore, Their faces anxious and dismayed Looking on, as in the holy company Of a thousand zealous monks, With heartfelt intercessions on our lips We marched in solemn file towards the ships. (...) As these piteous, loving speeches Poured from gentle, human hearts, The old and the children took them up In the different manner of their years. The nearest mountains echoed them, As if stirred by deepest sympathy, While tears as many as the grains of sand Rained without ceasing on the white strand. As for us, we dared not lift our faces To our mothers and our wives, fearing To be harrowed, or discouraged From the enterprise so firmly begun, And I decided we should all embark Without the customary farewells, For, though they may be love's proper course, They make the pain of separation worse.