104. Nationaldichter als Selbstvermarkter

Camõens’s mind was the product of Renaissance classicism and Portuguese imperialism; having served and fought first in Cetua and then to India and elsewhere for sixteen years, he won little and lost an eye, was accused of embezzlement and jailed, freed and sailed home to Portugal. He was a red blooded patriot but a broken-hearted one as well because he thought his country had slid down into luxury and corruption and away from the qualities of valor, sacrifice, and bravery that he hoped to revive through the Lusiads. Like the Aeneid and Odyssey before it, the Lusiads tells of a hero sent far and sundry by storms and angry gods, while covering the history of the Portuguese- the race descended from Lusus, companion of Bacchus who discovered the land of Lusitania.

For me, the most interesting passage comes about halfway through, at the end of Canto V, when the poet reflection on Portugal’s lack of great poets:

“I say it without shame for the reason that none of us stands out as a great poet is our lack of esteem for poetry. He who is ignorant of art cannot value it. For this reason, and not for any lack of natural endowment, we have neither Virgils nor Homers; and soon, if we persist in such a course, we shall have neither pious Aeneases nor fierce Achilles either.”

To some degree, this is standard poetic self-marketing. Of course Camõens has to say this to the king- poetry is not yet about expressing some inner experience; it still has to serve some other purpose. However, he suggests the poet has a unique and special partnership with military leaders. In some sense, the poet creates the warrior both by immortalizing him in poetry and by giving him an impetus to wage war and thus be remembered. Without the poet, nations wouldn’t just lack war propaganda and memorials – they would lack warriors. / Ordinary Times