Day of Portugal, Camões and Portuguese Communities
Description:
He was a man of turbulent fate, with ups and downs, unhappy love, duels, exiles ... The first literary experiments of Kamoens belong to the student years, and they already showed a love for folk creativity - legends, fairy tales, proverbs, songs and romances.
The young man’s heartbreak led to a quarrel with his uncle. He had to leave school without a degree. The quarrel was followed by reconciliation, after which Camões goes to seek happiness in Lisbon, falls in love with the queen’s maid of honor, Caterina de Ataíde, achieves her reciprocity, falls into disgrace because of their relationship opened to society and is expelled from the capital by decree of the king.
Enlisted in military service, he bravely fights, and in a battle loses his right eye. Two years later, once again in Lisbon, he is imprisoned, because during a church procession he wounds a high-ranking nobleman. And, since the king's pardon received contains an indispensable condition for serving in India, Camões sails there by ship. Private sailor. In this voyage, he continues the occupation begun in prison and writes the first songs of the epic that later glorified him.
In India "takes up the sword, then the pen": participates in battles, writes poetry. Then he goes to Mecca. Finally, he gets into a prominent administrative position, but is suspected of official misconduct ... and is escorted home by sea. The arrestee miraculously saves himself in a shipwreck and saves the manuscript "Luisiad" - a unique creation that combined the truth of historical facts with poetic skill. Returns to India and seeks a trial that acquits Kamoensa.
With a Sick Heart and an Empty Wallet, he goes home to Portugal, publishes an admirable poem, but lives on a meager pension appointed by the king (fourth the average income of a carpenter) and alms from a Mozambican boy servant. Poverty does not leave him for the rest of his life, but even worse was the loss of Portuguese independence in 1580. “I die not only in my country, but also with it,” the poet exclaims in a letter to his friend shortly before his death. The plague put an end to the suffering and life of Camões, but was powerless before the greatness of his talent, imprinted in the Louisiads.
The Louisiads are translated into all European languages, and even several times (for example, there are 9 translations in French). V.A. Zhukovsky translated excerpts from the poem into Russian. The life of Kamoens has inspired many poets and playwrights. Especially famous is Almeid Garrett's poem "Camoenes", the last verses of which contain a cruel reproach to compatriots for the bitter fate of the poet.
The ardent patriotism that permeates the Louisiades has so markedly contributed to the awakening of a sense of national identity in Portugal that its name has been inextricably linked for many centuries with the concept of honor of the nation. That’s why Portugal Day coincides with the sad date of Camoens’ passing.