History of Spanish and Portuguese Literature (Vol 2 of 2)

Note 268 — CHAP. III. HISTORY OF PORTUGUESE POETRY AND ELOQUENCE, FROM THE LATTER YEARS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY UNTIL TOWARDS THE CLOSE OF THE SEVENTEENTH.

Thomasina Ross translation

The following sonnet will afford a specimen of these compositions. It is not indeed totally free from affected phrases; for example, the sixth line. But that line is sufficiently atoned for by the rest:—

Ninfas, Ninfas, do prado, tam fermosas que nelle cada qual mil flores gera, de que se tece a humana Primavera com cores, como bellas, deleitosas; Bellezas, ô Bellezas luminosas, que sois abono da constante esfera: que todas me acudisseys, bem quisera, com vossas luzes, e com vossas rosas. De todas me, trazey maes abundantes, porque me importa neste bello dia a porta ornar da minha Albania bella. Mas vôs, de vosso culto vigilantes, o adorno me negays, que eu pretendia, porque bellas nam soys diante della.

Return to CHAP. III. HISTORY OF PORTUGUESE POETRY AND ELOQUENCE, FROM THE LATTER YEARS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY UNTIL TOWARDS THE CLOSE OF THE SEVENTEENTH.