Monday, April 23, 2012

Luís de Camões Tomb



Church of Saint Mary of Belém, Jeronimus Monastery (early 16th century), Lisbon

"Luís Vaz de Camões (1524–1580) is considered Portugal's and the Portuguese language's greatest poet. His mastery of verse has been compared to that of Shakespeare, Vondel, Homer, Virgil and Dante. He wrote a considerable amount of lyrical poetry and drama but is best remembered for his epic work The Lusiads. (...) Written in Homeric fashion, the poem focuses mainly on a fantastical interpretation of the Portuguese voyages of discovery during the 15th and 16th centuries." (Wikipedia)
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This post is linked to Taphophile Tragics

35 comments:

Olivier said...

un beau tombeau dans l'eglise

Valladolid Daily Photo said...

Interesting post. I especially like the first picture. Also although I was in Lisbon for several years and visited the Monastery of Belem, could not remember this tomb.

Unknown said...

Wonderful photos. The red of the garment at the very top of the large painting is such a counterpoint to the other more muted colors.

TexWisGirl said...

so interesting to be entombed and on display. :)

Dina said...

Your photo angles bring out the best. I imagine the great poet would enjoy such a tomb, in such a church.

Sharon said...

I'm going to look this up so I can read the poem. He certainly has a grand tomb.

Sylvia K said...

Wonderful captures and an interesting post as always, JM! Hope your week is off to a great start! Enjoy!

Sylvia

Cezar and Léia said...

Impressive pictures!
:)
Léia

Anonymous said...

Wonderful shots - how interesting that he is buried next to a stunning picture too.

Gunn said...

This is not a common thing here in Norway....
When I look at the images, I can nearly hear the (film) music.

Unknown said...

@Sharon: Get ready for 1.102 strophes! :-)

Unknown said...

Me gustan los sitios históricos, buenas entrada ny buenas fotos

Rob Siemann said...

Quem faz injúria vil e sem razão,
Com forças e poder em que está posto,
Não vence; que a vitória verdadeira
É saber ter justiça nua e inteira.

RedPat said...

I love the carvings!

VP said...

I still have at hand my copy of Os Lusíadas (Biblioteca Ulisseia de autores Portugueses), which I managed to read with the help of an English version.
He was a great poet with a great story to tell and he was able to create successfully an epic inspired to real history, but in a magnificent world on his own.

Unknown said...

@Rob and Mandy: WOW! :-) Great quote!

cieldequimper said...

Okay, so I need to buy a few books...

And I have to go in search of recumbent statues. They are so marvellous.

theconstantwalker said...

So wonderful to see...

Kay said...

You captured beautiful details in these wonderful shots. I'd not heard of Luis Vaz de Camoes, but that's not too surprising. Sadly, much of a typical U.S. education is confined to within our borders.

Carolina Louback said...

Grande Camões, belíssimo mosteiro.

Melbourne Australia Photos said...

Beautiful shots, Jose. I love his poetry.

Julie said...

He certainly is surrounded by magnificent carvings which I am sure feed his soul. I get affected by hands carved in prayer like that. Hands are such expressions of the soul, to me.

I also had not heard of him. And he liked apostrophes, eh? Any chance that you could translate into English the quote that Rob and Mandy ioncluded, please Jose?

Lowell said...

What a super shot for this theme, JM! I find these memorials to the dead to be rather grotesque, but from your description of his talents and work, perhaps he is deserving of posthumous adoration...

Re your question on Cedar Key: I'd guess you're right that this is a juvenile pelican. At the same time, though, this is representative of the Brown Pelican which has been brought back from the brink of extinction in Florida over the past 20-30 years.

Sondra said...

HOW ornate and beautiful this burial space is!!

Bob Crowe said...

That first picture is very well composed for dramatic effect. You had to deal with that distracting spotlight but you made it work. Good shot.

SeaThreePeeO said...

What a stunningly beautuful tomb!

Herding Cats

http://seathreepeeo.blogspot.com

Halcyon said...

This is beautiful. SO many fantastic details. He must have been a very important contributor to Portuguese culture.

VP said...

Julie - I found this:

He who, solely to oppress,
Employs or martial force, or pow'r, achieves
No victory; but a true victory
Is gain'd, when justice triumphs and prevails.

Unknown said...

@VP: I haven't had time yet to give Julie a proper answer to her request so, thank you so much for this. However, and maybe because portuguese is my mother language, I think the english version is much less poetic, especially in the last sentence, which is not a translation, actually.
Translating Luís de Camões is not an easy task. At all! Even if my english was great I would never dare doing it. :-)

VP said...

JM - You are absolutely right! I found that translation on Wikiquote and just thought that it was better than no translation at all...
By the way, that quote is relatively understandable for an Italian even with a poor knowledge of written Portuguese, which doesn't happen often with your language.

CaT said...

that tomb is very pretty... something i never saw here in the us!

Leif Hagen said...

I wonder if just maybe I'll get a tomb like that one someday? Nice to catch up on your blog today, JM!

Mildred said...

Lindas fotos!
Um magnifico túmulo para o maior poeta português!

Francisca said...

Despite being born and raised in Europe, I am woefully ignorant of many of its great poets and writers, Luís Vaz de Camões included. I like the sentiment of the poem Rob posted, even if the translation does not do it justice, so thanks to VP. This is an ornate tomb to memorialize him. And your photos, as usual, José, are superb.

Hilda said...

Such a magnificent tomb!