Page:Os Lusíadas (Camões, tr. Burton, 1880), Volume 1.djvu/9

 TO MY MASTER

CAMOENS:

(Tu se' lo mio maestro, e' l mio autore).

Pilgrim-poet of the Sea and Land;

Thou life-long sport of Fortune's ficklest will;

Doomed to all human and inhuman ill,

Despite thy lover-heart, thy hero-hand:

Enrollèd by thy pen what marv'ellous band

Of god-like Forms thy golden pages fill;

Love, Honour, Justice, Valour, Glory thrill

The Soul, obedient to thy strong command:

Amid the Prophets highest sits the Bard,

At once Revealer of the Heav'en and Earth,

To Heav'en the guide, of Earth the noblest guard;

And, 'mid the Poets thine the peerless worth,

Whose glorious song, thy Genius' sole reward,

Bids all the Ages, Camoens! bless thy birth. R. F. B.