Additional information
by Luís de Camões (Author), Richard Zenith (Translator), Helen Vendler (Preface by)
This revised and updated bilingual edition of Sonnets and Other Poems offers a cross-section of lyric poetry by Portugal's Luís de Camões, author of The Lusiads (1572), the great Renaissance epic memoralizing Vasco da Gama's inaugural voyage to India (1497-99). A selection of forty sonnets is followed by poems using other metrical patterns and rhyme schemes, including terza rima, ottava rima, the sestina, the canzone, and the redondilha, a verse form typical of Portuguese poetry. Richard Zenith's fluid renditions, far from attempting to "update" Camões, closely adhere to the original text, employing modern English but resisting the temptation to expand on the relatively small and simple lexicon of the Portuguese. Along with discussing his method of translation, Zenith's illuminating introduction shows how Camões's life and work were intimately entwined.
Author Biography
LUÍS DE CAMÕES (1524?-1580) lived a life full of love and adventure on three continents. His experiences are vividly woven into his poetry, which drew its formal inspiration from Virgil, Ovid, Petrarch and other poets, both classical and modern. A conceptualizing artist, Camões's extraordinary ability to forge his thought and experience into verses at once crystalline and compelling accounts for his status as one of the foremost poets in the European tradition. While The Lusiads (1572), his epic poem celebrating Portugal's maritime exploits, brought him immediate and enduring renown (there are more than fifteen translations of the work into English), his equally splendorous lyric poetry may hold more appeal for today's reader.
RICHARD ZENITH, a long-time resident of Portugal, has won prizes from the PEN Club and the Academy of American Poets for his translations from the poetry of Portugal's Fernando Pessoa and Brazil's João Cabral de Melo Neto. He has published his own poetry in reviews, a book of short stories titled Terceiras Pessoas, and numerous essays.
