“
Mombasa, too, furnished with such
Palaces and sumptuous houses,
Will be laid waste with iron and fire
In payment for its former treachery.
Along the Indian coast, swarming
With enemy ships plotting Portugal's
Downfall, Lourenço with sail and with oar
Will give his uttermost, and then give more.
Though the powerful Samorin's giant ships
Choke the entire sea, his cannon-shot
Thundering from hot brass
Will pulverize rudder, mast, and sail;
Then, daring to grapple the enemy
Flagship, watch him leap
On deck, armed only with lance and sword,
To drive four hundred Muslims overboard.
But God's inscrutable wisdom (He knows
Best what is best for his servants)
Will place him where neither strength nor wisdom
Can avail in preserving his life.
In Chaul, the very seas will churn
With blood, fire, and iron resistance,
As the combined fleets of Egypt and Cambay
Confront him with his destiny that day.
The united power of many enemies
(Might was defeated only by might),
Faltering winds and a swelling sea
Will all be ranged against him.
Here, let ancient heroes rise
To learn from this scion of courage
This second Scaeva who, however maimed,
Knows no surrender and will not be tamed.
With one thighbone completely shattered
By a wayward cannon-ball, still
He battles on with his forearms alone
And a heart not to be daunted,
Until another ball snaps the ties
Binding flesh and spirit together:
The leaping soul slips its body's prison
To claim the greater prize of the arisen.
Go in peace, O soul! After war's
Turbulence, you have earned supreme peace!
As for that scattered, broken body,
He who fathered it plans vengeance.
Already, I hear their hot perdition
Looming in a thunderous barrage
On Mameluke and cruel Cambayan
From catapult, from ordnance and cannon.
Here comes the father, magnified
By his anger and grief, his heart
On fire, his eyes swimming, his soul
Transfixed by paternal love.
He has taken an oath his noble rage
Will make blood run knee-high
In the enemy ships; the Nile will mourn,
The Indus witness, the Ganges be forlorn.
”
”