The Lusiads

The Lusiads is an English title used for Os Lusíadas, Luís de Camões’s Portuguese epic poem, and for English translations, including Richard Fanshawe’s seventeenth-century version.

Os Lusíadas: A Portuguese epic poem by Luís de Camões, published in 1572, recounting Vasco da Gama’s voyage to India. Fanshawe translated this Portuguese original under the English title The Lusiads.
Richard Fanshawe: An English diplomat, translator, and poet who published an English translation of Os Lusíadas in 1655. His translation is the seventeenth-century English version specifically associated with this title.
The Lusiads (Landeg White translation): A modern English verse translation of Os Lusíadas by Landeg White, published in 1997. White’s modern approach makes visible how translation choices changed after Fanshawe.
English translation: A rendering of a text from another language into English. Fanshawe’s version is one stage in the poem’s movement into English literary culture.
Portuguese national epic: A long narrative poem regarded as a defining expression of Portugal’s history and national identity. Os Lusíadas became Portugal’s national epic, a status carried into its English title.
Luís de Camões: A Portuguese poet whose works include the national epic Os Lusíadas. His poem is the source text behind every English work titled The Lusiads.
William Julius Mickle: A Scottish poet and translator whose English version of Os Lusíadas appeared in 1776. His later translation became more influential in English than Fanshawe’s.
The Aeneid: Virgil’s Latin epic poem about Aeneas’s journey from Troy to Italy and the origins of Rome. Camões adapts classical epic conventions that Virgil’s poem helped establish.
Restoration literature: English writing produced during the Restoration period, following Charles II’s return in 1660. Fanshawe’s translation was published shortly before the period’s literary culture took shape.
Age of Discovery: The period of European maritime exploration and overseas expansion beginning in the fifteenth century. The poem celebrates voyages associated with this era while presenting them through Portuguese national memory.

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