BABYLON AND SION (GOA AND LISBON)

by: Luis Vas de Camões (1524-1580)

ERE, where fecundity of Babel frames

Stuff for all ills wherewith the world doth teem,

Where loyal Love is slurred with disesteem,

For Venus all controls, and all defames;

Where vice's vaunts are counted, virtue's shames;

Where Tyranny o'er Honor lords supreme;

Where blind and erring sovereignty doth deem

That God for deeds will be content with names;

 

Here in this world where whatso is, is wrong,

Where Birth and Worth and Wisdom begging go

To doors of Avarice and Villainy,--

Trammelled in the foul chaos, I prolong

My days, because I must. Woe to me! Woe!

Sion, had I not memory of thee!

--Translated by Richard Garnett

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