Goa celebrates 500 years of Camoes

Panaji: When Luis Camoes, the national poet of Portugal who spent roughly 14 years in Asia — including a long stay in Goa — invited people for dinner, he would serve handwritten verses of his poetry on the dinner plates, instead of food. “Little is known that while his poetry celebrated the Portuguese empire’s glory, it was his stay in Goa that changed his perspective, making him a fierce critic of the same empire,” said professor Delfim Correia da Silva, visiting lecturer, Portuguese, Goa University.

Camoes, best known for ‘Os Lusíadas’, lamented that he lost years without truly understanding the cultures he encountered.

“He was therefore a different version of himself because of his time in Asia, especially Goa,” he added.

Anecdotes like these have become fodder for Goan thinkers and creative artists as they celebrate 500 years of Camoes’ birth anniversary in the state.

Individual artists that have their own interpretation of Camoes have therefore replicated aspects of his life in ‘Os Rostos de Camoes’, an exhibit of which is currently on display at Instituto Camoes, Panaji. One of his most celebrated verses are the ones he wrote for the Goan woman named Barbara who had fallen in love with.

“This was no longer a man who loved the European women of Renaissance, empire but one inspired by nature, love and the East. As his idea of love changed, thanks to Goa, he started to write poems criticising war. Goan artists have taken small details from his life and replicated it to celebrate 500 years of Camoes,” Correia said.

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