Bartholomew Diaz Sails Around The Stormy Cape (Refrain Stanza Sequence) Poem by Gert Strydom

(after Luis de Camões, Roy Campbell and Totius)

I
Where he stands on the deck of his ship
in the worst storm the ship raises and do dip,
he notices a spectre that from the water rise,
the sails flutter and the rain is cold like ice,
there is tremendous waves making it a dangerous trip
when a thundering voice do suddenly speak to him:
"To return here you chances are slim"
in the sky the moon hangs over a flat mountain's tip,
in the worst storm the ship raises and do dip.

II
"Here people do as a god to me pray, "
past the being Diaz notices no clear way,
the ship's lantern sways to and thro while the waves do bash down
astounded with the monster Diaz thinks that they are going to drown.
The spirit roars:"To all life I do here claim lay."
"No spirit or beast or whatever you are
in secrecy can the Lord God bar,
I sail in the name of God and Portugal by night and day, "
past the being Diaz notices no clear way.

III
In a tempestuous storm Diaz do their lives wage
and the beast is nearer in a hellish flaming rage.
"I Bartholomew Diaz do serve God only
and I tell you demon in His name be gone before me, "
the winds howl and the sailors do barely manage
"I Adamastor am here from prehistory
and to punish their enemy the Khoikhoi beacons me, "
but Diaz is still bravely full of courage,
and the beast is nearer in a hellish flaming rage.

IV
"The mast is going to snap!Get to that sail! "
Fearlessly Diaz is determined not to fail
where they are sailing straight at the beast,
the ship do lurch, the beast is gone with sun rising in the east,
everyone is astounded that they did prevail
and with cannon, musket and sword for the Khoikhoi they are ready
if a savage attack on them is going to be,
while they plant a cross and do God hail,
fearlessly Diaz is determined not to fail.

[References:"Os Lusiadas:Canto V Vasco da Gama" ("The Lusiads")by Luis de Camões."Rounding the Cape" by Roy Campbell."Dias by die Cabo Tormentoso" (Diaz at the Cabo Tormentoso)by Totius. Poet's note: Luis de Camões and Roy Campbell write about Vasco da Gama and Totius about Bartholomew Diaz.In both the poems of Luis de Camões and Roy Campbell the titan Adamastor appears as the mythological spirit of the Cape of storms after the Greek myth where the titans are driven apart and in the poem of Luis de Camões Vasco Da Gama is involved with a deadly skirmish with the Khoikhoi people of the Cape.In the poem of Totius the spectre is named the "spirit of storm and wind."]

© Gert Strydom