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The Oxford book of Portuguese verse cover

The Oxford book of Portuguese verse

Chapter 157: 113. Soneto
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About This Book

This anthology gathers Portuguese verse from the twelfth through the twentieth century, presenting medieval Galician-Portuguese lyric—dance and pilgrimage songs—alongside troubadour-influenced courtly love poems, satirical pieces, and later lyric developments. An extended introduction situates the poems in early national formation, foreign contacts, and manuscript songbooks, and highlights forms such as cantigas de amigo, cantigas de amor, serranilhas, barcarolas, and other folk and court genres. Selections stress the music and dance origins of many texts and trace a continuity between popular village songs and cultivated court poetry, offering a historical and formal panorama of Portuguese poetic tradition.

D. MANUEL DE PORTUGAL

c. 1520-1606

113. Soneto

Apetece minha alma a fonte viva
no estio de amor, em sesta ardente,
sequiosa se lança á gram corrente
da formosura que de vos deriva.
Cuidando de amansar a sede estiva,
quanto mais d’ amor beve é mais vehemente:
nunca se acabará este acidente,
que arde amor na minha alma em cousa viva.
Nem resiste ao ardor nem se consume,
porque ela é imortal, ele benigno,
nele deleita a dor, dá gosto a pena;
se imagina passar raio divino
deseja a alma abrasar-se no seu lume,
tal é do que em si esconde o bem que acena.