Camões Groot and Gardens is the oldest and one of the biggest parks in Macau. Close to the Casa Garden where is the Fundaçāo Oriente and the famous Protestant Cemetery.
Originally the house was owned by a Portuguese merchant who enjoyed raising pigeons and after his death his residence was donated to the government to celebrate the Portuguese poet Luís de Camões.
Luíz Vaz de Camōes (born c. 1524/25, Lisbon, Port.—died June 10, 1580, Lisbon), is the most famous and greatest Portuguese poet from the 16th century, compared with Dante, Shakespeare or Vondel.
He became a legend when he wrote the epic book "Os Lusíadas"(sons of Lusas, i.e. Portugal) written in ten cantos composed of ten-verse stanzas in heroic decasyllables.
His masterpiece "Os Lusíadas" is a reflection of Camões life, a man with a epic and adventurous life, a bohemian, a idealist and a romantic man that travelled the world and that had deep love and patriotic feeling towards his country.
Camões lost one eye in Morroco, served in India, was deported from China and returned to Lisbon in 1750 infirm and penniless.
In 1575 he published "Os Lusiadas"a epic poem singing the deeds of the Portuguese with grandiloquence and great patriotism in their warfare and overseas discoveries with an exalted vision of wonder throughout the use of Lusitanian prophecies, classical mythology and Christian allusion.
Arms are my theme, and those matchless heroes
Who from Portugal´s far western shores
By oceans where none had ventured
Voyaged to Taprobana and beyond,
Enduring hazards and assaults
Such as drew on more than human prowess
Such as drew on more than human prowess
Among far distant peoples, to proclaim
A New Age and win undying fame;
Kings likewise of glorious memory
Who magnified Christ and Empire,
Bringing ruin on the degenerate
Lands of Africa and Asia;
And others whose immortal deeds
Have conquered death´s oblivion
-These words will go whereever there are men
If art and invention steer my pen.
Boast no more about the subtle Greek
Or the long odyssey of Trojan Aeneas;
Enough of the oriental conquests
of great Alexander and of Trajan;
I sing of the famous Portuguese
To whom both Mars and Neptune bowed.
Abandon all the ancient Muse revered,
A loftier code of honour has appeared.
And you, nymphs of the Tagus, who
First suckled my infant genius,
If ever in my rustic verses
I celebrated your companionable river,
Return me now a loftier tone,
A style both grand and contemporary;
Be to me Helicon. Let Apollo choose
Your water as the fountain of my muse.
Fire me now with mighty cadences,
Not a goatherd´s querulous piping
But the shouts of a battle trumpet,
Stirring the heart, steeling the countenance;
Give me a poem worthy of the exploits
Of the heroes so inspired by Mars,
To propogate their deeds through space and time
If poetry can rise to the sublime.
They say Camões wrote "Os Lusíadas" where the Camōes Grotto and Gardens stands today in Macau.
Although there is no documentary evidences that he wrote his masterpiece in these caves, its a fact the he actually lived in Macau, even you can find a bronze bust of him by M.M. Bordalo Pinheiro (1886) with some verses of his epic poem on the base.
Camões also wrote famous sonnets and canzones like this famous one:
a wound that aches yet isn’t felt,
an always discontent contentment,
a pain that rages without hurting,
a longing for nothing but to long,
a loneliness in the midst of people,
a never feeling pleased when pleased,
a passion that gains when lost in thought.
It’s being enslaved of your own free will;
it’s counting your defeat a victory;
it’s staying loyal to your killer.
But if it’s so self-contradictory,
how can Love, when Love chooses,
bring human hearts into sympathy?
This park is a great place to relax and walk among the beautiful trees and rocks and where you can go back in time and imagine this man immerse in his imagination writing this epic book.
In this beautiful park you will find many locals of all ages doing exercise, Tai Chi groups, groups playing chinese chess also some people bring their cage birds for a outing to enjoy the banyan trees.
In Macau this is one of the gardens you should not miss...
