April 21, 1909
Joaquin Nabuco, Brazil’s first ambassador to the United States, spoke on the 16th century Portuguese poet Luís de Camoens in a lecture, “Camoens—The Poet.” Of the poet’s love poems, “M.O.T” wrote in The Vassar Miscellany, “the most beautiful of these, written while Camoens was in India, are very emotional. In them the idea of love lying concealed in the eyes is often expressed. In the frequent use of a Portuguese word containing the idea of memory, love, grief and longing, which expresses the loneliness and sadness of the whole race, Camoens shows how truly he expresses the race sentiment.”