Amor é fogo que arde sem se ver

Luís de Camões(1524–1580)

Rimas, 1595

Amor he hum fogo que arde sem se ver;He ferida que doe e não se sente;He hum contentamento descontente;He dor que desatina sem doer;

He hum não querer mais que bem querer;He solitario andar por entre a gente;He hum não contentar-se de contente;He cuidar que se ganha em se perder;

He hum estar-se preso por vontade;He servir a quem vence o vencedor;He hum ter com quem nos mata lealdade.

Mas como causar póde o seu favorNos mortaes corações conformidade,Sendo a si tão contrário o mesmo Amor?

From the Rimas (published 1595, after his death), via the Portuguese Wikisource transcription. It keeps the 16th-century spelling («he hum fogo»).

Public domainThis poem is in the public domain. You may read it, copy it, recite it and publish it without asking anyone.

About the poem

The sonnet is a cascade of paradoxes: «Love is a fire that burns unseen; a wound that hurts and is not felt; a contentment discontented; a pain that rages without hurting.» Camões defines love only by contradictions, and each line is an impossibility that is nonetheless true.

To love no more than to wish well; to walk alone among people; to be held prisoner by one's own will; to keep faith with the one who kills us. And at the end, the question that crowns it: how can this Love, so contrary to itself, bring accord to human hearts? It is among the most famous sonnets in the Portuguese language.

The verse is kept in Portuguese. Translating it in passing would replace the work with a paraphrase of it.