Right- and left- handed Camões, sinister Camões: in one hand always what? And in the other, what else?

Abstract

Luís de Camões’ poetry is characterized by working, often in a dialectical manner, with some pairs. One of them, not necessarily explored exhaustively by the poet, but open to careful reading, is that of the two hands. The image of the poet himself, with his hands in an important role, is the subject of one of the most famous portraits which Camões deserved – in it, a very basic vital need is thematized, which the poet makes coexist in his work with some nobler ones, especially that of the experience of love. What is at stake, in hunger for food and in desire, is the body. Therefore, the reading of key images in the sonnet “Bem sei, Amor, que é certo o que receio”, especially the image of the hand on the breast, in conjunction with other moments of Camões’ poetry can be a (revolving) door to a certain significant area of this work.