Panaji: Considered to be the Shakespeare of Portugal, Luis de Camoes (1525-1580) is celebrated for his epic, ‘Os Lusiadas’, which chronicles Vasco da Gama’s voyage to India.He wrote much of this masterpiece during his time in Goa between 1553 and 1568. While in Goa, Camoes worked as a soldier, govt employee and poet.While he also experienced imprisonment for challenging the Portuguese, apart from exile and shipwreck, the most popular story of his time in Goa appears to be the love affair he had with a local girl, Barbara.Considering the vast potential for scholarly exploration on Camoes’ life in Goa, the consul general of Portugal in Goa, Maria Manuela de Macedo Franco, encouraged local researchers to take initiative, pointing to Goa’s rich archival resources. She was speaking at the exhibition, ‘Luis de Camoes: The Future of the Past’, at Instituto da Cooperacao e da Lingua Portuguesa (CLP Goa) in Panaji.“The archives in Goa are fabulous,” she told TOI and expressed openness to proposals for scholarships and research residencies focusing on the Goa-Camoes connection.“It would be absolutely fantastic if some researcher would find new things in the original archives. There is lots of support from Portugal govt for people who do research on Camoes and other big artists,” she added.The exhibition, which is open to the public till June 12, features creative interpretations of Camoes’ works by Goan artists, blending text and illustrations with classical Portuguese literature in a contemporary reading, for his 500th birth anniversary.
