Luís Vaz de Camões

　　Born in Portugal, Luís Vaz de Camões had his Portuguese name being transliterated into Ka Mo Ying, Mo Mei and Ka Mo Ian by the Chinese. He suffered the loss of his right eye during his military career in North Africa and had been to Goa of India and Malacca. He is known to be the greatest patriotic poet of Portugal and is best remembered for his famous epic work “The Lusiads”, which was first published in 1572. He died in Lisbon of Portugal on 10 June, 1580. In 1849, a wealthy Portuguese merchant in Macao, Lourenço Marques, financed the construction of the Camões Grotto at the Camões Garden. A bronze bust of the poet sculpted by M.M. Bordalo Pinheiro was erected in the garden in 1866 in his commemoration. The front of the bust’s pedestal is engraved with verses from the first three stanzas of the first canto of “The Lusiads” with their Chinese translation inscribed on its back.