Mais servira, se não fora
Para tão longo amor tão curta a vida." - Meaning and context.">
That more would he serve, if life
Were not so short for love so long.

 • (tr. Norwood Andrews)
“

Mais servira, se não fora
Para tão longo amor tão curta a vida.

— Luís de Camões

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Mais servira, se não fora
Para tão longo amor tão curta a vida.
" in the context of "That more would he serve, if life
Were not so short for love so long.

 • (tr. Norwood Andrews)
" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Luís de Camões" (Quotes, Lyric poetry, Não pode tirar-me as esperanças, Sete anos de pastor Jacob servia) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Luís de Camões

About Luís de Camões

Luís Vaz de Camões (or de Camoens) (c. 1524 – June 10 1580) is considered the national poet of Portugal and the Portuguese language's greatest poet. He wrote a considerable amount of lyrical poetry and drama, but is best remembered for his epic work Os Lusíadas (The Lusiads), the influence of which is so profound that Portuguese is sometimes called the "language of Camões".