Flor do Lácio is an expression used to designate the Portuguese language.
In the sonnet “Língua Portuguesa”, the Brazilian poet Olavo Bilac (1865-1918) writes in the first verse “Last flower of Lazio, uncultivated and beautiful”, referring to the Portuguese language as the last language derived from Vulgar Latin spoken in Lazio, an Italian region.
The Latin languages (also called Romance or Neo-Latin) are those that derived from Latin, being the most spoken: French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.
The term "uncultured" used by the poet refers to Vulgar Latin spoken by soldiers, peasants and popular classes. It was different from Classical Latin, used by the upper classes. For Olavo Bilac, the Portuguese language continued to be "beautiful", even though it originated from a popular language.
Sonnet "Língua Portuguesa" by Olavo Bilac
Lazio's last flower, uncultivated and beautiful,
You are, at the same time, splendor and grave:
Native gold, which in impure denim
The crude mine among the gravel sails...
I love you like this, unknown and obscure.
Loud tuba, simple lyre,
That you have the trumpet and the hiss of the storm,
And the list of nostalgia and tenderness!
I love your wild freshness and your aroma
Of virgin jungles and the wide ocean!
I love thee, O rude and painful language,
In which from the maternal voice I heard: "my son!",
And when Camões wept, in bitter exile,
The blissless genius and the lackluster love!
Lazio Flower - Sambadrome
"Flor do Lácio Sambódromo Lusamérica latino em Pó" is an excerpt from the song "Língua" by Caetano Veloso and belongs to the album "Velô", released in 1984. This song is a tribute to the Portuguese language.
Caetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso, better known as Caetano Veloso, is an undeniable figure in Brazilian culture. This artist is a musician, producer, arranger and writer, and his career spans over forty years.