''Lacrimae rerum'' () is the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

phrase for "tears of things." It derives from Book I, line 462 of the ''

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...

'' (c. 29–19 BC), by Roman poet

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

(Publius Vergilius Maro) (70–19 BC). Some recent quotations have included ''rerum lacrimae sunt'' or ''sunt lacrimae rerum'' meaning "there are tears of (or for) things."

Background

In this passage,

Aeneas In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas ( , ; from ) was a Troy, Trojan hero, the son of the Trojan prince Anchises and the Greek goddess Aphrodite (equivalent to the Roman Venus (mythology), Venus). His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy ...

gazes at a mural found in a Carthaginian temple dedicated to Juno that depicts battles of the

Trojan War The Trojan War was a legendary conflict in Greek mythology that took place around the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. The war was waged by the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans (Ancient Greece, Greeks) against the city of Troy after Paris (mytho ...

and the deaths of his friends and countrymen. Aeneas is moved to tears and says "sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt" ("There are tears for r 'of'things and mortal things touch the mind.")

Two interpretations

The

genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...

"rerum" can be construed as "objective" or "subjective." The scholar David Wharton observes that the "semantic and referential indeterminacy is both intentional and poetically productive, lending it an implicational richness most readers find attractive." In English, however, a translator must choose either one or the other, and interpretation has varied. Those who take the genitive as ''subjective'' translate the phrase as meaning that things feel sorrow for the sufferings of humanity: the universe feels our pain. Others translate the passage to show that the burden human beings must bear, ever-present frailty and suffering, is what defines the essence of human experience. Yet in the next line, Aeneas says: "Release (your) fear; this fame will bring you some deliverance." Those who take the genitive as ''objective'' understand the phrase as meaning that there are tears ''for'' things (in particular, the things Aeneas has endured) evinced in the mural: i.e., the paintings show Aeneas that he finds himself in a place where he can expect compassion and safety.

Context and translations

The context of the passage is as follows. Aeneas sees on the temple mural depictions of key figures in the

, the war from which he had been driven to the alien shores of Carthage as a refugee: the sons of Atreus (Agamemnon and Menelaus), Priam, and Achilles, who was savage to both sides in the war. He then cries out:

"Sunt hic etiam sua praemia laudi; sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt. Solve metus; feret haec aliquam tibi fama salutem." "Here, too, the praiseworthy has its rewards; there are tears for things and mortal things touch the mind. Release your fear; this fame will bring you some safety." Virgil, ''Aeneid'', 1.461 ff.

A translation by Robert Fagles renders the quote as: "The world is a world of tears, and the burdens of mortality touch the heart." Robert Fitzgerald, meanwhile, translates it as: "They weep here / For how the world goes, and our life that passes / Touches their hearts." In his television series ''

Civilisation A civilization (also spelled civilisation in British English) is any complex society characterized by the development of the state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond signed or spoken languag ...

'', episode 1,

Kenneth Clark Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director and broadcaster. His expertise covered a wide range of artists and periods, but he is particularly associated with Italian Renaissa ...

translated this line as "These men know the pathos of life, and mortal things touch their hearts." The poet

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish Irish poetry, poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is ''Death of a Naturalist'' (1966), his first m ...

rendered the first three words, "There are tears at the heart of things."

Usage

The phrase is sometimes taken out of context, on war memorials for example, as a sad sentiment about life's inescapable sorrows. In the poem the phrase appears as Aeneas realizes that he need not fear for his safety, because he is among people who have compassion and an understanding of human sorrow.

In popular culture

"Sunt Lacrimae rerum" is the fifth piece in

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic music, Romantic period. With a diverse List of compositions by Franz Liszt, body of work spanning more than six ...

's third and last volume of his ''Years of Pilgrimage'' ('' Années de pèlerinage''). David Mitchell uses the phrase as the last sign-off in the letters from Robert Frobisher to his friend Sixsmith in the penultimate section of his novel ''Cloud Atlas''. W. H. Auden uses the phrase in his poem 'A Walk after Dark'.

Wisława Szymborska Maria Wisława Anna SzymborskaVioletta Szostagazeta.pl, 9 February 2012. ostęp 11 February 2012 (; 2 July 1923 – 1 February 2012) was a Polish people, Polish poet, essayist, translator, and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Liter ...

uses the phrase in her poem 'Lata Sześćdziesiąte', translated to English as "A Film From the Sixties". In the introductory video of his

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

series '' The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows'', John Koenig uses the phrase, and sentiment, to introduce his compendium of invented words that aims to fill holes in the English language—to give a name to 'emotions we all feel but don't have a word for'. The line was cited by

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

in the 2020 papal encyclical '' Fratelli tutti'', "On fraternity and social friendship," in reference to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Notes

References

External links

''Aeneid'' Book I at The Latin Library
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lacrimae Rerum Latin words and phrases Words and phrases with no direct English translation Aeneid