Lacrimae rerum

Lacrimae rerum (Latin: [ˈlakrimai ˈreːrum]) is the Latin for "tears of things." The words themselves are from "lacrima, -ae," a first declension noun meaning "tear" (appearing here in the nominative plural) and from "res, rei" a fifth declension noun meaning "thing" (appearing here in the genitive plural).

The term comes from line 462 of Book I of The Aeneid, an epic poem written in Latin by Virgil, one of Rome's most distinguished poets, in the 1st century BC. Aeneas, while crying, says, "sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt" as he gazes at one of the murals found in a Carthaginian temple (dedicated to Juno), which depicts battles of the Trojan War and deaths of his friends and countrymen. Translated this says, "There are tears of things and mortal things (sufferings) touch the soul." As he stands there, Aeneas is overcome by the futility of warfare and waste of human life. The burden man has to bear, ever present frailty and suffering, is what would define the essence of human experience.

A translation by the famous classicist 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."

See also

• Pathos
• Mono no aware
• Weltschmerz

External links

• The Aeneid Book I at The Latin Library