Lacrimae rerum (ˈlakrimai ˈreːrum) is the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 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

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 by Virgil

Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...

, one of Rome

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

's most distinguished poets, in the 1st century BC. Aeneas

Aeneas

Aeneas , in Greco-Roman mythology, was a Trojan hero, the son of the prince Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite. His father was the second cousin of King Priam of Troy, making Aeneas Priam's second cousin, once removed. The journey of Aeneas from Troy , which led to the founding a hamlet south of...

, while crying, says, "sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt" as he gazes at one of the murals found in a Carthaginian temple, which depicts battles of the Trojan War

Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...

 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

Human

Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...

 life

Life

Life is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have signaling and self-sustaining processes from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased , or else because they lack such functions and are classified as inanimate...

. 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

Robert Fitzgerald

Robert Stuart Fitzgerald was a poet, critic and translator whose renderings of the Greek classics "became standard works for a generation of scholars and students." He was best known as a translator of ancient Greek and Latin...

, meanwhile, translates it as: "They weep here \ For how the world goes, and our life that passes \ Touches their hearts."

External links

• The Aeneid Book I at The Latin Library