Ubi sunt
Encyclopedia
Ubi sunt is a phrase taken from the Latin
Ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt?, meaning "Where are those who were before us?". Ubi nunc...? ("Where now?") is a common variant.
Sometimes thought to indicate nostalgia
, the ubi sunt motif is actually a meditation on mortality and life's transience.
Ubi sunt is a phrase that begins several Latin medieval poems
and occurs, for example, in the second stanza of the song "De Brevitate Vitae
" (also known as "Gaudeamus Igitur"). The theme was the common property of medieval Latin poets: Cicero may not have been available, but Boethius' line was known: Ubi nunc fidelis ossa Fabricii manent?
poet François Villon
famously echoes the sentiment in the Ballade des dames du temps jadis
("Ballad of the Ladies of Times Past") with his question, Mais où sont les neiges d'antan? ("Where are the snows of yesteryear?"), a refrain taken up in the bitter and ironic Berthold Brecht/Kurt Weill
"Nannas Lied", expressing the short-term memory without regrets of a hard-bitten prostitute, in the following refrain:
Another famous medieval French writer, Rutebeuf
, wrote a poem called Poèmes de l'infortune ("Poems of the misfortune" —or bad luck—) which contains those verses:
Roughly: "Where are my friends I used to embrace so close and loved so much". In the second half of the 20th century, the singer Léo Ferré
made this poem famous by adding a music. The song was called Pauvre Rutebeuf (Poor - or sad - Rutebeuf).
In "Coplas por la muerte de su padre", the Spanish
poet Jorge Manrique
wrote equally famous stanzas about contemporaries that death had taken away:
(Translation: Simón Saad)
In medieval Persian
poetry, Ubi sunt? is a pervasive theme in The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam:
. The Anglo-Saxons
, at the point in their cultural evolution in which Beowulf was written, experienced an inescapable feeling of doom, symptomatic of ubi sunt yearning. By conquering the Romanized Britons, they were faced with massive stone works and elaborate Celtic
designs that seemed to come from a lost era of glory (called the "work of giants" in The Ruin).
Prominent ubi sunt Anglo-Saxon poems are The Wanderer
, Deor
, The Ruin
, and The Seafarer
(all part of a collection known as the Exeter Book
, the largest surviving collection of Old English literature). The Wanderer most exemplifies Ubi sunt poetry in its use of erotema (the rhetorical question):
In Anglo-Saxon, this passage - from lines 92-96 of the poem - reads as follows:
One modern English translation of this passage is given below:
example following the medieval tradition:
finds skulls in the Graveyard (V. 1), these rhetorical questions appear:
's "translation" of Ossian
. The eighth of Macpherson's Fragments of Ancient Poetry (1760) features Ossian lamenting,
This and Macpherson's subsequent Ossianic texts, Fingal (1761) and Temora (1763), fueled the romantics
' interest in melancholy
and primitivism
.
" by Pete Seeger
and Joe Hickerson
(adapted from a Don Cossack
folk song), and Paula Cole
's 1997 hit song "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone
." Similarly, the opening couplet of Bonnie Tyler
's 1984 hit, "Holding Out for a Hero
", could be viewed as an example of the topos - "Where have all the good men gone and where are all the gods?/ Where's the street-wise Hercules to fight the rising odds?" This is, however, a weaker example than the two given above, since the song does not dwell in the transitory nature of the world which typifies the standard Ubi Sunt treatment.
The final verse of the Paul Simon
song "Mrs. Robinson
" uses the motif, asking, "Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio
?" Simon's later explication of the song's meaning is consistent with the "ubi sunt" motif.
In Joseph Heller
's 1961 novel Catch-22
, the protagonist Yossarian
laments the death of his friend Snowden, saying Where are the Snowdens of yesterday?
Also, Martin Amis
' The War Against Cliché
mentions it in a contemplation of movie violence and Medved's polemic against Hollywood. He asks, "It is Ubi sunt? all over again. Where are they now, the great simplicities of yesterday?"
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...
Ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt?, meaning "Where are those who were before us?". Ubi nunc...? ("Where now?") is a common variant.
Sometimes thought to indicate nostalgia
Nostalgia
The term nostalgia describes a yearning for the past, often in idealized form.The word is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of , meaning "returning home", a Homeric word, and , meaning "pain, ache"...
, the ubi sunt motif is actually a meditation on mortality and life's transience.
Ubi sunt is a phrase that begins several Latin medieval poems
Medieval poetry
Because most of what we have was written down by clerics, much of extant medieval poetry is religious. The chief exception is the work of the troubadours and the minnesänger, whose primary innovation was the ideal of courtly love. Among the most famous of secular poetry is Carmina Burana, a...
and occurs, for example, in the second stanza of the song "De Brevitate Vitae
De Brevitate Vitae
"De Brevitate Vitae" , more commonly known as "Gaudeamus Igitur" or just "Gaudeamus", is a popular academic commercium song in many European countries, mainly sung or performed at university graduation ceremonies...
" (also known as "Gaudeamus Igitur"). The theme was the common property of medieval Latin poets: Cicero may not have been available, but Boethius' line was known: Ubi nunc fidelis ossa Fabricii manent?
Examples
The medieval FrenchFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
poet François Villon
François Villon
François Villon was a French poet, thief, and vagabond. He is perhaps best known for his Testaments and his Ballade des Pendus, written while in prison...
famously echoes the sentiment in the Ballade des dames du temps jadis
Ballade des Dames du Temps Jadis
The Ballade des dames du temps jadis is a poem by François Villon which celebrates famous women in history and mythology, and a prominent example of the "Ubi Sunt ?" genre...
("Ballad of the Ladies of Times Past") with his question, Mais où sont les neiges d'antan? ("Where are the snows of yesteryear?"), a refrain taken up in the bitter and ironic Berthold Brecht/Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
"Nannas Lied", expressing the short-term memory without regrets of a hard-bitten prostitute, in the following refrain:
Wo sind die Tränen von gestern abend?
Wo ist der Schnee vom vergangenen Jahr?
Another famous medieval French writer, Rutebeuf
Rutebeuf
Rutebeuf , a trouvère, was born in the first half of the 13th century, possibly in Champagne ; he was evidently of humble birth, and he was a Parisian by education and residence. His name is nowhere mentioned by his contemporaries...
, wrote a poem called Poèmes de l'infortune ("Poems of the misfortune" —or bad luck—) which contains those verses:
Que sont mes amis devenus
Que j'avais de si près tenus
Et tant aimés ?
Roughly: "Where are my friends I used to embrace so close and loved so much". In the second half of the 20th century, the singer Léo Ferré
Léo Ferré
Léo Ferré was a Franco-Monegasque poet, composer, singer and musician.Born in Monaco, Ferré mixed love and melancholy with moral anarchy, lyricism with slang, rhyming verse with prose monologues...
made this poem famous by adding a music. The song was called Pauvre Rutebeuf (Poor - or sad - Rutebeuf).
In "Coplas por la muerte de su padre", the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
poet Jorge Manrique
Jorge Manrique
Jorge Manrique was a major Spanish poet, whose main work, the Coplas a la muerte de su padre , is still read today...
wrote equally famous stanzas about contemporaries that death had taken away:
¿Qué se fizo el rey don Juan?
Los infantes de Aragón
¿qué se fizieron?
¿Qué fue de tanto galán,
qué fue de tanta invención
como trujeron?
Las justas y los torneos,
paramentos, bordaduras
y cimeras,
¿fueron sino devaneos?
¿qué fueron sino verduras
de las eras?
What became of King Don Juan?
The Princes of Aragon,
What became of all of them?
What of so much handsome nobility?
And of all the many fads
They brought with them?
What of their jousts and tournaments,
Gilded ornaments, fancy embroideries
And feathered tops?
Was all of that meaningless waste?
Was it all anything else but a summer's green
on the fields?
(Translation: Simón Saad)
In medieval Persian
Persian literature
Persian literature spans two-and-a-half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. Its sources have been within historical Persia including present-day Iran as well as regions of Central Asia where the Persian language has historically been the national language...
poetry, Ubi sunt? is a pervasive theme in The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam:
Each Morn a thousand Roses brings, you say:
Yes, but where leaves the Rose of Yesterday?
And this first Summer month that brings the Rose
Shall take JamshydJamshidJamshid is a mythological figure of Greater Iranian culture and tradition.In tradition and folklore, Jamshid is described as having been the fourth and greatest king of the epigraphically unattested Pishdadian dynasty . This role is already alluded to in Zoroastrian scripture Jamshid (Middle-...
and Kaikobad away.
Anglo-Saxon
A general feeling of ubi sunt radiates from the text of BeowulfBeowulf
Beowulf , but modern scholars agree in naming it after the hero whose life is its subject." of an Old English heroic epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative long lines, set in Scandinavia, commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature.It survives in a single...
. The Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
, at the point in their cultural evolution in which Beowulf was written, experienced an inescapable feeling of doom, symptomatic of ubi sunt yearning. By conquering the Romanized Britons, they were faced with massive stone works and elaborate Celtic
Celtic art
Celtic art is the art associated with the peoples known as Celts; those who spoke the Celtic languages in Europe from pre-history through to the modern period, as well as the art of ancient peoples whose language is uncertain, but have cultural and stylistic similarities with speakers of Celtic...
designs that seemed to come from a lost era of glory (called the "work of giants" in The Ruin).
Prominent ubi sunt Anglo-Saxon poems are The Wanderer
The Wanderer (poem)
The Wanderer is an Old English poem preserved only in an anthology known as the Exeter Book, a manuscript dating from the late 10th century. It counts 115 lines of alliterative verse...
, Deor
Deor
"Deor" is an Old English poem found in the late 10th century collection the Exeter Book. The poem consists of the lament of the scop Deor, who lends his name to the poem, which was given no formal title. Modern scholars do not actually believe Deor to be the author of this poem.In the poem, Deor's...
, The Ruin
The Ruin
"The Ruin" is an 8th-century Old English poem from the Exeter Book by an unknown author. The Exeter Book is a large book of mostly Christian verse, which contains about one-third of the extant Old English poems...
, and The Seafarer
Seafarer (poem)
The Seafarer is an Old English poem recorded in the Exeter Book, one of the four surviving manuscripts of Old English poetry. It consists of 124 lines, followed by the single word "Amen". In the past it has been frequently referred to as an elegy, a poem that mourns a loss, or has the more general...
(all part of a collection known as the Exeter Book
Exeter Book
The Exeter Book, Exeter Cathedral Library MS 3501, also known as the Codex Exoniensis, is a tenth-century book or codex which is an anthology of Anglo-Saxon poetry. It is one of the four major Anglo-Saxon literature codices. The book was donated to the library of Exeter Cathedral by Leofric, the...
, the largest surviving collection of Old English literature). The Wanderer most exemplifies Ubi sunt poetry in its use of erotema (the rhetorical question):
In Anglo-Saxon, this passage - from lines 92-96 of the poem - reads as follows:
Hwær cwom mearg? Hwær cwom mago? Hwær cwom maþþumgyfa?
Hwær cwom symbla gesetu? Hwær sindon seledreamas?
[...]Hu seo þrag gewat,
genap under nihthelm, swa heo no wære.
One modern English translation of this passage is given below:
Where is the horse gone? Where the rider? Where the giver of treasure?
Where are the seats at the feast? Where are the revels in the hall?
[...]How that time has passed away,
grown dark under cover of night, as if it had never been.
Middle English
The 13th century poem "Ubi Sunt Qui Ante Nos Fuerunt" is a Middle EnglishMiddle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
example following the medieval tradition:
Uuere beþ þey biforen vs weren,
Houndes ladden and hauekes beren
And hadden feld and wode?
Þe riche leuedies in hoere bour,
Þat wereden gold in hoere tressour
Wiþ hoere briȝtte rode; ...
Shakespeare
Ubi sunt poetry also figures in some of Shakespeare's plays. When HamletHamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
finds skulls in the Graveyard (V. 1), these rhetorical questions appear:
Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath bore me on his back a thousand times, and now how abhorr'd in my imagination it is! my gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kiss'd I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now, your gambols, your songs, your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one
now to mock your own grinning -- quite chap-fall'n. Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she must come; make her laugh at that.
18th century
Interest in the ubi sunt motif enjoyed a renaissance during the late 18th century following the publication of James MacphersonJames Macpherson
James Macpherson was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the "translator" of the Ossian cycle of poems.-Early life:...
's "translation" of Ossian
Ossian
Ossian is the narrator and supposed author of a cycle of poems which the Scottish poet James Macpherson claimed to have translated from ancient sources in the Scots Gaelic. He is based on Oisín, son of Finn or Fionn mac Cumhaill, anglicised to Finn McCool, a character from Irish mythology...
. The eighth of Macpherson's Fragments of Ancient Poetry (1760) features Ossian lamenting,
Where is FingalFionn mac CumhaillFionn mac Cumhaill , known in English as Finn McCool, was a mythical hunter-warrior of Irish mythology, occurring also in the mythologies of Scotland and the Isle of Man...
the King? where is OscurOscar (Irish mythology)Oscar is a figure in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology. He is the warrior son of Oisín and the fairy woman Niamh, who also bore his sister, Plor na mBan. Oisín, in turn, was the son of the epic hero Fionn mac Cumhail...
my son? where are all my race? Alas! in the earth they lie. I feel their tombs with my hands. I hear the river below murmuring hoarsely over the stones. What dost thou, O river, to me? Thou bringest back the memory of the past.
This and Macpherson's subsequent Ossianic texts, Fingal (1761) and Temora (1763), fueled the romantics
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
' interest in melancholy
Melancholia
Melancholia , also lugubriousness, from the Latin lugere, to mourn; moroseness, from the Latin morosus, self-willed, fastidious habit; wistfulness, from old English wist: intent, or saturnine, , in contemporary usage, is a mood disorder of non-specific depression,...
and primitivism
Primitivism
Primitivism is a Western art movement that borrows visual forms from non-Western or prehistoric peoples, such as Paul Gauguin's inclusion of Tahitian motifs in paintings and ceramics...
.
20th century
Two examples of 20th century popular music which incorporate the ubi sunt motif are the 1960s folk song "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?Where Have All the Flowers Gone?
"Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" is a folk song. The first three verses were written by Pete Seeger in 1955, and published in Sing Out! magazine...
" by Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
and Joe Hickerson
Joe Hickerson
Joe Hickerson is a noted folk singer and songleader. For 35 years he was Librarian and Director of the Archive of Folk Song at the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress...
(adapted from a Don Cossack
Don Cossacks
Don Cossacks were Cossacks who settled along the middle and lower Don.- Etymology and origins :The Don Cossack Host was a frontier military organization from the end of the 16th until the early 20th century....
folk song), and Paula Cole
Paula Cole
Paula Cole is an American singer/songwriter. Her single "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone" reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1997, and the following year she won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist.-Early life:...
's 1997 hit song "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone
Where Have All the Cowboys Gone
"Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?" is a song by Paula Cole. It is featured in her album This Fire. The song is Cole's only U.S. Top Ten hit on Billboards Hot 100, reaching number 8...
." Similarly, the opening couplet of Bonnie Tyler
Bonnie Tyler
Bonnie Tyler is a Welsh singer, most notable for her hits in the 1970s and 1980s including "It's a Heartache", "Holding Out for a Hero" and "Total Eclipse of the Heart".-Early life:...
's 1984 hit, "Holding Out for a Hero
Holding Out for a Hero
"Holding Out for a Hero" is a song written by Jim Steinman and Dean Pitchford, originally recorded by Bonnie Tyler. It was released in 1984 on the soundtrack to the film Footloose. It later appeared on Tyler's Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire album. It hit #96 for the first time in UK in 1984,...
", could be viewed as an example of the topos - "Where have all the good men gone and where are all the gods?/ Where's the street-wise Hercules to fight the rising odds?" This is, however, a weaker example than the two given above, since the song does not dwell in the transitory nature of the world which typifies the standard Ubi Sunt treatment.
The final verse of the Paul Simon
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
song "Mrs. Robinson
Mrs. Robinson
"Mrs. Robinson" is a song written by Paul Simon and first performed by Simon & Garfunkel. When released as a single in 1968, it hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the US, for their second chart-topping hit after "The Sound of Silence"...
" uses the motif, asking, "Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio
Joe DiMaggio
Joseph Paul "Joe" DiMaggio , nicknamed "Joltin' Joe" and "The Yankee Clipper," was an American Major League Baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career for the New York Yankees. He is perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak , a record that still stands...
?" Simon's later explication of the song's meaning is consistent with the "ubi sunt" motif.
In Joseph Heller
Joseph Heller
Joseph Heller was a US satirical novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His best known work is Catch-22, a novel about US servicemen during World War II...
's 1961 novel Catch-22
Catch-22
Catch-22 is a satirical, historical novel by the American author Joseph Heller. He began writing it in 1953, and the novel was first published in 1961. It is set during World War II in 1943 and is frequently cited as one of the great literary works of the twentieth century...
, the protagonist Yossarian
Yossarian
This article is about a "Catch-22" character. For the meerkat from "Meerkat Manor", see List of "Meerkat Manor" meerkats - Yossarian.Capt. John Joseph Yossarian is a fictional character and protagonist in Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22 and its sequel Closing Time...
laments the death of his friend Snowden, saying Where are the Snowdens of yesterday?
Also, Martin Amis
Martin Amis
Martin Louis Amis is a British novelist, the author of many novels including Money and London Fields . He is currently Professor of Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester, but will step down at the end of the 2010/11 academic year...
' The War Against Cliché
The War Against Cliché
The War Against Cliché is an anthology of essays, book reviews and literary criticism from the British author Martin Amis. The collection received the National Book Critics Circle award in 2001.-Title:...
mentions it in a contemplation of movie violence and Medved's polemic against Hollywood. He asks, "It is Ubi sunt? all over again. Where are they now, the great simplicities of yesterday?"