sunt lacrimae rerum
from Virgil’s Aeneid (Book I, line 462)
‘There are tears for things’ / ‘There are tears of things’
These words have challenged translators for centuries due to their profound ambiguity and philosophical depth. Many try to preserve this productive ambiguity.
Objective Genitive Reading:
“Tears FOR things” - suggesting humans weeping about or in response to worldly matters.
Subjective Genitive Reading:
“Tears OF things” - suggesting that things themselves weep or contain sorrow.
The phrase has been interpreted in several ways by translators, poets and writers.
1. Objective genitive: "tears for things" or "tears shed over things"
- Robert Fagles: "the world is a world of tears"
- John Dryden: "tears that flow for human things"
2. Subjective genitive: "tears that belong to things" or "the tears things themselves weep"
- Seamus Heaney: "there are tears at the heart of things"
- Robert Fitzgerald: "the tears of things"
3. Some translators try to capture both possibilities:
- David Ferry combines both readings: "There are tears in the nature of things"
- Allen Mandelbaum: "here, too, things touch the heart"