“Who knows?
Better times may come to those in pain.”
Forsan miseros meliora sequentur.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book XII, Line 153 (tr. Fagles)
“I have lived
and journeyed through the course assigned by fortune.
And now my Shade will pass, illustrious,
beneath the earth.”
Vixi, et, quem dederat cursum Fortuna, peregi;
Et nunc magna mei sub terras ibit Imago.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book IV, Lines 653–654 (tr. Allen Mandelbaum)
“Fortune favors the bold.”
Audentes fortuna iuvat.
Audentes fortuna iuvat.
Variant translations:
Fortune favors the brave.
Fortune helps the daring.
Fortune sides with him who dares.
Compare:
Fortibus est fortuna viris data.
Fortune is given to brave men.
Ennius, Annales, 257
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book X, Line 284
“Let my delight be the country, and the running streams amid the dells—may I love the waters and the woods, though I be unknown to fame.”
Rura mihi et rigui placeant in vallibus amnes,
Flumina amem sylvasque inglorius.
Book II, lines 485–486 (tr. Fairclough)
Georgics (29 BC)
“I shall die unavenged, but I shall die,"
she says. "Thus, thus, I gladly go below
to shadows.”
‘Moriemur inultae,
Sed moriamur’ ait. ‘sic, sic juvat ire sub umbras.’
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book IV, Lines 659–660 (tr. Allen Mandelbaum)
“Even here, merit will have its true reward…
even here, the world is a world of tears
and the burdens of mortality touch the heart.”
Sunt hic etiam sua praemia laudi,
Sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book I, Lines 461–462 (tr. Robert Fagles)
“Toil conquered the world, unrelenting toil, and want that pinches when life is hard.”
Labor omnia vicit<!--uicit-->
improbus et duris urgens in rebus egestas.
Book I, lines 145–146 (tr. H. Rushton Fairclough).
Compare: Labor omnia vincit ("Work conquers all"), the state motto of Oklahoma.
Georgics (29 BC)
“Each of us bears his own Hell.”
Quisque suos patimur manis.
Variant: Each one his own hope.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book VI, Line 743
“Love conquers all. Let Love then smile at our defeat.”
Omnia vincit Amor; et nos cedamus Amori.
The Eclogues
Eclogues (37 BC)
Variant: Love conquers all; let us, too, yield to Love!
“If we may compare small things with great.”
Si parva licet componere magnis.
Book IV, line 176 (tr. Fairclough). Cf. Eclogues 1.23.
Georgics (29 BC)
“Wars, horrid wars.”
Bella, horrida bella.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book VI, Line 86
“Euryalus
In death went reeling down,
And blood streamed on his handsome length, his neck
Collapsing let his head fall on his shoulder—
As a bright flower cut by a passing plow
Will droop and wither slowly, or a poppy
Bow its head upon its tired stalk
When overborne by a passing rain.”
Volvitur Euryalus leto, pulchrosque per artus
It cruor inque umeros cervix conlapsa recumbit:
Purpureus veluti cum flos succisus aratro
Languescit moriens; lassove papavera collo
Demisere caput, pluvia cum forte gravantur.
Compare:
Μήκων δ' ὡς ἑτέρωσε κάρη βάλεν, ἥ τ' ἐνὶ κήπῳ
καρπῷ βριθομένη νοτίῃσί τε εἰαρινῇσιν,
ὣς ἑτέρωσ' ἤμυσε κάρη πήληκι βαρυνθέν.
He bent drooping his head to one side, as a garden poppy
bends beneath the weight of its yield and the rains of springtime;
so his head bent slack to one side beneath the helm's weight.
Homer, Iliad, VIII, 306–308 (tr. R. Lattimore)
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book IX, Lines 433–437 (tr. Fitzgerald)
“Unconscionable Love,
To what extremes will you not drive our hearts!”
Improbe Amor, quid non mortalia pectora cogis!
Compare:
Σχέτλι᾽ Ἔρως, μέγα πῆμα, μέγα στύγος ἀνθρώποισιν,
ἐκ σέθεν οὐλόμεναί τ᾽ ἔριδες στοναχαί τε γόοι τε,
ἄλγεά τ᾽ ἄλλ᾽ ἐπὶ τοῖσιν ἀπείρονα τετρήχασιν.
Unconscionable Love, bane and tormentor of mankind, parent of strife, fountain of tears, source of a thousand ills.
Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica, IV, 445–447 (tr. E. V. Rieu)
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book IV, Line 412 (tr. Fitzgerald)
“O farmers, pray that your summers be wet and your winters clear.”
Umida<!--Humida?--> solstitia atque hiemes orate serenas,
agricolae.
Umida solstitia atque hiemes orate serenas,
agricolae.
Book I, lines 100–101
Georgics (29 BC)
“Every field, every tree is now budding; now the woods are green, now the year is at its loveliest.”
Nunc omnis ager, nunc omnis parturit arbor;
Nunc frondent sylvae, nunc formosissimus annus.
Nunc omnis ager, nunc omnis parturit arbor;
Nunc frondent sylvae, nunc formosissimus annus.
Book III, lines 56–57 (tr. Fairclough)
Eclogues (37 BC)
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book VI, Line 100 (tr. Fairclough)
