1
No, there’s no use in crying
over my stone:
you would never be able to get
the door of the other world to open up again.
When the dead disappear
there in the netherworld,
they will never be able to walk again
on the paths they once walked down.
And if your prayers
should reach Avernus,2
your tears would fall down silently
on the deaf shore of Acheron.3
Only the gods of the heavens
might be moved by your crying,
but the door that closed on the grave
would still remain below the grass.
No, there’s no use in crying
over my stone:
you would never be able to get
the door of the other world to open up again.
1. This song was inspired by Elegy XI of Book IV by Sextus Propertius.2. Avernus (or Ade) was the Greek and Roman underworld.3. Acheron is a river of the Roman underworld; dead souls had to cross it to reach Avernus.