On being wrong. Number 1. Love conquers all.

Love conquers all. A very famous phrase. I’d always seen it as a positive quote, showing that, in the end, love shall triumph over hate, peace over war, good shall triumph over evil, life over death.

Except that’s not what it meant at all. I only discovered this today. The words are from Virgil. Originally in Latin, but in this case, the translation is sound. This is from an excellent podcast called Literature and History by Doug Metzer.

Love conquers all is about obsessional love, the kind of love that leads to anger, despair, stalking, jealousy. Love that overtakes reason and common sense, love like a glorious drug that can lead through madness to heights of happiness or the destruction of everything you care about.

I have felt this, have done all the embarrassing things, been consoled by my friends who understood because they too have been to these same places.

The poem it is from is a pastoral poem. These poems often showed life as a lonely shepherd and the dangers of that life. In that aloneness passion, angers and sorrows can grow unchecked, whereas in the city there are distractions to check excesses. So, from the dangers of spending too much time alone, the cure that Virgil suggests is the muses. I have found this helps too. Writing poetry, a love song or painting the passions in bold strokes of bright colours and thick black paint.

Of course, once words have left the author, they change meaning. So, the common meaning now seems to be what I had thought. Love as an idea is stronger than the obsession for one person. Love is entwined with life. The one true cure I have found to heartbreak is to find another to love. So, the widow should remove black clothes after a time and find another heart to join and we should all move on and live while we live. Life is short enough and love will conquer all.