Ubi bene ibi patria

The photo at the top of this page was taken in the philosophical garden of the Erasmus House in Anderlecht, in Belgium. It features almond-shaped ponds designed by Belgian artist Marie-Jo Lafontaine. Latin mottoes in bronze letters appear on their surface. Ubi bene, ibi patria litteraly means Where you are well, there is your fatherland.

Quaevis terra patria

Similar to the first adage we find Quaevis terra patria. This is the adage ¶ 1193 discussed by Erasmus of Rotterdam in Adagia, his large collection of adages. It litterally means To have the world as your homeland. Erasmus wrote that "the adage reminds us that a wise and honest man finds happiness wherever he lives".

In his commentary, Erasmus mentions other related statements, such as Solum omne patria, prospere quicumque agit (i.e., Whoever has a prosperous life, has any land as fatherland) and Patria est, ubicumque est bene (i.e., Fatherland is where you feel good), as said by Tuecer in the Tusculanae Disputationes of Cicero.

The statement Ellic enim patria est, ubi tibi sit bene appears in a dialog between Cario and Hermes, in the verse 1151 of Ploutos, a comedy written by Aristophanes.

Translations in multiple languages

By alphabetical order

Arabic: المكان الذي تجد فيه راحتك هو

Bengali: সেই তো আমার দেশ, যেখানে আছি বেশ।

Croatian: Gdje je dobro, ondje je i domovina

Danish: Hvor man befinder sig godt, der er ens fædreland

Dutch: Waar men zich goed voelt, daar is zijn vaderland

English: Where you feel good, there is your home

Finnish: Missä parhaat edut, siellä kotimaa

French: La patrie est là où l'on se sent bien

Fula: É adouna ɗo ndagnɗa diam fo ko ɗone woni gallé ma

German: Wo es mir gut geht, dort ist mein Vaterland

Greek: όπου καλώς, εκεί πατρίδα όπου γης/γη και πατρίς/πατρίδα

Hindi: आपको जहाँ पे अछा लगता हो वही अपना घर है

Hungarian: Ott a hazánk, ahol jó dolgunk van

Italian: Dove sto bene li è la mia patria

Japanese: 人が幸福なるところ、そこに彼の祖国あり

Mandarin: 大抵心安即是家

Mooré: Bayiri nkoun lobe ni kouriyé

Norwegian: Der hvor jeg har det godt, er mitt fedreland

Papiamentu: Kaminda bo ta sinti bon, esei ta bo lugá

Polish: Tam ojczyzna, gdzie jest dobrze

Portuguese: Onde se está bem, aí é a pátria

Provençal: Aqui ount se capito vai bèn, patrìo es aqui

Romanian: Unde-i bine, acolo este patria

Russian: Где хорошо, там и родина

Sicilian: A me casa e quandu sugnu bene

Slovenian: Če je dobro, da je moja država

Spanish: Donde se está bien, allí está la patria

Swedish: Där jag har det bra, där är mitt fädernesland

Turkish: Nere İyi Ora Vatan

Walloon: Là qu l'on es bin , on es ece mohoe

Wolof: Thi adouna lep, fouma am djam, fôfou moy souma ker

Acknowledgement

For the translations, I want to thank Alma, Armaan, Benjamin, Catherine, Claire-Bénédicte, Ehsan, François, Henrique, Ibrahim, Léo, Macha, Mamadou, Marc, Michel, Natalia and the numerous anonymous translators whose contributions have been found on the Web.




— 16 November 2023