On the back of an old photo of the tomb of President James Garfield, a friend found this handwritten by someone long ago:
Europa est patria poetarum
Using my very rusty middle school Latin, I’m guessing it means, “Europe is a land of poetry,” but maybe not. Is there a better idiomatic translation? Is it a famous phrase, or a variant thereof? And what would that have to do with Garfield, if anything?
Google has failed me, and I can’t find a good online Latin-to-English site. Thanks.
Europe is the father-land of poets.
Patria does technically mean ‘fatherland’, but ‘homeland’ might be a little less creepy. And it is ‘of poets’ and not ‘of poetry’.
Agreed with Helen’s Eidolon, in English the connotations of “fatherland” make it a negative word, which patria isn’t. It just means homeland.
It is indeed. 
The first time I read the OP I thought it said somebody had written that on the back of Garfield’s tomb.
Thanks, all!
Is it a famous phrase, or a variant thereof?
Just for giggles, I Googled this phrase and the first hit was for this Latin textbook. On page 5 (first declension, Exercise II), it says “Graecia est patria poetarum” – the translation is left as an exercise for the student…