Latin expression meaning roughly: "The glory of the world is fleeting."

Or even more roughly: "Don't get too happy, sonny, 'cause it ain't gonna last long."

Directly translated, it means "Thus passes [the] glory of [the] world."

This phrase is said during the coronation ceremony of a new Pope
(no, not Kurt the Pope)
one of the priests (a master of ceremonies) holds 3 bundles of ropes before the newly elected Pope and lights them on fire,
saying "Sancte Pater sic transit gloria mundi"
("Holy Father, thus passes the glory of the world")
This useful little reminder of transitionality has a number of variants and related phrases, including "memento mori" and "this too shall pass". Among these, one originates in A Canticle for Leibowitz - the lauded post-apocalyptic novel that also brought us "Flame Deluge" - and far outshines its fellows in impact:

Sic transit mundus.
So passes the world.

Bleak. Final. Unarguable.
Lacking even the small hope inherent in the original.
The first on my list of things to shout from the rooftops when nuclear war comes.

Earth and sky - meet, a river's end. Sand,
silt to sea. Roots made bare
by erosion, the clouds
from the west, come east.

Silent as the sea's depths, the sky
to give soft rain. Sand to sea, and
sea to clouds. A flicker, a delta,
and a dream.

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