"Cursum Perficio" came about after Enya and the Ryans had seen a documentary on American actress and model Marilyn Monroe, who once wrote the phrase on the tiles on her front doorstep. It means "Your journey ends here" in Latin, and Roma completed a set of Latin lyrics based around the phrase. Enya wanted her vocals to be "bold and up-front" like that of a choral piece, and realised early on that translating its lyrics into English or Irish would not complement the music, so Latin was used.