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Horace, Odes, 1.11

The phrase “Carpe diem” comes from Horace, Book I, poem 11. I found a humble translation that I did years ago in a totally forgotten archive, and liked it well enough to post it on my Facebook page:

 

Tu ne quaesieris—scire nefas—quem mihi, quem tibi

finem di dederint, Leuconoë, nec Babylonios 

temptaris numeros. Ut melius quicquid erit pati,

seu plures hiemes, seu tribuit Iuppiter ultimam,

quae nunc oppositis debilitat pumicibus mare 

Tyrrhenum. Sapias, vina liques, et spatio brevi

spem longam reseces. Dum loquimur, fugerit invida

aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.

 

Don’t ask, my friend, what end the gods will give

to me or you: it isn’t ours to find or know.

What comes endure, whether we’ve winters more 

or this the last that beats the sea against the white 

worn cliffs. Be wise. Stay busy, strain the wine. 

Life’s short. Cut off all longed for hopes.

Even as we speak envious time has slipped 

away. Seize the day rather than tomorrow.

 

Seventy-five FB friends liked it and fourteen commented. One friend, Dan Curley, who teaches Latin in upstate New York, shared his own translation in the comments:

Here’s mine, after my dear friend and mentor passed in 2016. Horace, Odes 1.11

 

Don’t ask, it’s wrong to know, what end the gods

Have set for me, for you, Leuconoë, and leave astrology

Alone. How much better, whatever will be, to persevere,

Whether Jupiter has allotted more winters or our last,

Now exhausting the Tyrrhenian Sea and its pumice

Breakers. Be wise, decant the wine, prune distant plans

Since our time is brief. Even as we speak, a callous era

Will pass. Pluck this day, trust the next least of all.

 

I responded: Dan Curley, it’s beautiful. I may steal a word or two.

 

He responded: Thanks, Don. That means a lot. For me the issue is what “carpe” means. Seems to be an agricultural metaphor: harvest, pluck, something like that.

 

I responded: Pluck is great. I’m envious. I was just going with what the common crowd says.

 

Dan: I admire the distillation — and the judicious editing (no Jupiter, for example) — in your rendering.

 

Me: I often try not to mention stuff that the average reader might not have heard of. Leuconoë becomes my friend and nec Babylonios temptaris numeros becomes simply find. I really liked “and leave astrology / Alone.”

 

Dan: That’s a good tack overall. The message can get lost in the Roman particulars.

 

Then Sheenagh Pugh, another FB friend, responded: Dan Curley I like that, because I always see “carpe” as meaning “pluck”, with the fingers, like a fruit, rather than “seize”.

 

And there you have it.

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