Horace, Odes 1 ix: carpe diem.

The expression carpe diem is well known, even amongst those without any further knowledge of Latin. It comes from a poem by Horace in which he is talking to his girlfriend Leuconoe (Greek: `empty head’, note that it is a fictitious name). The reader is put in medias res, as overhearing a conversation of which he has to guess the context. Apparently Leuconoe had asked about the future, maybe the future of their love, but Horace points out that we should not weary ourselves with such questions: pluck the day! Let’s hope for Horace that indeed his girlfriend stopped asking.

Horatius, Carmina 1, XI

Meter: greater asclepiad x x  - u u -  - u u -  - u u -  u -

Tu ne quaesieris (scire nefas) quem mihi, quem tibi

finem di dederint, Leuconoe, nec Babylonios

temptaris numeros. Ut melius quicquid erit pati!

Seu pluris 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.

ne quaesi(v)eris: stop asking (the subjunctive of the perfect is often used in prohibitions, as it had for the Romans a more polite ring than the subjunctive of the present.)

nefas: forbidden, impious

finem (vitae)

Babylonios numeros: Babylonian calculations (of the course of stars, thus astrology. Babylonian astrologers were seen as experts in their profession and though they were now and then banned, there was popular demand for their predictions. )

tempto/ tento:  to try, meddle (temptaris = temptaveris)

ut melius: how much better

pati: to endure

seu = sive

pluris = plures

hiemes: years could also be counted in summers or as here in winters (hiems). Counting in winters though has a sombre connotation and especially here, as the poem suggests that the conversation took place during a winter storm.)

ultimam (hiemem), quae:  here the meaning of hiems shifts to `winter storm’.

oppositis debilitat pumicibus mare Tyrrhenum; `makes the sea spend its strength on the confronting rocks’ (T.E. Page in his commentary). The image is thus: the storm makes the Thyrrenian sea beat against the rocks and so lessens (debilitat) its strength. The rocks are however of pumice, as the coastal rocks of Etruria where Horace lived actually are. Pumice is a soft stone, so the gulfs eat holes in it.  Probably storms and rocks are here metaphors for the conditio humana.  

sapias: be wise

vina liques: strain the wine (as wine had a lot of residue, it was poured out through a cloth or sieve.)

spatio brevi spem longam reseces: curtail your excessive hope into a short period (for living).

dum loquimur, fugerit invida aetas: i.e. as long as we keep talking, we can’t enjoy life.

fugerit: will be gone

invida aetas: grudging time

quam minimum credula postero: trusting (credulus) as little as possible on the following day

Translation by A.S. Klyne (2003)

Leuconoë , don’t ask, we never know, what fate the gods grant us,

whether your fate or mine, don’t waste your time on Babylonian,

futile, calculations. How much better to suffer what happens,

whether Jupiter gives us more winters or this is the last one,

one debilitating the Tyrrhenian Sea on opposing cliffs.

Be wise, and mix the wine, since time is short: limit that far-reaching hope.

The envious moment is flying now, now, while we’re speaking:

Seize the day, place in the hours that come as little faith as you can.