Thursday, July 23, 2015

Seize the present, Put minimum trust in tomorrow...

Horace Ode I.11

carpe diem quam minimum credula postero!

The most famous of Horace\'s odes uses agricultural metaphors to urge us to embrace the pleasures available in everyday life instead of relying on remote aspirations for the future - hence his immortal
Latin phrase or motto : carpe diem quam minimum credula postero
 
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
Tyrhenum. Sapias, vina liques, et spatio brevi
spem longam reseces. dum loquimur, fugerit invida
aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.
.

Translation:

Do not ask - we may not know - what end you or I
have been granted by the gods, Leuconoe, and do not try
Babylonian astrology. Better accept whatever will be!
Be it many winters Jupiter has granted, or one last winter
now making the Tyrrhenian sea spend its strength on pitted rocks,
be wise, strain your wine, and life being short,
prune back your hopes for the long term. While we speak, envious time
has flown:

Seize the present, putting as little trust as possible in tomorrow!!

 

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