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| Tu ne quaesieris, scire nefas, quem mihi, quem tibi finem di dederint, Leuconoe, nec Babylonios temptaris numeros. ut melius, quidquid erit, pati, seu pluris hiemes seu tribuit Iuppeiter 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 (we may not know), Leucone, What the gods plan for you or me. Leave the Chaldees to parse The sentence of the stars. Better to bear the outcome, good or bad, Whether Jove purposes to add Fresh winters to the past Or to make this the last Which now tires out the Tuscan sea and mocks, Its strength with barricades of rocks. Be wise, strain clear the wine And prune the rambling vine Of expectation. Life's short. Even while We talk Time, hateful, runs a mile. Don't trust tomorrow's bough For fruit. Pluck this, here, now. -----translation by James Michie |
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| Odes, Book I, Ode XI |
| This is the ode in which Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) uses the famous phrase, Carpe Diem. |
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