Oct 30 2008
Carpe Diem
Yesterday I noted that harvest derives from the Proto Indo-European root *kerp-, a root which also gives us Modern English excerpt and scarce, both from Latin carpere, “to pluck.”
In Latin, carpere is usually used in the context of picking or plucking things like fruit, or flowers. You might be more familiar with carpere via the Latin tag carpe diem, or “seize the day,” an “admonition,” as the AHD puts it, “to seize the pleasures of the moment without concern for the future. ” Carpe diem was immortalized by Horace, the Latin poet who lived from 65 B. C. E. –8 B. C. E., in his Latin “Ode 11″ from Book I (Horace’s own title was “Carmina,” or “Songs”). Here’s Horace’s “Ode 1.11″, in Latin and English:
| Tu ne quaesieris, scire nefas, quem mihi, quem tibi Leuconoe, | don’t ask — it’s a sin to know— |
| finem di dederint, Leuconoe, nec Babylonios | what end the gods will give me or you. Don’t play with Babylonian |
| temptaris numeros. ut melius, quidquid erit, pati. | fortune-telling either. It is better to endure whatever will be. |
| seu pluris hiemes seu tribuit Iuppiter ultimam, | Whether Jupiter has allotted to you many more winters or this final one |
| quae nunc oppositis debilitat pumicibus mare | which even now wears out the Tyrrhenian sea on the rocks placed opposite |
| Tyrrhenum: sapias, vina liques et spatio brevi | — be smart, drink your wine. Scale back your long hopes |
| spem longam reseces. dum loquimur, fugerit invida | to a short period. While we speak, envious time will have {already} fled |
| aetas: carpe diem quam minimum credula postero. | Seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the future. |
This particular poem was published in 23 B. C. E., and yet we still find ourselves, as others before us, called by the idea of “seizing the day,” or living today, because tomorrow is uncertain. Other poets have picked up on the idea as well, most notably Andrew Marvell in “To His Coy Mistress,” and Robert Herrick, “To the Virgins to Make Much of Time,” an inspiration to Robin Williams’ character in Dead Poets Society (1989). Steve Martin also riffs on carpe diem in the 1987 film Roxanne.
