Happy New Year!
Jan. 1st, 2005 10:18 amHorace Ode I-XI, courtesy of my l33t hungover translation skills.
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.
Do not ask - it is not permitted to know - what end
the gods have in store for us, Leuconoë, nor attempt
Babylonion fortune-telling. It is better, whatever comes, to endure it,
Whether Jupiter grants us more winters or whether this is the last
That beats against the worn rocks of the Tuscan Sea.
Be wise, decant the wine, and trim your long hopes
To fit a short span. Even while we speak, jealous time
Has slipped away: Pluck the day, trusting but little in tomorrow.
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.
Do not ask - it is not permitted to know - what end
the gods have in store for us, Leuconoë, nor attempt
Babylonion fortune-telling. It is better, whatever comes, to endure it,
Whether Jupiter grants us more winters or whether this is the last
That beats against the worn rocks of the Tuscan Sea.
Be wise, decant the wine, and trim your long hopes
To fit a short span. Even while we speak, jealous time
Has slipped away: Pluck the day, trusting but little in tomorrow.