Collige virgo rosas.
gather, girl, the roses
Memento mori.
remember that you are mortal
Tu ne quaesieris, scire nefas, quem mihi, quem tibi
Leuconoe, don't ask — it's dangerous 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. Better just deal with whatever comes your way.
seu pluris hiemes seu tribuit Iuppiter ultimam,
Whether you'll see several more winters or whether the last one
quae nunc oppositis debilitat pumicibus mare
Jupiter gives you is the one even now pelting the rocks on the shore with the waves
Tyrrhenum: sapias, vina liques et spatio brevi
of the Tyrrhenian sea--be smart, drink your wine. Scale back your long hopes
spem longam reseces. dum loquimur, fugerit invida
to a short period. Even as we speak, envious time
aetas: carpe diem quam minimum credula postero.
is running away from us. Seize the day, trusting little in the future.
(Horace)
Does anyone want to see a story
of the passionate embrace of reality
through living in the now—the only time we have
between life's parentheses of birth and death?