Carpe diem is a phrase from a
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
poem by
HoraceQuintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...
(see "Source" section below) that has become an
aphorismAn aphorism is an original thought, spoken or written in a laconic and memorable form.The term was first used in the Aphorisms of Hippocrates...
. It is popularly translated as "seize the day".
Carpe literally means "to pick, pluck, pluck off, cull, crop, gather", but
OvidPublius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
used the word in the sense of, "to enjoy, seize, use, make use of".
Carpe diem is a phrase from a
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
poem by
HoraceQuintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...
(see "Source" section below) that has become an
aphorismAn aphorism is an original thought, spoken or written in a laconic and memorable form.The term was first used in the Aphorisms of Hippocrates...
. It is popularly translated as "seize the day".
Carpe literally means "to pick, pluck, pluck off, cull, crop, gather", but
OvidPublius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
used the word in the sense of, "to enjoy, seize, use, make use of".
Meaning
In
HoraceQuintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...
, the phrase is part of the longer
Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero – "Seize the Day, putting as little trust as possible in the future", and the ode says that the future is unforeseen, and that instead one should scale back one's hopes to a brief future, and drink one's wine. This phrase is usually understood against Horace's Epicurean background.
Hebrew
The phrase "And if not now, when?" (Pirkei Avoth 1:14)
Other Latin
The phrase
Collige, virgo, rosas [...] ("gather, girl, the roses") appears at the end of the poem
De rosis nascentibus (also called
Idyllium de rosis) attributed to
AusoniusDecimius Magnus Ausonius was a Latin poet and rhetorician, born at Burdigala .-Biography:Decimius Magnus Ausonius was born in Bordeaux in ca. 310. His father was a noted physician of Greek ancestry and his mother was descended on both sides from long-established aristocratic Gallo-Roman families...
or
VirgilPublius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
. It encourages youth to enjoy life before it is too late; compare
Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye MayGather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May is an oil painting on canvas created in 1909 by British Pre-Raphaelite artist, John William Waterhouse. It was the second of two paintings inspired by the 17th century poem "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" by Robert Herrick which begins:Gather ye rosebuds while...
from
To the Virgins, to Make Much of TimeTo the Virgins, to Make Much of Time is a poem written by Robert Herrick in the 17th century. The poem is in the genre of carpe diem, Latin for seize the day.- Theme: Carpe diem :...
.
Related but distinct is the expression
memento moriMemento mori is a Latin phrase translated as "Remember your mortality", "Remember you must die" or "Remember you will die". It names a genre of artistic work which varies widely, but which all share the same purpose: to remind people of their own mortality...
("remember that you are mortal") which carries some of the same connotation as
carpe diem. For Horace, mindfulness of our own mortality is key in making us realize the importance of the moment. "Remember that you are mortal, so seize the day." Over time the phrase
memento mori also came to be associated with penitence, as suggested in many
vanitasIn the arts, vanitas is a type of symbolic work of art especially associated with Northern European still life painting in Flanders and the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries, though also common in other places and periods. The word is Latin, meaning "emptiness" and loosely translated...
paintings. Today many listeners will take the two phrases as representing almost opposite approaches, with 'carpe diem' urging us to savour life and 'memento mori' urging us to resist its allure. This is not the original sense of the
memento mori phrase as used by Horace.
Similarly,
ubi suntUbi sunt is a phrase taken from the Latin Ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt?, meaning "Where are those who were before us?"...
– "where are they [now]?" – invokes transience and meditation on death, but is not an exhortation to action. Compare
Dead Poets SocietyDead Poets Society is a 1989 American drama film directed by Peter Weir and starring Robin Williams. Set at the conservative and aristocratic Welton Academy in Vermont in 1959, it tells the story of an English teacher who inspires his students through his teaching of poetry.The script was written...
, where a trophy case filled with pictures of long-dead boys ("these boys are now fertilizing daffodils") leads to an invocation of
carpe diem.
De Brevitate Vitae"De Brevitate Vitae" , more commonly known as "Gaudeamus Igitur" or just "Gaudeamus", is a popular academic commercium song in many European countries, mainly sung or performed at university graduation ceremonies...
("On the Shortness of Life"), often referred to as
Gaudeamus igitur, ("Let us rejoice") is a popular academic
commercium songCommercium songs are traditional academic songs that are sung during academic feasts: commerciums and tablerounds.Some very old commercium songs are in Latin, like Meum est propositum or Gaudeamus igitur....
, on taking joy in student life, with the knowledge that one will someday die. It is medieval Latin, dating to 1287.
Horace himself parodies the phrase in another of his poems, 'The town mouse and the country mouse'. He uses the phrase
carpe viam meaning 'seize the road' to compare the two different attitudes to life of a person (or in this case, a mouse) living in a city and in the countryside.
Source
Original usage from
Odes 1.11, in Latin and English:
| Tu ne quaesieris, scire nefas, quem mihi, quem tibi |
Don't ask (it's forbidden to know) what end |
| finem di dederint, Leuconoe, nec Babylonios |
the gods have granted to me or you, Leuconoe. Don't play with BabylonianIn Babylon as well as in Assyria as a direct offshoot of Babylonian culture, astrology takes its place in theofficial cult as one of the two chief means at the disposal of the priests for ascertaining the will and intention of the gods, the other being through the inspection of the liver of the...
|
| temptaris numeros. ut melius, quidquid erit, pati. |
fortune-telling either. How much better it is 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 Tyrrhenum: |
which even now wears out the Tyrrhenian sea on the rocks placed opposite |
| sapias, vina liques et spatio brevi |
— be wise, strain the wine, and 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. |
Popular culture
In
Phineas and FerbPhineas and Ferb is an American animated television comedy series. Originally broadcast as a preview on August 17, 2007, on Disney Channel, the series follows Phineas Flynn and his English stepbrother Ferb Fletcher on summer vacation. Every day the boys embark on some grand new project, which...
,
PhineasPhineas Flynn is the main protagonist of the animated television series Phineas and Ferb. Voiced by Vincent Martella and created and designed by Dan Povenmire, Phineas first appeared along with the rest of the series' main characters in the pilot episode "Rollercoaster." Phineas, along with his...
and the cast sing a song titled "Carpe Diem". Live life to the fullest.
John Keating, a character played by
Robin WilliamsRobin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
in the film
Dead Poets SocietyDead Poets Society is a 1989 American drama film directed by Peter Weir and starring Robin Williams. Set at the conservative and aristocratic Welton Academy in Vermont in 1959, it tells the story of an English teacher who inspires his students through his teaching of poetry.The script was written...
(1989) says, "Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary." The
American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
ranked this line number 95 in its list of the 100 best quotations in American film history, even though Steve Martin said it first in the film
RoxanneRoxanne is a 1987 comedy film directed by Fred Schepisi. It is a modern retelling of the 1897 verse play Cyrano de Bergerac, written by French author Edmond Rostand, and stars Steve Martin and Daryl Hannah.-Plot summary:...
(1987).
In the Oscar-winning short
Harvie KrumpetHarvie Krumpet is an Australian clay animation made in Melbourne written, directed and animated by Adam Elliot and produced by Melanie Coombs. This short film won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film in 2003, in addition to numerous festival awards and the 2004 Australian Film Institute Best...
, Harvie's empty life is changed completely when he sees the inscription underneath a statue of Horace, prompting him to seize the day and do as he pleases.
The TV series
CommunityCommunity is an American television comedy series created by Dan Harmon that airs on NBC. The series is about a group of students at a community college in the fictional locale of Greendale, Colorado. The series heavily uses meta-humor and pop culture references, often parodying film and television...
has paid homage to
Dead Poets SocietyDead Poets Society is a 1989 American drama film directed by Peter Weir and starring Robin Williams. Set at the conservative and aristocratic Welton Academy in Vermont in 1959, it tells the story of an English teacher who inspires his students through his teaching of poetry.The script was written...
by having a professor of accounting over-enthusiastically prod his students to "seize the day" in order to pass the class.
Seize the Day is name of a song by American heavy metal band
Avenged SevenfoldAvenged Sevenfold is an American heavy metal band from Huntington Beach, California. Formed in 1999, the group consists of vocalist M. Shadows, lead guitarist Synyster Gates, rhythm guitarist Zacky Vengeance, bassist Johnny Christ....
, from their 2005 album
City of EvilCity of Evil is the third studio album and first major label release by American metal band Avenged Sevenfold. The album was released on June 7, 2005 under the Warner Bros. Records label. Co-produced by Andrew Murdock, City of Evil contains a more hard rock and classic heavy metal sound than...
.
'Carpe Diem Baby' is name of a song by American heavy metal band
MetallicaMetallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
, from their 1997 album
ReLoadReLoad is the seventh studio album by the American heavy metal band Metallica. It was released on November 18, 1997 through Elektra Records. The album is a sequel or counterpart to the band's previous album, Load. It debuted number 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 417,000 copies in its first week....
.
'Seize the Day' is also a song from a musical called
NewsiesNewsies is a 1992 Disney musical film starring Christian Bale, David Moscow, and Bill Pullman. Robert Duvall and Ann-Margret also appeared in supporting roles. The movie is widely claimed to have gained a cult following after its initial failure at the box office...
.
Metalcore band
August Burns RedAugust Burns Red is an American metal band, from Manheim, Pennsylvania. Formed in 2003, the group began their first performances while a majority of the members were attending their senior year of high school, and soon began playing shows around Lancaster, before being signed to CI Records, and...
, titled one of the songs off of the Album
Leveler (album)Leveler is the fourth studio album by American metal band August Burns Red, released on June 21, 2011 through Solid State Records. They released the first song, "Empire", on May 16, 2011 on their Facebook page....
Carpe Diem
Author
Terry PratchettSir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett, OBE is an English novelist, known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre. He is best known for his popular and long-running Discworld series of comic fantasy novels...
parodied the phrase in his novel,
Carpe JugulumCarpe Jugulum ) is a comic fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett, the twenty-third in the Discworld series. It was first published in 1998....
, which he translated as "go for the throat."
Carpe Diem is the name of Japanese rock band
Aqua Timezis a Japanese pop rock band signed to Epic Records.-Overview:Futoshi and OKP-Star met on with9.com in 2000 and attempted to start a band together. Unable to agree on the band's future, the two disbanded. In 2003, the current band members gathered and formed Aqua Timez. Their first independent music...
's 2011 album
Carpe Diem is the name of a new song by
punk rockPunk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
band
Green DayGreen Day is an American punk rock band formed in 1987. The band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool...
.
Progressive metal band
Dream TheaterDream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Petrucci, John Myung, and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts. They subsequently dropped out of their studies to further concentrate on the band that would...
used excerpts of the carpe diem material in their 1995 released song A Change of Seasons.
The phrase was used in season 4 episode 8 of AMC's
Breaking BadBreaking Bad is an American television drama series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. Set and produced in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Breaking Bad is the story of Walter White , a struggling high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with advanced lung cancer at the beginning of the series...
.
Other uses
North Sydney Technical High School, which closed at the end of 1969, had
Carpe Diem as its school motto from its inception in 1844 as St Leonard's Superior Public School. The phrase was also the title of a soundtrack in the movie
Dead Poets' Society, directed by Peter Weir.
External links