Gather ye rosebuds while ye may ...

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Note added at 2003-01-29 06:13:41 (GMT)
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Horace, Odes Book I, No. XI

The most famous of Horace\'s odes uses agricultural metaphors to urge us to embrace the pleasures available in everyday life instead of relying on remote aspirations for the future - hence his immortal motto \"Carpe Diem\", or \"pluck the day\":

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.

Ask not - we cannot know - what end the gods have set for you, for me; nor attempt the Babylonian reckonings Leuconoë. How much better to endure whatever comes, whether Jupiter grants us additional winters or whether this is our last, which now wears out the Tuscan Sea upon the barrier of the cliffs! Be wise, strain the wine; and since life is brief, prune back far-reaching hopes! Even while we speak, envious time has passed: pluck the day, putting as little trust as possible in tomorrow!

Or,

Do not ask - we may not know - what end you or I
have been granted by the gods, Leuconoe, and do not try
Babylonian astrology. Better accept whatever will be!
Be it many winters Jupiter has granted, or one last winter
now making the Tyrrhenian sea spend its strength on pitted rocks,
be wise, strain your wine, and life being short,
prune back your hopes for the long term. While we speak, envious time
has flown: harvest the day, distrust the morrow!