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Horace 1.11

Don't try to see into the future; enjoy the present.

Click on the words in the poem below to get vocabulary information.

Please, if you see errors, let me know about them so I can fix them!

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Tu ne quaesieris - scire nefas - quem mihi, quem tibi
finem di dederint, Leuconoë, nec Babylonios
temptaris numeros. ut melius quidquid erit pati,
seu pluris hiemes seu tribuit Iuppiter ultimam,
quae nunc oppositis debilitat pumicibus mare ........................5
Tyrrhenum. sapias, vina liques, et spatio brevi
spem longam reseces. dum loquimur, fugerit invida
aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.

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Meter: Fifth Asclepiadean
1. quaesieris: quaesi(v)eris, Potential Subjunctive with ne ,"you should not seek";
  scire nefas: sc. est.
2. di: Nominative plural, "gods"; Leuconoë: Vocative.
3. temptaris: tempta(ver)is (see note 1, quaesieris);
  numeros: modified by Babylonios (line 2), i.e., astrology.
4. ultimam: sc. hiemem.
5. quae: Nominative feminine singular, antecedent is ultimam (hiemem);
  oppositis: modifies pumicibus, Ablative of Place Where.
6. spatio brevi: Ablative Absolute, "because..."
8. quam minimum: "as little as possible";
  credula: Vocative feminine singular, modifies Leuconoe.
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last updated October 17, 2003
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