Expert: Maria - 11/1/2007

Question
Can you please translation in Ancient Latin
"Our care should not be to have lived long as to have lived enough, seize the day."

Answer
Hello,

Actually in the phrase you mention there are two different quotations from two different Roman authors, i.e. from Seneca (4 BC - 65 AD ) and Horace (65 BC - 8 BC).

In fact "Our care should not be to have lived long as to have lived enough” is the adaptation  of a passage we read in Seneca’s Moral Epistles to Lucilius, book 17, epistle 101, 15, while “Seize the day” is the translation of a quote from  Horace's Odes, Book 1, ode 11, line 8.

That being stated, here are the Latin text of "Our care should not be to have lived long as to have lived enough” and “Seize the day”:

- “Quam bene vivas refert, non quamdiu” (Our care should not be to have lived long as to have lived enough).

-“Carpe diem” (“Seize the day”).

Best regards,
Maria
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Note that:

-Our care should not be = REFERT ( present indicative , 3rd.person singular, from REFERO)

-to have lived long = NON QUAMDIU

-as to have lived enough = QUAM BENE VIVAS


-Seize = CARPE (imperative, 2nd.person singular, of CARPO)

-The day = DIEM (accusative of DIES, 5th.declension)