Carpe Diem


horace.jpg

I should probably write this on sf-metblogs, but what they hey. Went to Caffe Trieste twice yesterday, during one of the hottest days I’ve ever experienced in SF. Being in North Beach and being hot is no unique thing- but it being hot the entire day, into the night. I had this tiny interchange with the barista there- “Do you want this to go?” Me: “No, for here. I mean, why not. Carpe diem.” Him: “Who coined that?” Then we go back and forth on random people who may have said it. Not a caesar, I should think. Then the mind just draws a blank. Turns out it’s Horace from the Odes. When I came back again around 10pm, with someone who spoke Latin, we ended up translating most of the Ode, and then wrote it down with a cool digital pen for the barista. The paper is “digital paper” and the pen picks up what you write, including my bad attempts at writing “we are at a cafe” in Chinese.

chinese.jpg

I need to go back to school- those are awful. Anyways. Carpe diem made more sense when my friend said a better translation was: “seize the day, because we know so little of the future.” I like the translation: “pluck the day, putting as little trust as possible in tomorrow!”

,