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Translation challenge: Carpe Diem

de Miland, 13 août 2014

Messages : 7

Langue: English

Miland (Voir le profil) 13 août 2014 15:35:38

Translate the Latin quote "carpe diem".

A non-Latinist's attempt: rikoltu la tagon.

sergejm (Voir le profil) 13 août 2014 15:59:53

Word by word:
Kaptu la tagon - Catch the day
By the sence:
Kaptu la momenton - Catch the moment
Ĝuu la tagon - Enjoy the day

sparksbet (Voir le profil) 14 août 2014 16:54:59

I'd go with "Ekkaptu la momenton," or perhaps "Ekkaptu la nunon" if I were feeling particularly whimsical about word formation. I think the 'ek-' adds the sudden, urgent nature of "carpe" (translated as "seize" in English) better than just "kapti" or "rikolti." I think the metaphor in the original phase translates fine to Esperanto, so I don't think it needs to be changed much, although I think using a shorter (and more indefinite) time measurement adds more force to the metaphor, which is why I would choose "momenton" or the somewhat unconventional "nunon."

Amistà (Voir le profil) 14 août 2014 17:34:46

sparksbet:I'd go with "Ekkaptu la momenton," or perhaps "Ekkaptu la nunon" if I were feeling particularly whimsical about word formation. I think the 'ek-' adds the sudden, urgent nature of "carpe" (translated as "seize" in English) better than just "kapti" or "rikolti." I think the metaphor in the original phase translates fine to Esperanto, so I don't think it needs to be changed much, although I think using a shorter (and more indefinite) time measurement adds more force to the metaphor, which is why I would choose "momenton" or the somewhat unconventional "nunon."
Kiel amanto de Horacio, mi konsideras "Ekkaptu la momenton" ja bona.

nornen (Voir le profil) 14 août 2014 17:51:39

Miland:Translate the Latin quote "carpe diem".

A non-Latinist's attempt: rikoltu la tagon.
Horace Odes 1.11: [...] carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.
The stem behind the verb carpo (carpsi, carptum) is fruit as we can see for instance in Greek καρπός (karpós) which indeed means fruit. It is also related to rapio (rapui, raptum) which means seize and carry off, cf. also ἁρπάζω (harpátsō).

Literally carpere means to seize a fruit or more generally to take something as nourishment.
Tropically carpere means to enjoy, use, make use of and Lewis & Short give fruor as a synonym which brings us back to our original meaning of fruit. Obviously, if you seize a fruit you do so in order to enjoy that fruit and to use it (as nourishment).

Hence, in a more literal sense I would translate it as Rikoltu tagon, while in a more tropical sense I would tend to Ĝuu tagon or Bonuzu tagon. I think the latter might be the most accurate from my humble point of view.

I would not use the ek- prefix to indicate an inchoative or inceptive action, because neither is it *Carpesce diem in Latin.

I was never sure whether the postero is referring back to diem and should be read as postero diei (which is a widely accepted interpretation), or if it should rather be read as postero viro/homini, which could refer to Horace himself, the old goat. Maybe it is an intentional pun Horace left for the future reader to muse about.

Bonuzu tagon, kiel eble plej minimume fidema pri la sekva. La sekva kio?

Alkanadi (Voir le profil) 17 août 2014 13:45:42

Maybe, you could say this:

Ne malŝparu la tago. Don't waste the day

I think other people had better ideas though.

jismith1989 (Voir le profil) 17 août 2014 20:50:17

In terms of the Horace's Latin, I'd say kolektu la tagon, since that retains the idea of picking or gathering, for example, fruit, which is in the original verb (Latin carpere). The idea is to grab the day with both hands while you still can, you never know what the future may bring!

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