Topical Guide 981
Mark Dorset
Life and Death, Attitudes Toward: Carpe Diem
Leaving Small’s Hotel, Chapter 34:
“So it is the story of his death, because it’s about realizing that time is running out,” said Elaine, “for all of us.”
“We’re all falling toward those doors, you mean,” said Cutie.
“Yes,” said Nancy. “We’re all at death’s door, on our way through it sooner or later.”
“So, carpe diem, boys and girls,” said Albertine.
“I’ll drink to that,” I said, and I did.
I’m repeating myself from Topical Guide 523:
Horace, Odes, Book 1, Canto XI:
Tu ne quaesieris (scire nefas) quem mihi, quem tibi
finem di dederint, Leuconoe, nec Babylonios
temptaris numeros. Ut melius quicquid erit pati!
Seu pluris hiemes seu tribuit Iuppiter ultimam,
quae nunc oppositis debilitat pumicibus mare
Tyrrhenum, sapias, vina liques et spatio brevi
spem longam reseces. Dum loquimur, fugerit invida
aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.
Translation by A. S. Kline, from Poetry in Translation:
Leuconoë, don’t ask, we never know, what fate the gods grant us,
whether your fate or mine, don’t waste your time on Babylonian,
futile, calculations. How much better to suffer what happens,
whether Jupiter gives us more winters or this is the last one,
one debilitating the Tyrrhenian Sea on opposing cliffs.
Be wise, and mix the wine, since time is short: limit that far-reaching hope.
The envious moment is flying now, now, while we’re speaking:
Seize the day, place in the hours that come as little faith as you can.
Omar Khayyám, Rubáiyát (1048–1141), translated, loosely, by Edward FitzGerald):
VII
Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring
Your Winter-garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To flutter—and the Bird is on the Wing.
VIII
Whether at Naishapur or Babylon,
Whether the Cup with sweet or bitter run,
The Wine of Life keeps oozing drop by drop,
The Leaves of Life keep falling one by one.
XIII
Some for the Glories of This World; and some
Sigh for the Prophet’s Paradise to come;
Ah, take the Cash, and let the Credit go,
Nor heed the rumble of a distant Drum!
LIV
Waste not your Hour, nor in the vain pursuit
Of This and That endeavour and dispute;
Better be jocund with the fruitful Grape
Than sadden after none, or bitter, Fruit.
Wreckless Eric, “Take the Cash”:
There’s a rumour going round says you’re gonna split
They say you’re going away, it’s a midnight blitz,
But there’s only good in leaving with a suitcase full of load,
’Cause where’s all the good times with a pocket full of I.O.U.s!
Take the cash, don’t let them pay you in kind,
Take the cash before they change their minds,
And let’s see the colour of their money — take the cash!
So watch it, watch it, watch it, if the payment doesn’t bounce,
It’s the sweetness of the ready, makes the bell ring on the till,
And if they say they pay next week, you know they never will
Take the cash, don’t let them pay you in kind,
Take the cash before they change their minds,
And let’s see the colour of their money — take the cash!
And if they try to tell you there’s a cheque in the post,
You know, you know, you know that you can take it as a joke
Take the cash, don’t let them pay you in kind,
Take the cash before they change their minds,
And let’s see the colour of their money!
So don’t pretend you trust, and get the money down in front,
’Cause it’s the sweetness of the
Ready, makes the bell ring on the till,
And if they say they pay next week, you know they never will
Take the cash, don’t let them pay you in kind,
Take the cash before they change their minds,
And let’s see the colour of the money — take the cash!
Take the cash — take the K.A.S.H.
See also:
Life TG 826: Metaphors and Similes for TG 40, TG 55, TG 60; Phases of TG 89; Life and Death TG 92; Yearning for Another, Different, Better TG 100, TG 104; Life: Its Vicissitudes TG 146; Life Imitates Art (More or Less) TG 153; Stages of: Puberty TG 164; Life: The Nature of It, and Ways One Might Live One’s TG 382; Life: Its Vicissitudes, Its Shames and Humiliations, Its Follies, Its Burden of Pain, Care, and Misery TG 376; Attitudes Toward TG 523; Carpe Diem TG 523; Public versus Private, On Display versus Out of Sight TG 691
Life Lessons: Disillusionment, or the Ripping of Scales from One’s Eyes, Steps along the way to the Loss of Innocence, the School of Hard Knocks TG 553; The Student-Teacher Relationship TG 689; “Don’t Look Back” TG 838
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