Poetry Day, Ireland 30th April, 2020

For this year's Poetry Day, I'm posting the late Derek Mahon's translation of an Ode by the Roman poet, Horace. It's the one that has a much quoted phrase in the last line - "carpe diem' - often translated as 'seize the day'.

How to Live (Horace, Odes, Book One, II)

Don't waste your time, Leuconoé, living in fear
and hope
of the imprevisable future; forget the horoscope.
Accept whatever happens. Whether the Gods allow
us fifty winters more or drop us at this one now
which flings the high Tyrrhenian waves on the
stone piers,
decant your wine: the days are more fun than
the years
which pass us by as we discuss them. Act with zest
one day at a time, and never mind the rest.