This is indeed the famous “Carpe diem,” but the suggestion in Latin is that each day is a fruit to be harvested, with “carpe” meaning “pluck” or “pick” more than just “appropriate.” If I’m not mistaken, “seize the day”—which presumably stuck around because it has appeal of its own in English—was Edwin Arlington Robinson’s coinage.
Tu ne quaesieris, scire nefas, quem mihi, quem tibi
finem di dederint, Leuconoe, nec Babylonios
temptaris numeros. ut melius, quidquid 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.
You must not ask—we may not know—what end the gods will give
To me, to you, Leuconoe, nor try the dice
Of augury. Better to suffer whatever it will be,
If Jupiter yet shall many winters give,
Or it if be the last that now wears down
The facing rocks of the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Be well seasoned: strain your wine, and trim long hopes
To fit within short space, for while we speak, there flees
Invidious age: Reap the day, trusting least you can to the hereafter. (trans. RB)
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