Carpe diem

今天，科普作家、大V@河森堡 的一条微博引发了网友的思考和热议。

是活在当下，还是延迟满足？你觉得呢？

电影《死亡诗社》（Dead Poets Society）中的金句：Carpe diem, seize the day, boys, make your lives extraordinary...也让观众印象深刻。

今天，借此机会我们来看看这个出自罗马诗人贺拉斯（Horace）的短语：Carpe diem.

无注释原文：

Reclaiming carpe diem: How do we really seize the day?

The Guardian

Carpe diem – seize the day – is one of the oldest philosophical mottos in western history. First uttered by the Roman poet Horace more than 2,000 years ago, it retains an extraordinary resonance in popular culture. The heavy metal band Metallica has rocked audiences around the world with their song Carpe Diem Baby, while the actress Judi Dench had carpe diem tattooed on her wrist for her 81st birthday. 

It’s a message found in Hollywood films such as Dead Poets Society; in one of the most successful brand campaigns of the last century (Just Do It); and in the social media hashtag #yolo (you only live once).

It is remarkable that an expression from a long-dead language generates more than 25m online search results. Yet just as striking is the fact that there is not one carpe diem, but many. While usually translated as “seize” the day, the original Latin is sometimes rendered as “harvest”, “pluck” or “enjoy” the day. These variations tell us that carpe diem means different things to different people. For some it’s about taking a once in a lifetime opportunity, while for others it is about indulging in wild hedonism or living calmly in the present moment. We might casually use the term carpe diem when chatting with a friend, but how aware are we of its many personalities hidden beneath the surface?

In our age of distraction, where we are checking our phones an average of 110 times a day, grasping these different meanings is more important than ever. They are an antidote to the reality that we are, as Dead Poets’ Mr Keating (and also Shakespeare) put it, “food for worms”. Life is short and our time is running out.

But here’s the problem: carpe diem has been hijacked, and the result is that its potential to transform our lives is rapidly slipping away from us. This hijacking is an existential crime of the century – and one we have barely noticed. Who, or what, are the hijackers? First, the spirit of “seize the day” has been surreptitiously hijacked by consumer culture, which has recast it as Black Friday shopping sprees and one-click buying: Just Do It has come to mean Just Buy It.

Alongside this is the growing cult of efficiency and time management that has driven us towards hyper-scheduled living, turning the spontaneity of Just Do It into a culture of Just Plan It.

A third hijacker is 24/7 digital entertainment that is replacing vibrant life experiences with vicarious, screen-based pleasures. Rather than Just Do It, we increasingly Just Watch It instead.

Finally – and though it might seem counter-intuitive – carpe diem has been hijacked by the mindfulness movement. While mindfulness has many proven benefits, from reducing stress to helping with depression, one of its unintended consequences has been to encourage the narrow idea that seizing the day is primarily about living in the here and now. Just Do It has become Just Breathe.

Confronted by these four hijackers, the art of seizing the day is vanishing and we urgently need to do something about it, or else risk losing touch with the carpe diem wisdom of humanity that has accumulated over the past two millennia. 

My hope is to wake us up to the promise of Horace’s maxim so we don’t reach our final days looking back on life with regret. The prize it offers is great: nothing less than the gift of radical aliveness or, to borrow a phrase from Henry David Thoreau, the possibility “to live deep and suck out all the marrow from life”.

The time has come to reclaim carpe diem.

- ◆ -

注：中文文本为机器翻译仅供参考，并非一一对应

含注释全文：

Reclaiming carpe diem: How do we really seize the day?

The Guardian

Carpe diem – seize the day – is one of the oldest philosophical mottos in western history. First uttered by the Roman poet Horace more than 2,000 years ago, it retains an extraordinary resonance in popular culture. The heavy metal band Metallica has rocked audiences around the world with their song Carpe Diem Baby, while the actress Judi Dench had carpe diem tattooed on her wrist for her 81st birthday.

Carpe diem--抓住今天/及时行乐--是西方历史上最古老的哲学格言之一。这句话由罗马诗人贺拉斯（Horace）在两千多年前首次提出，在流行文化中留下了非凡的共鸣。重金属乐队Metallica用他们的歌曲《Carpe Diem Baby》震撼了全世界的观众，而演员朱迪·丹奇（Judi Dench）在她81岁生日时在手腕上纹上了“carpe diem”。

carpe diem /ˌkɑː.peɪˈdiː.em/ 表示“（拉丁语）抓住今天，及时行乐”，英文解释为“a Latin expression meaning "seize the day", used for saying that people should enjoy the present rather than worrying about the future”举个🌰：

I may as well have dessert - carpe diem, right?

不如我再要个甜点，及时行乐嘛，对不对？

1）表示“没收；查获”，英文解释为“If the police or other officials seize something, they take possession of it with legal authority.”举个🌰：

Customs officers have seized 10 kilos of heroin.

海关官员查获了10公斤海洛因。

2）表示“抓住；夺过”，英文解释为“to take something quickly and keep or hold it”举个🌰：

I seized his arm and made him turn to look at me.

我抓住他的胳膊，让他转身看着我。

philosophical /ˌfɪləˈsɒfɪkəl/ 1）表示“哲学的”，英文解释为“Philosophical means concerned with or relating to philosophy.”举个🌰：

He was more accustomed to cocktail party chatter than to political or philosophical discussions.

比起政治或者哲学讨论，他更习惯于鸡尾酒会上的闲谈。

2）表示“泰然自若的；处乱不惊的；达观的”，英文解释为“Someone who is philosophical does not get upset when disappointing or disturbing things happen.”举个🌰：

He has grown philosophical about life.

他对生活已经变得豁达了。

表示“座右铭，格言，箴言”，英文解释为“a short sentence or phrase that expresses a belief or purpose”举个🌰：

Her motto is "Work hard, play hard".

她的座右铭是“努力工作，痛快玩乐”。

utter /ˈʌtə/ 表示“发出（声音）；说”，英文解释为“If someone utters sounds or words, they say them.”举个🌰：

He uttered a snorting laugh.

他扑哧一声笑了。

resonance /ˈrezənəns/ 表示“共鸣（一个作品或一曲音乐使你产生的感情、思想、回忆等，也可指作品或乐曲中使这种情况发生的特质）”，英文解释为“a feeling, thought, memory, etc. that a piece of writing or music makes you have, or the quality in a piece of writing, etc. that makes this happen”

作动词，表示“惊吓；使震惊；使害怕”，英文解释为“to shock sb/sth very much or make them afraid”举个🌰：

The news rocked the world.

这则消息震惊了全世界。

wrist /rɪst/ 表示“手腕；腕关节”，英文解释为“the part of the body between the hand and the arm”举个🌰：

I sprained my wrist playing tennis.

我打网球时扭伤了手腕。

It’s a message found in Hollywood films such as Dead Poets Society; in one of the most successful brand campaigns of the last century (Just Do It); and in the social media hashtag #yolo (you only live once).

在《死亡诗社》（Dead Poets Society）等好莱坞电影中、在上个世纪最成功的品牌宣传活动之一（Just Do It，想做就做）中、以及在社交媒体的话题#yolo（你只能活一次）中，都能看到“carpe diem”的影子。

表示“在社交媒体上发文时用来描述主题的#号”，英文解释为“used on social media for describing the general subject of a Tweet or other post (= message)”.

It is remarkable that an expression from a long-dead language generates more than 25m online search results. Yet just as striking is the fact that there is not one carpe diem, but many. While usually translated as “seize” the day, the original Latin is sometimes rendered as “harvest”, “pluck” or “enjoy” the day. These variations tell us that carpe diem means different things to different people. For some it’s about taking a once in a lifetime opportunity, while for others it is about indulging in wild hedonism or living calmly in the present moment. We might casually use the term carpe diem when chatting with a friend, but how aware are we of its many personalities hidden beneath the surface?

一个来自早已消亡的语言的表达方式产生了超过2500万个在线搜索结果，这很了不起。然而，同样引人注目的是，“carpe diem”并不只有一种，而是很多种（含义）。虽然通常被翻译为“抓住”这一天，但拉丁文原文有时被翻译为“收获”、“摘取”或“享受”这一天。这些变化告诉我们，“carpe diem”对不同的人意味着不同的事情。对一些人来说，它是指抓住一生中的一次机会，而对另一些人来说，它是指沉溺于疯狂的享乐主义或平静地生活在当下。在与朋友聊天时，我们可能会随意使用“carpe diem”一词，但我们对隐藏在表面之下的丰富内涵有多了解？

1）表示“异乎寻常的，惊人的；引人注目的；显著的；不同寻常的”，英文解释为“Something that is striking is very noticeable or unusual.”举个🌰：

The most striking feature of those statistics is the high proportion of suicides.

那些统计数据最显著的特征是高自杀率。

2）表示“俊秀的；妩媚动人的；很有魅力的”，英文解释为“Someone who is striking is very attractive, in a noticeable way.”举个🌰：

She was a striking woman with long blonde hair. 

她曾是一个留着金色长发的俊秀女子。

1）此前，在经济学人翻译的出路在哪里？这篇文章中出现过，render表示“翻译，把...译成...”，通常用法为render sth into English/Russian/Chinese etc，将sth译成英语/俄语/汉语等，举个🌰：

She is rendering the book into English from French.

她正在把这本书从法语译成英语。

2）表示“（以某种方式）表达；表现”，英文解释为“to express or present something in a particular way”，如：a sculpture rendered in bronze 一尊青铜雕像；

3）表示“使成为；使变得；使处于某种状态”，英文解释为“to cause someone or something to be in a particular state”举个🌰：

His rudeness rendered me speechless.

他的粗暴无礼让我无言以对。

4）表示“给予，提供”，英文解释为“to give something to someone or do something, because it is your duty or because someone expects you to”如：an obligation to render assistance to those in need 为有困难的人提供援助的义务，举个🌰：

We see that freight railroads make good profits while rendering excellent service.

我们看到铁路货运公司在提供优质服务的同时也赢得了丰厚的利润。

5）还还还可以表示“粉刷；给（墙壁）抹灰（或水泥）”，英文解释为to put a first layer of plaster or cement on a wall.

pluck /plʌk/ 1）表示“拨，弹（乐器的弦）”，英文解释为“to pull and then release the strings of a musical instrument with your finger to play notes”举个🌰：

He sat on the bed, idly plucking (at) the strings of his guitar.

他坐在床上，随意地拨着吉他琴弦。

2）表示“摘（花）”，英文解释为“to collect flowers by breaking or cutting their stems; pick”

3）表示“使…脱离险境，解救”，英文解释为“to remove someone quickly from a dangerous or difficult situation”举个🌰：

The last passengers were plucked from the ship just seconds before it sank.

最后一批游客在船沉没前几秒钟被救起。

表示“变种，变体；变化了的东西”，英文解释为“something that is slightly different from the usual form or arrangement”举个🌰：

There are wide variations in the way pensioners have benefited from the system.

养老金领取者从这个体制中受益的情况有很大差别。

表示“（使）沉溺于；（尤指）放纵”，英文解释为“to allow yourself or another person to have something enjoyable, especially more than is good for you”举个🌰：

I love champagne but I don't often indulge myself.

我爱喝香槟，但一般都有节制。

hedonism /ˈhed.ən.ɪ.zəm/ 表示“享乐主义”，英文解释为“living and behaving in ways that mean you get as much pleasure out of life as possible, according to the belief that the most important thing in life is to enjoy yourself”

In our age of distraction, where we are checking our phones an average of 110 times a day, grasping these different meanings is more important than ever. They are an antidote to the reality that we are, as Dead Poets’ Mr Keating (and also Shakespeare) put it, “food for worms”. Life is short and our time is running out.

在我们这个注意力分散的时代，我们平均每天要看110次手机，掌握这些不同的含义比以往任何时候都更重要。它们帮助我们应对现实，正如《死亡诗人》的基廷先生（也是莎士比亚）所说的，我们“终有一死”。生命是短暂的，我们的时间正在流逝。

表示“理解，领悟，明白（尤指费解之事）”，英文解释为“to understand something, especially something difficult”举个🌰：

I think I managed to grasp the main points of the lecture.

我觉得我还是理解了演讲的要点。

1）表示“解毒剂；（尤指）解毒药”，英文解释为“a chemical, especially a drug, that limits the effects of a poison”；

2）表示“矫正方法；缓解办法；对抗手段”，英文解释为“a way of preventing or acting against something bad”举个🌰：

Regular exercise is the best antidote to tiredness and depression.

经常锻炼是消除疲劳和抑郁的最好方法。

But here’s the problem: carpe diem has been hijacked, and the result is that its potential to transform our lives is rapidly slipping away from us. This hijacking is an existential crime of the century – and one we have barely noticed. Who, or what, are the hijackers? First, the spirit of “seize the day” has been surreptitiously hijacked by consumer culture, which has recast it as Black Friday shopping sprees and one-click buying: Just Do It has come to mean Just Buy It.

但问题是：“carpe diem”（的含义）已经被“劫持”了，结果是它改变我们生活的潜力正在迅速从我们身边溜走。这种劫持是本世纪的一种因思考人类存亡而引起的错误--而我们几乎没有注意到这一点。劫持者是谁，或者说是什么？首先，“carpe diem”的精神已经被消费文化偷偷地劫持了，它被改写为黑色星期五购物狂欢和一键购买：Just Do It（想做就做）就意味着想Just Buy It.（做买就买）。

hijack /ˈhaɪˌdʒæk/ 1）表示“劫持”，英文解释为“If someone hijacks a plane or other vehicle, they illegally take control of it by force while it is travelling from one place to another.”举个🌰：

Two men tried to hijack a plane on a flight from A to B.

两名男子试图劫持一架从A飞往B的飞机。

2）表示“把持，控制，使用（本不属于自己的东西）”，英文解释为“to take control of or use something that does not belong to you for your own advantage”举个🌰：

He resents the way his ideas have been hijacked by others in the department.

他对部门里其他人剽窃他想法的做法十分不满。

surreptitiously /ˌsʌr.əpˈtɪʃ.əs.li/ 表示“偷偷地；秘密地；不正当地”，英文解释为“secretly, without anyone seeing or knowing”。

这届90后最“秃”出：假发套成交数排第一一文中提到双十一购物狂欢节就是用的the shopping spree，spree表示“玩乐，作乐；纵乐”，英文解释为“a short period of time that you spend doing one particular activity that you enjoy, but often too much of it”举个🌰：

I went on a drinking/shopping/spending spree on Monday.

我星期一痛痛快快地喝了一通/疯狂采购了一番/挥霍了一番。

Alongside this is the growing cult of efficiency and time management that has driven us towards hyper-scheduled living, turning the spontaneity of Just Do It into a culture of Just Plan It.

与此同时，对效率和时间管理的崇拜日益增长，驱使我们走向“超前计划”的生活，将Just Do It（想做就做）的自发性变成Just Plan It（只管计划）的文化。

表示“受特定群体欢迎的；作为偶像崇拜的”，英文解释为“very popular with a particular group of people; treating sb/sth as a cult figure, etc.”举个🌰：

The singer has become a cult figure in America.

那位歌手在美国已成为人们狂热崇拜的偶像。

spontaneity /ˌspɒn.təˈneɪ.ə.ti/  表示“自发性，自然；自发行为”，英文解释为“Spontaneity is spontaneous, natural behaviour.”

A third hijacker is 24/7 digital entertainment that is replacing vibrant life experiences with vicarious, screen-based pleasures. Rather than Just Do It, we increasingly Just Watch It instead.

第三个劫持者是24/7全天候的数字娱乐，它正在用替代性的、基于屏幕的快乐取代生动的生活体验。与其说我们Just Do It（想做就做），不如说我们越来越多地Just Watch（想看就看）。

表示“一直不休（地），每时每刻（地）”，英文解释为“24 hours a day, seven days a week: all the time”举个🌰：

We're open for business 24/7.

本店24小时营业，全年无休。

1）表示“活跃的；精力充沛的；热情洋溢的”，英文解释为“energetic, exciting, and full of enthusiasm”如：a vibrant young performer 充满朝气的年轻演员。

2）表示“（色彩）鲜艳的；（光线）明亮的”，英文解释为“Vibrant colour or light is bright and strong.”举个🌰：

He always uses vibrant colours in his paintings.

他在画中经常运用鲜艳的色彩。

表示“间接感受到的；间接获得的”，英文解释为“experienced as a result of watching, listening to, or reading about the activities of other people, rather than by doing the activities yourself”举个🌰：

She took a vicarious pleasure in her friend's achievements.

她为朋友的成就感到喜悦。

Finally – and though it might seem counter-intuitive – carpe diem has been hijacked by the mindfulness movement. While mindfulness has many proven benefits, from reducing stress to helping with depression, one of its unintended consequences has been to encourage the narrow idea that seizing the day is primarily about living in the here and now. Just Do It has become Just Breathe.

最后--尽管它可能看起来违反直觉--“carpe diem”已经被正念运动所劫持。虽然正念有许多已被证实的好处，从减少压力到帮助治疗抑郁症，但它的一个意想不到的后果是鼓励了一种狭隘的理念，即把握今日主要是为了活在当下。Just Do It（想做就做）已经成为Just Breathe（呼吸就行了）。

表示“（想法、提议等）违反常理的，反直觉的”，英文解释为“(of an idea, proposal, etc) seemingly contrary to common sense”；

📍intuitive本身表示“（出于）直觉的”（an intuitive idea is based on a feeling rather than on knowledge or facts），而前缀counter-表示“（用于构词）表示相反或相对”（Counter- is used to form words which refer to actions or activities that are intended to prevent other actions or activities or that respond to them.）如：counter-terrorism 反恐，counter-example 反面例子，counterproductive 产生相反效果的，适得其反的。

近义词对比：

📍instinctive表示“本能的；天性的；直觉的”（based on instinct and not involving thought）

表示“正念认知”，英文解释为“the practice of being aware of your body, mind, and feelings in the present moment, thought to create a feeling of calm”。

表示“无意的，无心的；没有计划的”，英文解释为“not intended”举个🌰：

The group argues that the proposed methods will have unintended consequences.

该团体认为所提方法将会带来意想不到的后果。

Confronted by these four hijackers, the art of seizing the day is vanishing and we urgently need to do something about it, or else risk losing touch with the carpe diem wisdom of humanity that has accumulated over the past two millennia. 

面对这四个劫持者，把握今天的艺术正在消失，我们迫切需要做些什么，否则就有可能与过去两千年来积累的“carpe diem”的人类智慧失之交臂。

vanishing作形容词，表示“开始消失的”，英文解释为“beginning to disappear”举个🌰：

They expressed concern about the city's current budget crisis and its vanishing work force.

他们对该地区目前的预算危机和劳动人口的渐趋消失表示担忧。

vanish作动词，表示“（尤指突然）消失，灭绝”，英文解释为“to disappear or stop being present or existing, especially in a sudden, surprising way”举个🌰：

The child vanished while on her way home from school.

那个小女孩在放学回家的路上不见了。

表示“积累；积聚；积攒”，英文解释为“to collect a large number of things over a long period of time”举个🌰：

As people accumulate more wealth, they tend to spend a greater proportion of their incomes.

人们积累了更多财富后，他们的花费占收入的比重也往往会增加。

📍《经济学人》（The Economist）一篇讲述疫情期间房价上涨的文章中提到：Professionals who have carried on working from home but cut back on their spending have accumulated cash to splash. 那些改换成在家中继续工作但减少了开支的专业人士则积攒了可大笔支出的现金。

对比：

📍amass 表示“（尤指大量）积累，积聚”，英文解释为“to collect sth, especially in large quantities”举个🌰：

He amassed a fortune from delivering newspapers.

他靠送报纸积累了一笔财富。

📍rack up表示“大量获得（利润）；严重遭受（损失）；（体育中）多次赢得（比赛）”，英文解释为“If a business racks up profits, losses, or sales, it makes a lot of them. If a sportsman, sportswoman, or team racks up wins, they win a lot of games or races.”

millennia 是 millennium /mɪˈlɛnɪəm/ 的复数形式，表示“一千年，千周年；千周年纪念日”，英文解释为“a period of 1,000 years, or the time when a period of 1,000 years ends”。

My hope is to wake us up to the promise of Horace’s maxim so we don’t reach our final days looking back on life with regret. The prize it offers is great: nothing less than the gift of radical aliveness or, to borrow a phrase from Henry David Thoreau, the possibility “to live deep and suck out all the marrow from life”.

我的希望是唤醒我们对贺拉斯格言的承诺，这样我们就不会在生命的最后时刻遗憾地回首人生。它所带来的价值是巨大的：不亚于不同凡响的活力的礼物，或者借用亨利·戴维·梭罗（Henry David Thoreau）的话来说，能够“深深地扎入生活，吮尽生活的骨髓”。

maxim /ˈmæksɪm/ 表示“格言；箴言；座右铭”，英文解释为“A maxim is a rule for good or sensible behaviour, especially one in the form of a saying.”举个🌰：

I believe in the maxim "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

我相信这句格言：“如果它没坏，不要去修理它。”

The time has come to reclaim carpe diem.

是时候为“carpe diem”正名了。

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