hey guys. I would be very happy if I get some help translating this sentence. I'm thinking about having this as a tattoo but I honestly can't find a proper translation of it (and that would be embarassing to me). Seemingly as people here are very promising in the language I would love to have some help. Carpe diem - seize the day. quam minimum credula - with as little trust as possible? postero - future? So my translation would be something like: Seize the day, have little trust (as possible) in the future? Is this correct? thanks /Luka
Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero - indeed means Seize the day, believing as little as possible in tomorrow. (Horace: Odes 1, 11)
And bear in mind that it features feminine agreement, so it’s something like: ‘Pluck the day [like a flower], woman, trusting as little as possible in the future.’
Ah, I always thought that was an imperative of some *credulare. I can't scan anything other than heroic or elegiac verse at this point, so the scansion didn't clarify that for me.
My personal belief is that "credula" is neuter nom. plural just like omnia: minime credula postero = minime credulae res postero [die] [erunt] + no affection to the masculinity of the day, which in "postero" (what I believe to be connected) stays masculine.
If that is so (which is quite good explanation too) then my problem probably lies (or lied) in understanding of "credula" which I thought to be a sort of variant of "credibilis", but as you denote: it's is more of "credens"... then indeed "quam minimum [tu] credula sis" with "minimum" which might even be an object to "credula" (I thought before that it is just a variant of "minime", but it could be both) and "postero" either temporal ablativ or dative to "credula" ...
Well CN, Infacundus and Google know better than me as well - I must admit I didn't quite understand it either until I saw CN's explanation. http://www.merriampark.com/horcarm111.htm
We say ‘credulous’, with almost exactly the same meaning as credulus, in English, so I don’t see why it’s so tricky! Yes, it is adverbial, and thus equivalent to minime. e.g. Cicero’s præmia apud me minimum valent and si non decore, at quam minime dedecore facere possimus, in which the two could be interchanged without much trouble, I imagine.
