Carpe diem pro carpet dies te

[Verus Sum]

So it's here because I wrote it in Latin, but I need to know all the mistakes I've made. I won't say what I intended it to, because if it's that bad it's probably better to start from scratch.

Just read about SOV order, which I've been meaning to.
Should it be "Carpe diem pro dies te carpet"?

 

[scrabulista]

Welcome to the forum, Verus Sum.

Please post in English to Latin if you're just going to post a wild guess. What are you trying to say?
"Seize the day, for the day will seize you?" pro would be the wrong "for." Is this homework?

 

[Verus Sum]

Thanks.
It was an attempt to say "Seize the day before the day seizes you". Is pro the correct word for that meaning? And do I need the present tense or even subjunctive mood for "seizes", since it might happen?
It isn't homework, I'm just doing a bit of casual learning.

 

[RobertusSitiens]

"Pro" doesn't mean "before" in a temporal sense. Also, I don't think you can use "pro" as a conjunction. "antequam" would be my replacement.

 

[Verus Sum]

So would pro be before as in "I stand before you..."?
So Carpe diem antequam dies te carpet, then? How am I doing with the cases here?

 

[RobertusSitiens]

So would pro be before as in "I stand before you..."?

I think that "pro" is hard to translate in to English, so maybe I'll let some of the more seasoned participants try that one.

 

[Aurifex]

It was an attempt to say "Seize the day before the day seizes you".

Prius carpe diem quam dies carpat te gives you the required meaning. There are other ways of doing it.

 

[Verus Sum]

Thanks. So I did want the subjunctive mood, but I needed the present active tense.
So the literal translation of that looks like "Better that you seize the day than the day seize you". Is that right?
Is there any particular reason for the order "dies carpat te"? I need all the help I can get with that, since English is so rigid in that respect.

 

[Aurifex]

So the literal translation of that looks like "Better that you seize the day than the day seize you". Is that right?

No, it's "Seize the day before the day seizes you".

Is there any particular reason for the order "dies carpat te"?

It was a toss-up between that and te carpat dies. There are other word order possibilities, though it's debatable whether they would convey the required emphasis.

 

[Verus Sum]

Could you explain how prius and quam work together to mean "before"? I can see that prius is a version of prior, which would suggest that it translates as "Seize the day prior to the day seizing you", but you say that's not the case?

 

[Pacifica]

Very literally prius means "at an earlier time/sooner/previously" and quam "than", the idea being that the thing written after prius happens or is supposed to happen before that which is written after quam. They can be used either separately as Aurifex did, or be fused into one word, priusquam, which then precedes the second thing in word order; like here it would be carpe diem priusquam dies carpat te.

I confirm that Aurifex's translation is correct.