Questions: Lydia Dic I:8

This poem is about Lydia. Horace interrogates her and asks her to swear by the gods that her answers will be true. Why has she chased Sybaris? Why hasn't he shown himself on the Campus Martius, gone riding with his friends, swum in the yellow Tiber, thrown his javelin? Why has he acted like Achilles, hiding in girl's clothes?  The answer, well-known to the Roman world: love.

This theme of a man disinterested in manly pursuits because of love was a favorite among Greek poets; so Horace, hellenophile that he was,  tried his hand at the same kind of poetry.  In fact, Horace was a great promoter of the Greek art of poetry. His claim to fame, according to him, was that he was able to put Latin words to Greek meter, of which there are a fair number. This one is called  the second Sapphic strophe.  Horace used this meter only once—in this poem.  

If you say the poem over and over, you'll soon feel the "beat."  Its dots and dashes, its morse code is:

¯     ˘   ˘    ¯     ˘        ¯          ¯

diiiic Lydi yaaa per oooomneeees

   

 ¯    ˘     ¯        ¯       ¯       ˘   ˘    ¯         ¯        ˘    ˘      ¯     ˘       ¯         ¯

teeee deoooos ooooroooo Sybariiiin cuuuur propereeees amaaaandoooo

[the final long dash can also be short ˘]

This meter business is a bit intimidating.  I am not very comfortable with it yet, but this is what Latin poetry is built upon, this is what turns everyday words into melody-less music.

This is such a different poem. I can't tell whether Horace is serious or whether he is poking fun at a moonstruck lover. He names his imaginary lover Sybaris, calling to mind the word 'sybarite.' Everything about this poem is over the top: the bruise-less arms because the lover no longer spars with his friends, the olive oil used in wrestling worse than snake poison. Horace is making fun. Urbane comedy, a 30's movie with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn and Jimmy Stewart as the poet? 

As I read this poem, I realized how unlike Hafiz Horace is. Hafiz pokes fun, too, usually at himself, sometimes at the authorities, but always at the hypocrite. In the poem below, Hafiz doesn't want any questions. I amost feel that he's like a New York Jew: "Oi, have I had troubles in love?  Don't get me started."

درد عشقی کشیده ام که مپرس      زهرهجری چشیده ام که مپرش

گشته ام در جهان و آخر کار     دلبری بر گزیده ام که مپرس

آن چنان در هوای خاک درش     میرود آب دیده ام که مپرس 

من به گوش خود از دهانش دوش     سخنانی شنیده ام که مپرس

سوی من لب چه میگزی که مگوی     لب لعلی گزیده ام که مپرس

بی تو در کلبه ی گدایی خویش     رنج هایی کشیده ام که مپرس

همچو حافظ غریب در ره عشق

به مقامی رسیده ام که مپرس 

I've had love troubles — don't ask  ::  I've tasted every separation — don't ask.

I've been around and in the end  ::  I've chosen a 'friend' — don't ask.

I so want the dust of her doorway  ::  my tears are welling up — don't ask.

Last night I heard from her mouth  ::  words, words, words — don't ask.

Why do you bite my lip with "Don't tell."  ::  I've bitten that ruby lip — don't ask

Without you in my beggar's hovel   ::   I've suffered — don't ask.

Like Hafiz, a stranger on the road of love  ::  I have come to a resting place — don't ask.

[my translation]

On a more serious level, Hafiz is alluding to spiritual love, and the seal it places on the lips of the lover. What happens between spiritual lovers is secret stuff and there is no use asking for more information because you won't get it. You'll have to make your own mystical union. 

Is there more to Horace's ode as well? Let me think.  Nope. Horace has given us a romantic comedy. Hafiz, on the other hand, has left it up to us how deep into his thoughts we want to go.

The prose rendition of Dic Lydia I:8

Lydia, dic ‹per deos omnes›, te oro: 

Cur properes Sybarin amando perdere? 

Cur campum apricum oderit, pulveris atque solis patiens? 

Cur neque inter aequales militares equitet, nec ora Gallica frenis lupatis temperet? 

Cur timet Tiberim flavum tangere? 

Cur olivum sanguine viperino cautius vitat, neque iam bracchia livida armis gestat, disco saepe nobilis, iaculo expedito trans finem saepe [nobilis]? 

Quid latet, ut dicunt [latuisse] filium Thetidis marinae sub funera lacrimosa Troiae, ne cultus virilis in caedem et catervas Lycias proriperet?

[revised March 26, 2015]

properes: is celeriter

oderit: viterit

campum apricum: id est Campus Martius

aequalis militaris: amicos militares

equitet: eat in equo

ora Gallica: ora equorum Gallicorum

frenis lupatis: iron-spiked bit

sanguine viperino: plus quam venenum mortiferem

livida: contusa

gestat: exhibit

expedito: misso

Thetidis: mater Achillis

Lycias: regio, terra in Asia, Troias

cultus virilis: vestimentum virile

catervas: troops

caedem: carnage

proriperet: traheret

Original Ode:

                Lȳdia, dīc, per omnıs

tē ^[hōc] deōs ōrō ^[vērē], Sybarin cūr properēs amandō

   perdere, cūr aprīcum

ōderit campum, patiēns pulveris atque sōlis,

   cūr neque mīlitārıs

inter aequālıs equitet, Gallica nec lupātīs

   temperet ōra frēnīs.

cūr timet flāvum Tiberim tangere? cūr olīvum

   sanguine vīperīnō

cautius vītat neque iam līvida gestat armīs

   bracchia, saepe dīscō

saepe trans fīnem iaculō nōbilis expedītō?

   quid latet, ut marīnae

fīlium dīcunt Thetidis sub lacrimōsa Trōiae ^[Troia]

   fūnera, nē virīlis

cultus in caedem et Lyciās prōriperet catervās?

English translation: http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_text_horace_odes1.htm

traduction en français: 

(celle-ci est par Victor Hugo, faite en 1820) http://www.espace-horace.org/litt/hugo.htm

http://agoraclass.fltr.ucl.ac.be/concordances/horace_OdesI/lecture/8.htm

tradução em português: http://primeiros-escritos.blogspot.com/2007/12/horcio-ode-i8.html  

:: Latin books by James Rumford ::

For all 102 odes purchase Carpe Diem, Horace De-Poetized, for $11.50 at 

https://www.amazon.com/Carpe-Diem-Poetized-James-Rumford/dp/1891839179/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479932219&sr=8-1&keywords=Carpe+Diem+Rumford. 

For a Latin translation of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer at $12, click here: 

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Pericla+Thomae+Sawyer

To find out more about Carpe Diem go to the blog of March 26, 2015; 

for more about Pericla Thomae Sawyer, go to the blog of November 22, 2016.

Rectius Vives II:10

Today I will continue talking about Rectius Vives: live right, live happy, live pragmatically, and live humbly and safely within the golden mean.

In 1903, the scholar Clement Lawrence Smith wrote that this ode "is the most finished of Horace's poems, and consists, like much of his best work, of a chain of pithy epigrammatic sententiae on the conduct of life, presenting in various forms and under various figures his favorite doctrine of the golden mean . . . ." [pg. 123]

So, it seems that there is a moral angle to Horace's poems. Perhaps he is more like Saadi than I had thought. Perhaps, his racy poems, his descriptions of boys and courtesans, springs and lazy cows, are only a small part of what his four books are about. We shall see.

The epigrammatic nature of his work is also like Saadi's. Both poets are quoted often. There was a time when being educated meant that you could quote a line or two of Horace. Maybe reciting Horace might bring back horrible memories of dark classrooms and the glowering eyes of an old professor,but they might also recall a moment when truth was exposed and a new world revealed. These truths school boys and school girls carried with them throughout their lives. I once read about a British p.o.w. and his German captor who quoted Horace to each other as they tried to come to terms with the madness surrounding them.

I don't know what Smith means by "most finished of Horace's poems" and "his best work." Smith sounds so final, so authorative, so imperious. What does he know that I don't? What standards is he applying? I suspect, as I have come to understand with critics of my own books, that all criticism is subjective and tied to the times. Of course, when I finish reading all of Horace's poetry, I'll find that I like some odes better than others, just as I might like some of Monet's paintings better than others. Still where would I find the arrogance to say what Smith said? The only person's judgment I would believe would be Horace's. He is the only one to say, "This is my best work. This is my most finished poem." He is the genius. Not me, not Smith. He is the one with the vision and the ability to reveal it.

Here is my prose rendition of Rectius Vives, II:10: 

italics: short vowels indicated when necessary
[ ] added words
ıs: indicates alternate ending: fortıs for fortes
circumflex: long vowels indicated when necessary

Licini, rectius vives, neque altum semper urgendo, neque litus iniquum nimium premendo, dum [tu] cautus procellas horrescis. 

Quisquis mediocritatem auream diligit, tutus sordibus tecti obsoleti caret; sobrius aula invidenda caret. Saepius pinus ingens ventis agitatur et turres celsae casu gravior decidunt fulguraque summos montes feriunt. 

Pectus bene praeparatum [rebus] infestis sperat, [rebus] secundis, alteram sortem metuit.

Iuppiter hiemes informes reducit, idem summovet. Si male nunc, et olim sic non erit.

Apollo quondam musam tacentem cithara suscitat, neque arcum semper tendit. 

Rebus angustis, animosus atque fortis appare; sapienter idem vento nimium secundo vela turgida contrahes. 

[revised March 27, 2015]

rectius: felix,

altum: mare profundum

procellas:  tempestates

horrescis: es timidus

iniquum: asperum, periculosum

sordibus: tristitiis, miseriis

obsoleti: squalidi

sobrius: sapiens

caret: est sine, vitat

invidenda: to be envied

feriunt: percutant

infestis: fortuna adversa

informis: mala

summovet: expellit

quondam: interdum, non numquam

appare: esto, es, fi

vento secundo: vento bono

English translation: http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_text_horace_odes2.htm

Traduction en langue française: http://agoraclass.fltr.ucl.ac.be/concordances/horace_OdesII/ligne05.cfm?numligne=52&mot=Rectius

Latin commentaries: http://www.horatius.ru/index.xps?2.1.210

:: Latin books by James Rumford ::

For all 102 odes purchase Carpe Diem, Horace De-Poetized, for $11.50 at 

https://www.amazon.com/Carpe-Diem-Poetized-James-Rumford/dp/1891839179/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479932219&sr=8-1&keywords=Carpe+Diem+Rumford. 

For a Latin translation of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer at $12, click here: 

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Pericla+Thomae+Sawyer

To find out more about Carpe Diem go to the blog of March 26, 2015; 

for more about Pericla Thomae Sawyer, go to the blog of November 22, 2016.

Overstepping Boundaries: Rectius Vives II:10

Today marks the arrival at the last page of The Bustan بوستان, which my friend Brandon Stone and I have been reading in Persian for the past ten months.  The Bustan—or The Orchard—was written by Saadi, a thirteenth-century Persian poet, in 1257, a year before the Mongols laid waste to that part of the world. A bit of irony this, for the Bustan is a book of civility, of how to act, be ye king or beggar, toward others.

Saadi is beloved in Iran and by Middle-East scholars everywhere. He wrote these lines, which grace the entrance hall of the United Nations:

بنی آدم اعضای یک پیکرند

که در آفرينش ز یک گوهرند

چو عضوى به درد آورد روزگار

دگر عضوها را نماند قرار

تو کز محنت دیگران بی غمی

نشاید که نامت نهند آدمی

The Sons of Adam, members of one face,

are created from one family. 

If ever one member suffers, 

the others will find no rest.

If ever you be without sorrow

for the misery of others

You shall not be called 'of Adam.' 

This is my translation. It is not as ecumenical as the official ones which do not refer to Adam but take the word adam in its usual generic sense to refer to human beings.  I decided to narrow my translation to highlight the double meaning and show that while Saadi was writing universal truths, he was also writing to a largely Muslim audience.

Sometimes the references to the Qur'an and to the Hadith of Muhammad made reading The Bustan rough going. Add to this the fact that Saadi was no lightweight when it came to using difficult words and difficult grammatical constructions. Every line he wrote is pithy, to the point, and quotable for its beauty and grace. 

Saadi, like all poets, stretched the limits of his language. He took advantage of the fact that in Persian many of the rules of grammar can be ignored in order to maintain the meter. This means that poetic meter is king:  grammar — even meaning — must submit to its tyranny.  This doesn't mean that Saadi was unclear. No, it means you have to work harder to understand what he is saying.

This peculiar feature—that grammar is subordinate to meter—is so unlike Latin poetry.  To the Romans grammar was the glue that held the poem together.  With a tight rein on grammar, the poet could move words around, separate adjectives from nouns, verbs from subjects, whatever it took to create the right tone.

When links are broken, when the grammar is ripped apart, it is called hyperbaton (high-PURR-but-on).  The word is Greek and means 'overstepping.' 

Yesterday's poem was filled with it.  Scholars say that hyperbaton added to the effect of the poem, for it has a rushed, helter-skelter feeling to it. Here is the first stanza of the poem color coded to show how the words fit together in the Latin mind. 

Quis  multa gracilis te puer in rosa

perfusus liquidis urget odoribus

     grato, Pyrrha, sub antro?

     cui flauam regligas comam,

The best example of hyperbaton comes in the second stanza. See how the words weave in and out:

aspera nigris aequora ventis

rough black seas winds

The phrase means: 'rough seas by black winds.'

Hyperbaton fascinates me in Latin poetry just as, in Persian poetry, meter- over-grammar fascinates me.  Both are new to me. Both are eye-opening. Both are like the first time I stumbled across a sumi-e painting in black and white or really sat down to listen to jazz. My world opened up to colorless color, to rhythm over melody.

Today is also a good day to talk about Horace's 10th ode in his second book: Rectius Vives—You live more correctly. The ode sounds as if Saadi had written it. It is prescriptive and talks about the aurea mediocritas: 'the golden mediocrity'—I mean 'the golden mean.'  The phrases are aphoristic. They are easily quotable, if you quote Latin to your friends.  What a difference from yesterday's bed of roses. 

I read once that Horace carefully constructed his four books of odes. When I have read more of them, when I have a better grasp on what his work is about, I'll return to Rectius Vives to see how it fits into the wider picture.

My prose rendition will appear tomorrow. Here below is the poem:

Rectius vīvēs, Licinī, neque altum

semper urgendō neque, dum procellās

cautus horrescis, nimium premendō

   lītus inīquum.

auream quisquis mediōcritātem

dīligit, tūtus cāret obsōletī

sordibus tectī, cāret invidendā

   sobrius aulā.

saepius ventīs agitātur ingēns

pīnus et celsae graviōre cāsū

dēcidunt turrēs feriuntque sūmmōs

   fulgura montıs.

spērat infestīs, metuit secundīs

alteram sortem bene praeparātum

pectus. informıs hiemēs redūcit

   Iuppiter, idem

sūmmovet. nōn, sī male nunc, et ōlim

sīc erit: quondam citharā tacentem

suscitat Mūsam neque semper arcum

   tendit Apollō.

rēbus angustīs animōsus atque

fortis appāre; sapienter idem

contrahēs ventō nimium secundō

   turgida vēla.

:: Latin books by James Rumford ::

For all 102 odes purchase Carpe Diem, Horace De-Poetized, for $11.50 at 

https://www.amazon.com/Carpe-Diem-Poetized-James-Rumford/dp/1891839179/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479932219&sr=8-1&keywords=Carpe+Diem+Rumford. 

For a Latin translation of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer at $12, click here: 

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Pericla+Thomae+Sawyer

To find out more about Carpe Diem go to the blog of March 26, 2015; 

for more about Pericla Thomae Sawyer, go to the blog of November 22, 2016.

Quis Multa Gracilis I:5

What a famous ode this is! A favorite for centuries: une femme fatale, a young slip of a boy, and middle-aged Horace vowing he is through with love.

In this ode,  Horace dips his toe into, no, dives into erotic poetry, cleverly hiding his message multa . . . in rosa, in a 'bed' of roses.

Hiding? I suppose so. Isn't that what metaphors are supposed to do? What to make of the metaphors in this ode — grottoes (antro), rough seas (aequora aspera), black winds (ventis nigris), aurae fallacis (false winds) and sopping wet clothes (vestimenta uvida)? Scholars, Latin students in highschools and colleges have toiled over these images for centuries.  I suspect the teenagers never got the x-rated version.  I suspect, too, from the modern commentaries and translations I have read, the adults didn't either.

My gosh, maybe Horace's poems are all filled with erotic images. O Fons Bandusiae had a gushing spring, a sacrificed lamb and blood!

So what has turned my thoughts in this direction?  The words  perfusus liquidis odoribus 'steeped in a liquid odor' and their interpretation in the very early Acronis Commentarium, a collection of marginal notes on Horace done perhaps in the fourth century. The A.C. relied on some manuscripts we still have and others that have disappeared. The A.C. is not always reliable, but it did say this about perfusus liquidis urget odoribus: 

Pro flvxv seminali idest coitv et libidine

Of course, I'm not going to translate this. Why not imitate good Victorian practices and leave the meaning to those with the wits, and I presume, the moral armor to repel such an onslaught to common decency?  On the other hand, perhaps I shouldn't even have brought this subject up.  No modern commentaries I have read mention any fluxu at all.

Perhaps these are the dubious rewards of reading the poetry in the original.  Translators often shy away from the naked, raw words of ancient poets. Why? I don't know. Surely modern translators have their ears daily salted by rap, by TV sitcoms trying to attract an audience, by movies so filled with . . . You get the picture.  It's called hypocrisy.

I would now like to change the subject and talk about the construction of the poem, but I fear I have lost my readers' taste for the dry shredded-wheat structure of the poem, the dust of grammatical endings. They would rather lie in a damp bed of roses.

My prose rendition:

[O] Pyrrha, quis puer gracilis, odoribus liquidis perfusus, te sub antro grato in rosa multa urget? Cui [tu] comam flavam simplex munditiis religas? 

Heu! [Ille] quotiens fidem [tuam] deosque mutatos flebit et aequora aspera ventis nigris insolens emirabitur—[is] qui credulus nunc te aurea fruitur, qui, aurae fallacis nescius, sperat [te] semper vacuam, semper amabilem [futuram]. Miseri [sunt ii] quibus intemptata nites! 

Paries sacer tabula votiva indicat, me vestimenta uvida ‹deo potenti maris› suspendisse.

[revised March 26, 2015]

grato: invitanti

odoribus liquidis: pro fluxu seminali

rosa multa: rosis multis

aequore: mari

aspera: turbulenta

munditiis: elegantiis

credulus aurea: credens te auream esse

insolens: inexpectus

aurae: venti

fruitur: gaudet

uvida: umida

English translations and discusions: http://love-poems.blogcarnival.com/archives/2006/02/quis_multa_grac.html 

http://www.dl.ket.org/latinlit/forum/forumhorace1-5.htm 

Traduction en français:  http://agoraclass.fltr.ucl.ac.be/concordances/Horace_odesI/ligne05.cfm?numligne=34&mot=te#debut 

Latin commentaries:  http://www.horatius.ru/index.xps?2.1.105 

Quis multā gracilis tē puer in rosā

perfūsus liquidīs urget odōribus

   grātō, Pyrrha, sub antrō?

        cui flāvam religās comam,

simplex munditiīs? hēu quotiēns fidem

mūtātōsque deōs flēbit et aspera

   nigrīs aequora ventīs

        ēmīrābitur insolēns,

quī nunc tē fruitur crēdulus aureā,

quī semper vacuam, semper amābilem

   spērat, nescius aurae

        fallācis. miserī, quibus

intemptāta nitēs. mē tabulā sacer

vōtīvā pariēs indicat ūvida

   suspendisse potentī

        vestīmenta maris deō^[deae].  

:: Latin books by James Rumford ::

For all 102 odes purchase Carpe Diem, Horace De-Poetized, for $11.50 at 

https://www.amazon.com/Carpe-Diem-Poetized-James-Rumford/dp/1891839179/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479932219&sr=8-1&keywords=Carpe+Diem+Rumford. 

For a Latin translation of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer at $12, click here: 

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Pericla+Thomae+Sawyer

To find out more about Carpe Diem go to the blog of March 26, 2015; 

for more about Pericla Thomae Sawyer, go to the blog of November 22, 2016.

O Fons Bandusiae III:13

I am still amazed at getting a copy of Smith's textbook on Horace and all of the "goodies" inside.  The hand-traced map I found is especially useful in understanding today's ode O fons Bandusiae.

The Fons Bandusiae is a spring that may have been on Horace's property, although no spring by that name has survived the centuries.  There is a spring, however, and it is clearly marked on the hand-traced map.

It really doesn't matter to me whether Horace was describing a real spring or not. The picture he has painted with words makes it real enough to me: limpid, cool water, bubbling and talking under the shade of an oak tree, noontime oxen resting nearby.  All very Chinese in feel as his words flow over me like those of Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei:

不知香积寺

数里入云峰

古木无人径

深山何处钟

泉声咽危石

日色冷青松

薄幕空潭曲

安禅制毒龙 

I don't know where Xianji Temple is: 

many miles, entering cloud peaks, 

old trees, lonely paths, 

deep in the mountains, where's the bell?

[I hear only] the sound of a spring swallowing up dangerous rocks

the color of the sun is cold, green the pines

the thin veil of twilight, an empty pond, winding, twisting,

peace and meditation, holding my poisonous dragons at bay.

[my translation]

Like Wang Wei, Horace has a message. It is not about contemplation.  Horace knows nothing of zen. He is a realist. He talks of the kid goat he will sacrifice to the spring and how it will dye the cool waters red. The kid goat has budding horns, and were it to grow up these would lead it to fights and love.  But that will never be. Is this ode about youth cut short or youth that is too short? For middle-aged Horace, both are one and the same. His  long-ago youth may seem as if it never was.

Here is my prose rendition of Ode III:13

O fons Bandusia, vitro splendior, [o] digne mero dulci non sine floribus, cras haedo, ‹cui frons cornibus primis turgida et venerem et proelia destinat›, donaberis.

Frustra! Nam suboles gregis lascivi tibi rivos gelidos sanguine rubro inficiet. 

Hora atrox Caniculae flagrantis nescit te tangere. Tu ‹frigus amabile› ‹tauris vomere fessis› et ‹pecori vago› praebes. 

Tu quoque fontium nobilium fies, me dicente ilicem, saxis cavis impositam, unde lymphae tuae loquaces desiliunt.

[revised March 28, 2015]

mero: vino

venerem: amorem

haedo: kid

destinat: designat

lascivi: iocosi

suboles: stirps, genus

vago: erratione

ilicem: oak

unde: ab loco

frustra: in vain

English translation: 

http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_text_horace_odes3.htm 

Traduction en langue française: http://agoraclass.fltr.ucl.ac.be/concordances/Horace_odesIII/ligne05.cfm?numligne=109&mot=Te#debut 

Ō fons Bandusiae splendidior vitrō,

dulcī digne merō nōn sine flōribus,

   crās dōnāberis haedō,

        cui frons turgida cornibus

prīmīs et venerem et proelia destinat;       

frustrā: nam gelidōs inficiet tibi

   rubrō sanguine rīvōs

        lascīvī suboles gregis.

tē flāgrantis atrox hōra Canīculae

nescit tangere, tū frīgus amābile

   fessīs vomere taurīs

        praebēs et pecorī vāgō.

fiēs nōbilium tū quoque fontium,

mē dīcente cāvīs impositam īlicem

   saxīs, unde loquācēs

        lymphae desiliunt tuae.

:: Latin books by James Rumford ::

For all 102 odes purchase Carpe Diem, Horace De-Poetized, for $11.50 at 

https://www.amazon.com/Carpe-Diem-Poetized-James-Rumford/dp/1891839179/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479932219&sr=8-1&keywords=Carpe+Diem+Rumford. 

For a Latin translation of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer at $12, click here: 

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Pericla+Thomae+Sawyer

To find out more about Carpe Diem go to the blog of March 26, 2015; 

for more about Pericla Thomae Sawyer, go to the blog of November 22, 2016.