Everyone knows the phrase “Carpe Diem,” or “seize the day,” but did you know where it comes from? The well-known Roman poet, Horace, gave the phrase its eternal fame in his book of poems, Odes (23 B.C.). This sculpture takes its name from a translation of the poem Odes passage I:XI

With its many different iterations as the sections move around its articulated spine the title seems resonant now… Don’t Play with Babylonian Numerology. The spine/hinge element came from an old horse drawn hay rake pulled out of the brambles near the artist’s home in Carmarthenshire.

Here's translation of the poem.

Don't ask (it's forbidden to know) what end the gods have given me or you, Leuconoe.

Don't play with Babylonian numerology either.

How much better it is to endure whatever will be!

Whether Jupiter has allotted you many more winters or this one,

which even now wears out the Tyrrhenian sea on the opposing rocks, is the final one be wise,

be truthful, strain the wine, and scale back your long hopes to a short period.

While we speak, envious time will have {already} fled:

seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the next day.