Muy amados/as lectores/as:
It is with great pleasure that I send you this engraving entitled…
…DVM TEMPVS LABITVR, OCCASIONEM FRENTE CAPILLATAM REMORANTVR “While time flees, they retain, apparently, the long-haired opportunity.”
The seventh illustration shows what happens when one is able to seize the opportunity at the right time.
Tempvs soars into the air to fly to other areas. The young people ─B, C, E─ are in a state of agitation and encourage each other to take advantage of the opportunity. Meanwhile, Occasio announces that she too must go somewhere else. But also, after she has been taken by the hair, she assures the young men that she will stay with them until they have achieved success for having caught her. The situation is praised by the angel ─F─. He explains that Occasio likes to be pressured in a friendly way ─belonging to the Antwerp devotional books─.
The text below tells us:
- Nunc opus est alios Terrarum inuisere tractus, Et Iuuenes alios. Moniti vos ergo valete.
- Quis subitae calor iste fugae?
- Quin si fuga tandem Certa tibi est; pennas saltem Dea calua fugaces Sistat adhuc.
- Cur tot nequidquam verba per auras Perditis? hinc alio, mora nulla, recedo; valete.
- Aufugiat? Sparsos potius pro fronte capillos Arripite.
- Ai! Sine, sponte sequar; vestrisque morabor Aedibus, ad iustam donec perduxero metam.
- Laudo animos, nam vi cogi DEA gaudet amicâ.
Translation:
- Now it is necessary to inspect other areas of the lands, and other young people. You have been warned, therefore, be well.
- What ardor is this sudden escape
- Actually, if for you the escape is certain, at least the bald Goddess still retains the fleeting feathers.
- Why uselessly waste so many words to the wind? I move away from this place to another, without any delay; bless you.
- She flees? Better catch the loose hair in front of her forehead.
- There! It is not necessary; [I] will follow you willingly and dwell in your chapels until [I] have led [you] to the just end.
- I praise ardor; in fact, the friendly Goddess is happy to be compelled by force.
What does all this mean?
Certainly, in all areas of our world many phenomena occur and these are experienced by young and old.
Everything is always showing itself in a fleeting way. If you see meaning in transience, then the bald goddess ─Occasio─ will retain her feathers that make her fleeting.
Why, indeed, do we waste the verb identified with circumstances? Let us separate ourselves from them and move on to something else. Run away from identification and catch the Opportunity.
There! “There is no need,” says the angel, “I will follow you willingly and dwell in your chapels until I have led you to the end.
Let us praise ardor ─our perseverance─, because the friendly goddess ─Opportunity─ likes to be compelled by force.
This engraving clearly speaks to us of the imperative need to seize the opportunity ─Occasio─ and retain it in order to take advantage of it, as the engraving shows us. Young people represent humanity in general when they become ─at least temporarily─ aware of knowing how to steal from time the opportunities that sometimes appear in the course of it. When we do that, the guardians of humanity or destiny rejoice, and that is what the angel who contemplates the scene represents. Certainly that does not happen every day, and so time runs its course. That is why we see Saturn carrying HIS HOURGLASS and his scythe ─A─.
I now give you some appropriate sentences to be reflected upon:
“What good is opportunity to a man if he does not know how to take advantage of it?”
George Eliot
“A good today is worth more than two tomorrows.”
Franklin
“Knowing the time and using the opportunity makes men prosperous.”
Fernando de Rojas
“He who knows how to take advantage of the occasion, that is the opportune man.”
Goethe
“The world is all doors, all opportunities and taut ropes waiting to be touched.”
Emerson
CARPE DIEM.
─'Seize the day'─.
KWEN KHAN KHU
