Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate

[supertailz]

I'm painting poetry on my bedroom wall. I'm either a teenager or a coffee shop; so I'm going with the latter. There are a bunch of reasons for this - some of which revolve around the fact that I'm really not, inherently, a visual person. For me text is so much more evocative than pictures. But also because I have such viscerally positive reactions

Comments

[teaberryblue]

When I was a teenager, my walls were covered in...Oscar Wilde quotes, mostly?

I used to have an apartment with a very long, very narrow hall to get to the kitchen, and I had "I live at the end of a five and a half minute hallway" painted on the wall.

I like the meta-aspect of Dante, but the actual meaning is...you don't actually want to abandon hope when you enter your room. What about the last line of Purgatorio? Not as instantly recognizable but more optimistic?

puro e disposto a salire a le stelle. (which is one that I've always liked, so there's a personal penchant there)

There's also

e veggi vostra via da la divina
distar cotanto, quanto si discorda

(one or both lines would either work over a doorway)

(And I actually really really like the idea of a tattoo that says "mine." It's incredibly appealing to me.)

[supertailz]

The last line of purgatorio I kinda like? I also am tempted, for amusement's sake, to do this: Seggendo in piuma/in fama non si vien. Perhaps Qui si convien lasciare ogne sospetto/ogne viltà convien che qui sia morta?

[teaberryblue]

I like the one about lying in bed!

I like them both, actually. The second one works for the same reason I recommended the one I did-- because it's about letting go of worldly pains before entering. Sort of the opposite of abandoning hope?

[supertailz]

There's a Dorothy Parker poem about why bother getting out of bed at all that I had a girlfriend in highschool who wanted it painted above her bed.

[teaberryblue]

Inscription for the Ceiling of a Bedroom?