2. De la matèria d'amor
The Twofold Matter of Love
Love is built from its own inward essence and from the Beloved's lovable qualities, and joining these makes great loving.
Love's matter is twofold: one belongs to love's essence; the other belongs to the Beloved's lovable qualities, which the Lover causes to be loved in the lovability that belongs to love's essence.1 And these ii. We want to treat these matters together, to teach how the Lover, in the essential matter of love, may know how to apply the accidental, so that the form of love may have a great subject in which it can multiply great loving.2 The matters of love are the lovable qualities of the roots of love—goodness, which is lovable, greatness, and the rest. When the lover unites those lovable qualities with his own lovability, the form of love increases the lovability of love, and from the form and the matter great loving comes about.34
Feasting on the Beloved's Perfections
In three seeking movements, the Lover draws the Beloved's goodness, greatness, power, wisdom and all the divine likenesses into his loving until he is caught up in rapture.
1. The Lover desired the goodness of his Beloved, so that he might love the Beloved with a good love: the Beloved's goodness and greatness entered into the Lover's love, and the Lover had a good and great love. 2. When the Lover had good and great loving, he wanted to have lasting and powerful loving, and then there entered into his love, in order to be loved, the goodness, greatness, duration, and power of the Beloved, with the wisdom, will, virtue, truth, and glory of the Beloved: and the Lover had his loving so strongly filled with the likenesses of his Beloved that he could scarcely bear the desires and the loves that came to him from his Beloved. 3. Difference, Concordance, Beginning, Middle and End, and Equality, along with Majority, wanted to enter the Friend's love so that the Friend's love would be greater; but the Friend excused himself to them, saying that a greater love could not fit within his capacity to love. But Love and the Beloved opened the door, and the likenesses of the Beloved entered the Friend's love with greater fullness. The Friend lost his power of imagining and feeling, and was caught up in rapture from the excess of love and loving.
Suffering as Fuel for Love
Need, affliction, and tears become welcome matter for love, giving the Lover more occasion to serve and long for the Beloved.
4. The friend cried out to Love to help him, for he loved too much. Friend, said Love: I want to help you love greatly, so that you may have great concordance with your Beloved, and so that you may not destroy the matter of loving.5 5. To honor, praise, and serve his Beloved, the Friend felt great hunger, thirst, and heat, along with many other afflictions; and Love rejoiced, because the Friend had such great cause and opportunity for love. 6. The Friend wept for the hardships he was bearing for love; and Love said that the Friend's tears and weeping were the matter of its great loving.
Wakeful Zeal for the Beloved's Honor
Sleep drains Love of matter, while holy anger at the Beloved's dishonor gives the Friend tears to weep for his honor.
7. The Friend fell asleep, and Love wept, because while the Friend was sleeping there was no matter with which to multiply loving. 8. The Friend was angry because he saw people dishonoring his Beloved — they loved their own honors more than the honors of his Beloved. And the Friend's love laughed, because the Friend now had a reason to weep, and in weeping to love the honor of his Beloved.
Loss and Temptation Transformed
Losing a coin, facing temptations, and losing an only son all become matter for deeper trust, humility, and love of the Beloved.
9. The Friend lost. One. gold coin that he had, by which he had something to eat and to wear; and his love laughed, because the Friend had matter by which to put his trust in the treasure of his Beloved, who is enough for all those who place their hope in him.✦ 10. The friend was weeping because he had temptations to sin; and Love said that temptations to sin are an occasion for the friend to remember how little he loves and the help of his Beloved.6 11. The friend lost one7 son whom he loved greatly; and Love told the friend that through his son's death, he could love his Beloved more.8
Consolation in Weakness and Sorrow
A stricken heart and the fear of death are met by Love's promise that patient service and swift sight of the Beloved bring joy.
12. The Friend was sad because his heart was deeply wounded.9 Love told the Friend to rejoice, for the Beloved loves his Friend greatly when he serves him with patience, humility, and hope.10 13. The lover fell ill, and he was afraid of death.11 "Lover," said Love, "if you die of this illness, you'll see your Beloved all the sooner."12
The Freedom of Perfect Love
Desiring hardships, leaving riches and honors, and even willing death for the Beloved lead to the mutual gift of Love and the Beloved.
14. When the Friend desired to bear many hardships for love, then the Beloved and Love said many good things about the Friend. 15. The friend left behind many riches and many honors, so that they would not hinder him from loving his Beloved; and the Beloved and Love gave themselves to the friend, so that he might have a great and good love. 16. The lover wanted to die to honor his beloved; and the beloved wanted the lover to live honored in his love.
Read the original Catalan
Materia damor es dobla: una es de la essència damor; autra es de les amabilitats del amat, les quals lamic fa ésser amades en la amabilitat qui es de la essència damor. E aquestes . ij. matèries volem menar ensems, per donar doctrina com lamic, en la matèria damor essencial, sapia aplicar la accidental, per so que la forma damor aja gran subject, en lo qual pusca montiplicar gran amar.
Les matèries damor son les amabilitats de les rails damor, axí com bonea qui es amabla, e granea, e les altres; e con lamic ajusta lurs amabilitats en la sua amabilitat, adones la forma damor crex la amabilitat damor, e de la forma e la matèria ix gran amar.
1. Amar volc lamic la bonea de son amat, per so que amàs lamat ab bo amar: entrà la bonea del amat, ab sa granea, en la amor del amic, e lamic ac bo e gran amar.
2. Can lamic ac bo e gran amar, volc aver durable e poderós amar, e adones entraren en la sua amor, per ésser amades, la bonea granea duració poder del amat, ab saviea volentat vertut veritat e glòria del amat: e lamic ac tan fortment ple son amar de les semblanses de son amat, que a penes podia sostenir los desirers e les amors que li venien per son amat.
3. En lamar del amic volgren entrar differencia concordansa comensament mejà e fi e egaltat ab majoritat, per so que lamar del amic fos major; mas lamic sescusà a eles, e dix que no podia major amor caber en sa amabilitat. Mas lamor e lamat obriren la porta, e entraren les semblanses de lamat, en la amor del amic, ab majoritat, e lamic perdé ymagenar e sentir, e estec en rabeu per sobre amor e amar.
4. Cridava lamic a lamor que li ajudàs, car trop amava. Amic, dix amor: jot vuyl ajudar a molt amar, per so que ab ton amat pusca aver gran concordansa, e que no destruamatèria d amar.
5. Sentia lamic, per honrar loar e servir son amat, gran fam set calor, e moltes dautres malenanses; e alegrava s amor per so car lamic avia gran matèria e occasió d amar.
6. Plorava lamic per los trebails que sostenia per amor; e deia amor que les làgremes els plors del amic eren matèria de son gran amar.
7. Adurmís lamic, e plorà amor, car dementre que lamic durmia no avia matèria ab que montiplicàs amar.
8. Irat estava lamic, car veia que les gents fahien desonor a son amat, en quant amaven més lurs honraments que los honraments de son amat; e lamor del amic ris, per ço car lamic avia matèria de plorar per amar lonrament de son amat.
9. Perdé lamic . j. diner daur que avia, per lo qual avia què menjar e vestir; e ris sa amor, per so car lamic avia matèria per la qual se confiàs en lo tresor de son amat, qui abasta a tots aquels qui en él an esperansa.
10. Plorava lamic car avia temptacions a peccar; e dix amor que temptacions de peccar son matèria al amic a remembrar sa poca amor e l ajuda de son amat. 1 1. Perdé lamic . j. fiF que molt amava; e dix amor a lamic que per la mort de son filh pudia més amar son amat.
12. Trist estava l amic per so cor avia mal abat. Amor dix al amic que salegràs, car lamat ama molt son amic can lo servcx ab pasciencia humilitat e esperansa.
13. Malaute fo lamic, e ac paor de mort. Amic, dix amor, si tu mors per esta malautia, pus tost ne veuràs ton amat.
14. Can lamic desirà sostenir molts tiebails per amor, adones lamat e amor dixeren, del amic, moltes bones paraules.
15. Lexà lamic moltes riquees e molts honraments, per so que noi empatxassen a amar son amat; e lamat e amor se donaren a lamic, per so que agués gran e bo amar.
16. Morir volc lamic per onrar son amat; e lamat volc que lamic visqués honrat en sa amor.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.6.19-Matt.6.21 — Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. Matt.6.20 — But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal. Matt.6.21 — For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Notes
- 1 ↩Llull's amabilitats/amabilitat are technical: the Beloved's lovable qualities, and the essential lovability of love itself. Lover/Beloved render l'amic / l'amat.
- 2 ↩essencial / accidental keep Llull's scholastic contrast (essential vs. accidental matter of love). subject keeps the philosophical sense of substrate/subject; amar is rendered as loving (the act), not as the abstract noun love.
- 3 ↩Llull’s technical term for the quality of being lovable; kept as “lovable qualities” / “lovability” to preserve the form–matter analysis of love.
- 4 ↩Medieval Catalan rails = arrels (“roots”); confirmed by ch. 3, where bonea, granea, and the other principles are named the rails of the Tree of Love.
- 5 ↩Normalized reading of agglutinated 'destruamatèria' as 'destrua matèria' (may not destroy the matter), fitting the chapter's 'matèria d'amor' and the parallel subjunctive with 'pusca'.
- 6 ↩matèria keeps Llull's technical sense from the chapter title De la matèria d'amor: temptations are material/occasion for love's work, not mere physical stuff.
- 7 ↩j. read as Roman numeral 1 (final-i form), parallel to j. diner in the previous section.
- 8 ↩Source 'fiF' treated as corrupt for filh (son); confirmed by the following clause 'per la mort de son filh'.
- 9 ↩Old Catalan 'mal abat' (from abatre) taken as 'badly cast down / stricken.' Neighboring illness in 1.11.14 may color the grief, but the wording points to a stricken heart.
- 10 ↩Normalized damaged OCR forms: salegràs → s'alegràs; lamat → l'amat; can → quan; servcx → serveix; pasciencia → paciència; esperansa → esperança.
- 11 ↩Old Catalan "ac" is "hac" (had), not Latin additive "ac"; rendered as "was afraid" / "had fear."
- 12 ↩Catalan "ne" here is the adverbial/result particle ("thereby / from it"), not Latin negative-purpose "ne"; sense absorbed into "all the sooner."
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