3. De la conjuncció qui es de la forma e matèria d'amor

The Twofold Conjunction of Love

The conjunction of love is twofold, uniting the essence of love with the matter of love and joining the lover's works to the beloved's lovable qualities.

This conjunction of love is twofold: one is the conjunction that belongs to the essence of love, which joins the essential matter of love; the other is the conjunction of the matter of love and the beloved's lovable qualities, which the form of love unites in its general lovability, and in which it makes them be loved.¹ The acts of the roots of love — that is, making good, magnifying, and the others — are works of love then, when the lover joins himself to his beloved through good and great loving, and the others; and for this reason, when the lover joins and gathers into his loving great making-good, lasting, and making-powerful, and the others, he joins a great, good, lasting, and powerful form and matter of loving.²³

The Ten Works of the Roots of Love

Through ten numbered examples, the lover's loving is shaped by the roots of love—making good, enduring, and others—as the lover joins with the beloved.

1. Through making-evil and making-small, the lover bought making-good and magnifying, and enriched his loving, which through making-evil and making-lesser was sick.⁴⁵ 2. The lover cast out evil thinking of enduring, and good thinking was born in enduring; and for that reason the lover empowered his loving in enduring.⁶ 3. Understanding, will, and virtue dressed themselves in love and went with the friend to greet his beloved. 4. The lover's loving, verifying, and glorying made no distinction between the sojourns and the labors that the lover had for love.⁷ 5. Agreement and opposition fought each other in the friend's love; agreement would have been defeated if the friend had only felt a little love for his beloved. 6. Bad love wanted to begin anger, pride, and despair in the friend's will; but good love had already begun patience, humility, and hope in the friend's will. 7. Loving, which serves as the intermediary between the lover and the beloved, they wanted to oppose and diminish, to cast out of love, and they wanted to set unloving between the lover and the beloved; but they couldn't, because loving had long been present in the love between the lover and the beloved.⁸⁹ 8. The purpose of love sent the lover to the beloved so that love might be improved, magnified, and endure; and through these purposes the beloved sent the lover grace, mercy, pity, and hope.¹⁰¹¹ 9. The friend worked hard to gain a greater love, and once he had it, he sent it to his beloved through hope.¹² 10. Equally the lover wanted to love, in his beloved, making good, magnifying, enduring, empowering, understanding, and loving; and for this reason he equally loved, from his beloved, judging and forgiving.¹³¹⁴

The Struggle with Minority and the Conclusion

Minority attempts to cast out the lover, but greater love and hope prevail, and the chapter concludes by teaching how to recognize the state of one's loving through the roots.

II. Minority wanted to cast the lover out of his loving, and it couldn't finish that without greater love and hope.¹⁵ We have spoken of the trunk of love, and we have given teaching so that one may know how to recognize the works that are felt through the roots in the trunk of love—by which feeling the lover can know in what state his loving stands, and with which of love's roots it has greater participation and concord.¹⁶¹⁷

Read the original Catalan

Aquesta conjunció damor està dobla; car una es la conjuncció qui es' de la essència damor, qui conjuyn la essencial matèria damor; altra es la conjuncció de la matèria damor e de les amabilitats del amat, les quals la forma damor ajusta en la sua general amabilitat, en les quals les fa ésser amades.

Los actus de les rails damor, so es a saber, bonificar magnificar, e los altres, son obres damor, adones can lamic se conjuny ab son amat per bo gran amar, e los altres; e per asò can lamic conjuny e ajusta, en son amar, gran bonificar durar possifficar, e los altres, conjuny gran bona durable poderosa forma e matèria d amar.

1. Ab malificar parvificar comprà lamic bonificar e magnificar, e cnrequeín son amar, qui per malificar e menorificar estava malaute.

2. Gità lamic mal cogitar de durar, e nasqué en durar bo cogitar; e per aysò lamic possificà son amar en durar.

3. Entendre e voler e vertut se vestiren damar, e anaren ab lamic son amat saludar.

4. En lamar del amic, verificar e gloriejar no feyen differencia enfrels sejorns e trebayls que lamic avia per amor.

5. Concordar e contrariar se combateren en lamar del amic: vensut fóra concordar sil amic agués en vers son amat poc amar.

6. Mal amar volc comensar, en la volentat del amic, ira erguyl e desesperansa; mas bon amar avia ja comensada en la volentat del amic paciència humilitat e esperança.

7. Amar, qui està mejà d amic e d amat, volgren, contrariar e menorificar, gitar damor, e volgren posar desamar enfre lamic e lamat; mas no pogren, car lamar avia longament estat en la amor damic e damat.

8. La fi damar tramés lamic a son amat per bonificar magnificar e durar; e lamat tramès, per éls, al amic gràcia mercè pietat e esperansa.

9. Molt trebaylà lamic en guaayar major amar, e quant lac gaaynhat, tramèslo a son amat per esperansa.

10. Egualment volc lamic amar, en son amat, bonificar magnificar durar possificar entendre e amar; e per aysò amà egualment, de son amat, jutjar e perdonar.

II. Mcnoritat volc lamic gitar de son amar, e nou pogra acabar sens major amor e csperansa.

Dit avem del tronc damor, e donada avem doctrina com hom sapia concxer les obres quis senten per les rails en lo tronc damor, per lo qual sentiment pot lamic conèxer en qual estament està son amar, ni ab qual de les rails damor ha major participació e concordansa.

Notes

1 ↩Catalan amabilitats rendered as 'lovable qualities' (Llullian technical term for the beloved's lovabilities); amabilitat as 'lovability'.
2 ↩Llull’s technical cascade (bonificar, magnificar, durar, possifficar) names root-acts of love in his Art vocabulary; rendered as making good / magnifying / lasting / making-powerful rather than left untranslated or flattened into vague virtue-language.
3 ↩rails = Old Catalan arrels (“roots”), fitting the Tree of Love metaphor; not modern “rails.”
4 ↩Source reading cnrequeín is corrupt; translated as enriqueí (“enriched”), the most plausible Old Catalan preterite in context.
5 ↩malificar / parvificar / bonificar / magnificar / menorificar are Llull’s Art root-acts of love; rendered as making-evil / making-small / making-good / magnifying / making-lesser to stay consistent with neighboring section diction.
6 ↩possificà is Llull’s technical verb possificar (the act paired with power/poder among the roots of love). Rendered ‘empowered’ to keep the active sense of making the loving powerful/able in enduring; alternatives ‘made powerful’ or ‘potentiated’ are possible.
7 ↩Old Catalan 'enfrels' read as 'entre ells' (between them); 'sejorns' as sojourns/stays of ease, paired with 'trebayls' (labors/hardships).
8 ↩Old Catalan desamar is Llull’s technical contrary of amar; rendered as “unloving” to keep the paired opposition rather than a looser “hatred” or “indifference.”
9 ↩The plural subject of volgren / pogren is not named in this sentence; from the preceding section it most likely continues the contrary powers of bad loving (mal amar).
10 ↩fi damar rendered as teleological 'end of loving' (purpose/goal), not chronological finish; bonificar / magnificar / durar treated as the ends for which the lover is sent, and as the 'éls' through which the beloved returns gifts.
11 ↩pietat rendered as 'pity' (compassion) rather than 'piety', given its place in the gift-list with gràcia, mercè, and esperansa.
12 ↩per esperansa: rendered as instrumental/mediating 'through hope' (hope as the means of sending); could also be read as 'out of hope' or 'for hope'.
13 ↩Llull’s asyndetic root-acts (bonificar, magnificar, durar, possificar, entendre, amar) are kept as named acts of love, consistent with neighboring sections; possificar rendered as ‘empowering’ (making powerful), matching LlullArbreAmor.1.12.4.
14 ↩Parallel en son amat / de son amat: first clause = acts exercised in/toward the beloved; second = jutjar e perdonar received from the beloved. Alternative reading would take judging and forgiving as acts the lover equally loves to perform toward the beloved; ‘de’ favors source-from-the-beloved.
15 ↩Source reading corrected from OCR: 'Mcnoritat' → 'Menoritat' (Minority, Llullian relative principle); 'nou pogra' → 'no·u pogra' (could not [do] it); 'csperansa' → 'esperansa' (hope).
16 ↩Reading rails as arrels (roots), and concxer as conèixer (to know/recognize), which fit the tree allegory (trunk/roots) and Old Catalan spelling; the supplied normalized text retains the OCR forms.
17 ↩ni ab qual coordinates a second object of knowledge with en qual estament (in what state… and with which…). Sentiment here is the inward sense/perception of those root-works, not mere emotion.

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