Condicions d'amor: De volentat e amor
The Virtue of Will in Love
The will must be united with love to be virtuous, and true loving requires a distinction between lover and beloved.
No will without love is virtuous. ii. No willing is true without true loving.1 iii. Every glorious will is loving. iv. Without a distinction between lover and beloved, love could not be in the will.2
Love and the Evil Will
Love and loving cannot coexist with an evil will, nor can harmony exist when the will opposes great love.
5. Love and loving can have no concordance in any evil will. vi. In a will that opposes great love, there is no great concordance between lover and beloved.
The End and Means of Love
Love begins in the will through its end, and the means of will and love are willing and loving; without the end, the will knows no rest, and a will that cannot receive greater love is diminished.
vii. Without the end of love, loving can't begin in the will.3 viii. The means of will and love are willing and loving.4 ix. Without the end of love, no will has rest. x. Every will is lesser in one who has no room for greater love.5
Equality and Proportion in Love
A will equal to love lacks nothing, but no lover can attain a great beloved through lesser love.
xi. A will that is made equal to love lacks nothing.6 2 12. No lover truly wants to love if they think they can win a greater beloved through a lesser love.
Read the original Catalan
Neguna volentat sens amor es vertuosa. ij. Negú voler es ver sens ver amar. iij. Tota volentat gloriosa es amorosa. iiij. Sens differencia damic e damat, no poría amor estar en volentat.
v. Amor e amar en neguna mala volentat poden aver concordansa.
vj. En volentat qui contrasta a gran amor, no ha gran concordansa damic e damat.
vij. Sens fi damor, en volentat, amar no pot comensar. viij. Los mejans de volentat e damor son voler e amar. viiij. Sens fi damor, neguna volentat ha repòs. X. Tota volentat es menor en qui no cab major amor.
xj. Volentat quis eguala ab amor, no ha de res freitura. 2
xij. Negun amic ha gran volentat damar qui per menor amor cuyda aver major amat.
Notes
- 1 ↩Preserves Llull's voler/amar distinction: voler = the act of willing; amar = the act of loving (paired with amor elsewhere as love).
- 2 ↩amic/amat rendered as lover/beloved, Llull's technical pair for the lover and the one loved.
- 3 ↩Old Catalan 'fi damor' = fi d'amor, the teleological end/purpose of love (Llull's correlative fi). Rendered as 'end of love' to keep the Art's beginning–means–end vocabulary; 'en volentat' relocated for natural English word order.
- 4 ↩Preserves Llull's volentat/amor vs. voler/amar distinction: faculties (will, love) and their acts (willing, loving). 'mejans' = means/middles (mitjans), paired with 'fi' (end) in the neighboring conditions.
- 5 ↩Old Catalan 'cab' from cabre (to fit/contain). 'no cab major amor' rendered as 'has no room for greater love'; alternative literal sense: 'in whom greater love does not fit'.
- 6 ↩Old Catalan 'freitura' = lack/want/need; rendered as 'lacks nothing' for 'no ha de res freitura'. 'eguala ab' taken as 'is made equal with / is set on a par with'.
Arbre de filosofia d'amor (Tree of the Philosophy of Love) companion
A daily portion of stillness
Chosen Portion delivers one short contemplative reading and a guided moment of silence each day — the ascent, one step at a time.
Chosen Portion is the paced doorway into this collection: it portions the dense mystical treatises into one daily reading plus guided silence, exactly as the 14-day plan teaches.
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