Qüestions d'amor: De bonea e amor

The Beloved Loved by Few

The Friend asks why the Beloved is loved by so few, and Love answers that the solution is found in the first condition of good love.

Question. The Friend asked Love why his Beloved was loved by so few lovers, since he is worthy of being loved by many lovers. Solution. "Friend," said Love, "the solution to this question lies in the first condition of good love, and likewise in the others, according to the order of rubrics and of number."

The Lover's Inner Journey

A series of questions explore the lover's interior experience: multiplying love, suffering harm, being weighed down, a sick will, turning from sin to virtue, and being nourished by love.

ii. The Friend asked Love why he didn't multiply his loving.¹ iii. Love, said the Friend, can any harm come to me through you? iv. The Friend asked Love by what nature he felt so weighed down in loving his Beloved. v. The Friend asked his will why it was sick. vi. Lovers asked the Friend why he no longer loved sin and loved virtue.² 7. Lovers asked Love what it used to nourish and make a good lover.

The Sorrows and Joys of Love

Women ask about the ills of love and rest, a bird asks about knowing the love of Lover and Beloved, and the Lover asks about the goodness of love and how to have a good Beloved.

8. Women asked the Friend how he experienced the pains of love, and how he found rest. 9. It was singing.³ 1.⁴ A bird of love, whom Goodness asked how it knew the love of the Friend and of the Beloved.⁵ 10. Love, said the Friend: why are you so good?⁶ 11. A.⁷ 1. The flower of love asked the Friend by what means he could have a good Beloved.

The Origin and Object of Love

The Lover asks with what he began loving, the Friend asks where to find the Beloved, a page asks from which fountain he drank love, and a damsel asks how to love the greatest love.

12. The Friend asked Love with what he had begun his loving. XIII. The Friend asked Love where he could find his Beloved. XIV. He asked.⁸ One.⁹ One page of the Beloved asked the Friend from which fountain he had drunk love.¹⁰ XV. The damsel of love asked the Friend by what means she loved the greatest love.

The Perils of Love

The Beloved asks why the Friend has an evil love, and the flame of fire asks why the friend's love has so scant a lover.

16. "Friend," said the Beloved, "why do you have an evil love?"¹¹ 17. The flame of the fire asked the friend's love why it had so scant a lover.¹²

Read the original Catalan

Qüestió. Demanà lamich a l amor, per que son amat amat per tan pocs amadors, com sia digne de ésser amat per molts amadors. Solució. Amic, dix amor: la solució daquesta qüestió està en la primera condició de bona amor, e en axí de les altres, per orde de rúbriques e de nombre.

ij. 2 Demanà lamic a lamor, per que no montiplicava son amar.

iij. Amor, dix lamic: pot me, per tu, esdevenir negun mal?

iiij. Demanà lamic a lamor, per qual natura se sentia tan pesant a amar son amat. V. Demanà lamic a sa volentat, per que estava malauta.

vj. Al amic demanaven amadors, per que desamava peccat e amava vertut.

vij. Amadors demanaren a lamor, ab que nodria e faia bon amador.

viij. Demanaren dones a lamic, con sentia los mals damor, ab que avia repòs. viiij. Cantava . j. aucel damor, al qual demanà bontat, ab que conexia amor damic e d amat. X. Amor, dix lamic: per que és tan bona?

xj. A . j. flor damor demanà lamic, ab que poria aver bo amat.

xij. A lamor demanà lamic, ab que avia comensat son amar.

xiij. Demanà lamic a lamor, on poria atrobar son amat. xiiij. Demanà . j. donzel de lamat a lamic, en qual font avia beguda amor. XV. A lamic demanà la donsela damor, ab que amava la major amor.

xvj. Amic, dix l amat: per que as amor mala? xvij. A lamor de lamic demanà la flama del foc, per que avia tan poc amador.

Notes

1 ↩Source montiplicava read as multiplicava (‘multiply’); amar kept as the act of loving in Llull’s Friend–Love–Beloved idiom.
2 ↩Catalan desamava (from desamar) is Llull’s technical opposite of amar: not merely ‘hate,’ but cease/refuse to love. Rendered here as ‘no longer loved’ to keep that sense in plain English.
3 ↩Source reading is only the fragment «Cantava .»; with the following «j.» and «aucel damor...» it likely continues as «Cantava j. aucel damor...» (“A bird of love was singing...”). Sense of this isolated fragment cannot be fully restored without that join.
4 ↩Medieval Catalan «j.» may be the numeral 1 or the indefinite «one/a» before «aucel damor» in a continuous reading with s4 and s6. Rendered as «1.» to match the local enumeration pattern; if joined, it would read as «a bird of love».
5 ↩Leading «A» is supplied for a grammatical English sentence; the Catalan starts mid-phrase («aucel damor»), almost certainly continuing «Cantava j. aucel damor...» from s4–s5.
6 ↩Catalan «bona» is feminine; Love is addressed directly («Amor, dix lamic»), so rendered as second-person «you». The feminine may also echo personified Love as lady, or glance back to «bontat» (Goodness) in the prior question.
7 ↩Source reading is only the fragment «A .»; parallel sections often have a short finite verb here (e.g. «Cantava.»). Sense cannot be restored without conjecture.
8 ↩Source reading is only the fragment «Demanà .». With the following «j.» and «donzel…», the intended sentence is «Demanà .j. donzel de l'amat a l'amic, en qual font avia beguda amor» (“One page of the Beloved asked the Friend from which fountain he had drunk love”).
9 ↩Medieval Catalan «.j.» is the numeral one (un); here it modifies the following «donzel» in the split sentence begun at s4.
10 ↩Finite verb and numeral are restored from the preceding split fragments «Demanà .» / «j.»; source fragment alone has no finite verb.
11 ↩Catalan 'amor mala' can mean an evil/wicked love or a love that is disordered and bad; rendered here as 'evil love' against the chapter's contrast of goodness and love.
12 ↩'tan poc amador' is singular and can mean so scant a lover, so little of a lover, or by extension so few who love; kept singular to match the Catalan.

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