Qüestions d'amor: De gran amor
The Greatness of Love Questioned
The Friend, Praise of Love, the Lover, and Charity each ask about the nature and source of great love.
Question. The Friend asked the eternity of the sovereign Beloved who was the reason for his great loving.1 ii. Praise of Love asked the Friend if he knew by what power love is great. 3. The Lover asked the Beloved's love why it was not great in many lovers. iv. The friend asked his love what made it great. v. Charity asked the friend who feared bearing the labors of love why he fled from loving.2
True Love and False Love
True love confronts false love, asking why it is afraid and flees.
6. True love asked false love why it was afraid and ran away.
Glory, Reward, and the Essence of Love
Birds, Consolation, Patience, Remembrance, Hope, Victory, and Praise inquire about glory, reward, and the substance of great love.
vii. Birds that were singing of love asked the Friend what great glory is. viii. Consolation and Patience asked the Friend what Love would reward him with for loving his Beloved. ix. Remembrance and Hope of Love asked the Friend what great love consisted in. x. Victory and Praise asked the Friend if there was great love through them.
Gifts, Littleness, and the Middle Place
Great gifts of worth and the personifications of Littleness and Contrariety question the Lover about the measure and position of his love.
xi. Great gifts of worth asked the Lover why love is great. 12. Littleness and Contrariety asked the Friend's love why it was in the central place of love.3
The Little Lover and the Great Lord
A little lover is questioned by a great lord about his great love, and Liberty asks the Friend about loving a greater Beloved.
13. To.4 One.5 A little lover asked.6 One.7 A great lord asked a little lover why he had such great love.8 14. Liberty asked the Friend whether with her he loved a greater Beloved.9
Equality and the Secrets of Love
Justice questions the lover about equality in love, and the lover, unable to bear torments, asks the Beloved about finding love's secrets through loving less.
15. Justice asked the lover why he loved equality of love and of the beloved. XVI. The lover couldn't bear the torments that come from loving more, and he asked the Beloved whether, by loving less, he could find the great secrets of love.
Read the original Catalan
Qüestió. A la eternitat del sobirà amat demanà lamic, qui estava raó de son gran amar.
ij. Lausor damor demanà a lamic, si sabia ab què poder damor es gran.
iij. A lamor del amat demanà lamic, per que no estava gran en molts amadors.
iiij. A la sua amor demanà lamic, ab què estava gran. V. Al amic qui temia sostenir los trebayls damor, demanà caritat, per ques hujava damar.
vj. Vera amor demanà a falsa amor, per que avia paor e fugia.
vij. A lamic demanaren aucels qui cantaven damor, què es gran glòria.
viij. Consolació e paciència demanaren a lamic, de quel guardonaria amor per amar son amat. viiij. Membransa e esperansa damor demanaren a lamic, ab què estava amor gran. X. Victoria e lausor demanaren a lamic, si per eles avia gran amor.
xj. Grans dones de valor demanaren a lamic, per què es gran amor.
xij. Menoritat e contrarietat demanaren a l amar del amic, per que' estava en lo mig loc damor.
xiij. A . j. petit amador demanà . j. gran senyor, per que avia tan gran amor. xiiij. Libertat demanà a lamic si ab ela amava major amat.
XV. Justícia demanà a lamic, per que amava egaltat damor e damat.
xvj. No podia lamic sostenir los turments qui son per major amar, e demanà a lamat, si ab menor amar poria atrobar los grans secrets damor.
Notes
- 1 ↩Old Catalan 'qui estava raó de' is elliptical; read as an indirect question ('who/what was the reason for'), parallel to nearby 'per que' / 'ab què' question formulas, not as a relative clause modifying 'lamic'.
- 2 ↩Source distinguishes caritat (charity) from amor/amar (love); rendered as charity to keep that contrast, not flattened to love.
- 3 ↩Catalan 'menoritat' rendered as personified 'Littleness' (Llullian term for lesserness/smallness); 'l'amar del amic' as 'the Friend's loving' (verbal noun of loving belonging to the Friend), matching the chapter's allegorical question pattern.
- 4 ↩Source reading is only the fragment «A .». With the following «j.» / «petit amador demanà» / «j.» / «gran senyor…», the intended sentence is «A .j. petit amador demanà .j. gran senyor, per que avia tan gran amor» (“A great lord asked a little lover why he had such great love”). Catalan «A» here marks the person asked.
- 5 ↩Medieval Catalan «.j.» is the numeral one (un/una); here it modifies the following «petit amador» in the split sentence begun at s2.
- 6 ↩Fragment «petit amador demanà .» is mid-sentence. In the Catalan construction «A X demanà Y», Y is the asker and X the one asked; the true subject is «.j. gran senyor» in s5–s6. Surface rendering follows the supplied words only.
- 7 ↩Medieval Catalan «.j.» is the numeral one (un); here it modifies the following «gran senyor» in the split sentence begun at s2.
- 8 ↩Preposition, numerals, and mid-clause verb are restored from the preceding split fragments «A .» / «j.» / «petit amador demanà .» / «j.»; source fragment alone begins at «gran senyor». Intended continuous reading: «A .j. petit amador demanà .j. gran senyor, per que avia tan gran amor».
- 9 ↩«ab ela» rendered as «with her», taking «ela» as Liberty (feminine personification); sense may also be instrumental («by means of her/Liberty»). «major amat» kept as «greater Beloved» in the Friend/Beloved register used elsewhere in this chapter.
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