Qüestions d'amor: De poder e d'amor
The Lover's Will and Love's Power
Wisdom, Will, and Love question the Lover about his desire, his surrender of will, and the nature of love's power without passion.
Question. Wisdom asked the Lover why, since he so greatly desired to love his Beloved, he did not send her to Love.1 ii. Will asked the lover why he gave all of her to the power of love.2 iii. Love, said the Friend: does your power, without passion and action, have virtue?34
Paths and Glory of Love
The Paths of love ask when the Lover will journey to see his Beloved, and Glory asks why he does not clothe his loving with her.
iv. The paths of love asked the Lover when he would walk along them to see his Beloved. v. Glory asked the Lover why he did not clothe his love with her when he remembered his Beloved.56
Power, Freedom, and Discord
Power and Freedom ask if the Friend knows the subject of love, and Discord asks Patience and Pity how to recover the Beloved.
6. Love's Power and Freedom asked the Friend if he knew the subject of love. 7. Discord arose between the Lover and the Beloved, and the Lover asked Patience and Pity if they knew how he could win back his Beloved.
Honor, Blame, and Prayer
Honors and Praises ask about idleness as heresy, Women ask about blaming love's power, and Prayer and Devotion ask where love's power resides.
viii. Honors and Praises asked the Lover whether idleness in loving was a heresy of love. viiii. Women clothed in love asked the Lover whether he had heard anyone blame the power of love.7 x. Prayer and Devotion asked the Lover whether he knew where the power of love was.
Freedom, Virtue, and the Riches of Love
Freedom and Virtue ask if any power of love is hateable, the little friend asks how Love makes greatest lovers, the friend asks about love's riches, and many men ask why love's power is naturally lovable.
xi. Freedom and Virtue asked Love whether any of its powers was hateable.8 12. He asked, the little friend to Love by what means he made his greatest lovers. 13. The friend asked Love whether valor, marks of honor, and honors were her riches.9 14. Many men asked the friend why the great power of love is naturally lovable.
Read the original Catalan
Qüestió. Demanà saviea a lamic, pus que desirava molt amar son amat, per que no la trametia a lamor.
ij. Demanà volentat a lamic, per que tota la donava al poder damor.
iij. Amor, dix lamic: lo teu«poder, sens passió e acció, ha vertut?
iiij. Les carreres damor demanaren a lamic, quant iria per eles veer son amat. V. Demanà glòria a lamic, per que nos vestia deia son amar con membrava son amat.
vj. A lamic demanaren poder e libertat damor, si sabia lo subject damor.
vij. Discòrdia fo feita enfre lamic e lamat, e lamic demanà a paciència e pietat, si sabien ab que pogués recobrar son amat.
viij. Honors e lausors demanaren al amic, si era eretgia damor ociositat d amar. viiij. Dones vestides damor demanaren al amic, si avia oíí blasmar lo poder damor. X. Oració e devoció demanaren al amic, si sabia on estava poder damor.
xj. Libertat e vertut demanaren a lamor, si negú de sos poders era airable.
xij. Demanà . j. petit amic a lamor, ab que feia sos majors amadors.
xiij. Demanà lamic a lamor, si valors honraments e honors eren les sues riquees. xiiij. A lamic demanaren molts homes, per que naturalment es amable gran poder damor.
Notes
- 1 ↩In Llull's allegory, saviea (Wisdom), l'amic (the Lover), l'amat (the Beloved), and l'amor (Love) are personified; la refers to saviea (feminine), so Wisdom asks why the Lover does not send Wisdom herself to Love.
- 2 ↩Catalan 'tota la' is feminine and most naturally refers to Will herself (volentat): Will asks why the lover surrenders her entirely to love's power. If read as the lover's own will as object, the sense is nearly the same.
- 3 ↩Normalized reading treats the corrupt join teu«poder as teu poder ('your power').
- 4 ↩In Llull's scholastic register, passió/acció are correlative (undergoing/doing), and vertut means operative virtue or efficacy, not merely moral excellence.
- 5 ↩Normalized reading treats uns paced 'nos vestia deia' as Old Catalan 'no's vestia d'eia' (did not clothe [his loving] with her), with 'eia' = 'ella' referring to glòria; 'con' read as 'com' (when/as).
- 6 ↩In Llull's allegory, glòria (Glory), l'amic (the Lover), and l'amat (the Beloved) are personified; 'son amar' is the Lover's act of loving, which Glory asks why he does not clothe with herself when he remembers the Beloved.
- 7 ↩Source reading 'oíí' looks corrupt; translated as Catalan oí/oït ('had heard') in 'si havia oït blasmar lo poder d'amor'.
- 8 ↩Catalan airable is taken from aïrar (‘to hate/anger’): ‘hateable,’ ‘worthy of hatred,’ or ‘odious.’ Less likely corrupt for amable (‘lovable’).
- 9 ↩Catalan 'valors honraments e honors' is an asyndetic triad; 'valors' rendered as 'valor' (worth/bravery), 'honraments' as 'marks of honor' (acts of honoring/homage), distinct from 'honors'.
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