Qüestions d'amor: De saviea e amor
The Question of Wisdom in Love
The chapter opens by asking the Friend what the wisdom of love is.
Question. Friend, do you know what the wisdom of love is?
Honor, Folly, and Glory
The Friend and Love explore why the Beloved is little honored, whether wisdom and folly can coexist, how to love, and whether Love loves the Beloved as much as wisdom.
ii. The Friend asked Love why his Beloved was honored and served so little. iii. They asked the Friend whether wisdom and folly could dwell in his love.1 4. Lovers asked the Friend how he knew how to love. And,2 the Friend asked Wisdom how great glory could love so much.3 6. The glory of the Beloved asked Love if she was loved by her as much as wisdom was.
The Lover's Inner Life
The Lover is questioned about the wisdom of loving, the philosophy of love, the balance of understanding and loving, and where his thoughts rest.
vii. Lover, do you know what the wisdom of loving is? viii. The Lover asked the Beloved if it pleased him that he love the philosophy of love as much as the philosophy of wisdom. ix. Two ladies of worth asked the Lover whether understanding and loving could dwell equally in him.4 x. Lovers asked the Lover in which bed his thoughts slept.5
Wisdom and Folly in Love
The final questions contrast wisdom with folly, asking how to become a wiser lover and whether the Friend has seen a foolish merchant of love.
xi. The Friend asked Love how he could be a wiser lover. xii. Wise women asked the Lover whether he knew what the folly of loving is.6 13. Valor and Honor asked the Friend if he had seen a foolish merchant of love.
Read the original Catalan
Qüestió. Amic, sabs què es saviea damor?
ij. Demanà lamic a lamor, per que son amat era tan poc onrat e servit.
iij. Demanaren al amic, si en la sua amor saviea e fulia podien estar.
iiij. A lamic demanaren amadors, còm sabia amar. Y. Lamic demanà a saviea, còm poria gran glòria molt amar.
vj. La glòria del amat demanà a l amor, si era per ela tant amada com saviea.
vjj. Amic, sabs què es saviea damar? viij. Demanà lamic a lamat si li playa que amàs aytant filosofia damor com de saviea. viiij. Dues dones de valor demanaren al amic, si en él pudien estar egualment entendre e amar. X. A lamich demanaren amadors, en qual lit durmien les sues cogitacions.
xj. Demanà lamic a lamor, còm poria ésser pus savi amador.
xij. Sàvies dones demanaren a lamic, si sabia què es fulia damar.
xiij. Valor e honor demanaren al amic, si avia vist fol mercader damor.
Notes
- 1 ↩Catalan fulia = follia (folly/foolishness); saviea = saviesa (wisdom). estar rendered as 'dwell' for coexistence in love.
- 2 ↩Source reads only 'Y.' In Old Catalan this is most plausibly the conjunction i/y ('and'), perhaps a truncated turn-marker before the Friend's reply; the reading is too thin to force a fuller answer.
- 3 ↩Catalan 'còm poria gran glòria molt amar' can also be read as 'how he could love great glory so much.' The personified subject reading ('great glory' as agent of loving) is preferred because the next section has the Beloved's glory speaking as a personified interlocutor.
- 4 ↩In Llull's allegory, the "two ladies of worth" are likely Understanding and Loving themselves, personified; the closing phrase identifies what is asked about dwelling equally in the Lover.
- 5 ↩"les sues cogitacions" could mean the Lover's thoughts or the questioners' own; rendered as the Lover's, since the question is put to him about an interior resting-place.
- 6 ↩Old Catalan 'fulia' read as 'fúlia' (folly/madness), matching the chapter’s wisdom/folly contrast and the next section’s 'fol mercader'.
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