Qüestions d'amor: De volentat e amor
The Beloved's First Question
The Beloved asks the Friend whether his will has virtue, and then asks if he knows what true will is.
Question. The Beloved asked the Friend whether his will had virtue. ii. Friend, said the Beloved: do you know what true will is?
Glorying and Loving
The Friend asks whether the Beloved loves to glory as much as to love.
iii. The Friend asked his Beloved whether he loved to glory as much as to love.1
Truth, Duration, Goodness, and Badness
Truth and Duration ask if they can dwell in the Friend's will, and Goodness and Badness ask if they can lodge together with her.
iv. Truth and Duration of love asked the Friend whether they could dwell and remain in his will.2 v. Goodness and Badness asked the Friend's will whether they could stay together with her.3
Concordance and the Beginning of Love
The squires of love ask how to achieve concordance, and the ladies of love ask what makes loving begin in the Friend's will.
vi. The squires of love asked the Beloved and the Friend by what means they could have great concordance.4 vii. The ladies of love asked the Friend what made loving begin in his will.
Messengers, Weariness, and Humility
Honors and Praises ask about messengers of love, Loves ask why the idle will is weary, and the Friend asks why his will is lesser.
viii. Honors and Praises asked the Beloved and the Friend through which messengers loves were sent. ix. Loves asked the Friend's idle will why it was so weary, sad, and troubled. x. The Friend asked his will why it was lesser and not greater.
Fullness of Will
Virtues ask the Friend's will what it is full of.
11. Virtues asked the Friend's will what it was full of.
Lesser and Greater Love
Honored lords ask why lesser love cannot fit within greater love.
12. Honored lords asked the Friend why lesser love cannot fit within greater love.
Read the original Catalan
Qüestió. Demanà lamat a lamic, si la sua voíentat avia vertut.
ij. Amic, dix lamat: sabs què es vera voíentat?
iij. Lamic demanà a son amat, si amava tant gloriejar com amar.
iiij. Veritat e dardat damor demanaren al amic, si en la sua voíentat porien abitar e estar. V. Bonea e malea demanaren a la volentat de l amic, si ensems porien ab ela aubergar.
vj. Donsels damor demanaren a lamat e lamic, ab que porien aver gran concordansa.
vij. Demanaren dones damor a l amic, què fahia comensar en sa volentat amar.
viij. Honors e lausors demanaren a lamat e l amic, per quals missatges se trametien amors. viiij. A la ociosa volentat de l amic demanaren amors, per que estava tan hujada trista e trebaylada. X. A sa volentat demanà lamic, per que xstà menor e no major.
xj. A la volentat del amic demanaren vcrtutz, de que estava plena.
xij. A lamic demanaren honrats senyors, per que en major amor no cab menor amor.
Notes
- 1 ↩Catalan gloriejar can mean to glory/exult, to take glory, or to glorify; here it is paired contrastively with amar (to love), so rendered as 'to glory'.
- 2 ↩Source 'dardat damor' is treated as a corrupt/OCR reading of 'durada d'amor' (Duration of love), one of Llull's love-roots; cf. 'duració' among the rails and the established rendering 'Duration' elsewhere in this run. Less likely alternatives would be 'caritat' or a literal 'dart of love'.
- 3 ↩'Bonea' and 'malea' are personified Llullian dignities (Goodness and Badness/Evil); 'ela' refers to 'volentat' (feminine), so rendered 'her'. 'Aubergar' is lodge/harbor; 'lodge' keeps the hospitality metaphor without softening the coexistence question.
- 4 ↩Old Catalan donsels means young noble attendants (pages/squires); rendered 'squires of love' to parallel neighboring 'ladies of love' (dones damor) and keep the court-of-love register.
Arbre de filosofia d'amor (Tree of the Philosophy of Love) companion
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