Qüestions d'amor: De veritat e amor
The Fate of Souls
The Lover asks why so few enter glory and so many fall into hell.
Question. The Lover asked his Beloved why so few people were going into His glory, and so many into hell.✦
The Number of Love
The Lover asks his Beloved whether there is a true number in Him, by love and of love.
ii. "Beloved," said the lover, "is there in you a true number by love and of love?"1
Forgiveness and False Love
The Lover asks whether the Beloved can forgive a false lover who does not love true love.
iii. The Lover asked the Beloved whether he could forgive a false lover while that lover fails to love true love.2
Questions from the Ladies and Judges
Ladies of Truth and Power ask about contraries in love, and Judges ask about the fountain of the Lover's sighs and tears.
4. The Ladies of Truth and Power asked the Lover whether he encountered any opposition in his love for his Beloved. 5. The judges of love asked the Lover where his sighs and tears came from.
Fear and Flight
Fear seizes the Lover, who flees to his Beloved, and the Beloved asks why he was afraid.
vi. Fear took hold of the Lover, and he wanted to flee to his Beloved, and the Beloved asked him why he had been afraid, since he loved him.3
Recognizing False Love
The Friend asks Love how to recognize a false lover.
vii. The Friend asked Love how he could recognize a false lover.
Destroying False Love and the Boldness of Knights
The Lover asks how to destroy false love, and asks the Knights of Love why they fight so boldly.
VIII. My Beloved, the Lover asked, how can a person destroy false love? IX. Knights of love, the Lover said, why are you such bold fighters?
Fear and Love Itself
The Lover asks Love whether Love has ever been afraid.
10. The Lover asked Love whether Love had ever been afraid of anything.4
Read the original Catalan
Qüestió. Demanà lamic a son amat, per que anaven tan pocs homens en la sua glòria, e tants en infern.
ij. Amat, dix lamic: ha en tu ver nombre per amor e damor?
iij. A lamat demanà lamic, si poria perdonar a fals amador dementre desama vera amor.
iiij. Dones de veritat e poder demanaren al amic, si en amar son amat atrobava negun contrari. V. Als suspirs e plors de lamic demanaren jutges damor, de qual font ixien.
vj. Paor ac lamic, e volc fugir a son amat, e demanà li lamat, per que avia ahuda paor, pus quel amava.
vij. Demanà lamic a lamor, ab que poria conèxer fals amador.
viij. Amat, dix lamic: ab que pot hom destruir falsa amor? viiij. Cavalers damor, dix lamic: per que sots tan ardits combatedors?
x. Demanà lamic a lamor, si per negun temps avia ahuda de re paor.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.7.13-Matt.7.14 — Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter through it. Matt.7.14 — Because the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Notes
- 1 ↩Old Catalan 'ver nombre per amor e damor' keeps Llull's technical pairing: 'nombre' as love's true measure/number, and 'per amor e d'amor' as the correlative 'by/for love and of love.' Rendered literally to preserve that force.
- 2 ↩Catalan desama (from desamar) rendered as 'fails to love'; it can also mean 'ceases to love' or 'unloves/rejects.' The subject of desama is taken as the fals amador.
- 3 ↩Old Catalan 'ac' here is 'hac' (had), not the Latin connective 'ac'; read 'Paor ac lamic' as 'Fear had the Lover'.
- 4 ↩Medieval Catalan 'ahuda' here is read as the past participle of 'haver' ('had'), parallel to LlullArbreAmor.1.39.5 'avia ahuda paor' ('had had fear'), not as 'ajuda' ('help').
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