Qüestions d'amor: De differencia e amor
The Nature of Lover and Beloved
The lover asks Love about the nature of lover and beloved within her, and lovers ask Difference by what it lives.
Question. The lover asked Love whether she contained the nature of both lover and beloved.1 2. Lovers asked Difference what the friend and the beloved lived by.2
The Journey to the Beloved
Love's squire asks the lover which horse of love to ride, and Memory asks Understanding by what love stands between lover and beloved.
iii. Love's squire asked the lover who wanted to go see his Beloved which horse of love he wanted to ride. iv. Memory of love asked Understanding of love by what love stood between the lover and the beloved.34
The Lover's Crown and Concordance
The roots of love ask about the lover's crown, and the friend asks Love about his greatest concordance.
v. The roots of love asked the lover what his crown consisted of.5 vi. The friend asked Love what his greatest concordance was.6
Equality and Abiding in Love
Lovers ask the Beloved about equality in love, and Lesser Difference asks the Friend about staying with her in the Beloved.
7. The lovers asked the Beloved whether they could be equal in love.7 viii. Lesser Difference of Love asked the Friend whether he wanted to stay with her in his Beloved.
Read the original Catalan
Qüestió. A lamor demanà lamic, si en ela estava natura d amic e damat.
ij. A la differencia damic e damat demanaren amadors, de que vivia.
iij. Escuder damor demanà al amic qui volia anar veer son amat, en qual caval damor volia cavalcar.
iiij. Menbransa damor demanà a l enteniment damor, ab que estava amor enfre lamic e lamat. V. Les rails damor demanaren al amic, de que era la sua corona.
vj. A lamor demanà lamic, de que era la sua concordansa major.
vij. AI amat demanaren amadors, si porien ésser egals en amor.
viij. Menor differencia damor demanà a lamic, si ab ela volia estar en son amat.
Notes
- 1 ↩Llull’s amic/amat pair rendered as lover/beloved; Amor is personified and feminine (ela).
- 2 ↩Old Catalan 'de que vivia' = 'by what / on what it lived'; Difference (la differència) is the personified principle being asked, parallel to Love in the preceding question.
- 3 ↩Old Catalan Menbransa = membrança (memory/remembrance); rendered as the personified faculty Memory of love, parallel to enteniment damor (Understanding of love).
- 4 ↩ab que rendered as 'by what' (instrumental/interrogative: by what means / with what), asking the ground or means by which love stood between lover and beloved.
- 5 ↩Source rails is Old Catalan spelling for arrels ('roots'); translated as 'roots,' not modern 'rails.'
- 6 ↩Catalan concordansa is Llull's technical term for harmony/agreement among the powers or parties of love; rendered as 'concordance' to keep the philosophical sense rather than flattening to 'agreement' or 'harmony' alone.
- 7 ↩Source opens with "AI amat"; read as "A l'amat" ("to the Beloved"), matching the chapter's "A l'…" address pattern (cf. previous section "A lamor").
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