Pregueres d'amor: De volentat e amor
The Foundation of True Will
The Friend asks Will to seek the virtues that adorn willing and to avoid false willing, so that love may be true.
Will, said the Friend: ask the virtues that adorn your willing, so that with it I may love my Beloved. ii. Will, said the Friend: don't let me will what is false; for without true loving, the Beloved does not want to be served or honored.
Endurance and the Distinctiveness of Love
Will encourages the Friend to endure hardships for glory, and the Friend and Will exchange calls to love the difference of love and the concordance of virtues.
iii. Friend, said Will: I beg you to love enduring many hardships in this world for your Beloved, so that in the life to come you may have great glory in willing your Beloved. iv. Will, said the Friend: love the unique quality of love that sets the Beloved apart from every other essence. v. Friend, said Will: love a great harmony of virtues, and of Friend and Beloved.
Guarding the Middle of Will
The Friend and Will discuss unlovely contrariety, beginning actions with love, keeping willing in the middle, and using will only for the end of great love.
vi. Will, said the Friend: unlove the contrariety of friend and beloved, for it is the beginning of wars and of evils.1 vii. Friend, said Will: when you begin to will, don't begin without loving your Beloved. viii. Will, said the Friend: you who have your willing and your freedom in the middle place of your essence, keep them in that place with good loving. ix. Friend, said Will: when you want to make use of me, don't wish to use me without the end of good and great loving.
Growing in Greater Loving
The Friend and Will conclude with exhortations to match willing with virtue, bind the faculties in love, and choose greater loving over lesser willing.
x. Will, said the Friend: don't wish to have greater willing without greater virtue and goodness of loving. xi. Friend,” said Will, “with your loving, bind understanding, remembering, and your willing, so that you don’t leave me idle. xii. Will, said the Friend: don't choose to make use of a lesser willing, so that a greater loving may dwell and remain in you.
Read the original Catalan
VoLENTAT, dix lamic: pregats vertuts que ornen vostre voler, per so que ab él pusca amar mon amat.
ij. Volentat, dix lamic: nom lexets voler falsetat; car sens ver amar no vol lamat ésser servit ni onrat.
iij. Amic, dix volentat: precte que ams molts trebayls sostenir en est mon per ton amat, per so que en lautre segle pusca aver gran glòria en voler ton amat.
iiij. Volentat, dix lamic: ama differencia damor, ab la qual lamat es different a totes altres essències. V. Amic, dix volentat: ama gran concordansa de vertuts, e damic e damat.
vj. Volentat, dix lamic: desama contrarietat damic e damat, car ela es comensament de guerres e de mals.
vij. Amic, dix volentat: con comensaràs voler, noi comens sens amar ton amat.
viij. Volentat, dix lamic: tu qui as en lo mig loc de ta essència ton voler e ta libertat, ageslos en aquel' loc ab bon amar. viiij. Amic, dix volentat: con volràs de mi usar, non vuyles usar sens la fi de bo e gran amar. X. Volentat, dix lamic: no vuyles aver major voler sens major vertut e bontat d amar.
xj. Amic, dix volentat: liga ab ton amar entendre e membrar, ton voler, per so que nom fasses ociosa estar.
xij. Volentat, dix lamic: no vuyles usar de menor voler, per so que en tu pusca abitar e sejornar major amar.
Notes
- 1 ↩Catalan desama (desamar) is the deliberate opposite of amar in Llull’s love vocabulary; rendered as ‘unlove’ to keep that technical contrast, rather than a weaker ‘stop loving’ or a blunter ‘hate’.
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