De les diffinicions d'amor compostes
Composing the Definitions of Love
The author explains that the eighteen definitions are combined with the definition of love to make love better known.
In this part on love we want to compose and join the eighteen definitions said above with the definition of love; and we do this so that the definition of love may be better known through the other definitions.
The Eight Simple Cords of Love
Definitions one through eight describe cords of love that bind the lover to the beloved through goodness, greatness, duration, power, wisdom, will, virtue, and truth.
1. A good cord of love is the one that binds a good lover to a good beloved through good loving.1 2. A great cord of love is what binds a great and good friend to a good and great beloved. 3. A lasting cord of love is the one that binds, at every moment, every hour, through every day and night, the good, great lover to the good and great beloved. 4. A powerful and strong cord of love binds the good, great, lasting, and powerful friend to the beloved who is good, great, lasting, and powerful, so that the friend has no power to part from his beloved.2 5. A wise cord of love is one that reveals and shows the friend the good, great, lofty, and powerful secrets of the good, great, lasting, and powerful Beloved. 6. A will-formed cord of love is what binds the good, great, lasting, and powerful habit of love illuminated by wisdom to the will.3 7. A virtuous cord of love is the one that binds, in loving, virtuous, good, great, lasting, powerful bonifying, magnifying, enduring, and empowering.4 8. A true cord of love is one that makes people true lovers of goodness and greatness.5 and the others.6
The Cords of Glory, Difference, Concordance, and Contrariety
Definitions nine through twelve explore cords that arise from glory, difference, concordance, and contrariety, deepening the bond between lover and beloved.
9. The glorious cord of love is what makes the loving of the lover and the beloved bind together and rest in goodness, greatness, and the others.7 28 10. The difference between a good, great, lasting, powerful, wise and willing, virtuous, true, and glorious lover and beloved is a cord of good, great love with which the lover and the beloved are bound, so that they cannot be parted.9 11. Concordance of the good and the great is a unifying cord between lover and beloved, by which they come into concordance in one goodness,101112 one13 greatness, and the others.14
The Cords of Beginning, Middle, End, and Their Extremes
Definitions thirteen through eighteen examine cords related to the beginning, middle, end, greatest, equality, and lesser aspects of love, showing how love persists through all circumstances.
12. Contrariety by which the lover stands against the enemies of his beloved is a good, great, lasting, and powerful cord of love, which the enemies of the good and great beloved and lover cannot break.15 13. The beginning of loving the good, the great, the lasting, and the rest is a cord of love that starts to bind the lover to his beloved. The more it starts to bind him with goodness, the better that cord of love is; the more it starts to bind him with greatness, the greater it is; and likewise with the other bonds that love has through its roots.1617 14. The middle that joins and brings together the goodness and greatness of the lover and the beloved in loving is a cord of love by which the lover is held and bound to his beloved; and the lover holds to that cord so that he won't fall from his beloved when he is troubled and placed in afflictions and adversities.18 15. The purpose of love is a cord of love in which the beginning of good, great, lasting, and powerful loving finds rest; and for this reason, when the lover begins to love his beloved, he can't have rest without that good, great, lasting, and powerful loving.19 16. The greatest cord of love, by which the lover rises in loving his good and great beloved, is the one that keeps the lover entirely bound and held to his beloved; and the greater that cord is in duration, power, and other qualities, the greater the lover is in loving.20 17. Equality of a greater lover and Beloved—an equality that has greater goodness, greatness, and the other qualities of lover and Beloved—is the greatest cord of love; and whoever is bound to his Beloved with such a cord cannot part from him, nor could he live in his Beloved's absence.21 18. The lesser cord of love is the one that has little goodness and doesn't last long, because it lacks great power or virtue; for that reason, friends who are bound to the beloved with such a cord soon grow weary of loving, and j.22 a little adversity unbinds them from their beloved.
The Importance of Knowing the Definitions
The author concludes that these definitions are essential for those who seek deep knowledge of the tree of love and the philosophy of love.
We've given the definitions of love, which those who want a deep knowledge of the tree of love—and who also want the art and method for solving love's questions and searching out the secrets of the philosophy of love—need to know by heart.
Read the original Catalan
En aquesta part damor volem compondre e ajustar les . xviij. diffinicions damunt dites ab la difinició damor; e asò fem per ço que la diffinició damor sia mils coneguda per les altres diffinicions.
1. Bona corda damor es aquela qui liga, ab bon amar, bon amic a bon amat.
2. Gran corda damor es aquela qui liga gran e bon amic a bo e a gran amat.
3. Durabla corda damor es aquela qui liga en tots moments, en totes ores, en tots dies e nits, lamic bo gran al bo e gran amat.
4. Poderosa e forts corda damor es aquela qui liga bo gran durable e poderós amic al amat qui es bo gran durable e poderós, en tal manera que lamic no ha poder ques partesca de son amat.
5. Sàvia corda d amor es aquela qui representa e demostra al amic los bons grans alts e poderoses secrets del bo gran durable e poderós amat.
6. Volificada corda d amor es aquela qui liga a la volentat lo bo gran durable e poderós àbit d amor per saviea illuminat.
7. Vertuosa corda d amor es aquela qui liga, en amar, vertuós bo gran durable poderós bonificar magnificar durar e possificar.
8. Vera corda d amor es aquela que fa ésser vers amadors de bontat granea. e les altres.
9. Gloriosa corda d amor es aquela que fa ligar e reposar en bonea granea, e les altres, lamar del amic e del amat. 2
10. Differencia de bo gran durable poderós savi e volgut vertuós ver e gloriós amic e amat, es corda de bona gran amor ab quis liguen lamic e lamat, per so que nos pusquen departir.
11. Concordansa de bo gran concordaries corda damic e amat, ab la qual se concorden en una bontat, . j. granea, e les altres.
12. Contrarietat ab la qual lamic contrasta als enemics de son amat, es corda damor bona gran durabla e poderosa, la'' qual no poden trencar los enemics de bo e gran amat e amic.
13. Coraensament de bo gran durable, e los altres, amar, es corda damor qui comensa ligar lamic a son amat; e on mais' lo comensa a ligar ab bontat, pus bona es la corda damor; e on mais lo comensa a ligar ab granea, pus gran es la corda damor; e enaxí dels altres liams que amor ha per les sues rails.
14. Mijà qui conjuny e ajusta bonea granea d amic e clamat en amar, es corda damor ab qui està pres e ligat l»mic a son amat; e lamic se té a aquela corda per so que no caja de son amat can per cl es treballat, e en afliccions e aversitats posat.
15. Pj damor es corda damor en qui ha repòs lo comensament de bo gran durable e poderós amar; e per aysò lamic, con comensa amar son amat, no pot aver repòs sens bo gran durable e poderós amar.
16. La major corda damor, per la qual lamic puja amar son bo e gran amat, es aquela qui te tot lamic ligat e pres a son amat; e aitant com la corda es de major duració poder, e les altres, es lamic major en amar.
17. Egaltat de major amic e amat, la quaH egalíat es de major bontat granea, e les altres, d amic e damat, es la major corda damor; e qui ab aifal corda es ligat a son amat, nos pot del partir, ni en absència de son amat viure no poria.
18. Menor corda damor es aquela qui es de poca bontat e qui poc dura, car no ha gran poder ni vertut; e per aisò los amics qui ab aital corda son ligats al amat, son tost hujats d amar, e . j. poca daversitat los desliga de lur amat.
Dites avem les diffinicions damor, les quals son necessàries a saber de cor per aquels qui del arbre damor volen aver gran conexensa, e qui volen aver art e manera a soure les qüestions damor, e a ensercar los secrets de filosofia damor.
Notes
- 1 ↩Catalan 'corda' is kept as 'cord' (binding rope/tie) to preserve Llull's metaphor; 'amic'/'amat'/'amar' rendered as lover/beloved/loving to match his amor-philosophy triad.
- 2 ↩Source reads 'forts' beside feminine singular 'Poderosa…corda'; sense is clearly 'strong' (likely forta/fort). Rendered as 'strong'.
- 3 ↩Catalan 'Volificada' is formed from volentat/voluntat (will), parallel to Sàvia/Vertuosa in the neighboring cord definitions; rendered 'will-formed' rather than archaic 'volified'. 'àbit d amor' kept as scholastic 'habit of love', consistent with LlullArbreAmor.1.2.2.
- 4 ↩Llullian act-names kept as technical terms, consistent with LlullArbreAmor.1.5.7: bonificar→bonifying, magnificar→magnifying, durar→enduring, possificar→empowering (the correlative operations of goodness, greatness, duration, and power). The stacked adjectives vertuós / bo / gran / durable / poderós modify that coordinated series of acts; Catalan has no 'e' among the adjectives, only before possificar.
- 5 ↩In Llull's Art, bontat and granea are dignities (goodness, greatness); here they form a composite definition. 'Vers amadors' is read as 'true lovers'.
- 6 ↩'E les altres' continues the genitive after bontat granea: the remaining Llullian dignities/attributes, as in the following section's 'bonea granea, e les altres'.
- 7 ↩corda: Llull’s technical binding ‘cord/chord’ joining lover and beloved; rendered ‘cord’ for plain modern English. lamar read as l’amar (‘the loving’). bonea granea: asyndetic pair of Llullian dignities (goodness, greatness); e les altres = the remaining dignities.
- 8 ↩Source token is only ‘2’; unlike neighboring sections’ closing ‘e les altres,’ this looks like a page number or print artifact rather than discursive text.
- 9 ↩Differencia→Difference (Llullian relative principle, as in 1.5.10). The stacked adjectives map the nine dignities: bo, gran, durable, poderós, savi, volgut, vertuós, ver, gloriós → good, great, lasting, powerful, wise, willed, virtuous, true, glorious. volgut rendered ‘willed’ to match voluntat/Will (1.5.6), not merely ‘desired’. corda→cord; amic/amat→lover/beloved, consistent with neighboring cord definitions. ab quis read as ab què’s (‘with which’).
- 10 ↩Witness reads 'concordaries corda'; taken as 'concordària és corda' ('is a concordant cord'), parallel to 'es corda' in 1.6.11 and neighboring cord definitions. damic read as d'amic.
- 11 ↩Normalized fragment ends at 'bontat, .'; the staged witness continues 'en una bontat, .j. granea, e les altres.' Rendered as the first half of that reading; '.j.' is split onto s3.
- 12 ↩Concordansa→Concordance (as in 1.5.11); corda→cord; amic/amat→lover/beloved, matching 1.6.2–1.6.13. bontat→goodness to match bonea/bontat in the simple definitions.
- 13 ↩Standalone 'j.' is the second half of witness '.j.' (Roman 1), meaning 'one' in Llull's numeral habit; not a separate sentence. Completes 'en una bontat, .j. granea'.
- 14 ↩granea→greatness; e les altres points to the remaining Llullian roots/dignities, as in 1.5.11 and neighboring compound definitions.
- 15 ↩Source has la'' qual; read as la qual (“which”).
- 16 ↩Source form Coraensament is uncertain; rendered as beginning, likely Old Catalan començament/comensament.
- 17 ↩rails read as arrels (roots), matching Llull's tree metaphor.
- 18 ↩Source has clamat, l»mic, and per cl (OCR/encoding damage). Read as d'amat (“of the beloved”), l'amic (“the lover”), and per ell (“when he is…”), matching the standard amic/amat pairing and the following purpose clause.
- 19 ↩Source opens with OCR garble «Pj damor». Read as «Fi damor» (end of love): it follows the composite sequence after comensament and mijà, and matches the simple definition «Fi es so en qui comensament ha repòs» (1.5.15).
- 20 ↩Source has asyndetic 'duració poder, e les altres' ('duration, power, and the others'), elliptical for the cord's remaining attributes (goodness, greatness, and the rest of Llull's set).
- 21 ↩Normalized reading treats quaH as qual, egalíat as egaltat, aifal as aital, and nos pot del partir as no·s pot d'ell partir (cannot part from him).
- 22 ↩Standalone 'j.' appears to be a printer's signature, catchword, or OCR fragment interrupting the sentence between the dangling 'e' of s2 and 'poca daversitat' in s4.
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