Pregueres d'amor: De contrarietat e amor
Confession of False Love
The Lover threatens contrariety with the Beloved's virtue and confesses his false loving, asking forgiveness.
The Lover threatened contrariety and sin with the virtue and concordance of his Beloved, who had companionate loving in him.12 ii. “Beloved,” said the Lover, “within my will I have been contrary to you through false love, which I present to you so that it may please you to forgive it.”3
Pleading for Deliverance
The Lover cries out against evil love, asks not to be hindered from rest, prays to Greatest Love for help, and rebukes bad love for hindering service.
iii. Ah, evil love, opposed to virtue and a friend to sin! said the Lover: since there is no rest in you, don't hinder me from the rest of good love. 4. The Lover prayed Greatest Love to help him against the greatest contrary of his Beloved, and Greatest Love asked the Lover that he himself be willing to help.4 5. Oh, evil love, the Lover said, you who stand against the equality of love and of loving! Don't keep hindering me so often from serving my Beloved.
Tears of Remembrance
The Lover weeps and remembers the Beloved's concordance, noting that the stronger the contrariety of evil love, the more it multiplies vice and sin.
6. The Lover wept, and remembered the greatest concordance of his Beloved; for the more strongly the contrariety of evil love is struck, the more it multiplies vice and sin.56
Read the original Catalan
A contrarietat e a peccat menassava lamic ab vertut e concordansa de son amat, qui avien en él comensal amar.
ij. Amat, dix lamic: en lo mig de ma volentat vos son contrari estat per fals amar, lo qual vos present que us placia a él perdonar.
iij. A, mala amor e contraria a vertut, amiga de peccat! dix lamic: pus que en vos no ha repòs, nom empatxets lo repòs de bona amor.
iiij. La major amor, pregà lamic, que li ajudàs contra lo major contrari de son amat, e la major amor pregà lamic que él metex hi volgués ajudar. V. A, mala amor, dix lamic, qui sots contra egualtat damor e d amar! nom vuylats tan sovín empatxar a servir mon amat.
vj. Plorava lamic, e rcmembrava la major concordansa de son amat; car contrarietat de mala amor, on pus fort es tocada, més montiplica visci e peccat.
Notes
- 1 ↩Catalan «comensal amar» is rare here: «comensal» means table-companion / shared-meal participant. Rendered as «companionate loving» (shared, fellowship loving). Alternate readings: «shared loving» or more literally «table-companion loving».
- 2 ↩Relative «qui avien» is plural and most naturally takes «vertut e concordansa» as antecedent. Pronoun «él» may point to the Lover (seat of that virtue and concordance) or to the Beloved; rendered as «him» without forcing the referent.
- 3 ↩Catalan «él» in «a él perdonar» most naturally refers to the preceding masculine «fals amar» (false loving); less likely the Lover himself. Rendered as «it».
- 4 ↩Catalan word order allows either the Lover praying Greatest Love, or Greatest Love asking the Lover. Rendered as reciprocal address (Lover asks for aid; Greatest Love asks the Lover’s own willing help), which fits the chapter’s prayer frame and the force of «él metex».
- 5 ↩Source «rcmembrava» is almost certainly a corrupt reading of «remembrava» (remembered/recalled); translation follows that corrected reading.
- 6 ↩«on pus fort es tocada, més montiplica» read as Old Catalan correlative (the more strongly… the more…), with feminine «tocada» agreeing with «contrarietat» (or possibly «mala amor»). Alternate: «where it is more strongly touched, multiplies…».
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