IV. Dels rams d'Arbre d'amor
The Three Branches Named
The three branches of the Tree of Love are introduced: liberality, beauty, and the solace of love.
The branches of love are: Three. liberality, beauty, and the solace of love.1
Liberality Explained
Liberality is a branch because love's nature is to give itself with goodness and greatness, and it will be discussed through the tree's roots.
The reason liberality is a branch of love is that love has a nature of giving love, and it gives it with goodness and greatness, and with the other roots of its tree, except for contrariety and minority.23 And we will speak of this branch through the natures and properties of the roots of its tree.4
Beauty Explained
Beauty is a branch because it is required in the lover, beloved, and their works for love to flower and bear fruit, and it will be discussed through the beauties of the roots.
The reason beauty is a branch of love is that love requires beauty in the lover and the beloved and in their works, and without it love cannot flower or bear fruit on its tree. And we will speak of this branch through the beauties of the roots of its tree.
The Solace of Love
The solace of love is one of its branches because the lover and beloved cannot be united without it, and its discussion will proceed through the roots and the adventures of love.
The reason the solace of love is5 one6 of its branches is that the lover and the beloved cannot join or keep company without the solace of love, nor can the7 one8 share with the other. We will speak of this branch through the roots of its tree, and we will recount the adventures that befall the lover through love, which the beloved, the lover, and love discuss.
Read the original Catalan
Rams d amor son . iij. : liberalitat, belea, e solàs damor.
3 La raó per que liberalitat es ram damor, es per so car amor ha natura de donar amar, e dona lo ab bontat granea, e ab les altres rails del seu arbre, enfora contrarietat e menoritat. E daquest ram parlarem ab les natures e propietats' de les rails del seu arbre.
So per que belea es ram damor, es car amor requer belea d amic e damat e de lurs obres, e sens ela, amor en lo seu arbre no pot florir ni granar. E daquest ram parlarem ab les belees de les rails del seu arbre.
La raó per que solàs damor es . j. de sos rams, es per so car amic e amat, sens solàs damor, nos poden ajustar acompanyar, ni la . j. ab lautre pot participar. E daquest ram parlarem ab les rails de son arbre, e recontarem les ventures que esdevenen al amic per amor, de les quals parlen lamat lamic e amor.
Notes
- 1 ↩belea = Old Catalan bellesa (beauty); solàs damor rendered as 'the solace of love' (consolation/comfort that love gives), not a weaker modern 'company'.
- 2 ↩Catalan "bontat granea" is asyndetic; read as the two Tree-of-Love roots "goodness" and "greatness," not as the single phrase "great goodness," because the clause continues "and with the other roots."
- 3 ↩"menoritat" is Llull's technical root-term for lesserhood/minority, paired here with "contrarietat" (contrariety); rendered "minority" to keep that technical force rather than softening it to ordinary smallness.
- 4 ↩Source "propietats'" carries a trailing apostrophe treated as an edition/OCR artifact; rendered as "properties."
- 5 ↩Segmenter split mid-sentence before medieval numeral .j. (= one). Continuous witness: «La raó per que solàs damor es .j. de sos rams…».
- 6 ↩Medieval Catalan .j. is the numeral one (un), not a separate heading; it belongs with flanking s1 and s3.
- 7 ↩Continues after .j. (= one). «nos poden» read as no·s poden (cannot). «ajustar acompanyar» rendered as asyndeton join or keep company; sentence finishes in s4–s5 with «ni la .j. ab l'autre pot participar».
- 8 ↩Medieval Catalan .j. is the numeral one (un); here «la .j.» = the one, completed by s5 «ab l'autre».
Arbre de filosofia d'amor (Tree of the Philosophy of Love) companion
A daily portion of stillness
Chosen Portion delivers one short contemplative reading and a guided moment of silence each day — the ascent, one step at a time.
Chosen Portion is the paced doorway into this collection: it portions the dense mystical treatises into one daily reading plus guided silence, exactly as the 14-day plan teaches.
- Daily bite-sized excerpts from the contemplative classics, never a wall of text
- A built-in timed stillness practice that grows from 2 minutes to 10
- Gentle progression through the tradition — the app remembers where you are on the ascent