1. Dels suspirs d'amor
The Entry of Goodness, Greatness, and Duration
Goodness, Greatness, and Duration enter the Friend's love, causing him to sigh day and night.
Goodness, Greatness, and Duration came to the Friend and asked him to take them into his love, so that he might have a good, great, and lasting loving, and so that through love he might heave good, great, and lasting sighs.12 The Friend consented to their pleas, and Goodness, Greatness, and Duration entered into the Friend's love and multiplied in the Friend such a good, great, and lasting loving that day and night he could do nothing but let out sighs for love, and he could neither eat nor sleep nor be at peace.
Power, Wisdom, and Will Force Their Way In
Power, Wisdom, and Will, envious of the first three, persuade the Friend to let them enter, multiplying his anguished sighs.
2. Power, Wisdom, and Will grew envious of Goodness, Greatness, and Duration, who were dwelling in the friend's love, and they begged him to let them enter his love. The friend was afraid that if they entered his love they would multiply his loving, and he told them that his heart was in such heavy trials from sighs and languishings that he could not bear them as well.3 Power, Wisdom, and Will could not enter the love, because the friend did not want it; and Power told Will to have a strong will to enter the love, and told Wisdom to declare more forcefully to the friend the truth of his Beloved, and if they did so, he would open the doors of love with great empowering.45 Will and Wisdom did what Power advised, and they all entered. iii.6 into the love, and the heart multiplied anguished sighs that made the friend languish.
Virtue, Truth, and Glory Enter the Lover's Heart
Virtue, Truth, and Glory enter the Lover's heart, multiplying his loving and sighing until his body languishes.
3. Virtue, Truth, and Glory wanted to enter the Lover's loving, so that his sighs would be virtuous verses, and so that in glory they would have lodging and rest.7 The Lover feared their entry, because he already felt too heavily burdened by the entry of Power, Wisdom, and Will; yet he considered that his sighs were worth nothing without virtue and truth, and he hoped89 that through glory he might have rest and be able to eat and sleep. The Lover let Virtue, Truth, and Glory enter his heart, and the virtue and glory of the Beloved showed themselves to Truth; and because of this, loving multiplied in his love and sighing in his heart, and the Lover's body languished and could not bear the trials.
The Counsel of Contrariety and the Loss of Love
Contrariety advises the Lover to refuse Difference and Concordance, leading him to forget his Beloved and lose Love itself.
4. Difference and Concordance of the Beloved's good works wanted to enter the Lover's heart together with Remembrance, so that the Lover would remember the noble works of his Beloved, which He has in Himself and in creatures.10 While the Lover was considering whether he would let Difference and Concordance enter into his love, Contrariety told him not to let them into his heart, because if he did, memory would bring the noble works of his Beloved so strongly to mind that his heart would pour out so many sighs that through them he would have to languish and die. The Lover consented to the counsel Contrariety had given him, and he forgot his Beloved and His works; and Goodness, Greatness, and the other waters of love that had entered the Lover's love would not stay in the heart—they went out of it—and that heart had neither the means nor the matter with which to pour out or multiply sighs of love; and the Lover lost his Beloved and his love.1112
Repentance and the Return of Love
The Lover, in despair, cries out for Love's return, and Love re-enters with remembrance and greatness, multiplying his sighs beyond bearing.
5. When the Lover felt himself without Love, Loving, and the Beloved, conscience, contrition, and penitence entered his heart along with justice, and they gave his heart so many sorrows, hardships, and fears that he was on the verge of death; and he cried out loudly to Love and to Loving that they should return to dwell in his heart with his Beloved, and he cursed Contrariety for the bad advice she had given him. Love and Loving answered the Lover and said that they would not return to dwell in his heart without a greater beginning, middle, end, and equality of sighs and of goodness and greatness, and the other roots of love that he had cast out of his heart on the advice of Contrariety, their enemy, the friend of littleness of love.13 The Lover said that they should all enter his heart under as many conditions as they wished, for he would rather die from sighing much for love than live without sighing and remain without Love, Loving, and the Beloved. Love and Loving entered the Lover's heart with Remembrance, which recalls the Beloved and his works, and goodness and greatness entered, along with the others, with greatness of love; and the Lover's heart became so full of sighs that he could scarcely bear them, and he begged littleness of love to help him; but greatness of love would not let her enter, and multiplied the Lover's hardships and sighs, because he had placed hope in littleness of love, which is her contrary, that it might help him against her.1415
Read the original Catalan
B'oNEA e granea e duració vengren al amic, lo qual pregaren que les mesés en sa amor, per so que agucs bo gran e durable amar, e que per amor pogués bons grans e durables suspirs gitar. Consentí lamic a lurs pregueres, e bontat granea e duració entraren en la amor del amic, e montiplicaren en lamic tan bo gran e durable amar, que lamic, de dia e de nit, no' podia estar mas en suspirs gitar per amor, e no podia menjar ni durmir, ni en pau estar.
2. Poder saviea e volentat agren enveja de bontat granea e duració, qui eren en sejorn en lamor del amic, lo qual pregaren que les lexàs entrar en sa amor. Paor ac lamic que si entraven en sa amor, que li montiplicassen son amar, e dixlos que son cor era en tan greus trebayls per suspirs e languiments, que ab eles nois poria sostenir. No pogren entrar poder saviesa e volentat en lamor, car no ho volia lamic; e lo poder dix a la volentat que agués gran voler a entrar en lamor, e dix a la saviea que declaràs pus fortment a lamic veritat de son amat, e sí eles ho fahien, cl obriria les portes damor ab gran possificar. Volentat e saviea feeren so que conseylava poder, e entraren tots . iij. en lamor, e lo cor muntiplicà angoxoses suspirs, ab que faiha lamic languir.
3. Vertut veritat e glòria volgren entrar en l amar del amic, per so que sos suspirs fossen vertuoses vers, e que en la glòria aguessen sejorn e repòs. Paor ac lamic de lur entrament, car trop se sentia agreujat per lentramcnt de poder saviea e volentat; emperò consirà que sos suspirs no valien res sens vertut e veritat, e ac esperansa Intenció: Amor 10. que per glòria pogués aver repòs e pogués menjar e durmir. Lexà l amic entrar en son cor vertut e veritat e glòria, e la virtut e glòria de l amat mostraren se a la veritat; e per aysò montiplicà en lamor amar e en lo cor suspirar, e lo cors de lamic languia e no podia los trebayls sustenir.
4. Differencia e concordansa de les bones obres del amat volgren entrar en lo cor de lamic ab membransa, per so que lamic remembràs les nobles obres de son amat, les quals ha en sí metex e en les creatures. Dementre que lamic consirava si lexaria entrar, en sa amor, differencia e concordansa, al amic dix contrarietat, que no les lexàs en son cor entrar, car si ho fahia, la memòria li remembraria tan fortment les nobles obres de son amat, que son cor gitaria tants suspirs, que per aquels lo covenria languir e morir. Consentí lamic al conseyl que li ac donat contrarietat, e ublidà son amat e les sues obres; e bonea granea, e les altres aigües damor, qui eren entrades en lamor de lamic, no volgren estar en lo cor, del qual ixiren, e lo qual no ac ab que ni de que gitàs ni montiplicàs suspirs damor; e lamic perdé son amat e sa amor.
5. Can lamic se sentí sens amor amar e amat, conciencia contricció penetencia entraren ab justícia en son cor, al qual donaren tantes de langors trebayls e paors, que en punt fo de fenir; e cridà molt fortment a lamor e lamar que tornassen en son cor estar ab son amat, e maleí contrarietat del mal consell que li avia donat. Lamor e lamar resposeren a lamic, e dixeren que no tornarien en son cor estar sens major comensament mejà fi e egualtat de suspirs e de bontat granea, e les altres rails damor, que de son cor avia gitades per conseyl de contrarietat lur enemiga, amiga de menoritat damor. Lamic dix que entrassen en son cor en totes ab aytantes de condicions com hi volrien entrar, car mais amava morir per molt suspirar per amor, que viure sens suspirar, e estar sens amor amar e amat. Entraren en lo cor del amic amor e amar ab membransa, qui remembra lamat e ses obres, e entraren bontal granea, e les altres, ab majoritat; e l amic ac son cor tan ple de suspirs, que nois poc sostenir, e pregà menoritat damor que li voígués ajudar; mas majoritat damor no la lexà entrar, e montiplicà al amic sos trebayls e suspirs, per so car ac csperansa en menoritat damor, qui es son contrari, que contra ela li pogués ajudar.
Notes
- 1 ↩Opening token "B'oNEA" is treated as corrupt OCR for "Bontat" (Goodness), matching the same triad in s2 and the following section.
- 2 ↩"agucs" is read as "agués" (might have).
- 3 ↩«ab eles nois poria sostenir» read as no·ls poria sostenir: he could not bear them (Power, Wisdom, and Will) on top of the sighs and languishings already burdening him.
- 4 ↩«cl obriria» taken as ell obriria (‘he would open’), most likely a scribal/print corruption of ell.
- 5 ↩«possificar» rendered as ‘empowering’ (making able / exerting power); rare medieval Catalan formation from poder/posseir.
- 6 ↩«iij.» looks like a misplaced Roman numeral interrupting the narrative flow between «e entraren tots» and «en lamor»; neighboring section 3 begins again with «3.».
- 7 ↩Old Catalan vers may mean either 'verses' or 'toward'. Rendered as 'virtuous verses'; an alternate reading is 'virtuous toward [the Beloved]'. The feminine vertuoses with masculine suspirs also suggests possible manuscript or print noise.
- 8 ↩Normalized the corrupt form lentramcnt to l'entrament ('the entry'), matching lur entrament earlier in the sentence and the surrounding narrative.
- 9 ↩Omitted recurring page-header intrusion 'Intenció: Amor 10.' (same series appears elsewhere as Amor 7, 8, 9, etc.). The clause continues in the next sentence with que….
- 10 ↩Difference (differencia) and Concordance (concordansa) are personified correlatives in Llull's Art; Remembrance (membransa) is the accompanying interior power that brings the Beloved's works to mind.
- 11 ↩"Waters of love" (aigües d'amor) is Llull's Tree-of-Love image for the flowing dignities/roots of love (here Goodness and Greatness among them).
- 12 ↩"no ac ab que ni de que" rendered as "had neither the means nor the matter with which": the heart lacked both instrument and source for casting forth or multiplying sighs.
- 13 ↩Llullian personifications retained: 'major comensament mejà fi e egualtat' as beginning, middle, end, and equality; 'menoritat damor' as littleness of love (opposed later to majoritat damor).
- 14 ↩Translated 'bontal' as 'bontat' (goodness), matching earlier 'bontat/bonea granea' in this chapter; translated 'csperansa' as 'esperansa' (hope); read 'voígués' as 'volgués' and 'nois poc sostenir' as 'no·ls poc sostenir'.
- 15 ↩'majoritat damor' / 'menoritat damor' rendered as greatness of love / littleness of love, Llull's opposed principles of increase and diminution in love.
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