Accidents d'amor: 5. Del testament de l'amic qui mor per amor
The Lover's Testament: Body and Soul
The lover summons the scribe of love to make his testament, bequeathing his body to decay and his inner faculties to various recipients.
The friend sent for the true scribe of love, because he wanted to make a testament of those things he had held in trust from his Beloved. He left his body to the worms to eat, and to the dust of the earth so the wind could scatter it, and so that no memory of him would be made—for many times he had adorned and dressed it in fine clothes so that people would talk about them and he would have vain glory from it.1 2. The friend left his heart, with its desires and sighs, and his eyes, with their tears and weeping, to the lovers of love who do penance for love; he left his imagination to imagine the beauties of his Beloved's glory, the pains of hell, and the ugliness of the demons; he left to his Beloved his memory to remember Him, his understanding to understand Him, and his will to love Him; and he left to sinful men the fears he had of his Beloved because he had sinned.2
The Scribe, the Beloved, and the Executors
The scribe writes the testament with the ink and paper of love, presents it to the Beloved, who appoints virtues as executors to fulfill the will.
3. The true scribe of love wrote the testament with love's ink and on love's paper, and the roots of love were the witnesses.3 And the scribe of love showed the testament to the Beloved. He ordered justice and loyalty, prudence, fortitude, and charity to be the executors of the friend's goods, and to fulfill the testament according to the testator's will.4
Read the original Catalan
ver escrivà damor tramès lamic, per so car volia fer testament daqueles coses que avia ahudes en comanda per son amat; e lexà lo cors als vermens quel menjassen, e a la pols de la terra per so quel vent la escampàs, e que de él no fos feta neguna memòria; car moltes vegades lavia ornat e vestit de bels vestimens per so que les gents ne parlassen e que él n agués vana glòria.
2. Lexà lamic son cor ab desirs sospirs, e sos uyls ab làgremes e plors, als amadors d amors e qui fan penetencia per amor, e lexà Is sa ymagenació a ymagenar les belees de la glòria de son amat e les penes de infern e les legees dels demonis; e lexà a son amat sa memòria per él a membrar, e son enteniment per él a entendre, e sa volentat per él a amar; e lexà als homes pecadors les paors que avia de son amat per so car avia peccat.
3. Escriví lo ver escrivà damor lo testament ab tinta damor e en carta damor, e foren testimonis les rails damor. E l escrivà damor mostrà lo testament a lamat. qui manà a justícia e leyaltat, prudència fortitudo e caritat que fossen consequidors dels bens de l amic, e que compiissen lo testament, segons que era volentat del testador.
Notes
- 1 ↩comanda is the medieval trust/deposit: goods held in custody. Rendered as held in trust from his Beloved (entrusted by the Beloved).
- 2 ↩Source has uncertain 'Is' before 'sa ymagenació' (possibly a misread enclitic 'ls' = 'to them', or intrusive noise). Translated as a simple bequest of the imagination without an added beneficiary.
- 3 ↩rails (raïls) = roots of Llull's Tree of Love, here as allegorical witnesses.
- 4 ↩consequidors rendered as 'executors,' supported by que compiissen lo testament; caritat kept as 'charity' among the named virtues.
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