3. De les cogitacions d'amor
The Two Divisions of Thoughts of Love
The chapter introduces two kinds of thoughts of love—those on the essence and nature of love and its works, and those on the conditions of lover and beloved—and explains that mixing them strengthens the lover's love.
This part is in two parts; the1 first is of the thoughts the lover has on the essence and nature of love, and on the works of that love; the other is of the thoughts the lover has in considering the conditions that belong to lover and to beloved; and these23 two divisions we want to carry along together, and mix some thoughts with the others, for the more strongly they are mixed, the more strongly the lover is enamored of his beloved.
Meditating on the Essence and Nature of Love
The lover meditates on the essence of love as the form that moves him to love, on the nature of love as the cord binding lover to beloved, and on the qualities of the beloved that make him greatly lovable.
We place thoughts of love in this Tree of Love so we can teach lovers how to have many good, great thoughts about the Beloved; for there are many people who want to love but can’t, because they don’t know how to think about love or how to multiply the thought of love. 1.4 The lover was meditating on the essence of love, which is that form that moves the lover to love. 2. The lover was reflecting on the nature of love and said that its nature is the cord that binds the lover to the beloved. 3. The lover thought about the qualities of his beloved and said that all of them are lovable for their great goodness, duration, power, and virtue, so that the beloved may be greatly loved.
Considering the Lover's Unworthiness and the Beloved's Goodness
The lover considers his own unworthiness and sinfulness, then reflects on the beloved's great goodness and disposition to forgive, and finally understands that thoughts enable the lover and beloved to speak, with love using all roots except contrariety and littleness.
4. The Lover considered his own condition and said that he was not worthy to love so great and good a Beloved, for he had little goodness in himself, and many times he had sinned and gone astray against his Beloved. 5. The Lover thought about the Beloved's great goodness, virtue, and love, and said that the Beloved was inclined to give generously, to forgive, and to love; and so, because of the Beloved's qualities, he was inclined to love his Beloved deeply.5 6. Through thoughts the Lover and the Beloved spoke to each other, and Love enamored those words with its essence and nature; and therefore Love enamored the Lover of his Beloved with all the essences and natures of the roots of love, except for Contrariety and Littleness, which must not accompany the other roots when the Lover remembers, understands, and loves his Beloved.678
The Lover's Encounters and Inner Struggles
The lover encounters the sun and a flower, which prompt reflections on the sufficiency of his thoughts and the proper way to contemplate the beloved; he then faces fear, bodily sickness, shame, and the challenge of thinking without emotion.
7. The sun's radiance and power asked the lover if he wanted its help to love his Beloved. The lover replied that the lovable qualities of his Beloved, the essence and nature of love, and his thoughts of his Beloved were enough for him to love his Beloved.9 8. The Friend lived. j. A beautiful flower that his Beloved had created, and he said to the flower that its beauty moved him to contemplate the beauty of his Beloved; and for that reason the flower told the Friend that he did not have great and lasting thoughts toward his Beloved, for the one who has great thoughts of love is the one who contemplates the Beloved simply, according to the conditions of the Beloved and the nature and essence of love.1011 9. The Lover was going in thought to see his Beloved, and on the way he was afraid of thieves and wicked men. Then the conditions of love and of the Beloved withdrew from the Lover, and his thoughts fled, leaving him with nothing by which to see his Beloved. 10. Because the friend had such deep thoughts about his beloved, his body grew sick, and that body asked for health; but the friend's soul did not want that, so that the soul might have health in the beloved and in love.12 12.13 Wicked people shamed and wounded the friend who was praising his beloved; the friend laughed and thanked them for honoring him. Tree of the Philosophy of Love 85 1 2.14 Without sighing or weeping, the friend thought about the beauties and honors of his beloved; he told love that it was putting too little of its nature into his loving.1516
Transformation Through Love and the Multiplication of Thoughts
Love adorns the lover's thoughts so that he dies and lives in the beloved; the friend struggles with the torment of thinking but is helped by love's conditions; the lover learns that greater thoughts bring greater help; and the chapter concludes by teaching how diverse thoughts multiply love.
13. Love adorned the Lover's thoughts with its own nature and with the Beloved's qualities: the Lover was dying, and his soul lived in the Beloved.17 14. The friend wanted to destroy his thinking, for it tormented him so much that it wouldn't let him rest, nor could he eat or sleep; but the conditions of love and of the beloved helped the friend's thinking. 15. The lover wanted to sell greater thoughts for lesser ones because he couldn't bear the great labors of love. The Beloved bought the greater thoughts for lesser ones, and the lesser thoughts tormented the lover more fiercely than the greater ones had. For through lesser thoughts, the lover doesn't have as great a help from the Beloved and from love as he does through greater ones. And so the lover fled the lesser labors of love so that he might rest in the greater ones. We have spoken of many ways of thinking, to teach how, through many and diverse ways of thinking, a person can multiply love and loving, seeking those ways through the roots of love.
Read the original Catalan
Aquesta part es en . ij. parts; ia . j. es de les cogitacions que ha lamic en la essència e natura clamor, e en les obres daquela; lautra es de les cogitacions que lamic ha en considerar les condicions quis pertanyen a amic e a amat; e aquestes . ij. partides volem menar ensems, e les unes cogitacions mesclar ab les autres, car on pus fortment son mesclades, pus fortment es lamic enamorat de son amat.
Là raó per que posam, en aquest Arbre d amor, cogitacions damor, es per so que donem doctrina als amadors com sapien aver moltes bones e grans cogitacions del amat; car molts homes son qui desiren amar e no poden amar, per so car damor no saben cogitar, ni la cogitació damor montiplicar. í. Cogitava lamic en la essència damor, qui es aquela forma qui mou lamic a amar.
2. Cogitava lamic en la natura damor, e dix que natura damor es aquela corda qui liga lamic a son amat.
3. Cogità lamic en les condicions de son amat, e dix que totes son amables ab granea de bontat duració poder e vertut, per so que lamat pusca ésser molt amat.
4. Consirà lamic en les sues condicions, e dix que él no era digne d amar gran e bo amat, car poc de be avia en sí metex, e moltes vegades avia peccat e errat contra son amat.
5. Consirà lamic en la gran bonea vertut e amor de lamat, e dix que lamat era condicionat a molt donar perdonar e amar; e per aysò, per les condicions de son amat, era condicionat a molt amar son amat.
6. Ab cogitacions se parlaven lamic e lamat, e aqueles paraules enamorava amor ab sa essència e natura; e per aysò amor enamorava lamic de son amat ab totes les essències e natures de les rails d amor, ensebtada contrarietat e menoritat qui no deuen ésser acompanyades ab les altres rails con lamic remembra entén e ama son amat.
7. La resplandor e vertut del sol dix a lamic si volia que él li ajudàs a amar son amat. Lamic respòs al sol, e dix que les amabilitats de son amat, e la essència e natura damor, e les cogitacions que avia de son amat, li abastaven a amar son amat.
8. Viu lamic . j. bela flor que avia creada son amat, e dix a la flor que la sua belea lo movia a cogitar la belea de son amat; e per aysò la flor dix a lamic que no avia grans cogitacions e durables en vers son amat, car aquel ha grans cogitacions damor, qui cogita en lamat simplament, segons les condicions del amat e la natura e essència damor.
9. Ab cogitacions anava lamic veer son amat, e en la via ac paor de ladres e mals homes; e les condicions damor e del amat absentarense del amic; e les cogitacions fugiren, e lamic no ac ab que veés son amat.
10. Per les grans cogitacions que lamic avia de son amat, estava lo seu cors malaute, lo qual cors demanava sanitat; mas no ho volia lànima del amic, per so que ela pogués aver sanitat en lamat e amor.
ij. Males gents aontaren e feriren lamic, qui loava son amat; e lamic se ris, e feulos gràcies per so car lavien onrat. Arbre de Filosotia damor 85 1 2. Sens suspirar e plorar cogitava l amic en les belees e en los honramens de son anat; e dix lamic a amor que poca de sa natura posava en son amar.
13. Ornava amor les cogitacions del amic ab la sua natura e ab les condicions del amat: muria lamic, e la sua ànima vivia en lamat.
14. Destruir volc lamic son cogitar, car tant lo trebaillava, que noi lexava reposar, ni podia menjar ni durmir; mas al cogitar del amic ajudaren les condicions damor e damat.
15. Volia lamic vendre majors cogitacions per menors, car no podia sofrir los grans trebayls d amor: comprà lamat les majors cogitacions per menors, e les menors cogitacions turmentaren pus fortment lamic que les majors; car per menors cogitacions no ha lamic tan gran ajuda de lamat e amor, com ha per les majors; e per aysò fugi lamic als menors trebayls d amors, per so que reposàs en los majors.
Dit avem de moltes maneres de cogitar, a donar doctrina com per moltes e diverses maneres de cogitar pot hom montiplicar amor e amar, ensercant les maneres per les rails de amor.
Notes
- 1 ↩Normalized 'ia' read as 'la' (the), matching the work's usual 'la .j.' = 'the first'; parallel sections use 'la primera' / 'la .j.'.
- 2 ↩Normalized 'natura clamor' read as 'natura d'amor' / 'natura damor'; parallel phrasing in this chapter and elsewhere is 'essència e natura damor', and 'daquela' refers back to that love.
- 3 ↩'amic'/'amat' rendered as 'lover'/'beloved', Llull's fixed pair; 'cogitacions' as 'thoughts' (loving meditation, not mere idle thinking).
- 4 ↩Source 'í.' read as medieval/roman numeral 1 introducing the first meditation, matching neighboring '2.' in the next section.
- 5 ↩Catalan condicionat a carries Llull's sense of being suited or disposed by one's qualities/nature; rendered here as 'disposed to'.
- 6 ↩Reading “ensebtada” as “exceptada” (“except for / excluding”), which fits the grammar and Llull’s doctrine that Contrariety and Littleness are not to mix with the other roots in right loving; likely OCR/scribal damage for exceptada.
- 7 ↩“Menoritat” is Llull’s technical root opposite greatness/equality; rendered “Littleness” rather than “minority,” matching earlier sections. “Contrarietat” kept as the technical root name “Contrariety.”
- 8 ↩“Rails d’amor” rendered “roots of love,” Llull’s fixed tree metaphor; “cogitacions” as “thoughts” (loving meditation). “Enamorava” kept as “enamored,” matching this chapter’s usage.
- 9 ↩amabilitats: rendered as "lovable qualities" (Llullian technical sense: the Beloved's lovableness / qualities that make love fitting); not ordinary "amiability".
- 10 ↩Source opens mid-clause (lowercase bela flor) with no explicit subject/verb before the flower phrase; English starts the clause cleanly and treats the Friend from s2 as the speaker of dix a la flor.
- 11 ↩Kept Llull's technical 'conditions' (qualities/attributes of the Beloved), not modern 'circumstances'.
- 12 ↩ela refers to lànima (feminine): the soul refuses bodily healing so that she may find her own health in the Beloved and in Love.
- 13 ↩Source reads 'ij.' between printed '10.' and '13.'; treated as the section number 12 (likely OCR of '11.'/'12.'), not the Roman numeral two.
- 14 ↩Source 'Filosotia' corrected to 'Philosophy' (Filosofia). The whole line looks like a printed running header / page marker, not narrative prose.
- 15 ↩Source 'anat' read as 'amat' (beloved): 'beauties and honors of his beloved' fits the chapter lexicon and the following clause; 'anat' ('gone') does not.
- 16 ↩In 'poca de sa natura posava en son amar,' 'sa natura' is taken as love's nature (love putting little of itself into the friend's loving), which the next section answers when love adorns the friend's thoughts with its nature.
- 17 ↩Catalan 'condicions' is Llull's technical term for the essential properties/attributes of Love and the Beloved; rendered here as 'qualities' for natural modern English.
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