Exordi i Pròleg
The Hermit's Need
A hermit seeks Blanquerna's guidance to create a book that will foster contemplation and devotion among his fellow recluses.
It happened one day that the hermit who was staying in Rome, as we have said above, went to visit the hermits and the recluses who were in Rome, and he found that in some things they had many temptations because they did not know how to keep to the way of life that suited them; and he thought of going to Blanquerna the hermit so that he would make him a book of hermit life, and that by that book he might be able to hold the other hermits in contemplation and devotion. One day, while Blanquerna was in prayer, that hermit arrived at his cell and asked him for the book mentioned above. Blanquerna thought long and hard about how he would write the book and what it should cover.
The Birth of the Lover and the Beloved
Through deep prayer and the experience of divine love, Blanquerna conceives the structure of the book centered on the relationship between the Friend and the Beloved.
While Blanquerna was deep in this thought, the will came over him to give himself wholly to worshiping and contemplating God, so that in prayer God would show him the manner and the matter of which he should make the book. While Blanquerna was weeping and worshiping, and God had raised his soul—which was contemplating Him—to the utmost limit of its powers, Blanquerna felt himself go beyond all measure because of the great fervor and devotion he was in, and he thought that the force of love does not keep to measure when the friend loves his Beloved with all his strength.1 For this reason, Blanquerna set his will on writing the Book of the Friend and the Beloved, in which the Friend would be a faithful and devout Christian, and the Beloved would be God.2
Wisdom from the East
Blanquerna draws upon the Sufi tradition of brief, evocative sayings to provide a model for kindling love for God.
As Blanquerna reflected on this, he remembered that when he was pope, a Saracen once told him that they have men of religious life, and that among those most highly regarded are people called “Sufis.” These Sufis have words of love and short examples that inspire great devotion; their words require explanation, and through that explanation, the understanding rises higher, and by that rising, the will grows and increases in devotion.3 After this reflection, Blanquerna set out to write the book in the manner described above. He told the hermit to return to Rome, promising that he would soon send him the Book of the Friend and the Beloved by way of the deacon, so that he could increase fervor and devotion among the hermits, whom he wanted to kindle with love for God.
A Daily Rule of Contemplation
Blanquerna establishes a daily practice of prayer and contemplation, organizing the book into verses corresponding to the days of the year.
Blanquerna was at prayer, reflecting on how he contemplated God and His virtues; once he finished, he wrote down what he had contemplated regarding God. And he did this every day; and he varied his prayer with new themes, so that from many different ways he might compose the Book of the Friend and the Beloved, and so that those ways would be brief, and so that in a short time the soul could run through many of them.45 With God's blessing, Blanquerna began his book, dividing it into as many verses as there are days in the year. Each verse provides enough for a full day of contemplating God, following the Art of the Book of Contemplation.6
Read the original Latin
Esdevenc-se, un dia, que l'ermità qui estava en Roma, segons que damunt havem dit, anà visitar los ermitans e els rescluses qui eren en Roma, e atrobà que en alcunes coses havien moltes de temptacions per ço cor no sabien haver la manera qui es covenia a llur vida; e pensà que anàs a Blanquerna ermità que li faés un llibre qui fos de vida ermitana, e que per aquell llibre pogués e sabés tenir en contemplació, devoció, los altres ermitans. Estant un dia Blanquerna en oració aquell ermità venc a la cel·la de Blanquerna e pregà'l del llibre damunt dit. Molt cogità Blanquerna en qual manera faria lo llibre ni de qual matèria.
Estant Blanquerna en aquest pensament, en volentat li venc que es donàs fortment a adorar e contemplar Déu, per tal que en l'oració Déus li demostràs la manera e la matèria de què ell faés lo llibre. Dementre que Blanquerna plorava e adorava, e en la sobirana estremitat de ses forces havia pujada Déus sa ànima, qui el contemplava, Blanquerna se sentí eixit de manera, per la gran frevor e devoció en què era, e cogità que força d'amor no segueix manera com l'amic ama molt fortment son amat. On, per açò Blanquerna fo en volentat que faés Llibre d'amic e Amat, lo qual amic fos feel e devot crestià, e l'amat fos Déu.
Dementre considerava en esta manera Blanquerna, ell remembrà com una vegada, com era apostol¡, li recomptà un sarraí que los sarraïns han alcuns hòmens religiosos, e, enfre los altres e aquells qui són més preats enfre ells, son unes gents qui han nom "sufies", e aquells han paraules d'amor e exemplis abreujats e qui donen a home gran devoció; e són paraules qui han mester esposició, e per l'esposició puja l'enteniment més a ensús, per lo qual pujament muntiplica e puja la volentat en devoció. On, com Blanquerna hac haüda aquesta consideració, ell preposà a fer lo llibre segons la manera damunt dita, e dix a l'ermitá que se'n retornàs a Roma, e que en breu de temps li trametria, per lo diaca, lo Llibre d'Amic e Amat, per lo qual poria muntiplicar frevor e devoció en los ermitans, los quals volia enamorar de Déu.
Blanquerna estava en oració e considerava la manera segons la qual contemplava Déu e ses virtuts; e con havia finida sa oració, escrivia ço en què havia contemplat Déu. E açó faïa tots jorns; e mudava en sa oració novelles raons, per tal que de diverses maneres e de moltes componés lo Llibre d'Amic e Amat, e que aquelles maneres fossen breus, e que en breu temps l'ànima ne pogués moltes decórrer.
E en la benedicció de Déu, Blanquerna començá son llibre, lo qual departí en aitants verses con ha dies en l'any. E cascú vers basta a tot un dia a contemplar Déu, segons l'Art del Llibre de contemplació.
Notes
- 1 ↩Catalan 'eixit de manera' / 'no segueix manera' plays on 'manera' as measure, order, and method: love takes the lover beyond orderly measure. Rendered as 'beyond all measure' / 'does not keep to measure' to keep the paradox plain without archaic 'manner'.
- 2 ↩Source 'feel' is medieval Catalan for 'faithful' (cf. Catalan 'fiel'), not English 'feel'.
- 3 ↩Source reading “apostol¡” is corrupt; translated as “apostoli” (when he was pope), the standard Blanquerna sense for Blanquerna’s apostolic office.
- 4 ↩Catalan raons here means contemplative themes or subjects of meditation (not logical 'reasons' alone). Rendered as 'themes'.
- 5 ↩ne is the Catalan partitive ('of them'), not Latin negative-purpose ne; gloss fallback mis-tagged it.
- 6 ↩Art del Llibre de contemplació names Llull’s own method/work (Art + Book of Contemplation); rendered as a title phrase rather than generic “skill.”
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