LLIBRE D'AMIC E AMAT
song cycle for voice and lute. Text by Ramon Llull (s.XIII). (2023)work in progress...
LLIBRE d'AMIC E AMAT
“La primera secció de la cinquena part del Llibre d’Evast e Blaquerna està constituïda per una col·lecció de ‘metàfores morals’, és a dir aforismes de contingut religiós, que expressen l’experiència contemplativa del protagonista un cop ha esdevingut ermità. La redacció del Llibre d’amic e amat té un pretext didàctic al capítol 97 de la novel·la: alguns deixebles demanen al mestre Blaquerna que els ensenyi el seu mètode d’elevació espiritual i ell, tot recordant l’extraordinària devoció dels místics musulmans anomenats sufís, decideix de condensar en tants versets com dies té l’any un destil·lat conceptual i literari de la seva vida dedicada a l’amor a Déu.
La darrera edició crítica del Llibre d’amic e amat mostra que el nombre de versets no correspon exactament al dels dies de l’any. És un detall menor que ens indica el caràcter ‘pràctic’, és a dir especulatiu i poètic, del recull; a la cinquena part del Blaquerna va acompanyat, en efecte, d’un tractat teòric, l’’Art de contemplació’.
Els aforismes del Llibre d’amic e amat no segueixen cap organització temàtica i presenten diversos recursos literaris: diàleg, qüestió, descripció, definició, narració. El tema central és la relació de l’home religiós, l’amic, amb l’ésser transcendent, l’amat, a la llum del vincle que els uneix, és a dir, l’amor.
L’Art de Ramon, que és inventiva, demostrativa, contemplativa i també ‘amativa’, explica com funciona tècnicament el procés de recerca de Déu: per això una part important del Llibre d’amic e amat està destinada a glossar el comportament de les tres potències de l’ànima racional (enteniment, memòria i voluntat) en el salt amorós de la criatura al creador. Una altra part dels versets proposa reflexions sobre l’essència divina: les dignitats, la Trinitat, l’Encarnació, sempre des del llenguatge precís de l’Art de Ramon. L’opuscle té, doncs, darrera de l’aparent dispersió dels seus motius literaris, una sòlida estructura de pensament i una estricta coherència pel que fa al sentit de la unió mística: l’intel·lecte obre el camí de la comprensió de Déu, però la voluntat que estima és qui empeny l’amic, si la memòria no oblida l’amat.
Els aspectes més famosos del Llibre d’amic e amat són els que descriuen el paper (sempre secundari) de les criatures (sol, estrelles, núvols, ocells, camins...) en l’estímul de l’amor a Déu, i l’estat emotiu de l’ànima enamorada, tempestejada pel desig, l’oblit, la pena, la recerca, l’enyorança i el plor. És aquí on Ramon es fa eco de temes de la poesia amorosa universal, des del Càntic dels càntics als trobadors occitans, sempre des de la peculiar perspectiva de l’impuls cap al transcendent. No és fàcil precisar els paral·lelismes amb la gran literatura mística sufí, com també es desdibuixen el possibles manlleus de la tradició judeocristiana. Les formulacions que Ramon proposa per als antics motius d’abast universal són poderosament personals.”
font: http://quisestlullus.narpan.net/78_amic.html
[versió en català antich]
1. Exordi i Pròleg
1.1. En qual manera Blanquerna ermità féu lo "Llibre d'Amic e Amat".
Esdevenc-se, un dia, que l'ermità qui estava en Roma, segons que damunt havem dit, anà visitar los ermitans e els recluses 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 apostoli, li recomptà un sarraí que los sarraïns han alcuns hòmens religiosos, e, enfre los altres e aquells qui són més preats enfre ells, són 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 proposà a fer lo llibre segons la manera damunt dita, e dix a l'ermità que se'n tornàs 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.
1.2 Del Llibre d'Amic e Amat. Del pròleg.
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 açò faïa tots jorns; e mudava en sa oració novelles raons, per tal que de diverses maneres i 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 començà son llibre, lo qual departí en aitals verses com ha dies en l'any. E cascú vers basta a tot un dia a contemplar Déu, segons l'Art del Llibre de contemplació.
2. Comencen les Metàfores Morals
1. Demanà l'amic a son amat si havia en ell nulla cosa romasa a amar; e l'amat respòs que ço per què l'amor de l'amic podia muntiplicar, era a amar.
2. Les carreres per les quals l'amic encerca son amat són llongues, perilloses, poblades de consideracions, de sospirs e de plors, e enluminades d'amors.
3. Ajustaren-se molts amadors a amar un amat qui els abundava tots d'amors; e cascú havia per cabal son amat e sos pensaments agradables, per los quals sentien plaents tribulacions.
4. Plorava l'amic e deia: - ¿Tro a quant de temps cessaran tenebres en lo món, per ço que cessen les carreres infernals? Ni l'aigua, qui ha en costuma que decórrega a enjús, ¿quan serà l'hora que haja natura de pujar a ensús? Ni els innocents, ¿quan seran més que els colpables?
5. - Ah! Quan se gaubarà l'amic que muira per son amat? Ni l'amat, quan veurà son amic llanguir per sa amor?
6. Dix l'amic a l'amat: - Tu qui umples lo sol de resplendor, umple mon cor d'amor. Respòs l'amat: - Sens compliment d'amor no foren tos ulls en plor, ni tu vengut en est lloc veer ton amador.
7. Temptà l'amat son amic si amava perfectament; e demanà-li de què era la diferència qui és enfre presència e absència d'amat. Respòs l'amic: - D'innorància e oblidament, coneixença e remembrament.
8. Demanà l'amat a l'amic: - ¿Has membrança de nulla cosa que t'haja guardonat, per ço cor me vols amar? Respòs: - Hoc, per ço cor enfre los treballs e els plaers que em dones, no en faç diferència.
9. - Digues, amic - dix l'amat - : ¿hauràs paciència si et doble tes llangors? - Hoc, ab què em dobles mes amors.
10. Dix l'amat a l'amic: - Saps, encara, què és amor?. Respòs: - Si no sabés què és amor, ¿sabera què és treball, tristícia, e dolor?
11. Digueren a l'amic: - ¿Per què no respons a ton amat qui t'apella? Respòs: - Ja m'aventur a greus perills per ço que a ell pervenga, e ja li parle desirant ses honors.
12. - Amic foll: ¿per què destruus ta persona e despens tos diners, e lleixes los delits d'aquest món e vas menyspreat enfre les gents? Respòs: - Per honrar los honraments de mon amat, qui per més hòmens és desamat, deshonrat, que honrat e amat.
13. - Digues, foll per amor: ¿e qual cosa és pus vesible, o l'amat en l'amic, o l'amic en l'amat? Respòs, e dix que l'amat és vist per amors, e l'amic per sospirs, e per plors, e treballs e dolors.
14. Encercava l'amic qui recomptàs a son amat com ell per sa amor sostenia greus treballs e moria; e atrobà son amat qui lligia en un llibre on eren escrites totes les llangors que amor li donaria per son amat, e tots los grats que n'havia.
15. Portà nostra Dona son Fill a l'amic per ço que li besàs son peu, e que escrivís en son llibre les virtuts de nostra Dona.
16. - Digues, aucell qui cantes: ¿est-te mès en guarda de mon amat per ço que et defena de desamor, e que muntiplic en tu amor? Respòs l'aucell: - ¿E qui em fa cantar, mas tan solament lo Senyor d'amor, qui es té a deshonor desamor?
17. Enfre amor e esperança ha fet hostal amor, on viu de pensaments e mor per oblidaments com los fonaments són sobre los delits d'aquest món.
18. Qüestió fo enfre los ulls e la memòria de l'amic, cor los ulls deien que mellor cosa és veer l'amat que membrar-lo, e la memòria dix que per lo remembrament puja l'aigua als ulls e el cor s'enflama d'amor.
19. Demanà l'amic a l'enteniment e a la volentat qual era pus prop a son amat; e corregueren ambdós, e fo ans l'enteniment a son amat que la volentat.
20. Contrastaren-se l'amic e l'amat; e viu-ho un altre amic, qui plorà tan llongament tro hac feta pau e concordança enfre l'amat e l'amic.
21. Sospirs e plors vengren a jutjament a l'amat e demanaren-li per lo qual se sentia amat pus fortment. Jutjà l'amat que els sospirs són pus prop a amor, e los plors als ulls.
22. Venc l'amic beure a la font on hom qui no ama s'enamora com beu en la font, e doblaren sos llanguiments. E venc l'amat beure a la font per ço que sobredoblement doblàs a son amic ses amors, en les quals li doblàs llangors.
23. Malalte fo l'amic, e pensava'n l'amat: de mèrit lo peixia, e ab amor l'abeurava, e paciència lo colgava, d'humilitat lo vestia, ab veritat lo metjava.
24. Demanaren a l'amic on era son amat. Respòs: - Ve'l-vos en una casa pus noble que totes les altres nobilitats creades; e ve'l-vos en mes amors, e en mos llanguiments e en mos plors.
25. Digueren a l'amic: - On vas? - Venc de mon amat. - On véns? - Vaig a mon amat. - Quan tornaràs? - Estaré ab mon amat. - Quant estaràs ab ton amat? - Aitant de temps con seran en ell los meus pensaments.
26. Cantaven los aucells l'alba, e despertà's l'amic, qui és l'alba; e los aucells feniren llur cant, e l'amic morí per l'amat en l'alba.
27. Cantava l'aucell en lo verger de l'amat. Venc l'amic, qui dix a l'aucell: - Si no ens entenem per llenguatge, entenam-nos per amor; cor en lo teu cant se representa a mos ulls mon amat.
28. Hac son l'amic, qui molt havia treballat en cercar son amat; e hac paor que no oblidàs son amat. E plorà, per ço que no s'adormís, ni son amat no fos absent a son remembrament.
29. Encontraren-se l'amic e l'amat, e dix l'amic: - No cal que em parles; mas fé'm senyal ab tos ulls, qui són paraules a mon cor, con te do ço que demanes.
30. Desobeí l'amic son amat, e plorà l'amic. E l'amat venc morir en la gonella de son amic, per ço que l'amic recobràs ço que havia perdut; e donà-li major do que cell que perdut havia.
31. L'amat enamora l'amic, e no el plany de son llanguiment, per ço que pus fortment sia amat e en lo major llanguiment atrop l'amic plaer e reveniment.
32. Dix l'amic: - Turmenten-me los secrets de mon amat, com les mies obres los revelen, e cor la mia boca los té secrets e no els descobre les gents.
33. Les condicions d'amor són que l'amic sia sofirent, pacient, humil, temorós, diligent, confiant, e que s'aventur a grans perills a honrar son amat. E les condicions de l'amat són que sia vertader, liberal, piadós, just, a son amic.
34. Encercava l'amic devoció en los munts e en los plans, per veer si era servit son amat; e atrobà'n defalliment en cascú d'aquests llocs. E per açò cavà en la terra, si hi atrobaria lo compliment, pus que per terra devoció ha defalliment.
35. - Digues, aucell que cantes d'amor al meu amat: ¿Per què em turmenta ab amor, qui m'ha pres a ésser son servidor? Respòs l'aucell: - Si no sostenies treballs per amor, ¿ab què amaries ton amat?
36. Consirós anava l'amic en les carreres de son amat, e encepegà, e caec enfre espines, les quals li foren semblants que fossen flors, e que son llit fos d'amors.
37. Demanaren a l'amic si camiaria per altre son amat. Respòs, e dix: - ¿E qual altre és mellor ni pus noble que sobiran bé, eternal, infinit en granea, poder, saviea, amor, perfecció?
38. Cantava e plorava l'amic cants de son amat, e deia que pus ivaçosa cosa és amor en coratge d'amador, que llamp en resplendor, ni tro en oïment; e pus viva és aigua en plor que en ondes de mar; e pus prop és sospir a amor que neu a blancor.
39. Demanaren a l'amic per què era son amat gloriós. Respòs: - Per ço cor és glòria. Digueren-li per què era poderós. Respòs: - Per ço cor és poder. Ni per què és savi: - Per ço cor és saviea. Ni per què és amable: - Per ço cor és amor.
40. Llevà's matí l'amic, e anava cercant son amat; e atrobà gents qui anaven per la via, e demanà si havien vist son amat. Respongueren-li dient quan fo aquella hora que son amat fo absent a sos ulls mentals. Respòs l'amic, e dix: - Anc, pus hac vist mon amat en mos pensaments, no fo absent a mos ulls corporals, cor totes coses vesibles me representen mon amat.
41. Ab ulls de pensaments, llanguiments, de sospirs e de plors, esguardava l'amic son amat; e ab ulls de gràcia, justícia, pietat, misericòrdia, liberalitat, l'amat esguardava son amic. E l'aucell cantava lo plaent esguardament damunt dit.
42. Les claus de les portes d'amor són daurades de consirers, sospirs e plors; e el cordó de les claus és de consciència, contrició, devoció, satisfació; e el porter és de justícia, misericòrdia.
43. Tocava l'amic a la porta de son amat ab colp d'amor, esperança. Oïa l'amat lo colp de son amic ab humilitat, pietat, paciència, caritat. Obriren les portes deïtat e humanitat, e entrava l'amic veer son amat.
44. Propietat e comunitat s'encontraren, e es mesclaren, per ço que fos amistat e benvolença enfre l'amic e l'amat.
45. Dos són los focs que escalfen l'amor de l'amic: la un és bastit de desigs, plaers, e cogitacions; l'altre és compost de temor, llanguiment, e de llàgremes e de plors.
46. Desirà l'amic soliditat, e anà estar tot sol per ço que hagués companyia de son amat, ab lo qual està tot sol enfre les gents.
47. Estava l'amic tot sol, sots l'ombra d'un bell arbre. Passaren hòmens per aquell lloc, e demanaren-li per què estava sol. E l'amic respòs que sol fo com los hac vists e oïts, e que d'abans era en companyia de son amat.
48. Ab senyals d'amor se parlaven l'amic e l'amat; e ab temor, pensaments, llàgremes e plors recomptava l'amic a l'amat sos llanguiments.
49. Dubtà l'amic que son amat no li fallís a ses majors necessitats. Desenamorà l'amat son amic. Hac contrició, penediment, l'amic en son cor; e l'amat reté al cor de l'amic esperança, caritat; e als ulls llàgremes e plors, per ço que retornàs amor en l'amic.
50. Eguals coses son propinqüitat e llunyedat enfre l'amic e l'amat; cor enaixí com mesclament d'aigua e de vi, se mesclen les amors de l'amic e l'amat; enaixí con calor e llugor, s'encadenen llurs amors; e enaixí com essència e ésser, se convenen e s'acosten.
51. Dix l'amic a son amat: - En tu és mon sanament e mon llanguiment; e on pus fortment me sanes, pus creix mon llanguiment, e on pus me llangueixs, major sanitat me dónes. Respòs l'amat: - La tua amor és segell e emprenta on mostres los meus honraments a les gents.
52. Veia's pendre l'amic, e lligar, e ferir e auciure per amor de son amat. Demanaren-li aquells qui el turmentaven: - On és ton amat? Respòs: - Ve'l-vos en lo muntiplicament de mes amors e en la sustentació que em fa de mos turments.
53. Dix l'amic a l'amat: - Anc no fugí ni em partí de tu a amar, depús que t'hac conegut; cor en tu, e per tu e ab tu fui on que fos. Respòs l'amat: - Ni jo, depús que tu m'haguist conegut e amat, no t'oblide, ni null temps no fiu contra tu engan ni falliment.
54. Anava l'amic per una ciutat com a foll, cantant de son amat; e demanaren-li les gents si havia perdut son seny. Respòs que son amat havia pres son voler, e que ell li havia donat son enteniment; per açò era-li romàs tan solament lo remembrament, ab què remembrava son amat.
55. Dix l'amat: - Miracle és contra amor, d'amic qui s'adorm oblidant son amat. Respòs l'amic: - E miracle és contra amor si l'amat no desperta l'amic, pus que l'ha desirat.
56. Pujà-se'n lo cor de l'amic en les altees de l'amat, per ço que no fos embargat a amar en l'abís d'aquest món. E con fo a l'amat, contemplà'l ab dolçor e plaer; e l'amat baixà'l a aquest món, per ço que el contemplàs ab tribulacions e ab llanguiments.
57. Demanaren a l'amic: - Quals són tes riquees? Respòs: - Les pobretats que sostenc per mon amat. - E qual és ton repòs? - Lo llanguiment que em dóna amor. - E qui és ton metge? - La confiança que he de mon amat. - E qui és ton maestre? Respòs, e dix que les significances que les creatures donen de son amat.
58. Cantava l'aucell en un ram de fulles e de flors, e lo vent menava les fulles e aportava odor de les flors. Demanava l'amic a l'aucell què significava lo moviment de les fulles ni l'odor de les flors. Respòs: - Les fulles signifiquen en llur moviment, obediència; e l'odor, sufre e malanança.
59. Anava l'amic desirant son amat, e encontrà's ab dos amics qui ab amors e ab plors se saludaren, e s'abraçaren e es besaren. Esmortí's l'amic: tan fortment li remembraren los dos amics son amat.
60. Cogità l'amic en la mort, e hac paor tro que remembrà son amat. E cridà a les gents qui li estaven davant: - Ah, senyors! Amats per ço que mort ni perills no temats, a honrar mon amat.
61. Demanaren a l'amic on començaren primerament ses amors. Respòs que en les noblees de son amat; e que d'aquell començament s'enclinarien a amar si mateix e son proïsme, e en desamar engan e falliment.
62. - Digues, foll: si et desamava ton amat, què faries? Respòs, e dix que amaria per ço que no morís, con sia cosa que desamor sia mort, e amor sia vida.
63. Demanaren a l'amic quina cosa era perseverança. Dix que perseverança era benanança e malanança en amic perseverant en amar, honrar, servir son amat en fortitudo, paciència, esperança.
64. Dix l'amic a son amat que el pagàs del temps en què l'havia servit. Comptà l'amat los pensaments, e els desigs, e els plors, e els perills e els treballs que havia sostenguts son amic per sa amor; e afegí en aquell compte, eternal benauirança, e donà si mateix en paga a son amic.
65. Demanaren a l'amic qual cosa era benanança. Respòs que malanança sostenguda per amor.
66. - Digues, foll: quina cosa és malanança? - Membrança de les deshonors qui són fetes a mon amat, digne de tots honraments.
67. Remirava l'amic un lloc en lo qual havia vist son amat, e deia: - Ah, lloc qui em representes les belles costumes de mon amat! Diràs a mon amat que jo sostenc, per son amor, treball e malanança. Respòs lo lloc: - Con en mi era ton amat, soferia per ta amor major treball e malanança que tots los altres treballs ni les altres malanances que amor pot donar a sos servidors.
68. Deia l'amic a son amat: - Tu est tot, e per tot, e en tot, e ab tot. Tu vull tot, per ço que haja e sia tot mi. Respòs l'amat: - No em pots haver tot sens que tu no sies de mi. E dix l'amic: - Hages-me tot, e jo tu tot. Respòs l'amat: - Què haurà ton fill, ton frare e ton pare? Dix l'amic: - Tu est tal tot, que pots abundar a ésser tot de cascú qui es dóna a tu tot.
69. Estec e perllongà l'amic sos pensaments en la granea e en la durabletatde son amat, e no hi atrobà començament, ni mijà ni fi. E dix l'amat: - Què mesures, foll? Respòs l'amic: - Mesur menor ab major, e defalliment ab compliment, e començament ab infinitat, eternitat, per ço que humilitat, paciència, caritat, esperança, ne sien pus fortment en ma membrança.
70. Les vies d'amor són llongues e breus per ço cor amor és clara, pura, nèdea, vera, subtil, simple, forts, diligent, llugorosa, abundosa de novells pensaments e d'antics remembraments.
71. Demanaren a l'amic quals són los fruits d'amor. Respòs: - Plaers, cogitaments, desigs, sospirs, ànsies, treballs, perills, turments, llanguiments. Sens aitals fruits no es lleixa amor tocar a sos servidors.
72. Estaven moltes gents denant l'amic, qui es clamava de son amat com no creixia ses amors; e clamava's d'amor com li donava treballs ni dolors. Escusà's l'amat, dient que los treballs e les dolors d'on acusava amor, eren muntiplicaments d'amors.
73. - Digues, foll: com no parles? ¿Ni què és ço en què estàs embarbesclat, consirós? Respòs: - En les bellees de mon amat, e en lo ressemblament de les benanances e de les dolors que m'aduen e em donen amors.
74. - Digues, foll: ¿qual cosa fo enans: o ton cor, o amor? Respòs, e dix que en un temps foren son cor e amor; cor si no ho fossen, lo cor no fóra creat a amar, ni amor no fóra creada a cogitar.
75. Demanaren al foll on començà enans sa amor: o en los secrets de son amat, o en revelar-los a les gents. Respòs, e dix que amor no hi fa null departiment, com és en son compliment; cor ab secret té l'amic secret los secrets de son amat, e ab secret los revela, e ab revelació los té secrets.
76. Secret d'amor sens revelació, dóna passió e llanguiment; e revelar amor dóna temor per frevor. E per açò l'amic en totes maneres ha llanguiment.
77. Apellà amor sos amadors, e dix-los que li demanaren los dons que li eren pus desirables e pus plaents. E ells demanaren a amor que els vestits e els ornàs de sos afaiçonaments, per ço que fossen a l'amat pus agradables.
78. Cridà l'amic en alt a les gents, e dix que amor los manava que amassen en anant e en seent, e en vetlant e en dorment, e en parlant e en callant, e en comprant e en venent, e en plorant e en rient, e en plaer e en llanguiment, e en guanyant e en perdent; e en qualsque coses faessen, en totes amassen, cor d'amor n'havien manament.
79. - Digues foll: ¿quan venc en tu amor? Respòs: - En aquell temps que m'enriquí, e em poblà mon cor de pensaments, desirers, sospirs, llanguiments, e abundà mos ulls de llàgremes e de plors. - Què t'aportà amor? - Belles faiçons, honraments, e valors de mon amat. - En què vengren? - En membrança e en enteniment. - Ab què els reebist? - Ab caritat, esperança. - Ab què els guardes? - Ab justícia, prudència, fortitudo, temprança.
80. Cantava l'amat e deia que poc sabia l'amic d'amor si havia vergonya de lloar son amat, ni si el temia honrar en aquells llocs on pus fortment és deshonrat; e poc sap d'amar qui s'enuja de malanança; ni qui es desespera de son amat, no fa concordança d'amor, esperança.
81. Tramès lletres l'amic a son amat, en les quals li dix si havia altre amador qui li ajudàs a portar e a soferir los greus afanys que sosté per sa amor. E l'amat rescrisc a son amic dient que no ha ab què faça vers ell injúria ni falliment.
82. Demanaren a l'amat, de l'amor de son amic. Respòs que l'amor de son amic és mesclament de plaer e malanança, e de temor, ardiment.
83. Demanaren a l'amic, de l'amor de l'amat. Respòs que l'amor de son amat és influència d'infinida bonea, eternitat, poder, saviea, caritat, perfecció; la qual influència ha l'amat a l'amic.
84. - Digues, foll: quina cosa és meravella? Respòs: - Amar més les coses absents que les presents; e amar més les coses invisibles incorruptibles, que les vesibles corruptibles.
85. Encercava l'amic son amat, e atrobà un home qui moria sens amor; e dix que gran damnatge era d'home qui moria a nulla mort sens amor. E per açò dix l'amic a l'home qui moria: - Digues: per què mors sens amor? Respòs: - Per ço cor sens amor vivia.
86. Demanà l'amic a son amat qual cosa era major: o amor o amar. Respòs l'amat, e dix que, en creatura, amor és l'arbre e amar és lo fruit, e els treballs e els llanguiments són les flors e les fulles; e en Déu, amor e amar són una cosa mateixa, sens negun treball, llanguiment.
87. Estava l'amic en llanguiments e en tristícia per sobreabundància de pensaments; e tramès precs a son amat que li trametés un llibre on fossen escrites ses faiçons, per ço que li donàs alcun remei. L'amat tramès aquell llibre a son amic, e doblaren a l'amic sos treballs e sos llanguiments.
88. Malalte fo l'amic per amor, e entrà'l veer un metge qui muntiplicà ses llangors e sos pensaments; e sanat fo l'amic en aquella hora.
89. Apartaren-se l'amic e amor, e tenien solaç de l'amat; e representà's l'amat. Plorà l'amic e esvaneí's amor en l'esmortiment de l'amic. Reviscolà l'amat son amic com li remembrà ses faiçons.
90. Deia l'amic a l'amat que per moltes carreres venia a son cor e es representava a sos ulls, e per molts noms lo nomenava sa paraula; mas l'amor ab què l'avidava e el mortificava no era mas una tan solament.
91. Entresenya's l'amat, a son amic, de vermells e novells vestiments; e estén sos braços per ço que l'abraç, e enclina son cap per ço que li do un besar, e està en alt per ço que el pusca atrobar.
92. Absentà's l'amat a son amic, encercava l'amic son amat ab memòria e ab enteniment, per ço que el pogués amar. Atrobà l'amic son amat; demanà-li on havia estat. Respòs: - En l'absència de ton remembrament e en la innorància de ta intel·ligència.
93. - Digues, foll: ¿has vergonya de les gents con te veen plorar per ton amat? Respòs que vergonya sens pecat és per defalliment d'amor qui no sap amar.
94. Sembrava l'amat en lo cor de l'amic desigs, sospirs, virtuts e amors. Regava l'amic les sements ab llàgremes e ab plors.
95. Sembrava l'amat en lo cors de l'amic treballs, tribulacions, llanguiments. Sanava l'amic son cors ab esperança, devoció, paciència, consolacions.
96. A una gran festa tenc l'amat gran cort de molts honrats barons, e féu gran convits e gran dons. Venc l'amic a aquella cort; dix-li l'amat: - Qui t'ha apellat a venir a ma cort? Respòs l'amic: - Necessitat e amors m'han fet venir veer tes faiçons e tos capteniments.
97. Demanaren a l'amic de qui era. Respòs: - D'amor. - De què est? - D'amor. - Qui t'ha engenrat? - Amor. - On nasquist? - En amor. - Qui t'ha nodrit? - Amor. - De què vius? - D'amor. - Com has nom? - Amor. - D'on véns? - D'amor. - On vas? - A amor. - On estàs? - En amor. - Has altra cosa mas amor? Respòs: - Hoc, colpes e torts contra mon amat. - Ha en ton amat perdó ? Dix l'amic que en son amat era misericòrdia e justícia, e per açò era son hostal enfre temor e esperança.
98. Absentà's l'amat a l'amic, e encercà'l l'amic en sos pensaments; e demanava'l a les gents ab llenguatge d'amor.
99. Atrobà l'amic son amat qui estava menyspreat enfre les gents, e dix a l'amat que gran injúria era feta a sos honraments. Respòs l'amat, e dix que ella prenia deshonor per fretura de fervents e devots amadors. Plorà l'amic e muntiplicaren ses dolors; aconsolava'l l'amat mostrant-li sos capteniments.
100. Lo llum de la cambra de l'amat venc inluminar la cambra de l'amic, per ço que en gitàs tenebres e que l'omplís de plaers, e de llangors e de pensaments. E l'amic gità de sa cambra totes coses, per ço que hi cabés son amat.
101. Demanaren a l'amic quin senyal faïa son amat en son gamfanó. Respòs que d'home mort. Digueren-li per què faïa aital senyal. Respòs: - Per ço cor fo home mort crucificat, e per ço que aquells qui es gaben que són sos amadors, seguesquen son esclau.
102. Venc l'amat a albergar a l'hostal de son amic, e lo majordome demanà-li hostalatge. Mas l'amic dix que son amat devia ésser albergat en perdó.
103. Acompanyaren-se memòria e volentat, e pujaren en lo munt de l'amat per ço que l'enteniment s'exalçà's, e l'amor se doblàs en amar l'amat.
104. Tots jorns són sospirs e plors missatges enfre l'amic e l'amat, per ço que sia enfre ambdós solaç, companyia e amistat, e benvolença.
105. Enyorava l'amic son amat, e tramès-li sos pensaments, per ço que li aportassen de son amat la benanança en la qual l'havia tengut llongament.
106. Benefici donà l'amat a son amic, de plors, sospirs, llangors, pensaments e dolors; ab lo qual benefici servia l'amic son amat.
107. Pregà l'amic son amat que li donàs llarguea, pau, honrament en est món, e l'amat demostrà ses faiçons al remembrament e l'enteniment de l'amic, e donà's a la volentat per object.
108. Demanaren a l'amic en què està honrament. Respòs que en entendre e amar son amat. E demanaren-li en què està deshonor. Respòs que en oblidar, desamar son amat.
109. Turmentava'm amor tro que li hac dit que tu eres present als meus turments; e adoncs amor afluixà mos llanguiments, e tu, per guardó, muntipliquist amor, qui em doblà mos turments.
110. Encontré en la via d'amor amador qui no parlava: ab plors, magres faiçons, llanguiments, acusava amor e blasmava. Escusava's amor ab lleialtat, paciència, devoció, fortitudo, temprança, benanança. E per açò blasmé l'amador qui d'amor se clamava, pus que tan nobles dons li donava amor.
111. Cantava l'amic e deia: - Oh, con gran malanança és amor! Ah, con gran benauirança és amar mon amat, qui ama sos amadors ab infinida amor eternal, complida en tots acabaments!
112. Anava l'amic en una terra estranya on cuidava atrobar son amat, e en la via assaltejaren-lo dos lleons. Paor hac de mort l'amic, per ço cor desirava viure per servir son amat; e tramès son remembrament a son amat, per ço que amor fos a sos traspassaments, per la qual amor mills pogués sostenir la mort. Dementre que l'amic remembrava l'amat, los lleons vengren humilment a l'amic, al qual lleparen les llàgremes de sos ulls qui ploraven, e les mans e els peus li besaren. E l'amic anà en pau encercar son amat.
113. Anava l'amic per munts e per plans, e no podia trobar portal on pogués eixir del carçre d'amor qui llongament havia tengut en presó son cors, e sos pensaments e tots sos desirers e plaers.
114. Dementre que l'amic anava enaixí treballant, atrobà un ermità qui dormia prés d'una bella font. Despertà l'amic l'ermità, dient si havia vist, en somniant, son amant. Respòs l'ermità, e dix que egualment eren encarcerats sos pensaments en lo carçre d'amor, en vetlant e en dorment. Molt plac a l'amic com havia trobat companyó de presó; e ploraren ambdós, cor l'amat no havia molts d'aitals amadors.
115. No ha en l'amat nulla cosa en què l'amic no haja ànsia e tribulació, ni l'amic no ha cosa en si en què l'amat no haja plaer e senyoria; e per açò l'amor de l'amat é en acció e l'amor de l'amic en llanguiment, passió.
116. En un ram cantava un aucell, e deia que ell daria un novell pensament a amador que li'n donàs dos. Donar l'aucell lo novell pensament a l'amic, e l'amic donà'n dos a l'aucell, per ço que alleujàs sos turments; e l'amic sentí muntiplicades ses dolors.
117. Encontraren-se l'amic e l'amat, e foren testimonis de llur encontrament saluts, abraçaments, e besars, e llàgremes e plors. E demanà l'amat a l'amic, de son estament; e l'amic fo embarbesclat en presència de son amat.
118. Contrastaren-se l'amic e l'amat, e pacificaren-los llurs amors; e fo qüestió qual amor hi mès major amistat.
119. Amava l'amic tots aquells qui temien son amat, e havia temor de tots aquells qui no temien son amat; e per açò fo qüestió qual era major en l'amic: o amor o temor.
120. Jurcava l'amic a seguir son amat, e passava per una carrera on havia un mal lleó qui auceïa tot home qui en passava pererosament e sens devoció.
121. Deia l'amic: - Qui no tem mon amat, a tembre li cové totes coses; e qui tem mon amat, audàcia e ardiment li cové en totes coses.
122. Demanaren a l'amic d'ocasió, e dix que ocasió és plaer en penitència, e enteniment en consciència, e esperança en paciència, e sanitat en abstinència, consolació en remembrament, e amor en diligència, e lleialtat en vergonya, e riquea en pobretat, e pau en obediència, e guerra en malvolença.
123. Enllumenà amor lo nuvolat qui es mès enfre l'amic e l'amat; e féu-lo enaixí llugorós e resplendent con és la lluna en la nit, e l'estel en l'alba, e lo sol en lo dia, e l'enteniment en la volentat. E per aquell nuvolat tan llugorós se parlen l'amic e l'amat.
124. Demanaren a l'amic quals tenebres són majors. Respòs que l'absència de son amat. Demanaren-li qual és la major resplendor, e dix que la presència de son amat.
125. Lo senyal de l'amat apar en l'amic, qui per amor és en tribulacions, sospirs, e plors, pensaments, e en menyspreament de les gents.
126. Escrivia l'amic aquestes paraules: - Alegra's mon amat, cor a ell tramet mos pensaments, e per ell ploren mos ulls, e sens llanguiments no viu, ni sent, ni veig, ni oig, ni he odoraments.
127. - Ah, enteniment, volentat! Lladrats, e despertats los grans cans qui dormen, oblidant mon amat. Ah, ulls!: plorats. Ah, cor!: sospirats. Ah memòria!: membrats la deshonor de mon amat, la qual li fan aquells qui ell ha tan honrats.
128. - Muntiplica l'enemistat qui és enfre les gents e mon amat, e promet dons e guardons mon amat, e menaça ab justícia, saviea. E memòria e volentat menyspreen ses menaces e sos prometiments.
129. Acostava's l'amat a l'amic per ço que l'aconsolàs e el conhortàs dels llanguiments que sostenia, e dels plors que havia; e on més l'amat a l'amic s'acostava, pus fortment plorava e llanguia l'amic per les deshonors que planyia de son amat.
130. Ab ploma d'amor e ab aigua de plors, e en carta de passió, escrivia l'amic unes lletres a son amat, en les quals li deia que devoció se tardava e amor se moria, e falliment e error muntiplicaven sos enemics.
131. Nuaven-se les amors de l'amic e l'amat ab membrança, enteniment, volentat, per ço que l'amic e l'amat no es partissen; e la corda en què les dues amors se nuaven era de pensaments, llanguiments, sospirs e plors.
132. Jaïa l'amic en llit d'amor; los llençols eren de plaers, e lo cobertor era de llanguiments, e el coixí era de plors. E era qüestió si el drap del coixí era del drap dels llençols o del cobertor.
133. Vestia l'amat son amic mantell, cota, gonella; e capell li faïa d'amor, e camisa de pensaments, e calces de tribulacions, e garlanda de plors.
134. Pregava l'amat son amic que no l'oblidàs. Deia l'amic que no el podia oblidar, pus que no el podia innorar.
135. Deia l'amat que en aquells llocs on és més temut a lloar, lo lloàs e l'escusàs. Deia l'amic que d'amor lo bastàs. Responia l'amat que per sa amor s'era encarnat e penjat per morir.
136. Deia l'amic al seu car amat que li mostràs manera con lo pogués fer conèixer e amar e lloar a les gents. Omplí l'amat son amic de devoció, paciència, caritat, tribulacions, pensaments, sospirs, e plors; e en lo cor de l'amic fo audàcia en lloar son amat, e en sa boca foren llaors de son amat, e en sa volentat fo menyspreament de lo blasme de les gents qui jutgen falsament.
137. Deia l'amic a les gents aquestes paraules: -Qui vertaderament remembra mon amat, oblida, en les circumstàncies de son remembrament, totes coses; e qui totes coses oblida per membrar son amat, de totes coses lo defèn mon amat, e part li dóna de totes coses.
138. Demanaren a l'amic de què naixia amor, ni de què vivia, ni perquè moria. Respòs l'amic que amors naixia del remembrament, e vivia d'intel·ligència, e moria per oblidament.
139. Oblidà l'amic tot ço qui és dejús lo sobirà cel, per ço que l'enteniment pogués pus alt pujar a conèixer l'amat lo qual la volentat desija preïcar, contemplar.
140. Anava's l'amic combatre per honrar son amat, e menà en sa companyia fe, esperança, caritat, justícia, prudència, fortitudo, temprança, ab què vencés los enemics de son amat. Fóra vençut l'amic, si no li ajudàs son amat a significar ses nobilitats a son amic.
141. Passar volia l'amic a la darrerana fila per la qual amava son amat, e les altres fins donaven-li embargament en son passatge; e per açò llongs desigs e pensaments daven a l'amic tristícia e llanguiment.
142. Gabava's e alegrava's l'amic en les noblees de son amat; llanguia l'amic per sobrecogitacions e pensaments. E era qüestió qual sentia pus fortment, o els plaers o els turments.
143. Missatge era l'amic als prínceps crestians, e als infeels, per son amat, per ço que els mostràs l'art e els començaments a conèixer, amar, l'amat.
144. Si veus amador honrat de nobles vestiments, honrat per vanaglòria, gras per menjar e dormir, sàpies que en aquell veus damnació e turments. E si veus amador pobrament vestit, menyspreat per les gents, descolorit e magre per dejunar e vetlar, sàpies que en aquell veus salvació e perdurable benedicció.
145. Plany-se l'amic, e clama's lo cor de calor d'amor. Mor-se l'amic, plora'l l'amat, e dóna-li consolació de paciència, esperança, guardó.
146. Plorava l'amic ço que havia perdut; e no era qui el pogués consolar, per ço cor sos perdiments eren inrecuperables.
147. Creada ha Déus la nit a cogitar e a vetlar l'amic en les noblees de son amat; e cuidava's l'amic que l'hagués creada a reposar e a dormir aquells qui són treballats per amor.
148. Escarnien e reprenien les gents l'amic per ço cor anava com a foll per amor. E l'amic menyspreava llurs escarns, e reprenia les gents per ço cor no amaven son amat.
149. Deia l'amic: - Vestit són de drap vilment, mas amor vest de plaents pensaments mon cor, e lo cors de plors, llanguiments, passions.
150. Cantava l'amat, e deia: - Endrecen-se los meus lloadors en lloar mes valors; e los enemics de mos honraments turmenten-los e han-los en menyspreament. E per açò he tramès a mon amic que planga e plor ma deshonor; e els seus plants e els seus plors són nats de mes amors.
151. Jurava l'amic a l'amat que per sa amor amava e sostenia treballs e passions; e per açò pregava l'amat que l'amàs e de sos treballs passió hagués. Jurà l'amat que natura e propietat era de sa amor que amàs tots aquells qui l'amaven, e que hagués pietat d'aquells qui per sa amor treball sostenien. Alegrà's l'amic e consolà's en la natura e en la propietat essencial de son amat.
152. Vedà la paraula l'amat a son amic, e aconsolava's l'amic en l'esguardament de son amat.
153. Tant plorà e cridà l'amic a son amat, tro que l'amat davallà de les altees sobiranes dels cels, e venc en terra plorar, e plànyer, e morir per amor, e per nodrir los hòmens a amar, e a conèixer, lloar sos honraments.
154. Blasmava l'amic los crestians com no meten lo nom de son amat, Jesucrist, primerament en llurs lletres, per ço que li faessen l'honor que els sarraïns fan a Mafumet, (...), al qual fan honor com lo nomenen primerament en llurs lletres.
155. Encontrà l'amic un escuder qui anava consirós e era magre, descolorit e pobrament vestit; e saludar l'amic dient que Déus l'endreçàs a trobar son amat. E l'amat li demanà en què l'havia conegut. E l'escuder li dix que los uns secrets d'amors revelen los altres; e per açò han coneixença, los amadors, los uns dels altres.
156. Les noblees, e els honraments e les bones obres de l'amat són tresor e riquees de l'amic. E lo tresor de l'amat són los pensaments, e els desigs, e els turments, e els plors e els llanguiments que l'amic sostée per honrar e amar son amat.
157. Grans hosts e grans companyes se són ajustades d'espirits d'amors, e porten senya d'amor, on és la figura e el senyal de llur amat; e no volen menar en llur companyia null home qui sia sens amor, per ço que llur amat no hi prenga deshonor.
158. Los hòmens qui es despenyen folls per ajustar diners, mouen l'amic a ésser foll per amor; e la vergonya que l'amic ha de les gents a anar con a foll, dóna manera a l;amic d'on haja amor e preu de les gents. E per açò és qüestió qual dels dos moviments és major ocasió d'amor.
159. En tristícia ha amor mès l'amic per sobrecogitaments; e cantà l'amat, e alegràs l'amic com l'hac oït. E fo qüestió qual dels dos fo major ocasió a muntiplicar amor en l'amic.
160. En los secrets de l'amic són revelats los secrets de l'amat, e en los secrets de l'amat són revelats los secrets de l'amic. E és qüestió qual dels dos secrets és major ocasió de revelació.
161. Demanaren al foll per quals senyals era conegut son amat. Respòs, e dix que per misericòrdia, pietat, estant en volentat essencialment, sens negú camiament.
162. Per l'especial amor que l'amic havia a l'amat, amava lo bé comú sobre lo bé especial, per ço que comunament fos son amat conegut, lloat, desirat.
163. Amor e desamor s'encontraren en un verger on parlaven secretament l'amic e l'amat; e amor demanà a desamor per qual entenció era venguda en aquell lloc; e respòs desamor que per desenamorar l'amic e per deshonrar l'amat. Molt desplac a l'amat e a l'amic ço que deia desamor; e multiplicaren amor per ço que vencés e destruís desamor.
164. - Digues, foll: ¿en què ets sens major volentat: o en amar, o en aïrar? Respòs que en amar, per ço cor aïrava per tal que pogués amar.
165. - Digues, amador: ¿en què has més d'enteniment: o en entendre veritat, o falsetat? Respòs que en entendre veritat. - Per què ? - Cor entén falsetat per ço que pusca mills entendre veritat.
166. Apercebé l'amic que era amat per son amat, e demanà a l'amat si sa amor e sa misericòrdia eren en ell una cosa mateixa. Atorgàa; l'amat que, en sa essència, no han diferència sa amor ni sa misericòrdia. E per açò dix l'amic per què el turmentava sa amor, e per què no el guaria sa misericòrdia, de ses llangors. E respòs l'amat que la misericòrdia li donà les llangors per ço que ab aquelles honràs pus perfetament sa amor.
167. L'amic volc anar en una terra estranya per honrar son amat, e volc-se desmarxar per ço que no fos pres en lo camí. E anc no poc desmerxar de sos ulls plors, ni de sa cara magres faiçons e groga color, ni de son cor plants, pensaments, sospirs, tristícia, llanguiments; e per açò fo pres en lo viatge, e lliurat a turments per los enemics de son amat.
168. Estava pres l'amic en lo carçre d'amor. Pensaments, desigs e remembraments lo guardaven e l'encadenaven per ço que no fugís a son amat; llanguiments lo turmentaven; paciència, esperança lo consolaven. Morira's l'amic; mas l'amat li demostrà son estament, e reviscolà l'amic.
169. Encontrà l'amic son amat: conec l'amic son amat, e plorà. Reprès l'amat son amic per ço cor no plorava ans que l'hagués conegut; e demanà-li en què l'havia conegut, pus que no plorava. Respòs l'amic que en lo remembrament, e en l'enteniment, e en sa volentat, on fo multiplicament en continent que fo present a sos ulls corporals.
170. Demanà l'amat a l'amic què era amor. Respòs que presència de faiçons e de paraules d'amat en cor sospirant d'amador, e llanguiment per desigs e per plors en cor d'amic.
171. Amor és bulliment d'audàcia e de temor per frevor; e amor és final volentat a desirar son amat. E amor és aquella cosa qui aucís l'amic con oí cantar de les bellees de son amat. E amor és ço que és mort, e en què està tots jorns ma volentat.
172. Devoció e enyorament trameteren, per missatgers, pensaments al cor de l'amic, per ço que pujàs l'aigua als ulls qui volien cessar dels plors en los quals havien llongament estats.
173. Deia l'amic: - Si vosaltres, amadors, volets foc, venits a mon cor e encenets vostres llàntees; e si volets aigua, venits als meus ulls, qui decorren de llàgremes; e si volets pensaments d'amor, venits-los pendre a mes cogitacions.
174. Esdevenc-se un dia que l'amic cogitava en la gran amor que havia a son amat, e en los grans treballs e perills en què havia estat llongament per sa amor; e considerà que sos guaardons fossen grans. Dementre que l'amic cogitava en esta manera, ell remembrà que pagat l'havia son amat, per ço cor l'havia enamorat de ses faiçons, e cor per sa amor li havia donats llanguiments.
175. Torcava l'amic sa cara e sos ulls de plors que sostenia per amor, per ço que no descobrís los llanguiments que li donava son amat; lo qual dix a son amic per què celava los senyals d'amor als altres amadors, los quals li havia donats per ço que els enamoràs d'honrar ses valors.
176. - Digues, home qui vas com a foll per amor; ¿tro a quant de temps seràs serf e sotmès a plorar e a sostenir treballs e llanguiments? Respòs: - Tro al temps que mon amat, de l'ànima e del cors farà en mi departiment.
177. - Digues, foll: has diners? Respòs: - He amat. - Has viles, ni castells, ni ciutats, comdats ni dugats? Respòs: - He amors, pensaments, plors, desirers, treballs, llanguiments, qui són mellors que emperis ni regnats.
178. Demanaren a l'amic en què coneixia la sentència de son amat. Respòs que en l'egualtat de plaers e llanguiments, a la qual son amat jutjava sos amadors.
179. - Digues, foll: ¿qui sap més d'amor: o aquell qui n'ha plaer, o aquell qui n'ha treballs e llanguiments? Respòs, e dix que la un sens l'altre no en pot haver coneixença.
180. Demanaren a l'amic per què no s'escusava dels falliments e de los falsos crims que les gents l'acusaven. Respòs que a escusar havia son amat, que les gents blasmaven falsament; e que home, on pot caer engan e error, no és quaix digne de nulla escusació.
181. - Digues, foll: per què escuses amor com treballa e turmenta ton cors e ton cor? Respòs: - Per ço cor multiplica mos mèrits e ma benauirança.
182. Complanyia's l'amic de son amat com tan greument lo faïa turmentar a amor; e escusava's l'amat muntiplicant a l'amic treballs e perills, pensaments e llàgremes e plors.
183. - Digues, foll: per què escuses los colpables? Respòs: - Per ço que no sia semblant als acusants los innocents e els colpables.
184. Llevava l'amat l'enteniment a entendre ses altees, per ço que l'amic enclinàs son remembrament a membrar sos defalliments, e la volentat los menyspreàs e pujàs amar los acabaments de l'amat.
185. Cantava l'amic de son amat, e deia que tant li portava bona volentat, que totes les coses que aïrava per sa amor li eren plaents e benanances majors que les coses que amava sens l'amor de son amat.
186. Anava l'amic per una gran ciutat, e demanava si trobaria null home ab qui pogués parlar a sa guisa de son amat. E mostraren-li un home pobre qui plorava per amor e cercava companyó ab qui pogués parlar d'amor.
187. Estava l'amic pensiu e embarbesclat com podien pendre començaments sos treballs, de les noblees de son amat, qui ha en si mateix tanta de benauirança.
188. Estaven les cogitacions de l'amic enfre oblidança de sos turments e enfre membrança de sos plaers: cor los plaers que ha d'amor li obliden la malanança, e los turments que sosté per amor li remembren la benanança que ha per amor.
189. Demanaren a l'amic si era possible cosa que son amat lo desenamoràs. Respòs que no, dementre que la memòria membràs e l'enteniment entenés les nobleses de son amat.
190. - Digues, foll, de què es fa la major comparació e semblança? Respòs: - D'amic e amat. Demanaren-li per qual raó. Respòs que per amor, qui estava enfre ambdós.
191. Demanaren a l'amat si havia haüda null temps pietat. Respòs que si no hagués haüda pietat, no hagra enamorat l'amic, ni l'hagra turmentat de sospirs, e de plors, e de treballs e llangors.
192. En un gran boscatge era l'amic, qui anava cercar son amat; e atrobà veritat e falsetat qui es contrastaven de son amat, cor veritat lo lloava e falsetat lo blasmava. E per açò l'amic cridà amor que ajudàs a veritat.
193. Venc temptació a l'amic per ço que li absentàs son amat, e que la memòria se despertàs e recobràs la presència de son amat, membrant aquell pus fortment que no l'havia membrat, per ço que l'enteniment més a ensús fos llevat a entendre, e la volentat a amar, son amat.
194. Oblidà un dia l'amic son amat, e membrà en altre dia que l'havia oblidat. E en aquell dia en lo qual l'amic membrava que son amat oblidat havia, fo l'amic en tristícia e en dolor, e en glòria e en benanança, per oblidament e per membrança.
195. Tan fortment desirava l'amic llaors e honraments de son amat, que dubtava que els membràs; e tan fortment aïrava les deshonors de son amat, que dubtava que les aïràs. E per açò l'amic estava embarbesclat, enfre amor e temor, per son amat.
196. Moria l'amic per plaer, e vivia per llanguiments; e els plaers e els turments s'ajustaven e s'unien en ésser una cosa mateixa en la volentat de l'amic. E per açò l'amic en un temps mateix moria e vivia.
197. Oblidar e innorar volgra l'amic son amat una hora tan solament, per ço que hagués alcun repòs a sos llanguiments. Mas, cor li fóra passió l'oblidament e la innorància, hac paciència, e exalçà son enteiment e sa memòria a contemplar son amat.
198. Tant amà l'amic son amat, que de tot ço que li deia lo creia, e tant lo desirava entendre, que tot ço que n'oïa dir volia entendre per raons necessàries. E per açò l'amor de l'amic estava enfre creença e intel·ligència.
199. Demanaren a l'amic qual cosa era pus lluny de son coratge; e ell repòs que desamor. E demanaren-li per qual raó. Respòs que per ço cor ço qui era pus prop a son corage era amor, qui és contrari de desamor.
200. - Digues, foll: has enveja? Respòs: - Hoc, totes les vegades que oblit la llarguea e les riquees de mon amat.
201. - Digues, amador: has riquesa? Respòs que: - Hoc: amor. - Has pobrea? - Hoc: amor. - Per què? - Per ço cor no és amor major, e cor no enamora molts amadors a honrar los honraments de mon amat.
202. - Digues, amant: on és ton poder? Respòs: - En lo poder de mon amat. - Ab què t'esforces contra tos enemics? - Ab les forces de mon amat. - Ab què et conhortes? - Ab los tresors eternals de mon amat.
203. - Digues, foll: ¿qual ames més: o la misericòrdia de ton amat, o la justícia de ton amat? Respòs que tant li covenia amar e tembre justícia, que nulla majoritat de voler no devia haver en sa volentat a amar nulla cosa sobre la justícia de son amat.
204. Combatien-se colpes e mèrits en la consciència e la volentat de l'amic; e justícia, membrança, muntiplicaven benanança en la volentat de l'amat. E per açò los mèrits vencien colpes e torts en la penitència de l'amic.
205. Afermava l'amic que en son amat era tota perfecció: e negava que en son amat no havia null defalliment. E per açò era qüestió qual era major: o l'afermació, o la negació.
206. Eclipse fo en lo cel, e tenebres en la terra: e per açò l'amic remembrà que pecat li havia llongament absentat son amat de son voler, per la qual absència tenebres havien exilada la llugor de son enteniment, ab lo qual se representa l'amat a sos amadors.
207. Venc amor en l'amic, a la qual amor l'amic demanà quà volia. E amor li dix que ella era venguda en ell per ço que l'acostumàs e el nodrís en tal manera que, a la mort, pogués vençre sos mortals enemics.
208. Malalta fo l'amor con l'amic oblidà son amat; e malalte és l'amic, cor, per sobremembrar, son amat li dóna treballs, ànsies, e llanguiments.
209. Atrobà l'amic un home qui moria sens amor. Plorà l'amic la deshonor que l'amat prenia en la mort d'aquell home qui moria sens amor, e dix a aquell home per què moria sens amor; e ell respòs que per ço cor no havia qui li hagués donada coneixença d'amor ni qui l'hagués nodrit a ésser amador. E per açò l'amic sospirà en plorant e dix: - Ah, devoció! ¿quan serets major per ço que la colpa sia menor e que lo meu amat haja molts frevents, ardits lloadors, amadors, qui no dubten a lloar sos honraments?
210. Temptà l'amic amor si es poria sostenir en son coratge sens que no remembràs son amat; e cessà son cor de pensar e sos ulls de plorar; e aniquilà's amor, e romàs l'amic embarbesclat, e demanà a les gents si havien vista amor.
211. Amor, amar, amic e amat se covenen tan fortment en l'amat, que una actualitat són en essència, e diverses coses són l'amic e l'amat concordants sense nulla contrarietat e diversitat d'essència. E per açò l'amat és amable sobre totes altres amors.
212. - Digues, foll: per què has tangran amor? Respòs: - Cor llong e perillós és lo viatge en lo qual vaig cercar mon amat. Ab gran feix lo'm cové encercar, e ivaçosament me cové anar; e totes aquestes coses no poria complir sens gran amor.
213. Vetlava, dejunava, plorava, almoina faïa, e en terres estranyes anava l'amic per ço que pogués a son amat moure sa volentat, e enamorar sos sotsmeses per honrar sos honraments.
214. Si no abasta l'amor de l'amic a moure son amat a pietat e a perdó, abasta l'amor de l'amat a donar a ses creatures gràcia e benedicció.
215. - Digues, foll: per qual cosa pots ésser pus semblant a ton amat? Respòs: - Per entendre a amar de tot mon poder les faiçons de mon amat.
216. Demanaren a l'amic si son amat havia defalliment de nulles coses, e respòs que hoc: d'amadors, lloadors, a honrar ses valors.
217. Feria l'amat lo cor de son amic ab vergues d'amor, per ço que li faés amar l'arbre d'on l'amat collí les vergues ab què fér sos amadors; en lo qual arbre soferí mort, e llangors e deshonors per restaurar a amor los amadors que perduts havia.
218. Encontrà l'amic son amat, e viu-lo molt noble e poderós, e digne de tot honrament; e dix-li que fortment se meravellava de les gents, qui tan poc l'amaven, e el coneixien e l'honraven, com ell ne fos tan digne. E l'amat li respòs dient que ell havia pres molt gran engan en ço que havia creat home per ço que en fos amat, conegut, honrat; e de mil hòmens, los cent lo temien e l'amaven tan solament; e de los cent, los noranta lo temien per ço que no els donàs pena, e los deu l'amaven per ço que els donàs glòria; e no era quaix qui l'amàs per sa bonea e sa nobilitat. Con l'amic oí aquestes paraules, plorà fortment en la deshonor de son amat, e dix: - Amat, que tant has donat a home e tant l'has honrat, per què home ha tant tu en oblit?
219. Lloava l'amic son amat, e deia que ell havia traspassat on , cor ell és lla on no pot atènyer on . E per açò com denamaren a l'amic on era son amat, respoòs: - És. Mas no es sabia on; emperò sabia que son amat és en son remembrament.
220. Comprà l'amat ab sos honraments un home esclau e sotsmès a pensaments, llanguiments, sospirs, e plors; e demanà-li què menjava ni bevia. Respòs que ço que ell volia. Demanà-li què vestia. Respòs que ço que ell volia. Dix l'amat: - Has gens de volentat? Respòs que serf e sotsmès no ha altre voler mes obeir a son senyor e son amat.
221. Demanà l'amat a son amic si havia paciència. Respòs que totes coses li plaïen; e per açò no havia ab què hagués paciència; cor qui no havia senyoria en sa volentat, no podia ésser impacient.
222. Amor se donava a qui es volia; e cor a molts hòmens no es donava e los amadors fortment no enamorava, pus n'havia llibertat, per açò l'amic d'amor se clamava, e amor acusava a son amat. Mas amor s'escusava dient que ella no era contra franca volentat, per ço cor gran mèrit e gran glòria desirava a sos amadors.
223. Gran contrast e gran discòrdia fo enfre l'amic e amor, per ço cor l'amic s'ujava dels treballs que sostenia per amor. E era qüestió si era per defalliment d'amor, o de l'amic; e vengren-ne a jutjament de l'amat lo qual puní l'amic ab llanguiment, e guardunà-lo ab muntiplicament d'amor.
224. Qüestió fo si amor era pus prop a pensament o a paciència. Solvé l'amic la qüestió, e dix que amor és engenrada en los pensaments, e és sostentada en la paciència.
225. Veïns de l'amic són los bells capteniments de l'amat, e los veïns de l'amat son los capteniments de son amic, e los treballs e els plors que sosté per amor.
226. Volc pujar molt altament la volentat de l'amic per ço que molt amàs son amat, e manàa a l'enteniment que pujàs a tot son poder; e l'enteniment ho manà al remembrament. E tots tres pujaren contemplar l'amat en sos honraments.
227. Partí's volentat de l'amic e donà's a l'amat; e l'amat mès en presó la volentat en l'amic, per ço que fos per ell amat e servit.
228. Deia l'amic: - No es cuit mon amat que jo sia departit a amar altre amat; cor amor m'ha tot ajustat a amar un amat tan solament. Respòs l'amat, e dix: - No es cuit mon amic que jo sia amat e servit per ell tan solament, ans he molts amadors per qui són amat pus fortament e pus llongament que per sa amor.
229. Deia l'amic a son amat: - Amable amat: tu has mos ulls acostumats e nodrits a veer, e mes orelles a oir, tos honraments; e per açò és acostumat mon cor a pensaments, per los quals has acostumats mos ulls a plorar e mon cors a llanguir. Respòs l'amat a l'amic e dix que sens aitals costumes e nodriments no fóra escrit en lo llibre son nom, en lo qual són escrits tots aquells qui vénen a eternal benedicció, e son delits llurs noms del llibre on són escrits aquells qui van a eternal maledicció.
230. En lo cor de l'amic s'ajusten los nobles capteniments de l'amat, e muntipliquen los pensaments e els treballs en l'amic, lo qual fóra finit e mort si l'amat muntiplicàs en los pensaments de l'amic pus de sos honraments.
231. Venc l'amat albergar a l'hostal de son amic, e féu-li son amic llit de pensaments; e servien-li sospirs e plors. E pagà l'amat son hostal, de remembraments.
232. Mesclà amor los treballs e els plaers en los pensaments de l'amic; e clamaren-se los plaers d'aquell mesclament, e acusaren amor a l'amat; e feniren e deliren los plaers, con l'amat los hacs departits dels turments que amor dóna a sos amadors.
233. Los senyals de les amors que l'amic fa a son amat són: en lo començament plors, e en lo mig tribulacions, e en la fi mort. E per aquells senyals l'amic preïca los amadors de son amat.
234. Assoliava's l'amic, e acompanyaven son cor pensaments, e sos ulls llàgremes e plors, e son cors afliccions e dejunis. E com l'amic tornava en la companyia de les gents, desemparaven-lo totes les coses damunt dites, e estava l'amic tot sol enfre les gents.
235. Amor és mar tribulada d'ondes e de vents, qui no ha port ni ribatge. Pereix l'amic en la mar, e en son perill pereixen sos turments e neixen sos compliments.
236. - Digues, foll: què és amor? Respòs: - Amor és concordança de tesòrica e de pràtica a una fi, a la qual se mou lo compliment de la volentat de l'amic, per ço que faça a les gents honrar e servir son amat. E és qüestió si la fi se cové pus fortment ab la volentat de l'amic qui desija ésser ab son amat.
237. Demanaren a l'amic qui era son amat. Respòs que ço qui el faïa amar, desirar, llanguir, sospirar, plorar, escarnir, morir.
238. Demanaren a l'amat qui era son amic. Respòs que aquell qui per honrar e lloar sos honraments no dubtava nulles coses, e qui a totes coses renunciava per obeir sos manaments e sos consells.
239. - Digues, foll: qual feix és pus feixuc e pus greu: o treballs per amor, o treballs per desamor? Respòs que ho demanàs als hòmens qui fan penitència per amor a son amat o per temor dels turments infernals.
240. Adormí's l'amic e morí amor, cor no hac de què visqués. Despertà's l'amic e reviscolà amor en los pensaments que l'amic tramès a son amat.
241. Deia l'amic que ciència infusa venia de volentat, devoció, oració, e ciència adquisita venia d'estudi, enteniment. E per açò és qüestió qual ciència és pus tost en l'amic, ni qual li és pus agradable, ni qual és major en l'amic.
242. - Digues, foll: d'on has tes necessitats? Respòs: - De pensaments, e de desirar, adorar, treballar, perseverança. - E d'on has totes aquestes coses? Respòs: - D'amor. - E d'on has amor? - De mon amat. - E d'on has ton amat? - De si mateix tan solament.
243. - Digues, foll: vols ésser franc de totes coses? Respòs que hoc, exeptat son amat. - Vols ésser catiu? Respòs que: - Hoc de sospirs, e pensaments, treballs, e perills, e exils, plors, a servir mon amat, al qual són creat per lloar ses valors.
244. Turmentava amor l'amic per lo qual turment plorava e planyia l'amic. Cridava'l son amat que s'acostàs a ell per ço que sanàs. On pus l'amic a son amat s'acostava pus fortment amor lo turmentava, cor més d'amor sentia. E cor més de plaers sentia on més amava, pus fortment l'amat de sos llanguiments lo sanava.
245. Malalta era amor. Metjava-la l'amic ab paciència, perseverança, obediència, esperança; guaria l'amor. Emmalaltia l'amic; sanava-lo l'amat donant-li remembrament de ses virtuts e de sos honraments.
246. - Digues, foll: què és solitudo? Respòs: - Solaç e companyia d'amic e amat. - E què és solaç e companyia? Respòs que solitudo estant en coratge d'amic qui no membra mas tan solament son amat.
247. Qüestió fo feta a l'amic: - On és major perill: en sostenir treballs per amor, o benanances? Acordà's l'amic ab son amat, e dix que perills per malanances són per impaciència, e perills per benanances són per desconeixença.
248. Solvé l'amat amor, e llicencià les gents que en prenguessen a tota llur volentat; e a penes atrobà amor qui la metés en son coratge. E per açograve; plorà l'amic e hac tristícia de la deshonor que amor pren sajús enfre nós, per falses amadors e per hòmens desconeixents.
249. Aucí amor en lo coratge de son vertader amic totes coses, per ço que hi pogués viure e caber; e hagra mort l'amic si no hagués membrança de son amat.
250. Havia en l'amic dos pensaments: la un cogitava tots jorns en l'essència e en les virtuts de son amat; e l'altra cogitava en les obres de son amat. E per açò era qüestió qual pensament era pus llugorós, pus agradable a l'amat e a l'amic.
251. Morí l'amic per força de gran amor. Soterrà'l en sa terra l'amat, en la qual fo l'amic ressuscitat. E és qüestió l'amic de qual reebé major do.
252. En la presó de l'amat eren malanances, perills, llanguiments, deshonors, estranyedats, per ço que no embargassen son amic a lloar sos honraments e a enamorar los hòmens qui l'han en menyspreament.
253. Estava l'amic un dia denant molts hòmens que son amat havia en est món massa honrats, per ço cor lo deshonraven en llurs pensaments. Aquells menyspreaven son amat e escarnien sos servidors. Plorà l'amic, tirà sos cabells, baté sa cara e rompé sos vestiments; e cridà altament: - Fo anc fet tan gran falliments com menysprear mon amat?
254. - Digues, foll: vols morir? Respòs que: - Hoc, en los delits d'aquest món e en los pensaments dels maleïts qui obliden e deshonren mon amat; en los quals pensaments no vull ésser entès ni volgut, pus que no hi és mon amat.
255. - Si tu, foll, dius veritat, seràs per les gents ferit, e escarnit, reprès, turmentat e mort. Respòs: - Segons aitals paraules, se segueix que si deia falsies, fos lloat, amat, servit, honrat per les gents, e defès dels amadors de mon amat.
256. Falses lloadors blasmaven un dia l'amic en presència de son amat. Havia l'amic paciència, e l'amat justícia, saviea, poder. E l'amic amà més ésser blasmat e reprès, que ésser negú dels falses blasmadors.
257. Sembrava l'amat diverses sements en lo cor de son amic, d'on naixia, e fullava, e floria e granava el fruit tan solament. E és qüestió si d'aquell fruit poden néixer diverses sements.
258. Sobre amor està molt altament l'amat, e dejús amor està molt baixament l'amic. E amor, qui està en lo mig, davalla l'amat a l'amic, e puja l'amic a l'amat. E del davallament e pujament, viu e pren començament l'amor per la qual llangueix l'amic e és servit l'amat.
259. A la dreta part d'amor està l'amat, e l'amic està a la sinestra; e per açò, sens que l'amic no pas per amor, no pot pervenir a son amat.
260. E denant amor està l'amat e detràs l'amat està l'amic. E per açò l'amic no pot pervenir a amor tro que ha passats sos pensaments e sos desirers per l'amat.
261. Fa l'amat a son amic tres semblants a si mateix amats, en honraments e valors. E enamora's l'amic de tots tres egualment, jacsia que l'amor sia una tan solament, a significancça de la unitat, una en tres amats essencialment.
262. Vestí's l'amat del drap on era vestit son amic, per ço que fos son companyó en glòria eternalment. E per açò l'amic desirà tots jorns vermells vestiments, per ço que el drap sia mills semblant als vestiments de son amat.
263. - Digues, foll: què faïa ton amat ans que el món fos? Respòs: - Covenia's a ésser per diverses propietats eternals, personals, infinides, on són amic e amat.
264. Plorava e havia tristícia l'amic com veia a los infeels innorantment perdre son amat; e alegrava's en la justícia de son amat, que turmentava aquells qui el coneixien e li eren desobedients. E per açò fo-li feta qüestió qual era major: o sa tristícia, o sa alegrança, ni si havia major benanança com veia honrar son amat, o major malanança com lo veia deshonrar.
265. Esguardava l'amic son amat en la major diferència e concordança de virtuts, e en la major contrarietat de virtuts e de vicis, e en ésser perfecció, qui es covenen pus fortment sens defalliment e no ésser, que ab defalliment e ab no ésser.
266. Los secrets de son amat veia l'amic, per diversitat, concordança, qui li revelaven pluralitat, unitat en son amat, per major conveniment d'essència sens contrarietat.
267. Digueren a l'amic que si corrupció, qui és contra ésser en ço qui és contra generació, qui és contra no ésser, era eternalment corrompent corromput, impossible cosa seria que no ésser ni fi se concordàs ab la corrupció ni el corromput. On, per estes paraules, l'amic viu en son amat generació eternal.
268. Si fos falsetat ço per què l'amic pot més amar son amat, fóra veritat ço per què l'amic no pot tant amar son amat; e si açò fos enaixí, seguira's que defalliment fos de major e de veritat en l'amat, e hagra en l'amat concordança de falsetat e menor.
269. Lloava l'amic son amat, e deia que si son amat ha major possibilitat a perfecció e major impossibilitat a imperfecció, cové que son amat sia simple, pura, actualitat en essència e en operació. On, dementre que l'amic enaixí lloava son amat, li era revelada la trinitat de son amat.
270. Veia l'amic en nombre d'un o de tres major concordança que en altre nombre, per ço cor tota forma corporal venia de no ésser a ésser per lo nombre damunt dit. E per açò l'amic esguardava la unitat e la trinitat de son amat per la major concordança de nombre.
271. L'amic lloava lo poder, e el saber e el voler de son amat, qui havien creades totes coses, enfora pecat; lo qual pecat no fóra sens lo poder, e el saber e el voler de son amat; al qual pecat no són ocasióo lo poder, ni el saber ni el voler de son amat.
272. Lloava e amava l'amic son amat com l'havia creat e li havia donades totes coses; e lloava'l e amava'l com li plac pendre sa semblança e sa natura. E d'açò cové ésser feta qüestió qual llaor e amor deu haver major perfecció.
273. Temptà amor l'amic de saviesa, e féu-li qüestió si l'amat l'amava més en pendre sa natura o en recrear-lo. E l'amic fo embarbesclat, tro que respòs que la recreació se convenc a esquivar malanança, e l'encarnació a donar benanança. E de la responsió fo feta altra qüestió: qual fo major amor.
274. Anava l'amic demanar almoina per les portes, per ço que remembràs l'amor de son amat a sos servidors, e per ço que usàs d'humilitat, pobretat paciència, qui són coses agradables a son amat.
275. Demanaren perdó a l'amic per amor de son amat; e l'amic no tan solament perdonà ans los donà si mateix e sos béns.
276. Ab llàgremes de sos ulls recontava l'amic la passió e la dolor que son amat sostenc per sa amor; e ab tristícia, pensaments, escrivia les paraules que deia; e ab misericòrdia, esperança, se conhortava.
277. L'amat e amor vengren veer l'amic qui dormia. L'amat cridà a son amic, e amor lo despertà. E l'amic obeí a amor, e respòs a son amat.
278. Nodria l'amat son amic a amar; e amor ensenyava-li a perillar, e paciència l'adoctrinava con sostengués treballs per l'amor d'aquell a qui s'és donat per servidor.
279. Demanava l'amat a les gents si havien vist son amic, e ells demanaren-li les calitats de son amic; e l'amat dix que son amic era ardit, temerós, ric e pobre, alegre, trist, consirós, e llanguia tots jorns per sa amor.
280. E demanaren a l'amic si volia vendre son desirer; e ell respòs que venut l'havia a son amat per un tal diner que tot lo món ne poria ésser comprat.
281. - Preïca, foll, e digues paraules de ton amat. Plora, dejuna! Renuncià al món l'amic, e anà cercar son amat ab amor, e lloava-lo en aquells llocs on era deshonrat.
282. Bastia e obrava l'amic una bella ciutat on estegués son amat. Ab amor, pensaments, plants, plors e llanguiments l'obrava; e ab plaers, esperança, devoció, l'ornava; e ab fe, justícia, prudència, fortitudo, temprança, la guarnia.
283. Bevia l'amic amor en la font de son amat, en la qual l'amat llavà los peus a son amic, qui moltes vegades ha oblidats, menyspreats, sos honraments; per què lo món és en defalliment.
284. - Digues, foll: què és pecat? Respòs: - Entenció girada e enversada contra la final entenció e raó per què mon amat ha creades totes coses.
285. Veia l'amic que el món és creat, com sia cosa que eternitat se convenga mills ab son amat, qui és essència infinida en granea e en tota perfecció, que ab lo món, qui ha cantitat finida. E, per açò, en la justícia de son amat veia l'amic que l'eternitat de son amat cové ésser davant a temps e a cantitat finida.
286. Escusava l'amic son amat a aquells qui deien que el món és eternal, dient que son amat no hagra justícia perfeta si no retés a cascuna ànima son cors; a lo qual no fóra bastant lloc ni matèria ordial; ni el món no fóra ordenat a una fi tan solament si fos eternal; e si no ho fos, defallira en son amat perfecció de volentat, saviea.
287. - Digues, foll: en què has coneixença que la fe catòlica sia vera, e la creença dels jueus e dels sarraïns sien en falsetat e error? Respòs: - En les deu condicions del Llibre del gentil e dels tres savis .
288. - Digues, foll: en què comença saviea? Respòs: - En fe e en devoció, qui són escala on puja l'enteniment entendre los secrets de mon amat. - E fe e devoció, d'on han començament ? Respòs: - De mon amat, qui inlumena fe e escalfa devoció.
289. Demanaren a l'amic qual cosa era major: o possibilitat, o impossibilitat. Respòs que possibilitat era major en creatura, e impossibilitat en son amat; con sia cosa que possibilitat e potència se concorden, e impossibilitat e actualitat.
290. - Digues, foll: qual cosa és major: o diferència, o concordança ? Respòs que, fora son amat, diferència era major en pluralitat, e concordança en unitat, mas en son amat eren eguals en diferència e unitat.
291. - Digues, amador: què és valor? Respòs que lo contrari de la valor d'aquest món, la qual és desirada per los falsos amadors vanagloriosos, qui volen valer havents desvalor e per ´sser perseguidors de valor.
292. - Digues, foll: has vist home qui sia orat? Respòs que ell havia vist un bisbe qui havia a sa taula molts anaps e moltes escudelles e talladors d'argent, e havia en sa cambra moltes vestedures e gran llit, e en ses caixes molts diners; e a la porta de son palau havia pocs pobres.
293. - Foll: saps què és viltat? - Vils pensaments. - E què és lleialtat? - Temor de mon amat, nada de caritat e de vergonya, qui tem blasme de les gents. - E què és honrament? Respòs: - Cogitar mon amat, e desirar e lloar sos honraments.
294. Los treballs e les tribulacions que l'amic sostenia per amor, l'alteraren e l'enclinaren a impaciència; e reprès-lo l'amat ab sos honraments e ab sos prometiments, dient que poc sabia d'amor qui s'alterava per maltrets ni per benanança. Hac l'amic contrició e plors, e pregà son amat qui li retés amors.
295. - Foll, digues: què és amor? Respòs que amor és aquella cosa qui los francs met en servitud e a los serfs dóna llibertat. E és qüestió a qual és pus prop amor: o a llibertat, o a servitud.
296. Cridava l'amat son amic, e ell li responia dient: - Què et plau, amat qui est ulls de mos ulls, e pensaments de mos pensaments, e compliment de mos compliments, e amor de mes amors, e encara començament de mos començaments?
297. - Amat - deia l'amic -, a tu vaig e en tu vaig, car m'apelles. Contemplar vaig contemplació, ab contemplació de ta contemplació. En ta virtut só, e ab ta virtut venc, d'on prenc vertut. Salut-te ab ta salutació, qui és ma salutació en ta salutació, de la qual esper salutació perdurable en benedicció de ta benedicció, en la qual beneït són en ma benedicció.
298. Alt est, amat, en tes altees, a les quals exalces ma volentat, exalçada en ton exalçament ab ta altea, qui exalça en mon remembrament mon enteniment, exalçat en ton exalçament, per conèixer tos honraments e per ço que la volentat n'haja exalçat enamorament e la memòria n'haja alta remembrança.
299. - Glòria est, amat, de ma glòria;; e ab ta glòria e en la glòria, dónes glòria a ma glòria, qui ha glòria de ta glòria. Per la qual tua glòria, me són glòria egualment los treballs e los llanguiments qui em vénen per honrar ta glòria ab los plaers e els pensaments qui em vénen de ta glòria.
300. - Amat: en lo carçre d'amor me tens enamorat ab tes amors, qui m'han enamorat de tes amors, per tes amors e en tes amors. Cor àls no est mas amors, en les quals me fas estar sol e ab companyia de tes amors e de tos honraments. Car tu est sol en mi sol, qui són solitari ab mos pensaments, con la solitat tua, sola en honors, m'haja sola a lloar e honrar ses valors sens temor dels desconeixements qui no t'han sol en llurs amors.
301. Solaç est, amat, de solaç; perquè en tu assolaç mos pensaments ab ton solaç, qui és solaç e confort de mos llanguiments e de mes tribulacions, qui són tribulades en ton solaç con no assolaces los innorants ab ton solaç e con los coneixents de ton solaç no enamores pus fortment a honrar tos honraments.
302. Clamava's l'amic, a son senyor, de son amat, e a son amat de son senyor. Deien lo senyor e l'amat: - Qui fa en nóos departiment, qui som una cosa tan solament ? Responia l'amic e deia que pietat de senyor e tribulació per amat.
303. Perillava l'amic en lo gran pèlag d'amor, e confiava's en son amat, qui li acorria ab tribulacions, pensaments, llàgremes e plors, sospirs e llanguiments, per ç cor lo pèlag era d'amors, e d'honrar ses honors.
304. Alegrava's l'amic cor era son amat, cor per son ésser és tot altre ésser esdevengut, e sostentat, e obligat, e sotsmès a honrar, servir, l'ésser de son amat, qui per null ésser no pot ésser delit, ni encolpat, ni minvat ni crescut.
305. - Amat: en la tua granea fas grans mos desirers, e mos pensaments, e mos treballs; cor tant és gran, que tota res és gran que de tu ha membrança, e enteniment e plaer; e ta granea fa poques totes coses qui són contra tos honraments, manaments.
306. - Eternalment comença, e ha començat e començarà mon amat; e eternalment no comença ni ha començat ni començarà . E aquests començaments no són contradicció en mon amat, per ço cor és eternal, e ha en si unitat e trinitat.
307. - Lo meu amat és un, e en sa unitat s'uneixen en una volentat mos pensaments e mes amors; e la unitat de mon amat abasta a totes unitats e a totes pluralitats; e la pluralitat qui és en mon amat abasta a totes unitats e pluralitats.
308. - Sobirà bé és lo bé de mon amat, qui és bé de mon bé; cor és bé mon amat sens altre bé, cor si no ho fos, mon bé fóra d'altre bé sobirà. E cor no ho és, sia doncs tot lo meu bé despès en esta vida, a honrar lo sobirà bé, cor enaixí cové.
309. - Si tu, amat, saps mi pecador, sí et fas tu piadós e perdonador. E per ço que saps en tu est mellor que mi, doncs jo sé en tu perdó e amor, pus que tu fas saber a mi contrició, e dolor, e desire de prendre mort per lloar ta valor.
310. - Lo teu poder, amat, me pot salvar per benignitat, pietat e perdó, e pot-me damnar per justícia e per colpes de mos falliments. Complesca ton poder ton voler en mi; cor tot és compliment, sia que em dons salvació o damnament.
311. - Amat: veritat visita la construcció de mon cor, e puja aigua a mos ulls com ma volentat l'ama; e cor la tua veritat és sobirana, puja veritat sajús ma volentat, a honrar tos honraments, e davalla-la a desamar mos defalliments.
312. Anc ver no fo ço en què mon amat no fo, e fals és ço en què mon amat no és, e fals serà ço en què mon amat no serà. E per açò de necessitat és que sia veritat tot quant serà, ni fo, ni és, si mon amat hi és, e per açò fals és qui és en ver on mon amat no és, sens que no se'n segueix contradicció.
313. Creà l'amat e destruí l'amic. Jutjà l'amat, plorà l'amic. Recreà l'amat, glorià l'amic. Fení l'amat sa operació, e romàs l'amic eternalment en companyia de son amat.
314. Per les carreres de vegetació, e de sentiment, e d'imaginació, e d'enteniment, volentat, anava l'amic cercar son amat; e en aquelles carreres havia l'amic perills e llanguiments per son amat, per ço que exalçàs son enteniment e sa volentat a son amat, qui vol que els seus amadors l'entenen a l'amen altament.
315. Mou-se l'amic a ésser per l'acabament de son amat, e mou-se a no ésser per son defalliment. E per açò és qüestió qual dels dos moviments han major apoderament en l'amic naturalment.
316. - Posat m'has, amat, enfre mon mal e ton b´. A la tua part sia pietat, misericòrdia, paciència, humilitat e perdó, ajuda e restaurament; a la mia part sia contrició, perseverança, membrança, ab sospirs, llàgremes e plors, de la tua santa passió.
317. - Amat qui em fas amar: si no m'ajudes, per què em volguist crear ? Ni per què per mi portest tantes llangors, ni sostenguist tan greu passió ? Pus tant m'has ajudat a exalçar, ajuda'm, amat, a davallar, a membrar, aïrar, mes colpes e mos defalliments, per ço que mills mos pensaments pusquen pujar a desirar, honrar, lloar tes valors.
318. - Mon voler has fet franc a amar tos honraments, e a menysprear tes valors, per ço que pusques a mon voler muntiplicar tes amors.
319. - En aquesta llibertat has, amat, perillada ma volentat. Amat: en aquest perill deus remembrar ton amic, qui de sa volentat franca trau servitud a lloar tes honors e a muntiplicar en son cors llanguiments e plors.
320. - Amat: anc de tu en ton amic no venc colpa ni falliment, ni en ton amic compliment sens ton do e perdó. E doncs, pus l'amic t'ha en aital possessió, no l'hages en oblit en ses tribulacions ni en son perillament.
321. - Amat, qui en un nom est nomenat hom e Déu! En aquell nom, Jesucrist, te vol ma volentat home de Déu; e si tu, amat, has tant honrat ton amic sens sos mèrits, en nomenar e voler ton nom, per què no honres tants hòmens innorables qui cientalment no són estats tan colpables al teu nom, Jesucrist, con és estat lo teu amic ?
322. Plorava l'amic, e deia a son amat aquestes paraules: - Amat, no fuist anc avar ni còbeu al teu amic en donar ésser, ni en recrear-lo, ni en donar-li moltes creatures a son servii. Doncs, d'on vendria, amat, que tu, qui est sobirana llibertat, fosses avar a ton amic, de plors, pensaments, llanguiments, saviea e amors, a honrar tes honors ? E per açò, amat, lo teu amic te demana vida llonga, per tal que pusca reebre de tu molts dels dons damunt dits.
323. - Amat: si tu ajudes als hòmens justs de llurs mortals enemics, ajuda a muntiplicar mos pensaments en desirar tes honors; e si tu ajudes als hòmens injusts, com recobren justícia, ajuda al teu amic com faça de sa volentat sacrifici a ta llaor, e de son cors, a testimoni d'amor per via de martire.
324. - No ha mon amat diferència en humilitat, humil, humilitat, cor tot és humilitat en pura actualitat. E per açò l'amic reprèn ergull, qui vol pujar a son amat aquells qui en est món la humilitat de mon amat a tant honrats, e ergull los ha vestits d'hipocresia, vanaglòria, vanitats.
325. Humilitat ha humiliat l'amat a l'amic, per contrició; e sí es féu per devoció. E és qüestió en qual d'ambdues l'amat fos pus fortment humilitat a l'amic.
326. Hac l'amat, per sa perfecció, misericòrdia de son amic, e sí hac per les necessitats de son amic. E fo qüestió per qual de les dues raons l'amat perdonà pus fortment les colpes de son amic.
327. Pregaven nostra Dona e los àngels e els sants de glòria mon amat; e com remembré l'error en què el món és per desconeixença, membré gran la justícia de mon amat, e gran la desconeixença de sos enemics.
328. Pujava l'amic los poders de sa ànima, per escala d'humanitat, gloriejar la divina natura; e per la divinal natura davallava los poders de sa ànima per gloriejar en la humana natura de son amat.
329. On pus estretes són les vies on l'amic va a son amat, pus amples són les amors; e on pus estretes són les amors, pus amples són les vies. E per açò, en totes maneres ha l'amic per son amat amors e treballs, e llanguiments e plaers e consolacions.
330. Ixen amors d'amors, e pensaments de llanguiments, e plors de llanguiments; e entren amors en amors, e pensaments en plors, e llanguiments en sospirs. E l'amat esguarda's son amic, qui ha per sa amor totes aquestes tribulacions.
331. Tranuitaven e faïen romaries e pelegrinacions los desirers e els remembraments de l'amic en les noblees de son amat, e aportaven a l'amic faiçons, e omplien son enteniment de resplendor, per la qual la volentat muntiplicava ses amors.
332. L'amic, ab sa imaginació, pintava e formava les faiçons de son amat en les coses corporals, e ab son enteniment les polia en les coses esperituals, e ab volentat les adorava en totes creatures.
333. Comprà l'amic un dia de plors per altre dia de pensaments, e vené un dia d'amors per altre de tribulacions; e muntiplicaren ses amors e sos pensaments.
334. Era l'amic en terra estranya, e oblidà son amat, e enyorà's de son senyor e sa muller e sos infants, e de sos amics. Mas retornà remembrar son amat, per ço que fos consolat e que la sua estranyedat no li donàs enyorament ni marriment.
335. Oïa l'amic paraules de son amat, en les quals lo veia son enteniment, per ço cor la volentat havia plaer d'aquell oïment; e lo remembrament membrava les virtuts de son amat, e los seus prometiments.
336. Oïa blasmar l'amic son amat, en lo qual blasma veia l'enteniment la justícia e la paciència de son amat, cor la justícia punia los blasmadors, e la paciència los esperava a contrició, penediment. E per açò és qüestió en qual dels dos l'amic creia pus fortment.
337. Malalt fo l'amic, e féu testament ab consell de son amat. Colpes e torts lleixà a penediment, penitència; e delits temporals lleixà a menyspreament; a sos ulls lleixà plors, e a son cor sospirs e amors; e a son enteniment lleixà les faiçons de son amat; e a son remembrament la passió que sostenc per sa amor son amat; e a son negoci lleixà l'endreçament dels infeels, qui innorantment van a penediment.
338. Odorà l'amic flors, e remembrà pudors en ric avar, e en luxuriós, e en desconeixent ergullós. Gustà l'amic dolçors, e entès amargors en les possessions temporals, e en l'entrament e iximent d'aquest món. Sentí l'amic plaers temporals, e l'enteniment entès lo breu traspassament d'aquest món e los perdurables turments als quals són ocasió los delits qui a aquest món són agradables.
339. Hac l'amic fam, set, calor e fred, pobresa, nuedat, malaltia, tribulació e fóra finit si no hagués membrança de son amat, qui el sanà ab esperança remembrament, e ab lo renunciament d'aquest món, e ab lo menyspreament del blasme de la gent.
340. Enfre treball e plaer era lo llit de l'amic: ab plaer s'adormia, e ab treball se despertava. E és qüestió a qual d'aquests dos és pus prop lo llit de l'amic.
341. En ira s'adormí l'amic, cor temia lo blasme de la gent; e despertà's en paciència, com remembrà llaors de son amat. E és qüestió l'amic de qui hac major vergonya: o de son amat, o de les gents.
342. Cogità l'amic en la mort, e hac paor tro que remembrà la ciutat de son amat, de la qual mort e amor són portals e entrament.
343. Clamava's l'amic a son amat de temptacions qui li venien tots jorns treballar sos pensaments. E l'amat li respòs dient que temptacions són ocasió com hom recorra ab remembrament remembrar Déu; e amar sos honrats capteniments.
344. Perdé l'amic una joia que molt amava; e fóra's desconsolat, tro que son amat li féu qüestió qual cosa li era pus profitable: o la joia que havia, o la paciència que hac en les obres de son amat.
345. Dormia l'amic considerant en los treballs e els empatxaments los quals ha en servir son amat, e hac paor que ses obres no perissen per aquells empatxaments. Mas l'amat li tramès consciència que el despertà en sos mèrits e en los poders de son amat.
346. Havia l'amic a anar llongues carreres, e dures e aspres; e era temps que anàs per aquelles e que portàs lo gran feix que amor fa portar a sos amadors. E per açò l'amic alleujà sa ànima dels pensaments e els plaers temporals, per ço que el cors pogués portar lo càrrec pus lleugerament, e l'ànima anàs per aquelles carreres en companyia ab son amat.
347. Denant l'amic deien un jorn mal de son amat, sens que l'amic no hi respòs ni escusà son amat. E és qüestió qual és pus encolpat: o els hòmens qui blasmaven l'amat, o l'amic qui callava e no escusava son amat.
348. Contemplant l'amic son amat, s'assubtilava en son enteniment, e enamorava's en sa volentat. E és qüestió per qual dels dos assubtilava pus fortment sa remembrança a remembrar son amat.
349. Ab frevor e temor anava l'amic en son viatge honrar son amat: frevor lo portava, temor lo conservava. Dementre que l'amic enaixí anava, atrobà sospirs e plors qui li aportaven saluts de son amat. E és qüestió per qual de tots quatre fo mills assolaçat l'amic en son amat.
350. Esguardava l'amic si mateix per ço que fos mirall on veés son amat, e esguardava son amat per ço que li fos mirall on hagués coneixença de si mateix. E és qüestió a qual dels dos miralls era son enteniment pus acostat.
351. Teologia e Filosofia, Medicina e Dret encontraren l'amic qui els demanà de noves si havien vist son amat. Teologia plorava, Filosofia dubtava, Medicina e Dret s'alegraven. E és qüestió què significava cascú dels quatre significats a l'amic qui va cercar son amat.
352. Angoixós e plorós anava l'amic encercar son amat per vies sensuals e per carreres entel·lectuals. E és qüestió en qual dels dos camins entrà primerament dementre cercava son amat, ni en qual l'amat se mostrà a l'amic pus declaradament.
353. El dia del judici dirà l'amat que hom triï a una part ço que en aquest món li ha donat, e a altra part sia triat ço que hom ha donat al món, per ço que sia vist com coralment és estat amat, ni qual dels dos dons és pus noble e de major cantitat.
354. Amava la volentat de l'amic si mateixa, e l'enteniment demanà-li si era pus semblant a son amat en amar si mateixa o en amar son amat, com sia cosa que son amat sia pus amant si mateix que nulla altra cosa. E per açò é qüestió segons qual responsió la volentat poc respondre a l'enteniment pus vertaderament.
355. - Digues, foll: qual és la major e la pus noble amor que sia en creatura ? Respòs: - Aquella qui és una ab lo creador. - Per què ? - Per ço cor lo creador no ha en què pusca fer pus noble creatura.
356. Estava l'amic un dia en oració e sentí que sos ulls no ploraven; e per ço que pogués plorar tramès sa cogitació cogitar en diners, fembres, fills, viandes, vanaglòria; e atrobà en son enteniment que més gents han de servidors cascuna de les coses damunt dites, que no ha son amat. E per açò foren sos ulls en plors, e sa ànima en tristícia e dolor.
357. Anava l'amic consirós en son amat, e atrobà en la via grans gents e grans companyes qui li demanaven de noves; e l'amic, per ço cor atrobava plaer en son amat, no respòs a ço que li demanaven, e dix que per ço que no es llunyàs de son amat no volia respondre a llurs paraules.
358. Era l'amic dintre e defora cobert d'amor, e anava cercar son amat. Deia-li amor: - On vas, amador ? Respòs: - Vaig a mon amat per ço que tu sies major.
359. - Digues, foll: què és religió ? Respòs: - Nedeetat de pensa, e desirar morir per honrar mon amat, e renunciar al món per ço que no haja embargament a contemplar-lo e a dir veritat de sos honraments.
360. - Digues, foll: què són treballs, plants, sospirs, plors, tribulacions, perills, en amic ? Respòs: - Plaer d'amat. - Per què ? - Per ço que en sia més amat, e l'amic més guardonat.
361. Demanaren a l'amic amor en qual era major: o en l'amic qui vivia, o en l'amic qui moria. Respòs que en l'amic qui moria. - Per què ? - Per ço cor no pot ésser major en amic qui mor per amor, e pot-ho ésser en amic qui viu per amor.
362. Encontraren-se dos amics; la un mostrava son amat, e l'altre l'entenia. E era qüestió qual d'ambdós era pus prop a son amat. E per la solució l'amic havia coneixença de la demostració de trinitat.
363. - Digues, foll: per què parles tan subtilment ? Respòs: - Per ço que sia ocasió a exalçar enteniment a les noblees de mon amat, e per què per més homes sia honrat, amat e servit.
364. Embriagava's l'amic de vi, qui membrava, entenia e amava l'amat. Aquell vi amarava l'amat ab sos plors e ab les llàgremes de son amic.
365. Amor escalfava e aflamava l'amic en membrança de son amat; e l'amat lo refredava ab llàgremes e plors, e ab oblidament dels delits d'aquest món, e ab renunciament dels vans honraments. E creixien les amors com l'amic membrava per qui sostenia llangors, tribulacions, ni los hòmens mundans per qui sostenien treballs, persecucions.
366. - Digues, foll: què és aquest món ? Respòs: - Presó dels amadors, servidors, de mon amat. - E qui els met en presó ? Respòs: - Consciència, amor, temor, renunciament, contrició, companyia d'àvol agent; e és treball sens guardó, on és puniment. Cor Blanquerna havia a tractar del llibre de l' Art de contemplació , per açò volc finir lo Llibre de l'Amic e l'Amat . Lo qual és a glòria e a lausor de nostre senyor Déus.
La darrera edició crítica del Llibre d’amic e amat mostra que el nombre de versets no correspon exactament al dels dies de l’any. És un detall menor que ens indica el caràcter ‘pràctic’, és a dir especulatiu i poètic, del recull; a la cinquena part del Blaquerna va acompanyat, en efecte, d’un tractat teòric, l’’Art de contemplació’.
Els aforismes del Llibre d’amic e amat no segueixen cap organització temàtica i presenten diversos recursos literaris: diàleg, qüestió, descripció, definició, narració. El tema central és la relació de l’home religiós, l’amic, amb l’ésser transcendent, l’amat, a la llum del vincle que els uneix, és a dir, l’amor.
L’Art de Ramon, que és inventiva, demostrativa, contemplativa i també ‘amativa’, explica com funciona tècnicament el procés de recerca de Déu: per això una part important del Llibre d’amic e amat està destinada a glossar el comportament de les tres potències de l’ànima racional (enteniment, memòria i voluntat) en el salt amorós de la criatura al creador. Una altra part dels versets proposa reflexions sobre l’essència divina: les dignitats, la Trinitat, l’Encarnació, sempre des del llenguatge precís de l’Art de Ramon. L’opuscle té, doncs, darrera de l’aparent dispersió dels seus motius literaris, una sòlida estructura de pensament i una estricta coherència pel que fa al sentit de la unió mística: l’intel·lecte obre el camí de la comprensió de Déu, però la voluntat que estima és qui empeny l’amic, si la memòria no oblida l’amat.
Els aspectes més famosos del Llibre d’amic e amat són els que descriuen el paper (sempre secundari) de les criatures (sol, estrelles, núvols, ocells, camins...) en l’estímul de l’amor a Déu, i l’estat emotiu de l’ànima enamorada, tempestejada pel desig, l’oblit, la pena, la recerca, l’enyorança i el plor. És aquí on Ramon es fa eco de temes de la poesia amorosa universal, des del Càntic dels càntics als trobadors occitans, sempre des de la peculiar perspectiva de l’impuls cap al transcendent. No és fàcil precisar els paral·lelismes amb la gran literatura mística sufí, com també es desdibuixen el possibles manlleus de la tradició judeocristiana. Les formulacions que Ramon proposa per als antics motius d’abast universal són poderosament personals.”
font: http://quisestlullus.narpan.net/78_amic.html
[versió en català antich]
1. Exordi i Pròleg
1.1. En qual manera Blanquerna ermità féu lo "Llibre d'Amic e Amat".
Esdevenc-se, un dia, que l'ermità qui estava en Roma, segons que damunt havem dit, anà visitar los ermitans e els recluses 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 apostoli, li recomptà un sarraí que los sarraïns han alcuns hòmens religiosos, e, enfre los altres e aquells qui són més preats enfre ells, són 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 proposà a fer lo llibre segons la manera damunt dita, e dix a l'ermità que se'n tornàs 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.
1.2 Del Llibre d'Amic e Amat. Del pròleg.
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 açò faïa tots jorns; e mudava en sa oració novelles raons, per tal que de diverses maneres i 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 començà son llibre, lo qual departí en aitals verses com ha dies en l'any. E cascú vers basta a tot un dia a contemplar Déu, segons l'Art del Llibre de contemplació.
2. Comencen les Metàfores Morals
1. Demanà l'amic a son amat si havia en ell nulla cosa romasa a amar; e l'amat respòs que ço per què l'amor de l'amic podia muntiplicar, era a amar.
2. Les carreres per les quals l'amic encerca son amat són llongues, perilloses, poblades de consideracions, de sospirs e de plors, e enluminades d'amors.
3. Ajustaren-se molts amadors a amar un amat qui els abundava tots d'amors; e cascú havia per cabal son amat e sos pensaments agradables, per los quals sentien plaents tribulacions.
4. Plorava l'amic e deia: - ¿Tro a quant de temps cessaran tenebres en lo món, per ço que cessen les carreres infernals? Ni l'aigua, qui ha en costuma que decórrega a enjús, ¿quan serà l'hora que haja natura de pujar a ensús? Ni els innocents, ¿quan seran més que els colpables?
5. - Ah! Quan se gaubarà l'amic que muira per son amat? Ni l'amat, quan veurà son amic llanguir per sa amor?
6. Dix l'amic a l'amat: - Tu qui umples lo sol de resplendor, umple mon cor d'amor. Respòs l'amat: - Sens compliment d'amor no foren tos ulls en plor, ni tu vengut en est lloc veer ton amador.
7. Temptà l'amat son amic si amava perfectament; e demanà-li de què era la diferència qui és enfre presència e absència d'amat. Respòs l'amic: - D'innorància e oblidament, coneixença e remembrament.
8. Demanà l'amat a l'amic: - ¿Has membrança de nulla cosa que t'haja guardonat, per ço cor me vols amar? Respòs: - Hoc, per ço cor enfre los treballs e els plaers que em dones, no en faç diferència.
9. - Digues, amic - dix l'amat - : ¿hauràs paciència si et doble tes llangors? - Hoc, ab què em dobles mes amors.
10. Dix l'amat a l'amic: - Saps, encara, què és amor?. Respòs: - Si no sabés què és amor, ¿sabera què és treball, tristícia, e dolor?
11. Digueren a l'amic: - ¿Per què no respons a ton amat qui t'apella? Respòs: - Ja m'aventur a greus perills per ço que a ell pervenga, e ja li parle desirant ses honors.
12. - Amic foll: ¿per què destruus ta persona e despens tos diners, e lleixes los delits d'aquest món e vas menyspreat enfre les gents? Respòs: - Per honrar los honraments de mon amat, qui per més hòmens és desamat, deshonrat, que honrat e amat.
13. - Digues, foll per amor: ¿e qual cosa és pus vesible, o l'amat en l'amic, o l'amic en l'amat? Respòs, e dix que l'amat és vist per amors, e l'amic per sospirs, e per plors, e treballs e dolors.
14. Encercava l'amic qui recomptàs a son amat com ell per sa amor sostenia greus treballs e moria; e atrobà son amat qui lligia en un llibre on eren escrites totes les llangors que amor li donaria per son amat, e tots los grats que n'havia.
15. Portà nostra Dona son Fill a l'amic per ço que li besàs son peu, e que escrivís en son llibre les virtuts de nostra Dona.
16. - Digues, aucell qui cantes: ¿est-te mès en guarda de mon amat per ço que et defena de desamor, e que muntiplic en tu amor? Respòs l'aucell: - ¿E qui em fa cantar, mas tan solament lo Senyor d'amor, qui es té a deshonor desamor?
17. Enfre amor e esperança ha fet hostal amor, on viu de pensaments e mor per oblidaments com los fonaments són sobre los delits d'aquest món.
18. Qüestió fo enfre los ulls e la memòria de l'amic, cor los ulls deien que mellor cosa és veer l'amat que membrar-lo, e la memòria dix que per lo remembrament puja l'aigua als ulls e el cor s'enflama d'amor.
19. Demanà l'amic a l'enteniment e a la volentat qual era pus prop a son amat; e corregueren ambdós, e fo ans l'enteniment a son amat que la volentat.
20. Contrastaren-se l'amic e l'amat; e viu-ho un altre amic, qui plorà tan llongament tro hac feta pau e concordança enfre l'amat e l'amic.
21. Sospirs e plors vengren a jutjament a l'amat e demanaren-li per lo qual se sentia amat pus fortment. Jutjà l'amat que els sospirs són pus prop a amor, e los plors als ulls.
22. Venc l'amic beure a la font on hom qui no ama s'enamora com beu en la font, e doblaren sos llanguiments. E venc l'amat beure a la font per ço que sobredoblement doblàs a son amic ses amors, en les quals li doblàs llangors.
23. Malalte fo l'amic, e pensava'n l'amat: de mèrit lo peixia, e ab amor l'abeurava, e paciència lo colgava, d'humilitat lo vestia, ab veritat lo metjava.
24. Demanaren a l'amic on era son amat. Respòs: - Ve'l-vos en una casa pus noble que totes les altres nobilitats creades; e ve'l-vos en mes amors, e en mos llanguiments e en mos plors.
25. Digueren a l'amic: - On vas? - Venc de mon amat. - On véns? - Vaig a mon amat. - Quan tornaràs? - Estaré ab mon amat. - Quant estaràs ab ton amat? - Aitant de temps con seran en ell los meus pensaments.
26. Cantaven los aucells l'alba, e despertà's l'amic, qui és l'alba; e los aucells feniren llur cant, e l'amic morí per l'amat en l'alba.
27. Cantava l'aucell en lo verger de l'amat. Venc l'amic, qui dix a l'aucell: - Si no ens entenem per llenguatge, entenam-nos per amor; cor en lo teu cant se representa a mos ulls mon amat.
28. Hac son l'amic, qui molt havia treballat en cercar son amat; e hac paor que no oblidàs son amat. E plorà, per ço que no s'adormís, ni son amat no fos absent a son remembrament.
29. Encontraren-se l'amic e l'amat, e dix l'amic: - No cal que em parles; mas fé'm senyal ab tos ulls, qui són paraules a mon cor, con te do ço que demanes.
30. Desobeí l'amic son amat, e plorà l'amic. E l'amat venc morir en la gonella de son amic, per ço que l'amic recobràs ço que havia perdut; e donà-li major do que cell que perdut havia.
31. L'amat enamora l'amic, e no el plany de son llanguiment, per ço que pus fortment sia amat e en lo major llanguiment atrop l'amic plaer e reveniment.
32. Dix l'amic: - Turmenten-me los secrets de mon amat, com les mies obres los revelen, e cor la mia boca los té secrets e no els descobre les gents.
33. Les condicions d'amor són que l'amic sia sofirent, pacient, humil, temorós, diligent, confiant, e que s'aventur a grans perills a honrar son amat. E les condicions de l'amat són que sia vertader, liberal, piadós, just, a son amic.
34. Encercava l'amic devoció en los munts e en los plans, per veer si era servit son amat; e atrobà'n defalliment en cascú d'aquests llocs. E per açò cavà en la terra, si hi atrobaria lo compliment, pus que per terra devoció ha defalliment.
35. - Digues, aucell que cantes d'amor al meu amat: ¿Per què em turmenta ab amor, qui m'ha pres a ésser son servidor? Respòs l'aucell: - Si no sostenies treballs per amor, ¿ab què amaries ton amat?
36. Consirós anava l'amic en les carreres de son amat, e encepegà, e caec enfre espines, les quals li foren semblants que fossen flors, e que son llit fos d'amors.
37. Demanaren a l'amic si camiaria per altre son amat. Respòs, e dix: - ¿E qual altre és mellor ni pus noble que sobiran bé, eternal, infinit en granea, poder, saviea, amor, perfecció?
38. Cantava e plorava l'amic cants de son amat, e deia que pus ivaçosa cosa és amor en coratge d'amador, que llamp en resplendor, ni tro en oïment; e pus viva és aigua en plor que en ondes de mar; e pus prop és sospir a amor que neu a blancor.
39. Demanaren a l'amic per què era son amat gloriós. Respòs: - Per ço cor és glòria. Digueren-li per què era poderós. Respòs: - Per ço cor és poder. Ni per què és savi: - Per ço cor és saviea. Ni per què és amable: - Per ço cor és amor.
40. Llevà's matí l'amic, e anava cercant son amat; e atrobà gents qui anaven per la via, e demanà si havien vist son amat. Respongueren-li dient quan fo aquella hora que son amat fo absent a sos ulls mentals. Respòs l'amic, e dix: - Anc, pus hac vist mon amat en mos pensaments, no fo absent a mos ulls corporals, cor totes coses vesibles me representen mon amat.
41. Ab ulls de pensaments, llanguiments, de sospirs e de plors, esguardava l'amic son amat; e ab ulls de gràcia, justícia, pietat, misericòrdia, liberalitat, l'amat esguardava son amic. E l'aucell cantava lo plaent esguardament damunt dit.
42. Les claus de les portes d'amor són daurades de consirers, sospirs e plors; e el cordó de les claus és de consciència, contrició, devoció, satisfació; e el porter és de justícia, misericòrdia.
43. Tocava l'amic a la porta de son amat ab colp d'amor, esperança. Oïa l'amat lo colp de son amic ab humilitat, pietat, paciència, caritat. Obriren les portes deïtat e humanitat, e entrava l'amic veer son amat.
44. Propietat e comunitat s'encontraren, e es mesclaren, per ço que fos amistat e benvolença enfre l'amic e l'amat.
45. Dos són los focs que escalfen l'amor de l'amic: la un és bastit de desigs, plaers, e cogitacions; l'altre és compost de temor, llanguiment, e de llàgremes e de plors.
46. Desirà l'amic soliditat, e anà estar tot sol per ço que hagués companyia de son amat, ab lo qual està tot sol enfre les gents.
47. Estava l'amic tot sol, sots l'ombra d'un bell arbre. Passaren hòmens per aquell lloc, e demanaren-li per què estava sol. E l'amic respòs que sol fo com los hac vists e oïts, e que d'abans era en companyia de son amat.
48. Ab senyals d'amor se parlaven l'amic e l'amat; e ab temor, pensaments, llàgremes e plors recomptava l'amic a l'amat sos llanguiments.
49. Dubtà l'amic que son amat no li fallís a ses majors necessitats. Desenamorà l'amat son amic. Hac contrició, penediment, l'amic en son cor; e l'amat reté al cor de l'amic esperança, caritat; e als ulls llàgremes e plors, per ço que retornàs amor en l'amic.
50. Eguals coses son propinqüitat e llunyedat enfre l'amic e l'amat; cor enaixí com mesclament d'aigua e de vi, se mesclen les amors de l'amic e l'amat; enaixí con calor e llugor, s'encadenen llurs amors; e enaixí com essència e ésser, se convenen e s'acosten.
51. Dix l'amic a son amat: - En tu és mon sanament e mon llanguiment; e on pus fortment me sanes, pus creix mon llanguiment, e on pus me llangueixs, major sanitat me dónes. Respòs l'amat: - La tua amor és segell e emprenta on mostres los meus honraments a les gents.
52. Veia's pendre l'amic, e lligar, e ferir e auciure per amor de son amat. Demanaren-li aquells qui el turmentaven: - On és ton amat? Respòs: - Ve'l-vos en lo muntiplicament de mes amors e en la sustentació que em fa de mos turments.
53. Dix l'amic a l'amat: - Anc no fugí ni em partí de tu a amar, depús que t'hac conegut; cor en tu, e per tu e ab tu fui on que fos. Respòs l'amat: - Ni jo, depús que tu m'haguist conegut e amat, no t'oblide, ni null temps no fiu contra tu engan ni falliment.
54. Anava l'amic per una ciutat com a foll, cantant de son amat; e demanaren-li les gents si havia perdut son seny. Respòs que son amat havia pres son voler, e que ell li havia donat son enteniment; per açò era-li romàs tan solament lo remembrament, ab què remembrava son amat.
55. Dix l'amat: - Miracle és contra amor, d'amic qui s'adorm oblidant son amat. Respòs l'amic: - E miracle és contra amor si l'amat no desperta l'amic, pus que l'ha desirat.
56. Pujà-se'n lo cor de l'amic en les altees de l'amat, per ço que no fos embargat a amar en l'abís d'aquest món. E con fo a l'amat, contemplà'l ab dolçor e plaer; e l'amat baixà'l a aquest món, per ço que el contemplàs ab tribulacions e ab llanguiments.
57. Demanaren a l'amic: - Quals són tes riquees? Respòs: - Les pobretats que sostenc per mon amat. - E qual és ton repòs? - Lo llanguiment que em dóna amor. - E qui és ton metge? - La confiança que he de mon amat. - E qui és ton maestre? Respòs, e dix que les significances que les creatures donen de son amat.
58. Cantava l'aucell en un ram de fulles e de flors, e lo vent menava les fulles e aportava odor de les flors. Demanava l'amic a l'aucell què significava lo moviment de les fulles ni l'odor de les flors. Respòs: - Les fulles signifiquen en llur moviment, obediència; e l'odor, sufre e malanança.
59. Anava l'amic desirant son amat, e encontrà's ab dos amics qui ab amors e ab plors se saludaren, e s'abraçaren e es besaren. Esmortí's l'amic: tan fortment li remembraren los dos amics son amat.
60. Cogità l'amic en la mort, e hac paor tro que remembrà son amat. E cridà a les gents qui li estaven davant: - Ah, senyors! Amats per ço que mort ni perills no temats, a honrar mon amat.
61. Demanaren a l'amic on començaren primerament ses amors. Respòs que en les noblees de son amat; e que d'aquell començament s'enclinarien a amar si mateix e son proïsme, e en desamar engan e falliment.
62. - Digues, foll: si et desamava ton amat, què faries? Respòs, e dix que amaria per ço que no morís, con sia cosa que desamor sia mort, e amor sia vida.
63. Demanaren a l'amic quina cosa era perseverança. Dix que perseverança era benanança e malanança en amic perseverant en amar, honrar, servir son amat en fortitudo, paciència, esperança.
64. Dix l'amic a son amat que el pagàs del temps en què l'havia servit. Comptà l'amat los pensaments, e els desigs, e els plors, e els perills e els treballs que havia sostenguts son amic per sa amor; e afegí en aquell compte, eternal benauirança, e donà si mateix en paga a son amic.
65. Demanaren a l'amic qual cosa era benanança. Respòs que malanança sostenguda per amor.
66. - Digues, foll: quina cosa és malanança? - Membrança de les deshonors qui són fetes a mon amat, digne de tots honraments.
67. Remirava l'amic un lloc en lo qual havia vist son amat, e deia: - Ah, lloc qui em representes les belles costumes de mon amat! Diràs a mon amat que jo sostenc, per son amor, treball e malanança. Respòs lo lloc: - Con en mi era ton amat, soferia per ta amor major treball e malanança que tots los altres treballs ni les altres malanances que amor pot donar a sos servidors.
68. Deia l'amic a son amat: - Tu est tot, e per tot, e en tot, e ab tot. Tu vull tot, per ço que haja e sia tot mi. Respòs l'amat: - No em pots haver tot sens que tu no sies de mi. E dix l'amic: - Hages-me tot, e jo tu tot. Respòs l'amat: - Què haurà ton fill, ton frare e ton pare? Dix l'amic: - Tu est tal tot, que pots abundar a ésser tot de cascú qui es dóna a tu tot.
69. Estec e perllongà l'amic sos pensaments en la granea e en la durabletatde son amat, e no hi atrobà començament, ni mijà ni fi. E dix l'amat: - Què mesures, foll? Respòs l'amic: - Mesur menor ab major, e defalliment ab compliment, e començament ab infinitat, eternitat, per ço que humilitat, paciència, caritat, esperança, ne sien pus fortment en ma membrança.
70. Les vies d'amor són llongues e breus per ço cor amor és clara, pura, nèdea, vera, subtil, simple, forts, diligent, llugorosa, abundosa de novells pensaments e d'antics remembraments.
71. Demanaren a l'amic quals són los fruits d'amor. Respòs: - Plaers, cogitaments, desigs, sospirs, ànsies, treballs, perills, turments, llanguiments. Sens aitals fruits no es lleixa amor tocar a sos servidors.
72. Estaven moltes gents denant l'amic, qui es clamava de son amat com no creixia ses amors; e clamava's d'amor com li donava treballs ni dolors. Escusà's l'amat, dient que los treballs e les dolors d'on acusava amor, eren muntiplicaments d'amors.
73. - Digues, foll: com no parles? ¿Ni què és ço en què estàs embarbesclat, consirós? Respòs: - En les bellees de mon amat, e en lo ressemblament de les benanances e de les dolors que m'aduen e em donen amors.
74. - Digues, foll: ¿qual cosa fo enans: o ton cor, o amor? Respòs, e dix que en un temps foren son cor e amor; cor si no ho fossen, lo cor no fóra creat a amar, ni amor no fóra creada a cogitar.
75. Demanaren al foll on començà enans sa amor: o en los secrets de son amat, o en revelar-los a les gents. Respòs, e dix que amor no hi fa null departiment, com és en son compliment; cor ab secret té l'amic secret los secrets de son amat, e ab secret los revela, e ab revelació los té secrets.
76. Secret d'amor sens revelació, dóna passió e llanguiment; e revelar amor dóna temor per frevor. E per açò l'amic en totes maneres ha llanguiment.
77. Apellà amor sos amadors, e dix-los que li demanaren los dons que li eren pus desirables e pus plaents. E ells demanaren a amor que els vestits e els ornàs de sos afaiçonaments, per ço que fossen a l'amat pus agradables.
78. Cridà l'amic en alt a les gents, e dix que amor los manava que amassen en anant e en seent, e en vetlant e en dorment, e en parlant e en callant, e en comprant e en venent, e en plorant e en rient, e en plaer e en llanguiment, e en guanyant e en perdent; e en qualsque coses faessen, en totes amassen, cor d'amor n'havien manament.
79. - Digues foll: ¿quan venc en tu amor? Respòs: - En aquell temps que m'enriquí, e em poblà mon cor de pensaments, desirers, sospirs, llanguiments, e abundà mos ulls de llàgremes e de plors. - Què t'aportà amor? - Belles faiçons, honraments, e valors de mon amat. - En què vengren? - En membrança e en enteniment. - Ab què els reebist? - Ab caritat, esperança. - Ab què els guardes? - Ab justícia, prudència, fortitudo, temprança.
80. Cantava l'amat e deia que poc sabia l'amic d'amor si havia vergonya de lloar son amat, ni si el temia honrar en aquells llocs on pus fortment és deshonrat; e poc sap d'amar qui s'enuja de malanança; ni qui es desespera de son amat, no fa concordança d'amor, esperança.
81. Tramès lletres l'amic a son amat, en les quals li dix si havia altre amador qui li ajudàs a portar e a soferir los greus afanys que sosté per sa amor. E l'amat rescrisc a son amic dient que no ha ab què faça vers ell injúria ni falliment.
82. Demanaren a l'amat, de l'amor de son amic. Respòs que l'amor de son amic és mesclament de plaer e malanança, e de temor, ardiment.
83. Demanaren a l'amic, de l'amor de l'amat. Respòs que l'amor de son amat és influència d'infinida bonea, eternitat, poder, saviea, caritat, perfecció; la qual influència ha l'amat a l'amic.
84. - Digues, foll: quina cosa és meravella? Respòs: - Amar més les coses absents que les presents; e amar més les coses invisibles incorruptibles, que les vesibles corruptibles.
85. Encercava l'amic son amat, e atrobà un home qui moria sens amor; e dix que gran damnatge era d'home qui moria a nulla mort sens amor. E per açò dix l'amic a l'home qui moria: - Digues: per què mors sens amor? Respòs: - Per ço cor sens amor vivia.
86. Demanà l'amic a son amat qual cosa era major: o amor o amar. Respòs l'amat, e dix que, en creatura, amor és l'arbre e amar és lo fruit, e els treballs e els llanguiments són les flors e les fulles; e en Déu, amor e amar són una cosa mateixa, sens negun treball, llanguiment.
87. Estava l'amic en llanguiments e en tristícia per sobreabundància de pensaments; e tramès precs a son amat que li trametés un llibre on fossen escrites ses faiçons, per ço que li donàs alcun remei. L'amat tramès aquell llibre a son amic, e doblaren a l'amic sos treballs e sos llanguiments.
88. Malalte fo l'amic per amor, e entrà'l veer un metge qui muntiplicà ses llangors e sos pensaments; e sanat fo l'amic en aquella hora.
89. Apartaren-se l'amic e amor, e tenien solaç de l'amat; e representà's l'amat. Plorà l'amic e esvaneí's amor en l'esmortiment de l'amic. Reviscolà l'amat son amic com li remembrà ses faiçons.
90. Deia l'amic a l'amat que per moltes carreres venia a son cor e es representava a sos ulls, e per molts noms lo nomenava sa paraula; mas l'amor ab què l'avidava e el mortificava no era mas una tan solament.
91. Entresenya's l'amat, a son amic, de vermells e novells vestiments; e estén sos braços per ço que l'abraç, e enclina son cap per ço que li do un besar, e està en alt per ço que el pusca atrobar.
92. Absentà's l'amat a son amic, encercava l'amic son amat ab memòria e ab enteniment, per ço que el pogués amar. Atrobà l'amic son amat; demanà-li on havia estat. Respòs: - En l'absència de ton remembrament e en la innorància de ta intel·ligència.
93. - Digues, foll: ¿has vergonya de les gents con te veen plorar per ton amat? Respòs que vergonya sens pecat és per defalliment d'amor qui no sap amar.
94. Sembrava l'amat en lo cor de l'amic desigs, sospirs, virtuts e amors. Regava l'amic les sements ab llàgremes e ab plors.
95. Sembrava l'amat en lo cors de l'amic treballs, tribulacions, llanguiments. Sanava l'amic son cors ab esperança, devoció, paciència, consolacions.
96. A una gran festa tenc l'amat gran cort de molts honrats barons, e féu gran convits e gran dons. Venc l'amic a aquella cort; dix-li l'amat: - Qui t'ha apellat a venir a ma cort? Respòs l'amic: - Necessitat e amors m'han fet venir veer tes faiçons e tos capteniments.
97. Demanaren a l'amic de qui era. Respòs: - D'amor. - De què est? - D'amor. - Qui t'ha engenrat? - Amor. - On nasquist? - En amor. - Qui t'ha nodrit? - Amor. - De què vius? - D'amor. - Com has nom? - Amor. - D'on véns? - D'amor. - On vas? - A amor. - On estàs? - En amor. - Has altra cosa mas amor? Respòs: - Hoc, colpes e torts contra mon amat. - Ha en ton amat perdó ? Dix l'amic que en son amat era misericòrdia e justícia, e per açò era son hostal enfre temor e esperança.
98. Absentà's l'amat a l'amic, e encercà'l l'amic en sos pensaments; e demanava'l a les gents ab llenguatge d'amor.
99. Atrobà l'amic son amat qui estava menyspreat enfre les gents, e dix a l'amat que gran injúria era feta a sos honraments. Respòs l'amat, e dix que ella prenia deshonor per fretura de fervents e devots amadors. Plorà l'amic e muntiplicaren ses dolors; aconsolava'l l'amat mostrant-li sos capteniments.
100. Lo llum de la cambra de l'amat venc inluminar la cambra de l'amic, per ço que en gitàs tenebres e que l'omplís de plaers, e de llangors e de pensaments. E l'amic gità de sa cambra totes coses, per ço que hi cabés son amat.
101. Demanaren a l'amic quin senyal faïa son amat en son gamfanó. Respòs que d'home mort. Digueren-li per què faïa aital senyal. Respòs: - Per ço cor fo home mort crucificat, e per ço que aquells qui es gaben que són sos amadors, seguesquen son esclau.
102. Venc l'amat a albergar a l'hostal de son amic, e lo majordome demanà-li hostalatge. Mas l'amic dix que son amat devia ésser albergat en perdó.
103. Acompanyaren-se memòria e volentat, e pujaren en lo munt de l'amat per ço que l'enteniment s'exalçà's, e l'amor se doblàs en amar l'amat.
104. Tots jorns són sospirs e plors missatges enfre l'amic e l'amat, per ço que sia enfre ambdós solaç, companyia e amistat, e benvolença.
105. Enyorava l'amic son amat, e tramès-li sos pensaments, per ço que li aportassen de son amat la benanança en la qual l'havia tengut llongament.
106. Benefici donà l'amat a son amic, de plors, sospirs, llangors, pensaments e dolors; ab lo qual benefici servia l'amic son amat.
107. Pregà l'amic son amat que li donàs llarguea, pau, honrament en est món, e l'amat demostrà ses faiçons al remembrament e l'enteniment de l'amic, e donà's a la volentat per object.
108. Demanaren a l'amic en què està honrament. Respòs que en entendre e amar son amat. E demanaren-li en què està deshonor. Respòs que en oblidar, desamar son amat.
109. Turmentava'm amor tro que li hac dit que tu eres present als meus turments; e adoncs amor afluixà mos llanguiments, e tu, per guardó, muntipliquist amor, qui em doblà mos turments.
110. Encontré en la via d'amor amador qui no parlava: ab plors, magres faiçons, llanguiments, acusava amor e blasmava. Escusava's amor ab lleialtat, paciència, devoció, fortitudo, temprança, benanança. E per açò blasmé l'amador qui d'amor se clamava, pus que tan nobles dons li donava amor.
111. Cantava l'amic e deia: - Oh, con gran malanança és amor! Ah, con gran benauirança és amar mon amat, qui ama sos amadors ab infinida amor eternal, complida en tots acabaments!
112. Anava l'amic en una terra estranya on cuidava atrobar son amat, e en la via assaltejaren-lo dos lleons. Paor hac de mort l'amic, per ço cor desirava viure per servir son amat; e tramès son remembrament a son amat, per ço que amor fos a sos traspassaments, per la qual amor mills pogués sostenir la mort. Dementre que l'amic remembrava l'amat, los lleons vengren humilment a l'amic, al qual lleparen les llàgremes de sos ulls qui ploraven, e les mans e els peus li besaren. E l'amic anà en pau encercar son amat.
113. Anava l'amic per munts e per plans, e no podia trobar portal on pogués eixir del carçre d'amor qui llongament havia tengut en presó son cors, e sos pensaments e tots sos desirers e plaers.
114. Dementre que l'amic anava enaixí treballant, atrobà un ermità qui dormia prés d'una bella font. Despertà l'amic l'ermità, dient si havia vist, en somniant, son amant. Respòs l'ermità, e dix que egualment eren encarcerats sos pensaments en lo carçre d'amor, en vetlant e en dorment. Molt plac a l'amic com havia trobat companyó de presó; e ploraren ambdós, cor l'amat no havia molts d'aitals amadors.
115. No ha en l'amat nulla cosa en què l'amic no haja ànsia e tribulació, ni l'amic no ha cosa en si en què l'amat no haja plaer e senyoria; e per açò l'amor de l'amat é en acció e l'amor de l'amic en llanguiment, passió.
116. En un ram cantava un aucell, e deia que ell daria un novell pensament a amador que li'n donàs dos. Donar l'aucell lo novell pensament a l'amic, e l'amic donà'n dos a l'aucell, per ço que alleujàs sos turments; e l'amic sentí muntiplicades ses dolors.
117. Encontraren-se l'amic e l'amat, e foren testimonis de llur encontrament saluts, abraçaments, e besars, e llàgremes e plors. E demanà l'amat a l'amic, de son estament; e l'amic fo embarbesclat en presència de son amat.
118. Contrastaren-se l'amic e l'amat, e pacificaren-los llurs amors; e fo qüestió qual amor hi mès major amistat.
119. Amava l'amic tots aquells qui temien son amat, e havia temor de tots aquells qui no temien son amat; e per açò fo qüestió qual era major en l'amic: o amor o temor.
120. Jurcava l'amic a seguir son amat, e passava per una carrera on havia un mal lleó qui auceïa tot home qui en passava pererosament e sens devoció.
121. Deia l'amic: - Qui no tem mon amat, a tembre li cové totes coses; e qui tem mon amat, audàcia e ardiment li cové en totes coses.
122. Demanaren a l'amic d'ocasió, e dix que ocasió és plaer en penitència, e enteniment en consciència, e esperança en paciència, e sanitat en abstinència, consolació en remembrament, e amor en diligència, e lleialtat en vergonya, e riquea en pobretat, e pau en obediència, e guerra en malvolença.
123. Enllumenà amor lo nuvolat qui es mès enfre l'amic e l'amat; e féu-lo enaixí llugorós e resplendent con és la lluna en la nit, e l'estel en l'alba, e lo sol en lo dia, e l'enteniment en la volentat. E per aquell nuvolat tan llugorós se parlen l'amic e l'amat.
124. Demanaren a l'amic quals tenebres són majors. Respòs que l'absència de son amat. Demanaren-li qual és la major resplendor, e dix que la presència de son amat.
125. Lo senyal de l'amat apar en l'amic, qui per amor és en tribulacions, sospirs, e plors, pensaments, e en menyspreament de les gents.
126. Escrivia l'amic aquestes paraules: - Alegra's mon amat, cor a ell tramet mos pensaments, e per ell ploren mos ulls, e sens llanguiments no viu, ni sent, ni veig, ni oig, ni he odoraments.
127. - Ah, enteniment, volentat! Lladrats, e despertats los grans cans qui dormen, oblidant mon amat. Ah, ulls!: plorats. Ah, cor!: sospirats. Ah memòria!: membrats la deshonor de mon amat, la qual li fan aquells qui ell ha tan honrats.
128. - Muntiplica l'enemistat qui és enfre les gents e mon amat, e promet dons e guardons mon amat, e menaça ab justícia, saviea. E memòria e volentat menyspreen ses menaces e sos prometiments.
129. Acostava's l'amat a l'amic per ço que l'aconsolàs e el conhortàs dels llanguiments que sostenia, e dels plors que havia; e on més l'amat a l'amic s'acostava, pus fortment plorava e llanguia l'amic per les deshonors que planyia de son amat.
130. Ab ploma d'amor e ab aigua de plors, e en carta de passió, escrivia l'amic unes lletres a son amat, en les quals li deia que devoció se tardava e amor se moria, e falliment e error muntiplicaven sos enemics.
131. Nuaven-se les amors de l'amic e l'amat ab membrança, enteniment, volentat, per ço que l'amic e l'amat no es partissen; e la corda en què les dues amors se nuaven era de pensaments, llanguiments, sospirs e plors.
132. Jaïa l'amic en llit d'amor; los llençols eren de plaers, e lo cobertor era de llanguiments, e el coixí era de plors. E era qüestió si el drap del coixí era del drap dels llençols o del cobertor.
133. Vestia l'amat son amic mantell, cota, gonella; e capell li faïa d'amor, e camisa de pensaments, e calces de tribulacions, e garlanda de plors.
134. Pregava l'amat son amic que no l'oblidàs. Deia l'amic que no el podia oblidar, pus que no el podia innorar.
135. Deia l'amat que en aquells llocs on és més temut a lloar, lo lloàs e l'escusàs. Deia l'amic que d'amor lo bastàs. Responia l'amat que per sa amor s'era encarnat e penjat per morir.
136. Deia l'amic al seu car amat que li mostràs manera con lo pogués fer conèixer e amar e lloar a les gents. Omplí l'amat son amic de devoció, paciència, caritat, tribulacions, pensaments, sospirs, e plors; e en lo cor de l'amic fo audàcia en lloar son amat, e en sa boca foren llaors de son amat, e en sa volentat fo menyspreament de lo blasme de les gents qui jutgen falsament.
137. Deia l'amic a les gents aquestes paraules: -Qui vertaderament remembra mon amat, oblida, en les circumstàncies de son remembrament, totes coses; e qui totes coses oblida per membrar son amat, de totes coses lo defèn mon amat, e part li dóna de totes coses.
138. Demanaren a l'amic de què naixia amor, ni de què vivia, ni perquè moria. Respòs l'amic que amors naixia del remembrament, e vivia d'intel·ligència, e moria per oblidament.
139. Oblidà l'amic tot ço qui és dejús lo sobirà cel, per ço que l'enteniment pogués pus alt pujar a conèixer l'amat lo qual la volentat desija preïcar, contemplar.
140. Anava's l'amic combatre per honrar son amat, e menà en sa companyia fe, esperança, caritat, justícia, prudència, fortitudo, temprança, ab què vencés los enemics de son amat. Fóra vençut l'amic, si no li ajudàs son amat a significar ses nobilitats a son amic.
141. Passar volia l'amic a la darrerana fila per la qual amava son amat, e les altres fins donaven-li embargament en son passatge; e per açò llongs desigs e pensaments daven a l'amic tristícia e llanguiment.
142. Gabava's e alegrava's l'amic en les noblees de son amat; llanguia l'amic per sobrecogitacions e pensaments. E era qüestió qual sentia pus fortment, o els plaers o els turments.
143. Missatge era l'amic als prínceps crestians, e als infeels, per son amat, per ço que els mostràs l'art e els començaments a conèixer, amar, l'amat.
144. Si veus amador honrat de nobles vestiments, honrat per vanaglòria, gras per menjar e dormir, sàpies que en aquell veus damnació e turments. E si veus amador pobrament vestit, menyspreat per les gents, descolorit e magre per dejunar e vetlar, sàpies que en aquell veus salvació e perdurable benedicció.
145. Plany-se l'amic, e clama's lo cor de calor d'amor. Mor-se l'amic, plora'l l'amat, e dóna-li consolació de paciència, esperança, guardó.
146. Plorava l'amic ço que havia perdut; e no era qui el pogués consolar, per ço cor sos perdiments eren inrecuperables.
147. Creada ha Déus la nit a cogitar e a vetlar l'amic en les noblees de son amat; e cuidava's l'amic que l'hagués creada a reposar e a dormir aquells qui són treballats per amor.
148. Escarnien e reprenien les gents l'amic per ço cor anava com a foll per amor. E l'amic menyspreava llurs escarns, e reprenia les gents per ço cor no amaven son amat.
149. Deia l'amic: - Vestit són de drap vilment, mas amor vest de plaents pensaments mon cor, e lo cors de plors, llanguiments, passions.
150. Cantava l'amat, e deia: - Endrecen-se los meus lloadors en lloar mes valors; e los enemics de mos honraments turmenten-los e han-los en menyspreament. E per açò he tramès a mon amic que planga e plor ma deshonor; e els seus plants e els seus plors són nats de mes amors.
151. Jurava l'amic a l'amat que per sa amor amava e sostenia treballs e passions; e per açò pregava l'amat que l'amàs e de sos treballs passió hagués. Jurà l'amat que natura e propietat era de sa amor que amàs tots aquells qui l'amaven, e que hagués pietat d'aquells qui per sa amor treball sostenien. Alegrà's l'amic e consolà's en la natura e en la propietat essencial de son amat.
152. Vedà la paraula l'amat a son amic, e aconsolava's l'amic en l'esguardament de son amat.
153. Tant plorà e cridà l'amic a son amat, tro que l'amat davallà de les altees sobiranes dels cels, e venc en terra plorar, e plànyer, e morir per amor, e per nodrir los hòmens a amar, e a conèixer, lloar sos honraments.
154. Blasmava l'amic los crestians com no meten lo nom de son amat, Jesucrist, primerament en llurs lletres, per ço que li faessen l'honor que els sarraïns fan a Mafumet, (...), al qual fan honor com lo nomenen primerament en llurs lletres.
155. Encontrà l'amic un escuder qui anava consirós e era magre, descolorit e pobrament vestit; e saludar l'amic dient que Déus l'endreçàs a trobar son amat. E l'amat li demanà en què l'havia conegut. E l'escuder li dix que los uns secrets d'amors revelen los altres; e per açò han coneixença, los amadors, los uns dels altres.
156. Les noblees, e els honraments e les bones obres de l'amat són tresor e riquees de l'amic. E lo tresor de l'amat són los pensaments, e els desigs, e els turments, e els plors e els llanguiments que l'amic sostée per honrar e amar son amat.
157. Grans hosts e grans companyes se són ajustades d'espirits d'amors, e porten senya d'amor, on és la figura e el senyal de llur amat; e no volen menar en llur companyia null home qui sia sens amor, per ço que llur amat no hi prenga deshonor.
158. Los hòmens qui es despenyen folls per ajustar diners, mouen l'amic a ésser foll per amor; e la vergonya que l'amic ha de les gents a anar con a foll, dóna manera a l;amic d'on haja amor e preu de les gents. E per açò és qüestió qual dels dos moviments és major ocasió d'amor.
159. En tristícia ha amor mès l'amic per sobrecogitaments; e cantà l'amat, e alegràs l'amic com l'hac oït. E fo qüestió qual dels dos fo major ocasió a muntiplicar amor en l'amic.
160. En los secrets de l'amic són revelats los secrets de l'amat, e en los secrets de l'amat són revelats los secrets de l'amic. E és qüestió qual dels dos secrets és major ocasió de revelació.
161. Demanaren al foll per quals senyals era conegut son amat. Respòs, e dix que per misericòrdia, pietat, estant en volentat essencialment, sens negú camiament.
162. Per l'especial amor que l'amic havia a l'amat, amava lo bé comú sobre lo bé especial, per ço que comunament fos son amat conegut, lloat, desirat.
163. Amor e desamor s'encontraren en un verger on parlaven secretament l'amic e l'amat; e amor demanà a desamor per qual entenció era venguda en aquell lloc; e respòs desamor que per desenamorar l'amic e per deshonrar l'amat. Molt desplac a l'amat e a l'amic ço que deia desamor; e multiplicaren amor per ço que vencés e destruís desamor.
164. - Digues, foll: ¿en què ets sens major volentat: o en amar, o en aïrar? Respòs que en amar, per ço cor aïrava per tal que pogués amar.
165. - Digues, amador: ¿en què has més d'enteniment: o en entendre veritat, o falsetat? Respòs que en entendre veritat. - Per què ? - Cor entén falsetat per ço que pusca mills entendre veritat.
166. Apercebé l'amic que era amat per son amat, e demanà a l'amat si sa amor e sa misericòrdia eren en ell una cosa mateixa. Atorgàa; l'amat que, en sa essència, no han diferència sa amor ni sa misericòrdia. E per açò dix l'amic per què el turmentava sa amor, e per què no el guaria sa misericòrdia, de ses llangors. E respòs l'amat que la misericòrdia li donà les llangors per ço que ab aquelles honràs pus perfetament sa amor.
167. L'amic volc anar en una terra estranya per honrar son amat, e volc-se desmarxar per ço que no fos pres en lo camí. E anc no poc desmerxar de sos ulls plors, ni de sa cara magres faiçons e groga color, ni de son cor plants, pensaments, sospirs, tristícia, llanguiments; e per açò fo pres en lo viatge, e lliurat a turments per los enemics de son amat.
168. Estava pres l'amic en lo carçre d'amor. Pensaments, desigs e remembraments lo guardaven e l'encadenaven per ço que no fugís a son amat; llanguiments lo turmentaven; paciència, esperança lo consolaven. Morira's l'amic; mas l'amat li demostrà son estament, e reviscolà l'amic.
169. Encontrà l'amic son amat: conec l'amic son amat, e plorà. Reprès l'amat son amic per ço cor no plorava ans que l'hagués conegut; e demanà-li en què l'havia conegut, pus que no plorava. Respòs l'amic que en lo remembrament, e en l'enteniment, e en sa volentat, on fo multiplicament en continent que fo present a sos ulls corporals.
170. Demanà l'amat a l'amic què era amor. Respòs que presència de faiçons e de paraules d'amat en cor sospirant d'amador, e llanguiment per desigs e per plors en cor d'amic.
171. Amor és bulliment d'audàcia e de temor per frevor; e amor és final volentat a desirar son amat. E amor és aquella cosa qui aucís l'amic con oí cantar de les bellees de son amat. E amor és ço que és mort, e en què està tots jorns ma volentat.
172. Devoció e enyorament trameteren, per missatgers, pensaments al cor de l'amic, per ço que pujàs l'aigua als ulls qui volien cessar dels plors en los quals havien llongament estats.
173. Deia l'amic: - Si vosaltres, amadors, volets foc, venits a mon cor e encenets vostres llàntees; e si volets aigua, venits als meus ulls, qui decorren de llàgremes; e si volets pensaments d'amor, venits-los pendre a mes cogitacions.
174. Esdevenc-se un dia que l'amic cogitava en la gran amor que havia a son amat, e en los grans treballs e perills en què havia estat llongament per sa amor; e considerà que sos guaardons fossen grans. Dementre que l'amic cogitava en esta manera, ell remembrà que pagat l'havia son amat, per ço cor l'havia enamorat de ses faiçons, e cor per sa amor li havia donats llanguiments.
175. Torcava l'amic sa cara e sos ulls de plors que sostenia per amor, per ço que no descobrís los llanguiments que li donava son amat; lo qual dix a son amic per què celava los senyals d'amor als altres amadors, los quals li havia donats per ço que els enamoràs d'honrar ses valors.
176. - Digues, home qui vas com a foll per amor; ¿tro a quant de temps seràs serf e sotmès a plorar e a sostenir treballs e llanguiments? Respòs: - Tro al temps que mon amat, de l'ànima e del cors farà en mi departiment.
177. - Digues, foll: has diners? Respòs: - He amat. - Has viles, ni castells, ni ciutats, comdats ni dugats? Respòs: - He amors, pensaments, plors, desirers, treballs, llanguiments, qui són mellors que emperis ni regnats.
178. Demanaren a l'amic en què coneixia la sentència de son amat. Respòs que en l'egualtat de plaers e llanguiments, a la qual son amat jutjava sos amadors.
179. - Digues, foll: ¿qui sap més d'amor: o aquell qui n'ha plaer, o aquell qui n'ha treballs e llanguiments? Respòs, e dix que la un sens l'altre no en pot haver coneixença.
180. Demanaren a l'amic per què no s'escusava dels falliments e de los falsos crims que les gents l'acusaven. Respòs que a escusar havia son amat, que les gents blasmaven falsament; e que home, on pot caer engan e error, no és quaix digne de nulla escusació.
181. - Digues, foll: per què escuses amor com treballa e turmenta ton cors e ton cor? Respòs: - Per ço cor multiplica mos mèrits e ma benauirança.
182. Complanyia's l'amic de son amat com tan greument lo faïa turmentar a amor; e escusava's l'amat muntiplicant a l'amic treballs e perills, pensaments e llàgremes e plors.
183. - Digues, foll: per què escuses los colpables? Respòs: - Per ço que no sia semblant als acusants los innocents e els colpables.
184. Llevava l'amat l'enteniment a entendre ses altees, per ço que l'amic enclinàs son remembrament a membrar sos defalliments, e la volentat los menyspreàs e pujàs amar los acabaments de l'amat.
185. Cantava l'amic de son amat, e deia que tant li portava bona volentat, que totes les coses que aïrava per sa amor li eren plaents e benanances majors que les coses que amava sens l'amor de son amat.
186. Anava l'amic per una gran ciutat, e demanava si trobaria null home ab qui pogués parlar a sa guisa de son amat. E mostraren-li un home pobre qui plorava per amor e cercava companyó ab qui pogués parlar d'amor.
187. Estava l'amic pensiu e embarbesclat com podien pendre començaments sos treballs, de les noblees de son amat, qui ha en si mateix tanta de benauirança.
188. Estaven les cogitacions de l'amic enfre oblidança de sos turments e enfre membrança de sos plaers: cor los plaers que ha d'amor li obliden la malanança, e los turments que sosté per amor li remembren la benanança que ha per amor.
189. Demanaren a l'amic si era possible cosa que son amat lo desenamoràs. Respòs que no, dementre que la memòria membràs e l'enteniment entenés les nobleses de son amat.
190. - Digues, foll, de què es fa la major comparació e semblança? Respòs: - D'amic e amat. Demanaren-li per qual raó. Respòs que per amor, qui estava enfre ambdós.
191. Demanaren a l'amat si havia haüda null temps pietat. Respòs que si no hagués haüda pietat, no hagra enamorat l'amic, ni l'hagra turmentat de sospirs, e de plors, e de treballs e llangors.
192. En un gran boscatge era l'amic, qui anava cercar son amat; e atrobà veritat e falsetat qui es contrastaven de son amat, cor veritat lo lloava e falsetat lo blasmava. E per açò l'amic cridà amor que ajudàs a veritat.
193. Venc temptació a l'amic per ço que li absentàs son amat, e que la memòria se despertàs e recobràs la presència de son amat, membrant aquell pus fortment que no l'havia membrat, per ço que l'enteniment més a ensús fos llevat a entendre, e la volentat a amar, son amat.
194. Oblidà un dia l'amic son amat, e membrà en altre dia que l'havia oblidat. E en aquell dia en lo qual l'amic membrava que son amat oblidat havia, fo l'amic en tristícia e en dolor, e en glòria e en benanança, per oblidament e per membrança.
195. Tan fortment desirava l'amic llaors e honraments de son amat, que dubtava que els membràs; e tan fortment aïrava les deshonors de son amat, que dubtava que les aïràs. E per açò l'amic estava embarbesclat, enfre amor e temor, per son amat.
196. Moria l'amic per plaer, e vivia per llanguiments; e els plaers e els turments s'ajustaven e s'unien en ésser una cosa mateixa en la volentat de l'amic. E per açò l'amic en un temps mateix moria e vivia.
197. Oblidar e innorar volgra l'amic son amat una hora tan solament, per ço que hagués alcun repòs a sos llanguiments. Mas, cor li fóra passió l'oblidament e la innorància, hac paciència, e exalçà son enteiment e sa memòria a contemplar son amat.
198. Tant amà l'amic son amat, que de tot ço que li deia lo creia, e tant lo desirava entendre, que tot ço que n'oïa dir volia entendre per raons necessàries. E per açò l'amor de l'amic estava enfre creença e intel·ligència.
199. Demanaren a l'amic qual cosa era pus lluny de son coratge; e ell repòs que desamor. E demanaren-li per qual raó. Respòs que per ço cor ço qui era pus prop a son corage era amor, qui és contrari de desamor.
200. - Digues, foll: has enveja? Respòs: - Hoc, totes les vegades que oblit la llarguea e les riquees de mon amat.
201. - Digues, amador: has riquesa? Respòs que: - Hoc: amor. - Has pobrea? - Hoc: amor. - Per què? - Per ço cor no és amor major, e cor no enamora molts amadors a honrar los honraments de mon amat.
202. - Digues, amant: on és ton poder? Respòs: - En lo poder de mon amat. - Ab què t'esforces contra tos enemics? - Ab les forces de mon amat. - Ab què et conhortes? - Ab los tresors eternals de mon amat.
203. - Digues, foll: ¿qual ames més: o la misericòrdia de ton amat, o la justícia de ton amat? Respòs que tant li covenia amar e tembre justícia, que nulla majoritat de voler no devia haver en sa volentat a amar nulla cosa sobre la justícia de son amat.
204. Combatien-se colpes e mèrits en la consciència e la volentat de l'amic; e justícia, membrança, muntiplicaven benanança en la volentat de l'amat. E per açò los mèrits vencien colpes e torts en la penitència de l'amic.
205. Afermava l'amic que en son amat era tota perfecció: e negava que en son amat no havia null defalliment. E per açò era qüestió qual era major: o l'afermació, o la negació.
206. Eclipse fo en lo cel, e tenebres en la terra: e per açò l'amic remembrà que pecat li havia llongament absentat son amat de son voler, per la qual absència tenebres havien exilada la llugor de son enteniment, ab lo qual se representa l'amat a sos amadors.
207. Venc amor en l'amic, a la qual amor l'amic demanà quà volia. E amor li dix que ella era venguda en ell per ço que l'acostumàs e el nodrís en tal manera que, a la mort, pogués vençre sos mortals enemics.
208. Malalta fo l'amor con l'amic oblidà son amat; e malalte és l'amic, cor, per sobremembrar, son amat li dóna treballs, ànsies, e llanguiments.
209. Atrobà l'amic un home qui moria sens amor. Plorà l'amic la deshonor que l'amat prenia en la mort d'aquell home qui moria sens amor, e dix a aquell home per què moria sens amor; e ell respòs que per ço cor no havia qui li hagués donada coneixença d'amor ni qui l'hagués nodrit a ésser amador. E per açò l'amic sospirà en plorant e dix: - Ah, devoció! ¿quan serets major per ço que la colpa sia menor e que lo meu amat haja molts frevents, ardits lloadors, amadors, qui no dubten a lloar sos honraments?
210. Temptà l'amic amor si es poria sostenir en son coratge sens que no remembràs son amat; e cessà son cor de pensar e sos ulls de plorar; e aniquilà's amor, e romàs l'amic embarbesclat, e demanà a les gents si havien vista amor.
211. Amor, amar, amic e amat se covenen tan fortment en l'amat, que una actualitat són en essència, e diverses coses són l'amic e l'amat concordants sense nulla contrarietat e diversitat d'essència. E per açò l'amat és amable sobre totes altres amors.
212. - Digues, foll: per què has tangran amor? Respòs: - Cor llong e perillós és lo viatge en lo qual vaig cercar mon amat. Ab gran feix lo'm cové encercar, e ivaçosament me cové anar; e totes aquestes coses no poria complir sens gran amor.
213. Vetlava, dejunava, plorava, almoina faïa, e en terres estranyes anava l'amic per ço que pogués a son amat moure sa volentat, e enamorar sos sotsmeses per honrar sos honraments.
214. Si no abasta l'amor de l'amic a moure son amat a pietat e a perdó, abasta l'amor de l'amat a donar a ses creatures gràcia e benedicció.
215. - Digues, foll: per qual cosa pots ésser pus semblant a ton amat? Respòs: - Per entendre a amar de tot mon poder les faiçons de mon amat.
216. Demanaren a l'amic si son amat havia defalliment de nulles coses, e respòs que hoc: d'amadors, lloadors, a honrar ses valors.
217. Feria l'amat lo cor de son amic ab vergues d'amor, per ço que li faés amar l'arbre d'on l'amat collí les vergues ab què fér sos amadors; en lo qual arbre soferí mort, e llangors e deshonors per restaurar a amor los amadors que perduts havia.
218. Encontrà l'amic son amat, e viu-lo molt noble e poderós, e digne de tot honrament; e dix-li que fortment se meravellava de les gents, qui tan poc l'amaven, e el coneixien e l'honraven, com ell ne fos tan digne. E l'amat li respòs dient que ell havia pres molt gran engan en ço que havia creat home per ço que en fos amat, conegut, honrat; e de mil hòmens, los cent lo temien e l'amaven tan solament; e de los cent, los noranta lo temien per ço que no els donàs pena, e los deu l'amaven per ço que els donàs glòria; e no era quaix qui l'amàs per sa bonea e sa nobilitat. Con l'amic oí aquestes paraules, plorà fortment en la deshonor de son amat, e dix: - Amat, que tant has donat a home e tant l'has honrat, per què home ha tant tu en oblit?
219. Lloava l'amic son amat, e deia que ell havia traspassat on , cor ell és lla on no pot atènyer on . E per açò com denamaren a l'amic on era son amat, respoòs: - És. Mas no es sabia on; emperò sabia que son amat és en son remembrament.
220. Comprà l'amat ab sos honraments un home esclau e sotsmès a pensaments, llanguiments, sospirs, e plors; e demanà-li què menjava ni bevia. Respòs que ço que ell volia. Demanà-li què vestia. Respòs que ço que ell volia. Dix l'amat: - Has gens de volentat? Respòs que serf e sotsmès no ha altre voler mes obeir a son senyor e son amat.
221. Demanà l'amat a son amic si havia paciència. Respòs que totes coses li plaïen; e per açò no havia ab què hagués paciència; cor qui no havia senyoria en sa volentat, no podia ésser impacient.
222. Amor se donava a qui es volia; e cor a molts hòmens no es donava e los amadors fortment no enamorava, pus n'havia llibertat, per açò l'amic d'amor se clamava, e amor acusava a son amat. Mas amor s'escusava dient que ella no era contra franca volentat, per ço cor gran mèrit e gran glòria desirava a sos amadors.
223. Gran contrast e gran discòrdia fo enfre l'amic e amor, per ço cor l'amic s'ujava dels treballs que sostenia per amor. E era qüestió si era per defalliment d'amor, o de l'amic; e vengren-ne a jutjament de l'amat lo qual puní l'amic ab llanguiment, e guardunà-lo ab muntiplicament d'amor.
224. Qüestió fo si amor era pus prop a pensament o a paciència. Solvé l'amic la qüestió, e dix que amor és engenrada en los pensaments, e és sostentada en la paciència.
225. Veïns de l'amic són los bells capteniments de l'amat, e los veïns de l'amat son los capteniments de son amic, e los treballs e els plors que sosté per amor.
226. Volc pujar molt altament la volentat de l'amic per ço que molt amàs son amat, e manàa a l'enteniment que pujàs a tot son poder; e l'enteniment ho manà al remembrament. E tots tres pujaren contemplar l'amat en sos honraments.
227. Partí's volentat de l'amic e donà's a l'amat; e l'amat mès en presó la volentat en l'amic, per ço que fos per ell amat e servit.
228. Deia l'amic: - No es cuit mon amat que jo sia departit a amar altre amat; cor amor m'ha tot ajustat a amar un amat tan solament. Respòs l'amat, e dix: - No es cuit mon amic que jo sia amat e servit per ell tan solament, ans he molts amadors per qui són amat pus fortament e pus llongament que per sa amor.
229. Deia l'amic a son amat: - Amable amat: tu has mos ulls acostumats e nodrits a veer, e mes orelles a oir, tos honraments; e per açò és acostumat mon cor a pensaments, per los quals has acostumats mos ulls a plorar e mon cors a llanguir. Respòs l'amat a l'amic e dix que sens aitals costumes e nodriments no fóra escrit en lo llibre son nom, en lo qual són escrits tots aquells qui vénen a eternal benedicció, e son delits llurs noms del llibre on són escrits aquells qui van a eternal maledicció.
230. En lo cor de l'amic s'ajusten los nobles capteniments de l'amat, e muntipliquen los pensaments e els treballs en l'amic, lo qual fóra finit e mort si l'amat muntiplicàs en los pensaments de l'amic pus de sos honraments.
231. Venc l'amat albergar a l'hostal de son amic, e féu-li son amic llit de pensaments; e servien-li sospirs e plors. E pagà l'amat son hostal, de remembraments.
232. Mesclà amor los treballs e els plaers en los pensaments de l'amic; e clamaren-se los plaers d'aquell mesclament, e acusaren amor a l'amat; e feniren e deliren los plaers, con l'amat los hacs departits dels turments que amor dóna a sos amadors.
233. Los senyals de les amors que l'amic fa a son amat són: en lo començament plors, e en lo mig tribulacions, e en la fi mort. E per aquells senyals l'amic preïca los amadors de son amat.
234. Assoliava's l'amic, e acompanyaven son cor pensaments, e sos ulls llàgremes e plors, e son cors afliccions e dejunis. E com l'amic tornava en la companyia de les gents, desemparaven-lo totes les coses damunt dites, e estava l'amic tot sol enfre les gents.
235. Amor és mar tribulada d'ondes e de vents, qui no ha port ni ribatge. Pereix l'amic en la mar, e en son perill pereixen sos turments e neixen sos compliments.
236. - Digues, foll: què és amor? Respòs: - Amor és concordança de tesòrica e de pràtica a una fi, a la qual se mou lo compliment de la volentat de l'amic, per ço que faça a les gents honrar e servir son amat. E és qüestió si la fi se cové pus fortment ab la volentat de l'amic qui desija ésser ab son amat.
237. Demanaren a l'amic qui era son amat. Respòs que ço qui el faïa amar, desirar, llanguir, sospirar, plorar, escarnir, morir.
238. Demanaren a l'amat qui era son amic. Respòs que aquell qui per honrar e lloar sos honraments no dubtava nulles coses, e qui a totes coses renunciava per obeir sos manaments e sos consells.
239. - Digues, foll: qual feix és pus feixuc e pus greu: o treballs per amor, o treballs per desamor? Respòs que ho demanàs als hòmens qui fan penitència per amor a son amat o per temor dels turments infernals.
240. Adormí's l'amic e morí amor, cor no hac de què visqués. Despertà's l'amic e reviscolà amor en los pensaments que l'amic tramès a son amat.
241. Deia l'amic que ciència infusa venia de volentat, devoció, oració, e ciència adquisita venia d'estudi, enteniment. E per açò és qüestió qual ciència és pus tost en l'amic, ni qual li és pus agradable, ni qual és major en l'amic.
242. - Digues, foll: d'on has tes necessitats? Respòs: - De pensaments, e de desirar, adorar, treballar, perseverança. - E d'on has totes aquestes coses? Respòs: - D'amor. - E d'on has amor? - De mon amat. - E d'on has ton amat? - De si mateix tan solament.
243. - Digues, foll: vols ésser franc de totes coses? Respòs que hoc, exeptat son amat. - Vols ésser catiu? Respòs que: - Hoc de sospirs, e pensaments, treballs, e perills, e exils, plors, a servir mon amat, al qual són creat per lloar ses valors.
244. Turmentava amor l'amic per lo qual turment plorava e planyia l'amic. Cridava'l son amat que s'acostàs a ell per ço que sanàs. On pus l'amic a son amat s'acostava pus fortment amor lo turmentava, cor més d'amor sentia. E cor més de plaers sentia on més amava, pus fortment l'amat de sos llanguiments lo sanava.
245. Malalta era amor. Metjava-la l'amic ab paciència, perseverança, obediència, esperança; guaria l'amor. Emmalaltia l'amic; sanava-lo l'amat donant-li remembrament de ses virtuts e de sos honraments.
246. - Digues, foll: què és solitudo? Respòs: - Solaç e companyia d'amic e amat. - E què és solaç e companyia? Respòs que solitudo estant en coratge d'amic qui no membra mas tan solament son amat.
247. Qüestió fo feta a l'amic: - On és major perill: en sostenir treballs per amor, o benanances? Acordà's l'amic ab son amat, e dix que perills per malanances són per impaciència, e perills per benanances són per desconeixença.
248. Solvé l'amat amor, e llicencià les gents que en prenguessen a tota llur volentat; e a penes atrobà amor qui la metés en son coratge. E per açograve; plorà l'amic e hac tristícia de la deshonor que amor pren sajús enfre nós, per falses amadors e per hòmens desconeixents.
249. Aucí amor en lo coratge de son vertader amic totes coses, per ço que hi pogués viure e caber; e hagra mort l'amic si no hagués membrança de son amat.
250. Havia en l'amic dos pensaments: la un cogitava tots jorns en l'essència e en les virtuts de son amat; e l'altra cogitava en les obres de son amat. E per açò era qüestió qual pensament era pus llugorós, pus agradable a l'amat e a l'amic.
251. Morí l'amic per força de gran amor. Soterrà'l en sa terra l'amat, en la qual fo l'amic ressuscitat. E és qüestió l'amic de qual reebé major do.
252. En la presó de l'amat eren malanances, perills, llanguiments, deshonors, estranyedats, per ço que no embargassen son amic a lloar sos honraments e a enamorar los hòmens qui l'han en menyspreament.
253. Estava l'amic un dia denant molts hòmens que son amat havia en est món massa honrats, per ço cor lo deshonraven en llurs pensaments. Aquells menyspreaven son amat e escarnien sos servidors. Plorà l'amic, tirà sos cabells, baté sa cara e rompé sos vestiments; e cridà altament: - Fo anc fet tan gran falliments com menysprear mon amat?
254. - Digues, foll: vols morir? Respòs que: - Hoc, en los delits d'aquest món e en los pensaments dels maleïts qui obliden e deshonren mon amat; en los quals pensaments no vull ésser entès ni volgut, pus que no hi és mon amat.
255. - Si tu, foll, dius veritat, seràs per les gents ferit, e escarnit, reprès, turmentat e mort. Respòs: - Segons aitals paraules, se segueix que si deia falsies, fos lloat, amat, servit, honrat per les gents, e defès dels amadors de mon amat.
256. Falses lloadors blasmaven un dia l'amic en presència de son amat. Havia l'amic paciència, e l'amat justícia, saviea, poder. E l'amic amà més ésser blasmat e reprès, que ésser negú dels falses blasmadors.
257. Sembrava l'amat diverses sements en lo cor de son amic, d'on naixia, e fullava, e floria e granava el fruit tan solament. E és qüestió si d'aquell fruit poden néixer diverses sements.
258. Sobre amor està molt altament l'amat, e dejús amor està molt baixament l'amic. E amor, qui està en lo mig, davalla l'amat a l'amic, e puja l'amic a l'amat. E del davallament e pujament, viu e pren començament l'amor per la qual llangueix l'amic e és servit l'amat.
259. A la dreta part d'amor està l'amat, e l'amic està a la sinestra; e per açò, sens que l'amic no pas per amor, no pot pervenir a son amat.
260. E denant amor està l'amat e detràs l'amat està l'amic. E per açò l'amic no pot pervenir a amor tro que ha passats sos pensaments e sos desirers per l'amat.
261. Fa l'amat a son amic tres semblants a si mateix amats, en honraments e valors. E enamora's l'amic de tots tres egualment, jacsia que l'amor sia una tan solament, a significancça de la unitat, una en tres amats essencialment.
262. Vestí's l'amat del drap on era vestit son amic, per ço que fos son companyó en glòria eternalment. E per açò l'amic desirà tots jorns vermells vestiments, per ço que el drap sia mills semblant als vestiments de son amat.
263. - Digues, foll: què faïa ton amat ans que el món fos? Respòs: - Covenia's a ésser per diverses propietats eternals, personals, infinides, on són amic e amat.
264. Plorava e havia tristícia l'amic com veia a los infeels innorantment perdre son amat; e alegrava's en la justícia de son amat, que turmentava aquells qui el coneixien e li eren desobedients. E per açò fo-li feta qüestió qual era major: o sa tristícia, o sa alegrança, ni si havia major benanança com veia honrar son amat, o major malanança com lo veia deshonrar.
265. Esguardava l'amic son amat en la major diferència e concordança de virtuts, e en la major contrarietat de virtuts e de vicis, e en ésser perfecció, qui es covenen pus fortment sens defalliment e no ésser, que ab defalliment e ab no ésser.
266. Los secrets de son amat veia l'amic, per diversitat, concordança, qui li revelaven pluralitat, unitat en son amat, per major conveniment d'essència sens contrarietat.
267. Digueren a l'amic que si corrupció, qui és contra ésser en ço qui és contra generació, qui és contra no ésser, era eternalment corrompent corromput, impossible cosa seria que no ésser ni fi se concordàs ab la corrupció ni el corromput. On, per estes paraules, l'amic viu en son amat generació eternal.
268. Si fos falsetat ço per què l'amic pot més amar son amat, fóra veritat ço per què l'amic no pot tant amar son amat; e si açò fos enaixí, seguira's que defalliment fos de major e de veritat en l'amat, e hagra en l'amat concordança de falsetat e menor.
269. Lloava l'amic son amat, e deia que si son amat ha major possibilitat a perfecció e major impossibilitat a imperfecció, cové que son amat sia simple, pura, actualitat en essència e en operació. On, dementre que l'amic enaixí lloava son amat, li era revelada la trinitat de son amat.
270. Veia l'amic en nombre d'un o de tres major concordança que en altre nombre, per ço cor tota forma corporal venia de no ésser a ésser per lo nombre damunt dit. E per açò l'amic esguardava la unitat e la trinitat de son amat per la major concordança de nombre.
271. L'amic lloava lo poder, e el saber e el voler de son amat, qui havien creades totes coses, enfora pecat; lo qual pecat no fóra sens lo poder, e el saber e el voler de son amat; al qual pecat no són ocasióo lo poder, ni el saber ni el voler de son amat.
272. Lloava e amava l'amic son amat com l'havia creat e li havia donades totes coses; e lloava'l e amava'l com li plac pendre sa semblança e sa natura. E d'açò cové ésser feta qüestió qual llaor e amor deu haver major perfecció.
273. Temptà amor l'amic de saviesa, e féu-li qüestió si l'amat l'amava més en pendre sa natura o en recrear-lo. E l'amic fo embarbesclat, tro que respòs que la recreació se convenc a esquivar malanança, e l'encarnació a donar benanança. E de la responsió fo feta altra qüestió: qual fo major amor.
274. Anava l'amic demanar almoina per les portes, per ço que remembràs l'amor de son amat a sos servidors, e per ço que usàs d'humilitat, pobretat paciència, qui són coses agradables a son amat.
275. Demanaren perdó a l'amic per amor de son amat; e l'amic no tan solament perdonà ans los donà si mateix e sos béns.
276. Ab llàgremes de sos ulls recontava l'amic la passió e la dolor que son amat sostenc per sa amor; e ab tristícia, pensaments, escrivia les paraules que deia; e ab misericòrdia, esperança, se conhortava.
277. L'amat e amor vengren veer l'amic qui dormia. L'amat cridà a son amic, e amor lo despertà. E l'amic obeí a amor, e respòs a son amat.
278. Nodria l'amat son amic a amar; e amor ensenyava-li a perillar, e paciència l'adoctrinava con sostengués treballs per l'amor d'aquell a qui s'és donat per servidor.
279. Demanava l'amat a les gents si havien vist son amic, e ells demanaren-li les calitats de son amic; e l'amat dix que son amic era ardit, temerós, ric e pobre, alegre, trist, consirós, e llanguia tots jorns per sa amor.
280. E demanaren a l'amic si volia vendre son desirer; e ell respòs que venut l'havia a son amat per un tal diner que tot lo món ne poria ésser comprat.
281. - Preïca, foll, e digues paraules de ton amat. Plora, dejuna! Renuncià al món l'amic, e anà cercar son amat ab amor, e lloava-lo en aquells llocs on era deshonrat.
282. Bastia e obrava l'amic una bella ciutat on estegués son amat. Ab amor, pensaments, plants, plors e llanguiments l'obrava; e ab plaers, esperança, devoció, l'ornava; e ab fe, justícia, prudència, fortitudo, temprança, la guarnia.
283. Bevia l'amic amor en la font de son amat, en la qual l'amat llavà los peus a son amic, qui moltes vegades ha oblidats, menyspreats, sos honraments; per què lo món és en defalliment.
284. - Digues, foll: què és pecat? Respòs: - Entenció girada e enversada contra la final entenció e raó per què mon amat ha creades totes coses.
285. Veia l'amic que el món és creat, com sia cosa que eternitat se convenga mills ab son amat, qui és essència infinida en granea e en tota perfecció, que ab lo món, qui ha cantitat finida. E, per açò, en la justícia de son amat veia l'amic que l'eternitat de son amat cové ésser davant a temps e a cantitat finida.
286. Escusava l'amic son amat a aquells qui deien que el món és eternal, dient que son amat no hagra justícia perfeta si no retés a cascuna ànima son cors; a lo qual no fóra bastant lloc ni matèria ordial; ni el món no fóra ordenat a una fi tan solament si fos eternal; e si no ho fos, defallira en son amat perfecció de volentat, saviea.
287. - Digues, foll: en què has coneixença que la fe catòlica sia vera, e la creença dels jueus e dels sarraïns sien en falsetat e error? Respòs: - En les deu condicions del Llibre del gentil e dels tres savis .
288. - Digues, foll: en què comença saviea? Respòs: - En fe e en devoció, qui són escala on puja l'enteniment entendre los secrets de mon amat. - E fe e devoció, d'on han començament ? Respòs: - De mon amat, qui inlumena fe e escalfa devoció.
289. Demanaren a l'amic qual cosa era major: o possibilitat, o impossibilitat. Respòs que possibilitat era major en creatura, e impossibilitat en son amat; con sia cosa que possibilitat e potència se concorden, e impossibilitat e actualitat.
290. - Digues, foll: qual cosa és major: o diferència, o concordança ? Respòs que, fora son amat, diferència era major en pluralitat, e concordança en unitat, mas en son amat eren eguals en diferència e unitat.
291. - Digues, amador: què és valor? Respòs que lo contrari de la valor d'aquest món, la qual és desirada per los falsos amadors vanagloriosos, qui volen valer havents desvalor e per ´sser perseguidors de valor.
292. - Digues, foll: has vist home qui sia orat? Respòs que ell havia vist un bisbe qui havia a sa taula molts anaps e moltes escudelles e talladors d'argent, e havia en sa cambra moltes vestedures e gran llit, e en ses caixes molts diners; e a la porta de son palau havia pocs pobres.
293. - Foll: saps què és viltat? - Vils pensaments. - E què és lleialtat? - Temor de mon amat, nada de caritat e de vergonya, qui tem blasme de les gents. - E què és honrament? Respòs: - Cogitar mon amat, e desirar e lloar sos honraments.
294. Los treballs e les tribulacions que l'amic sostenia per amor, l'alteraren e l'enclinaren a impaciència; e reprès-lo l'amat ab sos honraments e ab sos prometiments, dient que poc sabia d'amor qui s'alterava per maltrets ni per benanança. Hac l'amic contrició e plors, e pregà son amat qui li retés amors.
295. - Foll, digues: què és amor? Respòs que amor és aquella cosa qui los francs met en servitud e a los serfs dóna llibertat. E és qüestió a qual és pus prop amor: o a llibertat, o a servitud.
296. Cridava l'amat son amic, e ell li responia dient: - Què et plau, amat qui est ulls de mos ulls, e pensaments de mos pensaments, e compliment de mos compliments, e amor de mes amors, e encara començament de mos començaments?
297. - Amat - deia l'amic -, a tu vaig e en tu vaig, car m'apelles. Contemplar vaig contemplació, ab contemplació de ta contemplació. En ta virtut só, e ab ta virtut venc, d'on prenc vertut. Salut-te ab ta salutació, qui és ma salutació en ta salutació, de la qual esper salutació perdurable en benedicció de ta benedicció, en la qual beneït són en ma benedicció.
298. Alt est, amat, en tes altees, a les quals exalces ma volentat, exalçada en ton exalçament ab ta altea, qui exalça en mon remembrament mon enteniment, exalçat en ton exalçament, per conèixer tos honraments e per ço que la volentat n'haja exalçat enamorament e la memòria n'haja alta remembrança.
299. - Glòria est, amat, de ma glòria;; e ab ta glòria e en la glòria, dónes glòria a ma glòria, qui ha glòria de ta glòria. Per la qual tua glòria, me són glòria egualment los treballs e los llanguiments qui em vénen per honrar ta glòria ab los plaers e els pensaments qui em vénen de ta glòria.
300. - Amat: en lo carçre d'amor me tens enamorat ab tes amors, qui m'han enamorat de tes amors, per tes amors e en tes amors. Cor àls no est mas amors, en les quals me fas estar sol e ab companyia de tes amors e de tos honraments. Car tu est sol en mi sol, qui són solitari ab mos pensaments, con la solitat tua, sola en honors, m'haja sola a lloar e honrar ses valors sens temor dels desconeixements qui no t'han sol en llurs amors.
301. Solaç est, amat, de solaç; perquè en tu assolaç mos pensaments ab ton solaç, qui és solaç e confort de mos llanguiments e de mes tribulacions, qui són tribulades en ton solaç con no assolaces los innorants ab ton solaç e con los coneixents de ton solaç no enamores pus fortment a honrar tos honraments.
302. Clamava's l'amic, a son senyor, de son amat, e a son amat de son senyor. Deien lo senyor e l'amat: - Qui fa en nóos departiment, qui som una cosa tan solament ? Responia l'amic e deia que pietat de senyor e tribulació per amat.
303. Perillava l'amic en lo gran pèlag d'amor, e confiava's en son amat, qui li acorria ab tribulacions, pensaments, llàgremes e plors, sospirs e llanguiments, per ç cor lo pèlag era d'amors, e d'honrar ses honors.
304. Alegrava's l'amic cor era son amat, cor per son ésser és tot altre ésser esdevengut, e sostentat, e obligat, e sotsmès a honrar, servir, l'ésser de son amat, qui per null ésser no pot ésser delit, ni encolpat, ni minvat ni crescut.
305. - Amat: en la tua granea fas grans mos desirers, e mos pensaments, e mos treballs; cor tant és gran, que tota res és gran que de tu ha membrança, e enteniment e plaer; e ta granea fa poques totes coses qui són contra tos honraments, manaments.
306. - Eternalment comença, e ha començat e començarà mon amat; e eternalment no comença ni ha començat ni començarà . E aquests començaments no són contradicció en mon amat, per ço cor és eternal, e ha en si unitat e trinitat.
307. - Lo meu amat és un, e en sa unitat s'uneixen en una volentat mos pensaments e mes amors; e la unitat de mon amat abasta a totes unitats e a totes pluralitats; e la pluralitat qui és en mon amat abasta a totes unitats e pluralitats.
308. - Sobirà bé és lo bé de mon amat, qui és bé de mon bé; cor és bé mon amat sens altre bé, cor si no ho fos, mon bé fóra d'altre bé sobirà. E cor no ho és, sia doncs tot lo meu bé despès en esta vida, a honrar lo sobirà bé, cor enaixí cové.
309. - Si tu, amat, saps mi pecador, sí et fas tu piadós e perdonador. E per ço que saps en tu est mellor que mi, doncs jo sé en tu perdó e amor, pus que tu fas saber a mi contrició, e dolor, e desire de prendre mort per lloar ta valor.
310. - Lo teu poder, amat, me pot salvar per benignitat, pietat e perdó, e pot-me damnar per justícia e per colpes de mos falliments. Complesca ton poder ton voler en mi; cor tot és compliment, sia que em dons salvació o damnament.
311. - Amat: veritat visita la construcció de mon cor, e puja aigua a mos ulls com ma volentat l'ama; e cor la tua veritat és sobirana, puja veritat sajús ma volentat, a honrar tos honraments, e davalla-la a desamar mos defalliments.
312. Anc ver no fo ço en què mon amat no fo, e fals és ço en què mon amat no és, e fals serà ço en què mon amat no serà. E per açò de necessitat és que sia veritat tot quant serà, ni fo, ni és, si mon amat hi és, e per açò fals és qui és en ver on mon amat no és, sens que no se'n segueix contradicció.
313. Creà l'amat e destruí l'amic. Jutjà l'amat, plorà l'amic. Recreà l'amat, glorià l'amic. Fení l'amat sa operació, e romàs l'amic eternalment en companyia de son amat.
314. Per les carreres de vegetació, e de sentiment, e d'imaginació, e d'enteniment, volentat, anava l'amic cercar son amat; e en aquelles carreres havia l'amic perills e llanguiments per son amat, per ço que exalçàs son enteniment e sa volentat a son amat, qui vol que els seus amadors l'entenen a l'amen altament.
315. Mou-se l'amic a ésser per l'acabament de son amat, e mou-se a no ésser per son defalliment. E per açò és qüestió qual dels dos moviments han major apoderament en l'amic naturalment.
316. - Posat m'has, amat, enfre mon mal e ton b´. A la tua part sia pietat, misericòrdia, paciència, humilitat e perdó, ajuda e restaurament; a la mia part sia contrició, perseverança, membrança, ab sospirs, llàgremes e plors, de la tua santa passió.
317. - Amat qui em fas amar: si no m'ajudes, per què em volguist crear ? Ni per què per mi portest tantes llangors, ni sostenguist tan greu passió ? Pus tant m'has ajudat a exalçar, ajuda'm, amat, a davallar, a membrar, aïrar, mes colpes e mos defalliments, per ço que mills mos pensaments pusquen pujar a desirar, honrar, lloar tes valors.
318. - Mon voler has fet franc a amar tos honraments, e a menysprear tes valors, per ço que pusques a mon voler muntiplicar tes amors.
319. - En aquesta llibertat has, amat, perillada ma volentat. Amat: en aquest perill deus remembrar ton amic, qui de sa volentat franca trau servitud a lloar tes honors e a muntiplicar en son cors llanguiments e plors.
320. - Amat: anc de tu en ton amic no venc colpa ni falliment, ni en ton amic compliment sens ton do e perdó. E doncs, pus l'amic t'ha en aital possessió, no l'hages en oblit en ses tribulacions ni en son perillament.
321. - Amat, qui en un nom est nomenat hom e Déu! En aquell nom, Jesucrist, te vol ma volentat home de Déu; e si tu, amat, has tant honrat ton amic sens sos mèrits, en nomenar e voler ton nom, per què no honres tants hòmens innorables qui cientalment no són estats tan colpables al teu nom, Jesucrist, con és estat lo teu amic ?
322. Plorava l'amic, e deia a son amat aquestes paraules: - Amat, no fuist anc avar ni còbeu al teu amic en donar ésser, ni en recrear-lo, ni en donar-li moltes creatures a son servii. Doncs, d'on vendria, amat, que tu, qui est sobirana llibertat, fosses avar a ton amic, de plors, pensaments, llanguiments, saviea e amors, a honrar tes honors ? E per açò, amat, lo teu amic te demana vida llonga, per tal que pusca reebre de tu molts dels dons damunt dits.
323. - Amat: si tu ajudes als hòmens justs de llurs mortals enemics, ajuda a muntiplicar mos pensaments en desirar tes honors; e si tu ajudes als hòmens injusts, com recobren justícia, ajuda al teu amic com faça de sa volentat sacrifici a ta llaor, e de son cors, a testimoni d'amor per via de martire.
324. - No ha mon amat diferència en humilitat, humil, humilitat, cor tot és humilitat en pura actualitat. E per açò l'amic reprèn ergull, qui vol pujar a son amat aquells qui en est món la humilitat de mon amat a tant honrats, e ergull los ha vestits d'hipocresia, vanaglòria, vanitats.
325. Humilitat ha humiliat l'amat a l'amic, per contrició; e sí es féu per devoció. E és qüestió en qual d'ambdues l'amat fos pus fortment humilitat a l'amic.
326. Hac l'amat, per sa perfecció, misericòrdia de son amic, e sí hac per les necessitats de son amic. E fo qüestió per qual de les dues raons l'amat perdonà pus fortment les colpes de son amic.
327. Pregaven nostra Dona e los àngels e els sants de glòria mon amat; e com remembré l'error en què el món és per desconeixença, membré gran la justícia de mon amat, e gran la desconeixença de sos enemics.
328. Pujava l'amic los poders de sa ànima, per escala d'humanitat, gloriejar la divina natura; e per la divinal natura davallava los poders de sa ànima per gloriejar en la humana natura de son amat.
329. On pus estretes són les vies on l'amic va a son amat, pus amples són les amors; e on pus estretes són les amors, pus amples són les vies. E per açò, en totes maneres ha l'amic per son amat amors e treballs, e llanguiments e plaers e consolacions.
330. Ixen amors d'amors, e pensaments de llanguiments, e plors de llanguiments; e entren amors en amors, e pensaments en plors, e llanguiments en sospirs. E l'amat esguarda's son amic, qui ha per sa amor totes aquestes tribulacions.
331. Tranuitaven e faïen romaries e pelegrinacions los desirers e els remembraments de l'amic en les noblees de son amat, e aportaven a l'amic faiçons, e omplien son enteniment de resplendor, per la qual la volentat muntiplicava ses amors.
332. L'amic, ab sa imaginació, pintava e formava les faiçons de son amat en les coses corporals, e ab son enteniment les polia en les coses esperituals, e ab volentat les adorava en totes creatures.
333. Comprà l'amic un dia de plors per altre dia de pensaments, e vené un dia d'amors per altre de tribulacions; e muntiplicaren ses amors e sos pensaments.
334. Era l'amic en terra estranya, e oblidà son amat, e enyorà's de son senyor e sa muller e sos infants, e de sos amics. Mas retornà remembrar son amat, per ço que fos consolat e que la sua estranyedat no li donàs enyorament ni marriment.
335. Oïa l'amic paraules de son amat, en les quals lo veia son enteniment, per ço cor la volentat havia plaer d'aquell oïment; e lo remembrament membrava les virtuts de son amat, e los seus prometiments.
336. Oïa blasmar l'amic son amat, en lo qual blasma veia l'enteniment la justícia e la paciència de son amat, cor la justícia punia los blasmadors, e la paciència los esperava a contrició, penediment. E per açò és qüestió en qual dels dos l'amic creia pus fortment.
337. Malalt fo l'amic, e féu testament ab consell de son amat. Colpes e torts lleixà a penediment, penitència; e delits temporals lleixà a menyspreament; a sos ulls lleixà plors, e a son cor sospirs e amors; e a son enteniment lleixà les faiçons de son amat; e a son remembrament la passió que sostenc per sa amor son amat; e a son negoci lleixà l'endreçament dels infeels, qui innorantment van a penediment.
338. Odorà l'amic flors, e remembrà pudors en ric avar, e en luxuriós, e en desconeixent ergullós. Gustà l'amic dolçors, e entès amargors en les possessions temporals, e en l'entrament e iximent d'aquest món. Sentí l'amic plaers temporals, e l'enteniment entès lo breu traspassament d'aquest món e los perdurables turments als quals són ocasió los delits qui a aquest món són agradables.
339. Hac l'amic fam, set, calor e fred, pobresa, nuedat, malaltia, tribulació e fóra finit si no hagués membrança de son amat, qui el sanà ab esperança remembrament, e ab lo renunciament d'aquest món, e ab lo menyspreament del blasme de la gent.
340. Enfre treball e plaer era lo llit de l'amic: ab plaer s'adormia, e ab treball se despertava. E és qüestió a qual d'aquests dos és pus prop lo llit de l'amic.
341. En ira s'adormí l'amic, cor temia lo blasme de la gent; e despertà's en paciència, com remembrà llaors de son amat. E és qüestió l'amic de qui hac major vergonya: o de son amat, o de les gents.
342. Cogità l'amic en la mort, e hac paor tro que remembrà la ciutat de son amat, de la qual mort e amor són portals e entrament.
343. Clamava's l'amic a son amat de temptacions qui li venien tots jorns treballar sos pensaments. E l'amat li respòs dient que temptacions són ocasió com hom recorra ab remembrament remembrar Déu; e amar sos honrats capteniments.
344. Perdé l'amic una joia que molt amava; e fóra's desconsolat, tro que son amat li féu qüestió qual cosa li era pus profitable: o la joia que havia, o la paciència que hac en les obres de son amat.
345. Dormia l'amic considerant en los treballs e els empatxaments los quals ha en servir son amat, e hac paor que ses obres no perissen per aquells empatxaments. Mas l'amat li tramès consciència que el despertà en sos mèrits e en los poders de son amat.
346. Havia l'amic a anar llongues carreres, e dures e aspres; e era temps que anàs per aquelles e que portàs lo gran feix que amor fa portar a sos amadors. E per açò l'amic alleujà sa ànima dels pensaments e els plaers temporals, per ço que el cors pogués portar lo càrrec pus lleugerament, e l'ànima anàs per aquelles carreres en companyia ab son amat.
347. Denant l'amic deien un jorn mal de son amat, sens que l'amic no hi respòs ni escusà son amat. E és qüestió qual és pus encolpat: o els hòmens qui blasmaven l'amat, o l'amic qui callava e no escusava son amat.
348. Contemplant l'amic son amat, s'assubtilava en son enteniment, e enamorava's en sa volentat. E és qüestió per qual dels dos assubtilava pus fortment sa remembrança a remembrar son amat.
349. Ab frevor e temor anava l'amic en son viatge honrar son amat: frevor lo portava, temor lo conservava. Dementre que l'amic enaixí anava, atrobà sospirs e plors qui li aportaven saluts de son amat. E és qüestió per qual de tots quatre fo mills assolaçat l'amic en son amat.
350. Esguardava l'amic si mateix per ço que fos mirall on veés son amat, e esguardava son amat per ço que li fos mirall on hagués coneixença de si mateix. E és qüestió a qual dels dos miralls era son enteniment pus acostat.
351. Teologia e Filosofia, Medicina e Dret encontraren l'amic qui els demanà de noves si havien vist son amat. Teologia plorava, Filosofia dubtava, Medicina e Dret s'alegraven. E és qüestió què significava cascú dels quatre significats a l'amic qui va cercar son amat.
352. Angoixós e plorós anava l'amic encercar son amat per vies sensuals e per carreres entel·lectuals. E és qüestió en qual dels dos camins entrà primerament dementre cercava son amat, ni en qual l'amat se mostrà a l'amic pus declaradament.
353. El dia del judici dirà l'amat que hom triï a una part ço que en aquest món li ha donat, e a altra part sia triat ço que hom ha donat al món, per ço que sia vist com coralment és estat amat, ni qual dels dos dons és pus noble e de major cantitat.
354. Amava la volentat de l'amic si mateixa, e l'enteniment demanà-li si era pus semblant a son amat en amar si mateixa o en amar son amat, com sia cosa que son amat sia pus amant si mateix que nulla altra cosa. E per açò é qüestió segons qual responsió la volentat poc respondre a l'enteniment pus vertaderament.
355. - Digues, foll: qual és la major e la pus noble amor que sia en creatura ? Respòs: - Aquella qui és una ab lo creador. - Per què ? - Per ço cor lo creador no ha en què pusca fer pus noble creatura.
356. Estava l'amic un dia en oració e sentí que sos ulls no ploraven; e per ço que pogués plorar tramès sa cogitació cogitar en diners, fembres, fills, viandes, vanaglòria; e atrobà en son enteniment que més gents han de servidors cascuna de les coses damunt dites, que no ha son amat. E per açò foren sos ulls en plors, e sa ànima en tristícia e dolor.
357. Anava l'amic consirós en son amat, e atrobà en la via grans gents e grans companyes qui li demanaven de noves; e l'amic, per ço cor atrobava plaer en son amat, no respòs a ço que li demanaven, e dix que per ço que no es llunyàs de son amat no volia respondre a llurs paraules.
358. Era l'amic dintre e defora cobert d'amor, e anava cercar son amat. Deia-li amor: - On vas, amador ? Respòs: - Vaig a mon amat per ço que tu sies major.
359. - Digues, foll: què és religió ? Respòs: - Nedeetat de pensa, e desirar morir per honrar mon amat, e renunciar al món per ço que no haja embargament a contemplar-lo e a dir veritat de sos honraments.
360. - Digues, foll: què són treballs, plants, sospirs, plors, tribulacions, perills, en amic ? Respòs: - Plaer d'amat. - Per què ? - Per ço que en sia més amat, e l'amic més guardonat.
361. Demanaren a l'amic amor en qual era major: o en l'amic qui vivia, o en l'amic qui moria. Respòs que en l'amic qui moria. - Per què ? - Per ço cor no pot ésser major en amic qui mor per amor, e pot-ho ésser en amic qui viu per amor.
362. Encontraren-se dos amics; la un mostrava son amat, e l'altre l'entenia. E era qüestió qual d'ambdós era pus prop a son amat. E per la solució l'amic havia coneixença de la demostració de trinitat.
363. - Digues, foll: per què parles tan subtilment ? Respòs: - Per ço que sia ocasió a exalçar enteniment a les noblees de mon amat, e per què per més homes sia honrat, amat e servit.
364. Embriagava's l'amic de vi, qui membrava, entenia e amava l'amat. Aquell vi amarava l'amat ab sos plors e ab les llàgremes de son amic.
365. Amor escalfava e aflamava l'amic en membrança de son amat; e l'amat lo refredava ab llàgremes e plors, e ab oblidament dels delits d'aquest món, e ab renunciament dels vans honraments. E creixien les amors com l'amic membrava per qui sostenia llangors, tribulacions, ni los hòmens mundans per qui sostenien treballs, persecucions.
366. - Digues, foll: què és aquest món ? Respòs: - Presó dels amadors, servidors, de mon amat. - E qui els met en presó ? Respòs: - Consciència, amor, temor, renunciament, contrició, companyia d'àvol agent; e és treball sens guardó, on és puniment. Cor Blanquerna havia a tractar del llibre de l' Art de contemplació , per açò volc finir lo Llibre de l'Amic e l'Amat . Lo qual és a glòria e a lausor de nostre senyor Déus.
BOOK of the LOVER and the BELOVED
The first section of the fifth part of the Book of Evast and Blaquerna consists of a collection of ‘moral metaphors’, that is to say, aphorisms with a religious content, expressing the protagonists experiences of contemplation once he has become a hermit. The composition of the Book of the Lover and the Beloved (Llibre d’amic e amat) reveals a didactic pretext in Chapter 97 of the novel: certain disciples ask master Blaquerna to teach them his method of raising the spirit and he, while recalling the extraordinary devotion of those Muslim mystics known as Sufis, decides to compress into as many lines of verse as the year has days, a conceptual and literary distillation of the life he has devoted to the love of God.
The most recent critical edition of the Book of the Lover and the Beloved shows that the number of lines does not correspond exactly to the number of days in a year. It is a minor detail which reveals to us the ‘practical’, that is to say, speculative and poetic, nature of the collection; in the fifth part of Blaquerna it is accompanied, in fact, by a theoretical treatise, the ‘Art of Contemplation’.
The aphorisms in the Book of the Lover and the Beloved are not organised thematically, and they display a variety of literary forms: dialogue, questions, descriptions, definitions, and narrative. The central theme is the relationship between the religious man, the lover [‘l’amic’], and the transcendent being, the beloved [‘l’amat’], in the light of the bond which unites them, namely, love.
Llull’s Art, which is inventive, demonstrative, contemplative and also ‘amative’, explains how the process of seeking out God operates in a technical sense: for this reason, an important part of the Book of the Lover and the Beloved is devoted to commentating upon the behaviour of the three faculties of the rational soul (understanding, memory and will) during the amorous leap from creature to Creator. Another section of the versicles sets out reflections upon the divine essence: the Dignities, the Trinity, and the Incarnation are always viewed in terms of the precise idiom of Llull’s Art. Behind the apparent looseness of its literary motives, this short work, therefore, has, a solid structure of thought and a strict coherence with regard to the meaning of mystical union: the intellect opens the way towards comprehension of God, but the loving will is what drives the lover, if his memory has not forgotten his beloved.
The most celebrated aspects of the Book of the Lover and the Beloved are those which describe the (always secondary) role played by creatures (the sun, stars, clouds, birds, paths…) in stimulating love for God, and the emotional condition of the enamoured soul, buffeted by desire, forgetfulness, suffering, the search for God, longing and tears. It is here that Llull’s writing echoes themes from universal love poetry, from the Song of Songs to the Occitan troubadours, and always from the particular standpoint of the impulse towards the transcendent. It is not easy to specify parallelisms with great Sufi mystical literature, just as possible borrowings from the Judaeo-Christian tradition also remain unclear. The formulations put forward by Llull in place of the old reasons of universal scope are powerfully personal.
font: http://quisestlullus.narpan.net/eng/78_amic_eng.html
[english version]
1. Exortation and Preface
1.1. How eremite Blanquerna made the "Book of the Lover and the Beloved".
It happened, one day, that the eremite who was going through Rome, referred to earlier, visited the eremites who were in Rome, and found that they were having many temptations on certain things, since they did not know how to observe the behavior that was proper of their lives; and he thought of asking the eremite Blanquerna to write a book about the life of the eremite, so that through that book the other eremites could know and were able to be in contemplation and devotion. While Blanquerna was in prayer one day, that eremite came to Blanquerna's cell and he made this request about the book. Blanquerna thought hard of the way to make the book, and what subject it would be on.
As Blanquerna was musing in this thought, he felt the will to give himself to the adoration and comtemplation of God, so that while praying, God would show him the way to make his book and the subject it should be on. While Blanquerna was crying and adoring, and God had risen his soul, who was contemplating him, to the sublime extreme of his strength, Blanquerna felt himself being elevated above form, through the great fervor and devotion he was in, and he thought that the strength of love does not follow the way the lover loves his beloved most intensely. So then, Blanquerna was willing to make the Book of the Lover and the Beloved , where the Lover would be the faithful and devoted Christian, and the beloved would be God.
While Blanquerna was deliberating in this way, he remembered that once, when he was an apostle, he was told by a Moor that the Moors have some religious men, and among the others and those who are most appreciated among them, there are the people called ``suffies'', who have words of love and brief examples which give great devotion to men; and they are words which need to be professed, and through their explanation understanding rises to a higher state, and through this rise the will of devotion can grow and multiply. Whereby, when Blanquerna had had this consideration, he proposed to make the book in the aforementioned way, and he told the eremite to go back to Rome, and that he would briefly send to him, through the deacon, the Book of the Lover and the Beloved , by which he could multiply fervor and devotion among the eremites, who he wanted to fall in love with God.
1.2. On the Book of the Lover and the Beloved. On the preface.
Blanquerna was in prayer and he reflected on the way he contemplated God and his virtues; and when he had finished his prayer, he wrote about what he had contemplated God in. He did this every day; and he put new ideas in his prayer in order to compose in many diverse ways the Book of the Lover and the Beloved , and that those compositions were brief, so that the soul could experience many of them in a short time.
And, in God's blessing, Blanquerna started his book, and he divided it into as many verses as days there are in a year. And each verse is enough for a whole day of contemplating God, according to the Art of the Book of contemplation.
2. The Moral Metaphors start
1. The lover asked his beloved if there was anything left in him that was yet to be loved; and his beloved replied that whatever could make his love stronger was to be loved.
2. The path the lover must walk to search for his beloved is long and dangerous, replete with thoughts and deliberation, with anguished moans and cries, and enlightened with love.
3. A multitude of lovers gathered to worship one beloved, who filled all of them with love; and everyone cared for his beloved and his enjoyable thoughts, for which they felt pleasant wonders.
4. The lover wept and said: - How longer till darkness ceases in the world, so that evil deeds will cease? And how longer for the water, which customarily moves downward, to have the nature to move upward? And how longer for the innocent to be more than the guilty?
5. - Ah! When will the lover rejoice, when he dies for his beloved? And the beloved, when will he see his lover languish for his love?
6. The lover said to his beloved: - You, who fillst the Sun with glare, fill my heart with love. To which the beloved answered: - Without fulfilment of love your eyes would not be in tears, neither would you have come to this place to see your loved one.
7. The beloved tempted his lover, and inquired if he loved perfectly; and he asked what the difference was between presence and absence of the beloved. Replied the lover: - From ignorance and forgetfulness, to knowledge and remembrance.
8. The beloved asked his lover: - Can you remember anything that I gave you, for which you love me? And he replied:- Yes, since among the sorrows and pleasures you give me, I make no difference.
9. - Tell me, my lover - said the beloved - : will you have patience if I double your misery? - Yes, if you just double my love.
10. The beloved said to the lover: - Do you know, yet, what love is? Replied the lover, - If I did not know what love is, would I know what hardship, sadness and pain are?
11. The lover was asked: - Why are you not answering your beloved, who is calling you? He answered: - I am already facing grave danger to attain him, and I surely speak to him wishing for his honors.
12. - Crazy lover: why do you destroy yourself and give your money away, and ignore the pleasures of this world and go disdained among the people? He answered: - To honor the principles of my beloved, who by more people is despised and dishonored, than honored and loved.
13. - Tell me, crazy for love: Who is the most visible, the beloved in the lover, or the lover in the beloved? And he said the beloved is seen in love, and the lover is seen in sorrow, in weeping, in hardship and pain.
14. The lover was seeking someone who would tell his beloved how he bore grave hardship and died for his love; and he met his beloved who was reading in a book where all the grief and all the delights which his love would give him for his beloved were written.
15. Our Lady brought her Son to the lover, so he could kiss his foot, and so that he would write in his book the virtues of our Lady.
16. - Tell me, bird who sings: have you come to my beloved so that he defends you from hatred, and he multiplies love in you? Replied the bird: - And who makes me sing, but the Lord of love, to whom hatred is dishonor?
17. Love has settled between fear and hopefulness, living with thoughts and dying by oblivion as the foundations are over the delights of this world.
18. A dispute occurred between the eyes and the memory of the lover, for the eyes said it was better to see the beloved than to remember him, and the memory said that through remembrance the water rises to the eyes and the heart swells with love.
19. The lover asked intelligence and will which one was closest to his beloved; and they both ran, and intelligence was to his beloved before will.
20. Into discord came the lover and the beloved; and it was seen by another lover, and he wept for so long until he had brought into peace and agreement the beloved and the lover.
21. Sighs and tears came to the judgement of the beloved and asked him which one he felt most strongly loved by. The beloved judged that sighs are closer to love, and tears closer to the eyes.
22. The lover came to drink from the fountain that arouses love in those who do not love, and his sorrows were doubled. And then the beloved came to drink from the fountain to double again the love of his lover, in which he would double his sorrows.
23. The lover fell sick, and the beloved looked after him: with worthiness he fed him, and with love he gave him drink, with patience he abounded him, of humbleness he dressed him, with truth he cured him.
24. The lover was asked where his beloved was. He replied: - See him in a house that is more noble than any other created nobilities; and see him in my acts of love, and in my suffering and in my weepings.
25. They said to the lover: - Where do you go? - I come from my beloved. - Where do you come to? - I go to my beloved. - When will you be back? - I will be with my beloved. - How long will you be with your beloved for? - As long as my thoughts will be with him.
26. The birds were singing the dawn, and the lover, who is the dawn, awakened; and the birds ended their song, and the lover died for his beloved in the dawn.
27. The bird was singing in the garden of the beloved, when the lover came and said to the bird: - If we don't understand each other by language, let us communicate with love; for to my eyes, my beloved is represented in your song.
28. The lover, who had worked hard to search for his beloved, felt sleep coming to him; and he feared he might forget his beloved. And he cried, so as not to fall asleep, and so that his beloved would not be absent to his consciousness.
29. The lover met his beloved, and he said: - You need not speak to me; but make a signal with your eyes, which are words to my heart, when I give you what you ask me.
30. The lover disobeyed his beloved, and he wept. And the beloved came to die in the gown of his lover, to let him recover what he had lost; and he gave him yet a greater gift than the one he had lost.
31. The beloved brings love to the lover, and does not pity him for his sorrows, whence he may more strongly be loved and, in the greatest sorrow, find pleasure and renewal.
32. Said the lover: - I am tormented by the secrets of my beloved, for they are revealed in my deeds, but they are kept secret in my mouth and they are not unraveled by the people.
33. The conditions for love are that the lover be long-suffering, patient, humble, fearful, diligent, trustful, and ready to confront great dangers to honor his beloved. And the conditions for the beloved are that he be truthful, generous, compassionate, and just to his lover.
34. The lover was searching for devoutness in the mountains and the plains, to see if his beloved was being served; but he found only failure in every place. So he dug into the earth to see if he could find compliance, since by the earth devoutness fails.
35. - Tell me, bird who sings love to my beloved: Why does he torment me with love, when he has taken me as his servant? The bird replied: - If you endured no hardship for your love, what would you love your beloved with?
36. Deep in thought, the lover mused on the paths to his beloved, when he stumbled and fell among thorns, and the thorns seemed like flowers to him, and his bed seemed to be made of love.
37. The lover was asked if he would change his beloved for someone else. He answered saying: And who could be better and more noble than supreme good, eternal, infinite in greatness, power, wisdom, love, perfection?
38. The lover was singing and weeping songs to his beloved, and he said that love is swifter in the courage of the lover than lightning is in glare, and thunder is in sound; and more lively is water in tears than in the waves of the sea; and closer to love are sighs than whiteness is to snow.
39. The lover was asked why his beloved is glorious. He answered: - Because he is glory. He was asked why he is powerful. He answered: - Because he is power. And why he is learned: - Because he is learning. And why he is kind: - Because he is love.
40. The lover woke up in the morning, and he went searching for his beloved; and he ran across people who were walking along the way, and he asked them if they had seen his beloved. Then they asked him when it was that his beloved was absent to his eyes of the mind. The lover replied: - Never, for I have seen my beloved in my thoughts, so he was not absent to my corporal eyes, since to me everything visible represents my beloved.
41. With eyes of thoughts, pangs, sighs and tears, the lover gazed at his beloved; and with eyes of grace, justice, piety, mercy, generosity, the beloved gazed at his lover. And the bird sang to this pleasant gaze.
42. The keys to the doors of love are gilded with meditation, moans and tears; and the string of the keys is made of conscience, contriction, devotion, satisfaction; and the doorman is of justice, mercy.
43. The lover knocked at the door of his beloved with a stroke of love, hope. The beloved heard the knock from his lover with humility, compassion, patience, charity. The doors were opened by deity and humanity, and the lover came in to see his beloved.
44. Property and community came together, and they mixed with each other, to bring friendship and kindness among the lover and the beloved.
45. Two fires lighten the love of the lover: one is built of wishes, pleasures, deliberations; the other is made out of fear, suffering, of tears and weepings.
46. The lover wished for solitude, and he went to be alone to have the company of his beloved, with whom he was alone among the people.
47. The lover was alone, in the shadow of a fine tree. People went by that place, and asked him why he was alone. And the lover replied that he was alone once he had seen and heard them, but he had been in the company of his beloved before.
48. With signals of love the lover and the beloved spoke, and with fear, thoughts, tears and weepings the lover told his beloved of his sorrows.
49. The lover doubted whether his beloved would fail him in his greatest need. The lover had contrition, repentance in his heart; and the beloved rendered hope and charity to the lover's heart, and tears and weepings to his eyes, to let love return to the lover.
50. The same thing is proximity and remoteness between the lover and the beloved; for just like in mixing water and wine, the love of the lover and the beloved mix together; just like with heat and glare, their love is linked; and just like essence and being, they suit themselves and come close to each other.
51. The lover said to his beloved: - My healing and my suffering are in you; and where you give me the best health, my pain grows the most, and where you give me the most suffering, your healing is greatest. Replied the beloved: - Your love is the stamp and seal where you show my glory to the people.
52. The lover was being abducted and chained, wounded, and slain for the love to his beloved. Those who tormented him asked: - Where is your beloved? He replied: - See him in my growing love and in the sustainment of my suffering he provides.
53. The lover said to the beloved: - I never fled from you, nor did I depart from loving you, ever since I knew you; for in you, for you and with you, I was where I needed to be. Replied the beloved: - Neither did I forget you, ever since you knew me and you loved me, nor was there ever deceit or desertion against you.
54. The lover was going through a city like a mad man, singing of his beloved; and people asked him if he had lost his senses. He answered that his beloved had taken his will, and he had given him his intelligence; so only memory remained in him, which he remembered his beloved with.
55. The beloved said: - It is an act against love for the lover to be asleep forgetting his beloved. Answered the lover: - And it is an act against love for the beloved not to wake the lover, since he has desired him.
56. The heart of the lover rose to the heights of the beloved, so as not to be restrained to love in the abyss of this world. And when he was with the beloved, he gazed at him with sweetness and pleasure; then, the beloved descended him to this world, so that he could gaze at him in anxiety and pain.
57. The lover was asked: - What is your wealth? He answered: - It is the poverty I sustain for my beloved. - And what gives you rest? - The grief that love gives to me. - And who is your doctor? - The trust that I have in my beloved. - And who is your teacher? He answered that his teacher was the meanings of his beloved given by all creatures.
58. The bird was singing in a bunch of leaves and flowers, and the wind stirred the leaves and brought the smell from the flowers. The lover asked the bird w:at the motion of the leaves and the smell of the flowers meant. He answered: - The leaves, in their movement, mean obedience; and the smell means suffering and misfortune.
59. The lover was desiring his beloved, and he ran into two friends who greeted each other with love and tears, and they embraced and kissed each other. The lover shivered: so strongly was he reminded of his beloved by the two friends.
60. The lover was musing about death, and he feared it until he remembered his beloved. And he called to the people around him: - Ah, gentlemen! Rejoice in honoring my beloved, so that you fear neither danger nor death.
61. They asked the lover where his love had started first. He answered it started in the good works of his beloved; and from that beginning, they would be led to love themselves and their kin, and to despise deception and failure.
62. - Tell me, crazy man: what would you do if your beloved were to loath you? He answered that he would love so that he would not die, since loathing is death, and love is life.
63. The lover was asked what perseverance is about. He said perseverance is about well-being and misfortune in the lover who perseveres in loving, honoring, and serving his beloved with fortitude, patience, hope.
64. The lover asked his beloved to pay him for the time he had served him. The beloved counted the thoughts, the wishes, the weepings, the dangers and the trouble his lover had sustained for his love; and he added to that account eternal blessing, and he gave himself in payment to his lover.
65. The lover was asked what well-being was about. He answered that it was hardship endured through love.
66. - Tell me, crazy one, what is hardship? - It is remembrance of the dishonor that is done against my beloved, who is worthy of all honor.
67. Staring back at a place where he had seen his beloved, the lover said: - Ah, place which symbolizes to me the beatiful customs of my beloved! You will tell my beloved that I am enduring trouble and hardship for his love. Answered the place: - When the beloved was in me, he suffered greater trouble and hardship than all the trouble and hardship that love could give to his servants.
68. The lover was saying to his beloved: - You are everything, you are for everything, you are in everything, you are with everything. I want everything of you, so that I have everything and everything is in me. Answered the beloved: - You cannot have all of me, without being of me. And the lover said: - Have me totally, and let me have you whole. Replied the beloved: - What will your son have, and your brother, and your father? Said the lover: - You are such totality, that you can afford being everything to all who totally give themselves to you.
69. The lover extended and lengthened his thoughts on the greatness and the durability of his beloved, and he did not find in him beginning, middle or ending. And the beloved said: - What are you measuring, crazy man? Replied the lover: - I am measuring inferior with superior, and failure with compliance, and beginning with infinity, eternity, so that humility, patience, charity and hope may more intensely be in my awareness.
70. The paths of love are long and brief, because love is clear, pure, clean, truthful, subtle, simple, strong, diligent, brilliant, plentiful with new thoughts and ancient recollections.
71. The lover was asked what the fruits of love are. He answered: - Pleasure, meditation, wishes, sighs, anxiety, difficulties, danger, pain, sorrow. Without these fruits love cannot be touched by his servants.
72. Many people were with the lover, who was complaining of his beloved that he did not make his love grow; and he complained about love giving him hardship and pain. The beloved excused himself, saying that the hardship and pain he accused love of were the growth of his love.
73. - Tell me, crazy: why do you not speak? And what is this thing you are brooding over, so thoughtful? He answered: - On the beauties of my beloved, and on the resemblance of the good fortune and the pain which bring to me and give me love.
74. - Tell me, crazy: which was earlier, your heart, or love? He answered, and said his heart and love were at the same time; for had they not been, the heart would not have been created to love, nor would love have been created to cogitate.
75. They asked the crazy man where his love had started first: in the secrets of his beloved, or in revealing them to the people. He answered that love makes no difference between the two, as long as it is in compliance, since secretly, the lover keeps the secrets of his beloved secret, and in secret he reveals them, and in revelation he keeps them secret.
76. Secret of love without revelation brings passion and sadness; and to reveal love brings fear through fervor. And this is why the lover is in affliction all the time.
77. Love called his lovers, and told them to ask for those gifts that were most desirable and pleasant to them. And they said these gifts were the robes, and asked love to adorn them with their ornaments to make them more likeable to the beloved.
78. The lover spoke to the people, and said that love commanded them to love while walking and while sitting, awake or sleep, in talking and in quietness, in buying and in selling, in crying and in laughing, in pleasure and in pain, in winning and in losing; and in whatever they were doing they were to love, for that was love's commandment.
79. - Tell me, crazy, when did love come to you? He replied: - Love came to me at that time when I became rich, and she stocked my heart with thoughts, wishes, sighs, grief, and she filled my eyes with tears and weepings. - What did love bring to you? - Beautiful images, honorings and values of my beloved. - What did they come through? - Through remembrance and intelligence. - What did you receive them with? - With charity, with hope. - What do you keep them with? - With justice, caution, fortitude, moderation.
80. The beloved was singing, and he said the lover knew little of love if he was shy to praise his beloved, or if he feared honoring him in those places where he is most strongly dishonored; and he who is distressed by misfortune knows little of loving; and he who despairs of his beloved loses harmony with love and hopefulness.
81. The lover sent letters to his beloved, where he asked if there was any another lover who could help him bear and endure the heavy burden he sustained for his love. And the beloved wrote back, saying there was nothing that he could offend or fail him with.
82. The beloved was asked about the love of his lover. He replied that the love of his lover is mixture of pleasure and affliction, and of fear and audacity.
83. The lover was asked about the love of his beloved. He replied that the love of his beloved is influence of infinite goodness, eternity, power, wisdom, charity, perfection; and the beloved has this influence on the lover.
84. - Tell me, crazy: what thing is marvel? He answered: - To better love that which is absent than that which is present; and to better love the invisible, incorruptible, than the visible and corruptible.
85. The lover was searching for his beloved, and he met a man who was dying without love; and he told what a great damnation it was for a man to die of any death without love. And so the lover said to the man who was dying: - Tell me, why do you die without love? He answered: - Because I was living without love.
86. The lover asked his beloved which one was the greatest, love or the act of loving. The beloved replied and said that, in creatures, love is the tree and loving is the fruit, and the hardship and sorrows are the flowers and leaves; and in God, love and loving are one and the same thing, without any hardship or sorrow.
87. The lover was in pain and sadness owing to the excess of his thoughts; and he pleaded to his beloved to send him a book describing his ways, to give him some solace. The beloved sent that book to his lover, and the lover had his hardship and his pain doubled.
88. The lover fell sick for love, and a doctor came to see him who multiplied his sorrows and his thoughts; and in that hour the lover was healed.
89. Love and the lover moved apart, and they had solace in the beloved; and the beloved appeared to them. The lover cried and, in his enfeeblement, love fainted. The beloved reinvigorated the lover as he reminded him of his ways.
90. The lover said to his beloved that many were the paths by which he came to his heart and he appeared in his eyes, and many were the names by which his words could call him; but the love that he enlivened him and mortified him with was one and only one.
91. The beloved adorns himself for his lover, with red, new clothes; and he extends his arms to be embraced, and he inclines his head to be kissed, and he stands high to be found by his lover.
92. The beloved became absent to the lover; the lover searched for his beloved with memory and understanding, so that he could love him. The lover found his beloved; he asked him where he had been. He replied: - In the absence of your remembrance and in the ignorance of your intelligence.
93. - Tell me, crazy: are you ashamed of people seeing you cry for your beloved? He answered that shame without sin is due to failure of love, in those who do not know how to love.
94. In the lover's heart the beloved sowed wishes, sighs, virtues and love. The lover watered the seeds with tears and weepings.
95. In the lover's body the beloved sowed hardship, sorrow, tribulation. The lover healed his body with hopefulness, devotion, patience, consolation.
96. The beloved had a big party, with a large gathering of many honored barons, and he made great gifts and donations. The lover came to that gathering; the beloved told him: - Who called you to come to my party? The lover answered: - Need and love made me come to see your ways and your demeanor.
97. The lover was asked who he belonged to. He answered: - To love. - What are you made of? - Of love. - Who begot you? - Love. - Where were you born? - In love. - Who nourished you? - Love. - What do you live out of? - Out of love. - Who named you? - Love. - Where do you come from? - From love. - Where do you go to? - To love. - Where are you? - In love. - Do you have anything but love? He answered: - Yes, blame and wrongdoings against my beloved. - Is there forgiveness in your beloved? The lover said that both mercy and justice were in his beloved, and for this reason his abode was set between fear and hopefulness.
98. The beloved became absent to his lover, and the lover searched for him with his thoughts; and he asked for him to the people with language of love.
99. The lover found his beloved being despised among the people, and he said to him that a great offence was being made against his honor. The beloved answered that he took dishonor in the lack of fervent and devout lovers. The lover cried, and his sorrows multiplied; the beloved gave him comfort, showing him his conduct.
100. The light from the beloved's room came to enlighten the lover's room, to cast away the darkness and fill it with pleasure, and with sorrows and thoughts. And the lover took everything away from his room to let his beloved fit in.
101. The lover was asked what sign his beloved carried in his flag. He replied it was a sign of a dead man. They asked why he carried such a sign. He answered: - Because he was a dead, crucified man, and in order that those who take pride in being his lovers may follow his way.
102. The beloved came to be loved at the home of his lover, and the butler asked him to pay for the lodging. But the lover said his beloved had to be lodged in forgiveness.
103. Memory and will came together, and they climbed to the mountain of the beloved to let understanding be exalted, and to let love be doubled in loving the beloved.
104. Every day sighs and weepings are messages between the lover and the beloved, to build between them solace, companionship, affection, and goodwill.
105. The lover yearned for his beloved, and he sent him his thoughts, so that they could carry from his beloved the goodwill that he had given him for so long.
106. The beloved offered his lover the benefit of crying, of sighs, sorrows, of grief and pain; and with this benefit, the lover served his beloved.
107. The lover prayed to his beloved to have generosity, peace, self-esteem in this world; and the beloved displayed his forms to the memory and the intelligence of the lover, and he offered himself as the object of his will.
108. The lover was asked what honor is about. He said it is about understanding and loving his beloved. They asked him what dishonor is. He said it is to forget and despise his beloved.
109. I was mortified by love until I said that you were present in my torment; and then love softened my pain and, as a reward, you multiplied love, who doubled my ordeal.
110. Along the path of love I ran across a lover who did not speak: with tears, distressed gestures and wretchedness, he blamed love and he cursed. Love responded with loyalty, hopefulness, patience, devotion, strength, serenity, welfare. For that, I blamed the lover who complained of love, for love was giving him offerings so noble.
111. The lover sang and said: - Oh, what a great affliction is love! Ah, what a great blessing is to love my beloved, who loves his followers with infinite, eternal love, fulfilled in all purposes!
112. The lover was going through a strange land where he planned to find his beloved, and along his way he was assailed by two lions. The lover had fear of death, for he wished to live to serve his beloved; and he sent his memories to his beloved, so that love would be present in his passing away and could better overcome death. While the lover remembered his beloved, the lions humbly approached the lover, and they leaked the tears from his crying eyes, and they kissed his hands and feet. And the lover went in peace to seek his beloved.
113. The lover was going through mounts and plains, and he could not find the door where he could get out of the jail of love which had for so long imprisoned his heart, and his thoughts and all his desires and pleasures.
114. While the lover was worried in this manner, he met an eremite who was sleeping near a beautiful fountain. The lover waked the eremite, asking if he had seen his beloved in his dreams. The eremite replied that his thoughts were equally incarcerated in the jail of love being awake or asleep. The lover was greatly pleased to have met a prison partner, for the beloved did not have many lovers like these.
115. There is nothing in the beloved the lover is not anxious and does not yearn for, nor is there anything in the lover the beloved does not feel pleasure and majesty for; hence, the love of the beloved is in action, and the love of the lover is in languor, passion.
116. In a branch a bird was singing, and was saying that he would give a new thought to a lover who would give him two. The bird gave the new thought to the lover, and the lover gave two to the bird, so that his anguish would be alleviated; and the lover felt his pain being multiplied.
117. The lover and the beloved met, and greetings, hugs, kisses, tears and weepings were present in their encounter. And the beloved asked the lover about his estate; and the lover was puzzled in the presence of his beloved.
118. The lover and the beloved were at odds, and they were pacified by their love; and one wondered whose love had given the greatest friendship.
119. The lover loved everyone who feared his beloved, and he feared anyone who did not fear his beloved; and so it was wondered which was greatest in the lover: love or fear.
120. The lover strived to follow his beloved, and he was going along a road where a nasty lion killed anybody who was going by leisurely and without devotion.
121. The lover said: - He who does not fear my beloved is bound to fear all things, and he who fears my beloved is bound to be bold and audacious in everything.
122. The lover was asked what opportunity was about; and he said that opportunity was pleasure in penitence, and intelligence in consciousness, and hopefulness in patience, and health in abstinence, solace in remembrance, and love in care, and loyalty in shame, and wealth in poverty, and peace in obedience, and war in malevolence.
123. Love illuminated the cloud which had come in between the lover and the beloved; and she made it so bright and glaring as the Moon in the night, and the star at dawn, and the Sun in the day, and intelligence in will. And through so brightened a cloud, the lover and the beloved speak.
124. The lover was asked what the darkest gloom is. He replied it is the absence of his beloved. They asked him what the brightest gleam is, and he said it is the presence of his beloved.
125. The sign of the beloved appears in the lover who, because of love, is in grief, sighs, tears, concerns, and in the scorn of the people.
126. The lover was writing these words: - Let my beloved rejoice, since to him I send my thoughts, and for him my eyes cry, and without sorrow I do not live, neither do I feel, nor see, nor hear, nor smell.
127. - Ah, understanding, willpower! Bark, and wake the great dogs who sleep, forgetting my beloved. Ah, eyes! Cry. Ah, heart! Sigh. Ah, memory! Remember the dishonor that my beloved is given by those he has honored so much.
128. - The enmity between the people and my beloved is multiplied, and my beloved promises gifts and offerings, and menaces with justice, wisdom. And memory and will dismiss his threats and promises.
129. The beloved came close to the lover to console and give solace to him for the grief he was bearing, and the tears he had; and the closer the beloved came to the lover, the more the lover wept and regretted the dishonor to his beloved.
130. With feather of love and water of tears, and in letter of passion, the lover wrote some words to his beloved where he said that devotion was slackening and love was dying, and failure and error multiplied his enemies.
131. The love of the lover and the beloved was linked by remembrance, intelligence, will, so that they would not part; and the rope that tied their love was made of thoughts, sorrows, sighs and tears.
132. The lover was lying in a bed of love; the sheets were made of pleasure, the quilt was made of sufferings, and the pillow was made of tears. And it was to be wondered whether the pillow cloth was like the sheets cloth or like the quilt cloth.
133. The beloved dressed his lover with cloak, coat, gown; and he made him a hat out of love, and a shirt out of thoughts, and trousers out of grief, and garland out of weepings.
134. The beloved pleaded to his lover not to forget him. The lover said he could not forget him, for he could not ignore him.
135. The beloved told the lover to praise him and excuse him in those places where it was most dreadful to praise him. The lover asked to be given plenty of love. The beloved answered that for his love he had been incarnated and had been hanged to die.
136. The lover asked his dear beloved to show him how he could make him be known, loved, and praised by the people. The beloved filled his lover with devotion, patience, charity, restlessness, thoughts, sighs, and tears; and boldness to praise his beloved grew in the heart of the lover, and praise for his beloved rose in his mouth, and in his will he fostered disregard for the cursing by the people who make false judgement.
137. The lover said these words to the people: - He who truly remembers my beloved, forgets, in the circumstances of his remembrance, all things; and he who forgets all things to remember his beloved is defended from everything, and is given part of everything, by my beloved.
138. The lover was asked what love was born from, and what it lived out of, and what it died for. He answered that love was born of remembrance, lived out of intelligence, and died by oblivion.
139. The lover forgot everything that is under the supreme heaven, to let his understanding rise higher to know the beloved, whom the will wished to preach and contemplate.
140. The lover was going to fight to honor his beloved, and he steered to his side faith, hopefulness, charity, justice, caution, fortitude, moderation, which he could overcome the enemies of his beloved with. The lover would have been vanquished, had his beloved not helped him in exhibiting his nobilities.
141. The lover wanted to proceed to the ultimate purpose why he loved his beloved, and the other goals became and encumbrance to his passage; whereby, long desires and thoughts gave the lover sadness and grief.
142. The lover rejoiced and took pride in the noble works of his beloved; he languished in deep meditation and thought. And it was wondered which one he felt most intensely, the pleasures or the anguish.
143. The lover was the messenger to the Christian princes, and to the infidels, of his beloved, to show them the art and the beginnings of knowing and loving his beloved.
144. If you see a lover honored in noble clothes, honored by conceit, fat from eating and sleeping, let it be known that you see in him damnation and torment. And if you see a lover poorly dressed, despised by the people, discolored and lean from fasting and staying awake, let it be known that you see in him salvation and lasting blessing.
145. The lover complains, and the heart cries out for warmth of love. The lover dies, the beloved mourns him, and he gives him solace of patience, hopefulness, reward.
146. The lover cried for that which he had lost; and he could not be comforted by anyone, since what he had lost was unrecoverable.
147. God has created night for the lover to be awake and reflect on the righteousness of his beloved; and the lover surmised that he had created it for those who have worked for love to rest and sleep.
148. The people rebuked and scoffed at teh lover for being crazy for love. And the lover disregarded their jibes, and reproved the people for not loving his beloved.
149. The lover said: - I am vilely dressed in rags, but love dresses my heart in pleasant thoughts, and my body in tears, distress, passion.
150. The beloved sang and said: - My worshippers are to praise my values; and the enemies of my graciousness hurt and disregard my values. And that is why I have informed my lover to regret and to weep for my dishonor; and his laments and his weepings are born from my love.
151. The lover promised the beloved that he bore and liked hardship and passion for his love; and therefore he pleaded the beloved to love him and to have compassion of his troubles. The beloved assured that it was the nature and property of his love to love everyone who loved him, and to have mercy of anyone who bore hardship for his love. The lover was glad and comforted by the nature and essencial property of his beloved.
152. Words were forbidden to the lover by his beloved, and the lover found solace in watching his beloved.
153. So much did the lover cry and call his beloved, till the beloved descended from the subleme heights of the Heavens, and he came to Earth to weep and to lament, to die for love, and to nurture men into loving, knowing, and praising his honors.
154. The lover blamed the Christians for not having first in their letters the name of their beloved, Jesus Christ, to make him the honor that the moors make to Muhammad, (...), whom they honor when they name him first in their letters.
155. The lover met with a squire who was going in deep thought and who was lean, discolored, and poorly dressed; and he greeted the lover wishing him to be led by God to find his beloved. And the lover asked him how he had known him. And the squire said that one secret of love reveals the others; and thereby lovers can recognize each other.
156. The kindness, and the wonders and the good deeds of the beloved are the treasure and wealth of the lover. And the treasure of the beloved are the thoughts, the wishes, the pain, the weeping and the sorrows that the lover bears to honor and to love his beloved.
157. Great hosts and battalions have been engaged with the spirits of love, and they carry a sign of love having the image and the mark of their beloved, and they do not want to bring anybody along in their company who is without love, lest their beloved would take it as a dishonor.
158. Men who pretend to be crazy in order to make money drive the lover to be crazy for love; and the shame the lover feels from the people for going like a mad man offers him a way to love and appreciate the people. So one wonders which of these two impulses is a greater opportunity for love.
159. Love had put the lover in sadness from excessive concentration; and the beloved sang, and the lover rejoiced when he had heard him. And it was wondered which of these two actions was the best occasion to multiply love in the lover.
160. In the secrets of the lover the secrets of the beloved are revealed, and in the secrets of the beloved the secrets of the lover are revealed. And one wonders which of the two secrets is the greatest means of revelation.
161. The crazy one was asked what signs his beloved was known by. He replied, and said it was by mercy, compassion, being essentially in will, without any change.
162. Because of the special love the lover had for his beloved, he loved the communal good over the special good, so that his beloved could be communally known, praised, desired.
163. Love and hatred met in a garden where the lover and the beloved were secretly talking; and love asked hatred what purpose she had come for to that place; and hatred replied it had come to take love away from the lover and to dishonor the beloved. The beloved and the lover were greatly displeased by what hatred was saying; and they multiplied love to let her defeat and destroy hatred.
164. - Tell me, crazy: what do you feel the greatest will in: loving, or hating? He answered that in loving, since he hated so that he could love.
165. - Tell me, lover: what do you have the most understanding of: truth, or falsity? He replied it was of truth. - Why? - Because I understand falsity to be able to better understand truth.
166. The lover perceived that he was loved by his beloved, and he asked the beloved if his love and his mercy were in him one and the same thing. The beloved accepted that, in their essence, there is no difference, there is no difference between his love and his mercy. Whence the lover asked why his love tormented him, and why his mercy did not heal him from his pain. And the beloved replied that mercy gave him pain to more perfectly honor his love with.
167. The lover wished to go to a strange land to honor his beloved, and wanted to disguise himself to avoid being abducted along the way. And he could never disguise weeping from his eyes, nor the lean features and yellow color from his face, nor moans, thoughts, sighs, sadness, sorrows, from his heart; hence, he was abducted on his journey, and handed over to be tormented by the enemies of his beloved.
168. The lover was locked in the jail of love. Thoughts, desires and memories guarded him and chained him to prevent him from fleeing to his beloved; distress tormented him; patience, hopefulness comforted him. The lover would have died; but the beloved showed him his glory, and the lover revived.
169. The lover ran across his beloved: he recognized his beloved, and wept. The beloved reprimanded his lover because he did not weep before recognizing him; and asked him how he had known him, since he did not weep. The lover replied he had known him in remembrance, in understanding, and in his will, which were multiplied as soon as he had been present to his corporal eyes.
170. The beloved asked the lover what love was. He replied it was the presence of the ways and words of the beloved in the longing heart of the lover, and sorrow through desires and tears in the lover's heart.
171. Love is the boiling of baldness and awe through fervor; and love is the final will to desire his beloved. And love is that thing which killed the lover when he heard the song of the beauty of his beloved. And love is that which is dead, and which my will is always with.
172. Devotion and longing sent thoughts by messengers to the heart of the lover, so that water would rise to the eyes, who wanted to cease the weeping which they had long sustained.
173. Said the lover: - If you, lovers, would like fire, come to my heart and light your lamps; if you want water, come to my eyes, which pour out tears; and if you want thoughts of love, come to take them in my meditations.
174. The lover was thinking one day on the great love he felt for his beloved, and on the great trouble and danger he had long been through for his love; and he pondered that his reward would be great. While he was meditating in this way, he remembered he had been paid by his beloved, since he had been enraptured by his features, and for his love he had given him sorrows.
175. The lover wiped his face and his eyes of the tears he sustained for love, to keep the sorrows that his beloved gave him from being discovered; and the beloved said to his lover why he was concealing from the other loving people the signs of love, which he had been given to enamour them of honoring his values.
176. - Tell me, man who goes like mad for love: how long will you be a serf, subjected to weep and to sustain hardship and sorrows? He answered: - Until that time when my beloved will bring about in me separation of the soul and the body.
177. - Tell me, crazy: do you have money? He answered: - I have my beloved. - Do you own towns, or castles, or cities, or counties, or duchies? He answered: - I have love, thoughts, plants, desires, hardship, sorrows, which are better than empires or kingdoms.
178. The lover was asked how he was aware of the sentence of his beloved. He replied it was through the balance of pleasure and sorrows, in which his beloved judged his lovers.
179. - Tell me, crazy one: who knows best about love, he who derives pleasure, or he who derives hardship and sorrows from it? He replied, and said that knowledge cannot be gained from one without the other.
180. The lover was asked why he did not excuse himself of the failures and false crimes he was accused of by the people. He answered that he had to excuse his beloved, who was falsely blamed by the people; and man, upon whom error and deceit may fall, is not quite worthy of any excuse.
181. - Tell me, crazy one: why do you excuse love, when she gives trouble and torment to your body and your heart? He answered: - Because she multiplies my merit and my blessings.
182. The lover complained of his beloved for tormenting him so gravely for love; and the beloved excused himself by multiplying hardship and danger, thoughts, tears and plants to the lover.
183. - Tell me, crazy one: why do you excuse the guilty? He answered: - Not to be like those who accuse the innocent and the guilty.
184. The beloved raised intelligence to let her understand his majesty, in order that the lover's memory were ready to realise his failings, and his will despised them and rose to love the virtues of his beloved.
185. The lover was singing of his beloved, and he said he gave him such good will that all the things he hated for the love of his beloved rewarded him with more pleasant and greater joy than the things he loved without the love of his beloved.
186. The lover was in a big city, and he was asking if he would find anyone who he could talk to at his leisure of his beloved. And they showed him a poor man who wept for love and was searching for a companion whom he could talk to about love.
187. The lover was thoughtful and puzzled over how his hardship could originate in the majesty of his beloved, who possesses so much bliss in his own self.
188. The thoughts of the lover were between oblivion of his agony and remembrance of his pleasure: for by the pleasure he derives from love he forgets hardship, and by the agony he endures for love he is reminded of the bliss he enjoys because of love.
189. The lover was asked if it might be possible that his beloved would take love away from him. He answered it was not possible, as long as his memory remembered and his intelligence understood the glory of his beloved.
190. - Tell me, crazy one: What can one make the greatest comparison of and find the greatest resemblance in? He answered: - Of lover and beloved. They asked him for what reason. He replied it was because of love, who was between them.
191. The beloved was asked if he had had mercy at any time. He answered that had he not had mercy, he would not have enamoured the lover, neither would he have tormented him with sighs, weeping, hardship, and sorrows.
192. The lover was in a great forest, where he was searching for his beloved; and he met truth and falseness who were arguing about his beloved, since truth praised him and falseness blamed him. And hence, the lover called on love to help truth.
193. A temptation came to the lover to be kept apart from his beloved, and then to let memory wake up and recover the presence of his beloved, remembering him better than ever before, so that his intelligence would rise higher in understanding, and his will in loving, his beloved.
194. One day the lover forgot his beloved, and another day he remembered he had forgotten him. And in that day when the lover remembered he had forgotten his beloved, he was sad and in pain, and he was in glory and bliss, for oblivion and remembrance.
195. So intensely was the lover wishing for praise and for the glory of his beloved, that he doubted he remembered them; and so intensely he hated dishonor for his beloved, that he doubted he hated it. Hence, the lover was puzzled, between love and fear, by his beloved.
196. The lover died through pleasure, and lived through sorrow; and the pleasure and the suffering came together and were united to be a single thing in the will of the lover. And therefore the lover died and lived at the same time.
197. The lover wanted to forget his beloved for just one hour, to have some rest in his sorrows. But, since oblivion and ignorance would fill him with passion, he had patience, and he exalted his intelligence and his memory to contemplate his beloved.
198. So much the lover loved his beloved, that he believed everything he told him, and so much he wished to understand him, that he wanted to understand everything he heard of him through necessary reason. And therefore the love of the lover was between belief and intelligence.
199. The lover was asked what thing was furthest from his courage; he answered it was neglect. They asked him why. He answered because the closest thing to his courage was love, which is opposite to neglect.
200. - Tell me, crazy one: do you have envy? He answered: - Yes, every time I forget the generosity and wealth of my beloved.
201. Tell me, lover: do you have wealth? - Yes: love. - Do you have poverty? - Yes: love. - Why? - Because love is not being greater than it is, and many lovers are not being enraptured by it to honor the principles of my beloved.
202. - Tell me, loving one: where is your power? He answered: - In the power of my beloved. - How do you strive against your enemies? - With the strength of my beloved. - How are you comforted? - With the eternal treasures of my beloved.
203. - Tell me, crazy one: what do you love the best, the mercy of your beloved, or the justice of your beloved? He answer that he should both fear and love justice, and that he should have no preference in his will to love anything over the justice of his beloved.
204. Fault and worth were struggling in the conscience and will of the lover; and justice and remembrance multiplied conscience; and mercy and hopefulness multiplied prosperity in the will of the beloved. And therefore worth defeated fault and wrong in the penance of the lover.
205. The lover asserted that full perfection was in his beloved, and he denied that there was any failure in his beloved. And so it was wondered which one was greatest: the assertion, or the denial.
206. An eclipse occurred in the heaven, and darkness came on the earth: thereby the lover remembered that sin had for long evicted from his will his beloved, and by this eviction darkness had exiled brightness from his understanding, which the beloved is expressed with to his lovers.
207. Love came to the lover, and the lover asked her what she wanted. And love told him she had come to him to train and feed him in such a way that, at his death, he could defeat his mortal enemies.
208. Love was ill when the lover forgot his beloved, and the lover is ill because, through intense remembrance, his beloved gives him hardship, anxiety, and sorrows.
209. The lover met a man who was dying without love. He wept for the dishonor given to the beloved in the loveless death of that man, and asked that man why he was dying without love; and he said it was because nobody had taught him about love, and nobody had fed him to be a lover. And thereby the lover sighed in his weeping and said: - Ah, devotion! When will you be greater, to make guilt lesser, and to let my beloved have many fervent, bold praisers, lovers, who do not doubt in praising his glory?
210. The lover tempted love to see if he could keep his courage without remembering his beloved; and his heart ceased to think, and his eyes ceased to cry; and love was wiped out, and the lover remained puzzled, and he asked the people if they had seen love.
211. So strongly are love, loving, lover and beloved joined together in the beloved, that they are one reality in essence, and lover and beloved are concordant in diverse things, without any opposition or diversity in essence. Whereby the beloved's kindness is above any other love.
212. - Tell me, crazy one: why do you have such great love? He replied: - Because the journey in search of my beloved is long and dangerous. In great hardship I must search for him, and I should do it swiftly. And I could not comply with all these things without great love.
213. The lover stayed awake, fasted, cried, gave charity, and went to strange lands to be able to move his will close to his beloved, and to enthuse his subjects to honor his principles.
214. If the lover's love does not reach far enough to move his beloved to mercy and forgiveness, the beloved's love will reach out to give his creatures grace and benediction.
215. - Tell me, crazy one: what can make you closest to your beloved? He answered: - Knowing to love in all my ability the ways of my beloved.
216. The lover was asked if his beloved had been failed by anything, and he said yes: by lovers, praisers, in not honoring his values.
217. The beloved hurt his lover's heart with thorns of love, to make him love the tree from which the beloved had picked the thorns he hurts his lovers with; in which tree he had suffered death, pain and dishonor to return to love the lovers he had lost.
218. The lover met his beloved, and he saw him in great nobility and power, and worthy of all honors; and he said he was shocked by the people, who loved him so little, and knew him and honored him so little. And the beloved said he had been greatly disappointed in having created man to love him, know him, and honor him, and out of one thousand men, only one hundred feared and loved him; and out of the one hundred, ninety feared him so that he would not give them pain, and ten loved him to be given glory; and there was hardly anybody who loved him for his goodness and nobility. When the lover heard these words, he cried desolately for the dishonor of his beloved, and he said: - Beloved, you who have given so much to man and have honored him so much, why have you been forgotten so much by man?
219. The lover praised his beloved, and he said he had transcended the where , since he was where the where cannot reach. And so, when the lover was asked on the whereabouts of his beloved, he answered: - He is. But it was not known where; however, he knew his beloved is in his remembrance.
220. The beloved bought with his virtues a slave man who was subjected to worries, sorrows, sighs, and plants; and he asked him what he ate and what he drank. He replied, whatever he wanted. He asked him what he wore. He said, whatever he wanted. The beloved said, - Do you have any will? He replied that a slave and subdued person has no will but to obey his master and his beloved.
221. The beloved asked his lover if he had patience. He answered that he was pleased by everything; and therefore there was nothing to be patient about; for he who is not the master of his will, cannot be impatient.
222. Love gave herself to whoever wanted her; and since many men did not want her, and the people were not greatly in love, she was free of them, hence the lover cried out for love, and love blamed his beloved. But love excused herself and said she was not against free will, because she wished great merit and glory for her lovers.
223. There was a great argument and discord between love and the lover, because the lover was tired of the hardship he endured for love. And it was argued if this was due to love's weakness, or the lover's; and they came to the judgement of the beloved, who punished the lover with distress, and rewarded him with growing love.
224. An argument took place on whether love was closer to thought or to patience. The lover solved the question, and he said that love is begotten in thoughts, and is sustained by patience.
225. The beautiful countenance of the beloved is the lover's neighbor, and the beloved's neighbors are the lover's thoughts, and the hardship and crying he endures for love.
226. The lover's will wanted to rise very highly to greatly love his beloved, and he ordered intelligence to rise up to all hispower; and intelligence ordered the same to memory. And all three rose to contemplate the beloved in his glory.
227. The lover's will left him and gave himself to the beloved; and the beloved confined the will in the lover, to be served and loved by him.
228. The lover said: - Let my beloved not be worried that I could leave him to love someone else, since love has led me to love only one beloved. The beloved said in reply: - Let my lover not be worried that I be loved and served only by him, since I have many other lovers who love me more strongly and for longer than he does.
229. The lover said to his beloved: - Kind beloved: you have trained and nourished my eyes to see, and my ears to hear, your honorings; and hence my heart is used to the thoughts by which you have accustomed my eyes to weep and my body to languish. The beloved answered the lover, and he said that without such habits and nourishments his name would not be written in the book where all who come to eternal blessing are inscribed, and whose names are deleted from the book where those who go to eternal damnation are inscribed.
230. The noble demeanours of the beloved gather in the heart of the lover, and the thoughts and the duress are multiplied in the lover, who would be finished and dead had the beloved multiplied in the lover's thoughts more of his honorings.
231. The beloved came to stay in his lover's lodging, and the lover made him a bed of thoughts; and he served him sighs and plants. And the beloved paid for his stay with remembrances.
232. Love mixed hardship and pleasure in the lover's thoughts; and pleasure complained of that mixture, and accused love to the beloved; and pleasure was finished and deleted once the beloved had put it apart from the torment that love gives to his people.
233. The signs of love that the lover makes to his beloved are: in the beginning tears, in the middle tribulations, and in the end death. And with those signs the lover preaches to the people on his beloved.
234. When the lover was isolated, his heart was accompanied by thoughts, and his eyes by tears and plants, and his body by afflictions and fasts. And when the lover went back to the company of the people, he was deserted by all the above mentioned things, and he was alone among the people.
235. Love is like the sea swirling with waves and wind, without port or shore. The lover perishes in the sea, and in his danger his pain perishes, and his wholeness is born.
236. - Tell me, fool: what is love? He answered: - Love is concordance of theory and practice for a goal, which the fulfillment of the lover's will moves towards, so that it makes people honor and serve their beloved. And one wonders if this goal is closest to the will of the lover who wants to be with the beloved.
237. The lover was asked who his beloved was. He answered it was that which made him love, desire, languish, sigh, cry, scoff, die.
238. The beloved was asked who his lover was. He answered it was the one who hesitated on nothing to honor and praise his glory, and who renounced to everything to obey his command and his advice.
239. - Tell me, fool: which is the heaviest and most severe burden, trouble for love, or trouble for enmity? He replied he should ask the men who are in penitence for either love of their beloved, or for dread of the hellish torments.
240. The lover fell asleep and love died, for it had nothing to live from. The lover woke up and love was revived in the thoughts tha the lover sent to his beloved.
241. The lover said that innate science comes from will, devotion, prayer; and acquired science comes from study, understanding. And so, it is a wonder which is the earliest science in the lover, and which is the most pleasant, and which is greatest in the lover.
242. - Tell me, fool: how do you satisfy all your needs? He replied: - With my thoughts, and by wishing, adoring, working, and with perseverance. - And where do you get all these things from? He replied: - From love - And where do you find love? - In my beloved. - And where do you find your beloved? - I find Him only in Himself.
243. - Tell me, fool: do you want to be free from everything? He answered he did, except from his beloved. - Do you want to be captive? He replied: - I do of sighs, thoughts, hardship, danger, exiles, plants, to serve my beloved, to whom these things have been created to honor his values.
244. Love tormented the lover, and he cried and moaned from the torment. His beloved called on him to come close to him to be healed. The closer the lover came to the beloved, the more he was tormented by love, since he felt greater love. And because he felt more deeply pleased as he loved more, his beloved could better heal him of his sorrows.
245. Love was sick. The lover cared for love with patience, perseverance, obedience, hope; love healed. The lover fell sick; he was healed by the beloved, who reminded him of his virtues and honorings.
246. - Tell me, fool one: what is solitude? He replied: - It is solace and company of lover and beloved. - And what is solace and company? He answered it was solitude in the courage of the lover, who thinks of nothing but his beloved.
247. A question was asked to the lover: - Where is the greatest danger: in enduring hardship for love, or in enjoying love's rewards? The lover agreed with his beloved, and said that danger in misfortune comes from impatience, and danger in prosperity comes from mindlessness.
248. Love was freed by the beloved, who gave license to the people to take from her as much as they wished; and hardly any people were found who would place love in their courage. And hence the lover cried and was sad for the dishonor for the dishonor that love is given down here among us, by false friend and mindless men.
249. Love slayed everything in the courage of his true lover, so that she could live and fit there; and the lover would have died had he not had remembrance of his beloved.
250. Two thoughts were in the lover: one meditated every day on the essence and the virtues of his beloved; and the other meditated on the deeds of his beloved. Whereby it was wondered which thought was the most brilliant, the most pleasant to the beloved and the lover.
251. The lover died by the strength of great love. He was buried in his land by the beloved, where the lover was resurrected. And it is wondered which act the lover received the greatest gift from.
252. In the jail of the beloved were misfortune, danger, sadness, dishonor, strangement, so that they would not hinder his lover from praising the beloved's honorings and from inspiring love in the men who had him in despise.
253. The lover was once in the presence of many men who had been excessively honored by his beloved, since they disgraced him in their thoughts. They despised their beloved and they scorned his servants. The lover cried, pulled his hair, beated his face and tore his clothes; and he loudly shouted: - Were such great wrongs ever done as despising my beloved?
254. - Tell me, fool one: do you want to die? He replied: - Yes, in the pleasures of this world and in the thoughts of the damned ones who omit and dishonor my beloved; in which thoughts I do not want to be understood or wanted, for my beloved is not in them.
255. - If you, crazy one, tell the truth, you will be wounded, scorned, reprimanded, tormented, and slayed by the people. He replied: - According to these words, it follows that if I told falsity, I would be praised, loved, served, honored by the people, and defended from the friends of my beloved.
256. False preachers were blaming one day the lover in the presence of his beloved. The lover had patience, and the beloved had justice, wisdom and power. And the lover preferred to be blamed and told off, than to be any of the false accusers.
257. The beloved sowed various seeds in the heart of his lover, from which the fruit alone was born, sprouted, flowered, and matured. And it is wondered if several different seeds may be born from that fruit.
258. Over love the beloved stands very highly, and under love the lover is placed very lowly. And love, who is in between, descends the beloved to the lover, and raises the lover to the beloved. And out of this descend and this rise, the love, which the lover languishes from and the beloved is served by, begins and lives.
259. On the right of love stands the beloved, and the lover is on the left; and therefore, without passing through love, the lover cannot attain his beloved.
260. And ahead of love is the beloved and behind the beloved is the lover. And this is why the lover cannot attain love until his thoughts and his wishes have passed through the beloved.
261. The beloved makes for the lover three beloved ones like himself, in honorings and in values. And the lover is equally in love with all three, even though love is only one, as in the meaning of unity, essentially one in three beloved ones.
262. The beloved clothed himself in the same dress as his lover, to be eternally his companion in glory. Hence the lover wished to dress in red every day, so that the cloth is more like that of his beloved.
263. - Tell me, fool one: what was your beloved doing before the world existed? He answered: - He must have existed owing to several properties that are eternal, personal, infinite, in which the lover and the beloved are present.
264. The lover cried and was sad to see the infidels lose their beloved in their ignorance; and he rejoiced in the justice of his beloved, who tormented those who knew him and were disobedient to him. And hence, he was asked which was the greatest one: his sadness or his rejoicing; and his fortune to see his beloved honored, or his misfortune to see him dishonored.
265. The lover gazed at his beloved in the greatest differentiation and concordance of virtues, and in the greatest opposition of virtues and vices, and in being perfection, which better suit each other without disheartening and without no-being, than with disheartening and no-being.
266. The lover saw the secrets of his beloved by diversity, concordance, which revealed to him plurality, unity in his beloved, for the greater suitability of essence without conflict.
267. The lover was told that if corruption, which is against being inasmuch as it is against generation, which is against no-being, were eternally corrupting the corrupted, it would be impossible for either no-being or end to agree with corruption or the corrupted. Whereby, through these words, the lover saw in his beloved eternal generation.
268. If falsehood were that through which the lover can better love his beloved, then truth would be the reason why the lover cannot love his beloved best; and this being the case, failure of the major and of thruth would follow in the beloved, and in him there would be concordance of falsehood and the minor.
269. The lover praised his beloved, and he said that inasmuch as his beloved has the greatest possibility of perfection, and the greatest impossibility of imperfection, it suits his beloved to be simple, pure realization in essence and in operation. Whereby, while the lover was praising his beloved in this way, the trinity of his beloved was being revealed to him.
270. The lover saw in the numbers one or three a greater concordance than in other numbers, because every corporal form came from no-being to being through the above said numbers. And hence the lover watched the unity and the trinity of his beloved by means of the greater concordance of number.
271. The lover praised the power, the knowledge, and the will of his beloved, which had created everything except for sin; which sin would not exist without the power, the knowledge and the will of his beloved; which sin is not brought about by neither the power, nor the knowledge, nor the will of his beloved.
272. The lover praised and loved his beloved for having created him and given everything to him; and he praised and loved him because he was pleased to have taken his resemblance and his nature. And one should ask which of these acts of praise and love has the greatest perfection.
273. The lover was tempted by love with his wisdom, and was asked if the beloved was loving him the most by taking his nature, or by recreating him. And the lover was puzzled, till he answered that recreation was needed to avoid misfortune, and incarnation was needed to give his blessing. And from the answer another question arose: which one the greatest love was.
274. The lover went asking for alms by the doorsteps to remind the love of his beloved to his servants, and to make use of humility, poverty and patience, which are pleasant to his beloved.
275. The lover was asked for forgiveness for the love of his beloved; and the lover not only forgave, but he gave himself and his estate as well.
276. With tears in his eyes the lover narrated the passion and the pain that his beloved endured for his love; and with sadness and thoughts, he wrote the words he was uttering; and with grace and hopefulness, he was comforted.
277. The beloved and love came to see the lover, who was sleeping. The beloved called his lover, and love awoke him. And the lover obeyed love, and he answered to his beloved.
278. The lover was nourished by his beloved to love; and love taught him to confront danger, and patience educated him to sustain hardship for the love of that one to whom he had given himself as servant.
279. The beloved asked the people if they had seen his lover, and they asked him for the qualities of his lover; and the beloved said that his lover was bold, fearful, wealthy and poor, joyous, sad, thoughtful, and that he grieved every day for his love.
280. And the lover was asked if he wanted to sell his wish; and he answered he had sold it to his beloved for a kind of money that could buy all the world.
281. - Do pray, you crazy one, and speak words about your beloved. Do cry out, do fast! The lover renounced the world, and he went searching for his beloved with love, and he praised him in those places where he was dishonored.
282. The lover built and worked on a beautiful city where his beloved would dwell. With love, thoughts, plants, cries and sorrows, he constructed it; and with pleasure, hopefulness, devotion, he adorned it; and with faith, justice, caution, fortitude, temperance, he garnished it.
283. The lover drank love in the fountain of his beloved, in which the beloved washed his lover's feet, who has often forgotten and neglected his principles; whereby the world is in failure.
284. - Tell me, fool: what is sin? He replied: - It is intention reversed and turned against the final intention and reason for which my beloved has created everything.
285. The lover saw that the world is created on account that eternity is better suited to his beloved, who is infinite essence in greatness and in all perfection, than with the world, which is of finite quantity. And therefore, in the justice of his beloved, the lover saw that his beloved's eternity must prevail over time and over finite quantity.
286. The lover defended his beloved from those who said the world is eternal by saying that his beloved would not have perfect justice if he did not deliver to each soul its body, to which body neither place nor prime matter would be enough; and the world would not be directed toward one end only if it were eternal; and if it were not directed toward one end, perfection of will and knowledge would fail in his beloved.
287. - Tell me, you fool: what gives you the knowledge that the catholic faith is true, and the beliefs of the jews and the moors is in falsehood and error? He replied: - Through the ten conditions of the Book of the Gentle and the three wise men .
288. - Tell me, fool one: what does wisdom start from? He replied: - From faith and devotion, which are a ladder where intelligence climbs on to understand the secrets of my beloved. - And how about faith and devotion, where do they start from? He replied: - From my beloved, who enlightens faith and warms up devotion.
289. The lover was asked which one was greater: possibility or impossibility. He replied that possibility is greater in creation, and impossibility in his beloved; because possibility and potentiality are concordant, and so are impossibility and actuality.
290. - Tell me, fool one: which one is greater, difference or concordance? He replied that, except in his beloved, difference was greater in plurality, and concordance in unity, but in his beloved they are equal in difference and unity.
291. - Tell me, loving one: what is worthiness? He answered that it is the opposite of this world's worth, which is desired by the false, vain lovers, who wish to be worthy while possessing worthlessness, and to be persecutors of worthiness.
292. - Tell me, fool one: have you seen any man who is mad? He replied he had seen a bishop who had in his table many cups, bowls and silver cutlery, and who had in his bedroom many robes and a great bed, and in his chests a lot of money; and at the door of his palace there were but few paupers.
293. - Fool one: do you know what vileness is? - Vile thoughts. - And what is loyalty ? - It is fear of my beloved, born from charity and shyness, which is afraid of the blame of the people. - And what are honorings? He replied: - To meditate of my beloved, and to wish and pray for his honorings.
294. The lover was altered and was led to impatience by the trouble and tribulations he was sustaining for love; and the beloved reprimanded him with his honorings and his promises, by saying that whoever is altered by either setbacks or bliss knows little of love. The lover cried and repented, and he prayed to his beloved to deliver love to him.
295. - Fool one, tell me: what is love? He replied that love is that thing that places the free ones into servitude and gives freedom to the servants. And it was wondered which one love is closest to: freedom, or servitude.
296. The beloved was calling his lover, and he answered him saying: - What is it that pleases you, my beloved, you who are eyes of my eyes, and thought of my thoughts, and fulfillment of my fulfillments, and love of my loving acts, and even beginning of my beginnings?
297. - Beloved - the lover said -, I go to you and I go in you, for you are calling me. I go to contemplate contemplation, by contemplation of your contemplation. I am in your virtue, and I come with your virtue, whereby I obtain virtue. I greet you in your greeting, which is my greeting in your greeting, from which I expect a lasting greeting in blessing of your blessing, in which I am blessed in my blessing.
298. You are high, my beloved, in your highness, to which you exalt my will, which is exalted in your exalting with your highness, which exalts in my remembrance my understanding, which is exalted in your exalting to come to know your principles, so that its love may be exalted by the will and memory may have it in high remembrance.
299. - You are, beloved, glory of my glory, and with your glory and in glory you give glory to my glory, which is glorious of your glory. And for this glory of yours, the trouble and grief that came to me to honor your glory are equally glorious to me as the pleasure and thoughts, that come to me from your glory.
300. - Beloved: in the prison of love you are holding me in love with your love, which has enamored me of your love, for your love and in your love. Because you are nothing but love, in which you make be alone and in the company of your love and your honorings. Because you are alone in me being alone, me lonely with my thoughts, like your own solitude, which is alone in honors and is the only one whose values I praise and honor without fear of the misunderstandings that do not have you alone in their love.
301. You are solace, my beloved, of solace; because I console my thoughts in your solace, which is solace and comfort of my sorrows and my tribulations, which are distressed in your solace when you do not console the ignorant with your solace, and when you do not more strongly engage those knowledgeable of your solace to honor your principles.
302. The lover complained to his lord about his beloved, and to his beloved about his lord. The lord and the beloved said: - Who is driving separation into us, we who are only one? The lover answered, and said it was grace from the lord and tribulation from the beloved.
303. The lover was in danger in the great sea of love, and he trusted his beloved, who came to his rescue with tribulations, thoughts, tears and plants, sighs and sorrows, since the sea was one of love and of honoring his principles.
304. The lover rejoiced in the existence of his beloved because through his being all beings are realised, and sustained, and bound, and subdued to honor and to serve the being of their beloved, who cannot be pleased, blamed, lessened or grown by any other being.
305. - Beloved: in your magnificence you magnify my desires, my thoughts and my troubles; for your magnificence is so great, that everything that has remembrance, understanding and pleasure from you is great; and your greatness belittles everything that is against your principles and commands.
306. - My beloved is eternally begun, and has begun and will begin eternally; and he does not begin nor he began nor will begin eternally. And these beginnings are not contradiction in my beloved, because it is eternal, and he includes unity and trinity.
307. - My beloved is one, and in his unity my will and my thoughts and my loving acts are united; and the unity of my beloved encompasses all unity and all plurality; and the plurality that is in my beloved encompasses all unity and all plurality.
308. - Supreme goodness is the goodness of my beloved, who is goodness of my goodness; for my beloved is goodness without any other good, for were he not, my goodness would be of another supreme good. And since it is not, let all of my goodness spent in this life be dedicated to honor the supreme good, as it should.
309. - Even though you know me, beloved, a sinner, you make yourself merciful and forgiving. And because what you know in yourself is better than myself, thereby the better I come to know forgiveness and love in you the more you let me know contrition, and grief, and desire to encounter death to praise your worth.
310. - Your power, my beloved, may save me by graciousness, piety and forgiveness, and may condemn me by justice and by guilt in my mistakes. Let your power fulfill your will in me; for everything is plenitude, whether you give me salvation or damnation.
311. - Beloved: truth visits the construction of my heart, and raises water to my eyes because she is loved by my willpower; and since your truth is supreme, truth lifts my will to honor your principles, and lowers it to dislike my failings.
312. That which my beloved was not in was never true, and false is that which my beloved is not in, and false will be that which my beloved will not be in. And therefore everything that will be, or was, or is, must be truth if my beloved is there; and hence, false is the one who is in some truth where my beloved is not, with no contradiction being implied.
313. The beloved created and the lover destroyed. The beloved judged, the lover cried. The beloved recreated, and he glorified the lover. The beloved finished his operation, and the lover remained eternally in the company of his beloved.
314. Along the paths for vegetating, and for feeling, imagination, understanding, willingness, the lover went searching for his beloved; and in those paths the lover endured danger and sorrow for his beloved to exalt his intelligence and willpower to his beloved, who wants his lovers to understand and love him highly.
315. The lover is moved to being by the perfection of his beloved, and he is moved to no-being by his enfeeblement. And hence one wonders which of the two movements naturally holds the greatest power in the lover.
316. - You have placed me, my beloved, between my wrong and your goodness. Let there be on your part piety, mercy, patience, humility and forgiveness, help and healing; let there be on my part contrition, perseverance, remembrance, with sighs, tears and weeping coming from your holy passion.
317. - Beloved, you who makes me love: if you are not helping me, why did you want to create me ? And why did you endure so much grief for me, and bear so severe a passion ? Since you have helped me to rise so much, please help me, my beloved, to come down, to remember, to despise my offences and my failures, so that my thoughts may better rise to desire, to honor, to praise your worth.
318. - You have made my will free to love your honor, and to undervalue your worth, so that you may multiply your love in my will.
319. - By means of this freedom you have put, my beloved, my willpower in danger. Beloved: in this danger you ought to remember your lover, who obtains from his free will the servitude to praise your honorings and to multiply in his heart sorrows and weepings.
320. - Beloved: no guilt or failing in your lover ever came from you, nor did any fulfillment reach your lover without your gift and forgiveness. Therefore, since the lover is possessed of you in this way, do not forget him in his trouble and endangerement.
321. - Beloved, you who are called man and God in one name! In that name, Jesus Christ, my will wants you to be man of God; and if you, beloved, have so much honored your lover without his merit in the way he calls and wishes your name, why do you not honor so many ignorant men who have not knowingly been so guilty toward your name, Jesus Christ, as your lover has been ?
322. The lover was crying, and he spoke to his beloved in these words: - Beloved, you were never mean or greedy toward your lover in giving him being, in recreating him, or in providing many creatures to his service. So how could you, my beloved who are supreme freedom, ever be mean to your lover in giving him weepings, thoughts, sorrows, wiseness and love to honor your glory ? Therefore, my beloved, your lover asks you for a long life, so he may receive from you many of the above said gifts.
323. - Beloved: if you help the just men from their mortal enemies, help to multiply my thoughts to desire your honorings; and if you help the unjust men to recover justice, help your lover to sacrifice his will for your praising, and to sacrifice his body to be testimony of love by way of martyrdom.
324. - There is no difference in my beloved between humbleness, the humble one, and the humbling one, for everything is humbleness in pure reality. And therefore the lover rebukes pride, who wants to raise to their beloved those who have been so greatly honored by my beloved's humility and who have been dressed up by pride in hipocrisy, vileness, vanity.
325. Humility humbled the beloved down to the lover, by contrition; and it was done by devotion too. And it is questioned in which of the two the beloved was most strongly humbled down to the lover.
326. The beloved, through his perfection, had mercy for his lover, as well as for the needs of his lover. And it was wondered for which of the two reasons the beloved most strongly forgave the faults of his lover.
327. Our Lady and the angels and the saints prayed of glory to my beloved; and when I remembered the error the world is in because of ignorance, I remembered well the great justice of my beloved and the great ignorance of his enemies.
328. The lover raised the power of his soul through a ladder of humanity to glorify the divine nature; and through the divine nature he descended the power of his soul to glorify in the human nature of his beloved.
329. The narrower the paths the lover goes on towards his beloved, the wider love is; and the narrower love is, the wider the paths are. And thereby, the lover experiences in every way for his beloved friendship and hardship, and suffering and pleasure and consolation.
330. Love comes out of love, and thoughts out of sorrows, and plants out of sorrows, and love comes into love, and thoughts into plants, and sorrows into sighs. And the beloved watches his lover, who for his love goes throught all these tribulations.
331. The desires and remembrances of the lover stayed up at night and made festivals and pilgrimages for the nobleties of his beloved, and furnished shape to the lover, and filled his intelligence with brilliance, for which willpower multiplied his love.
332. With his imagination, the lover painted and formed the shapes of his beloved in the bodily things, and with his intelligence he polished them in the spiritual things, and with willpower he adored them in all creatures.
333. The lover bought one day of crying for another day of thoughts, and he sold one day of love for another day of tribulations; and his love and his thoughts were multiplied.
334. The lover was in a strange land, and he forgot his beloved, and he yearned for his lord and for his wife and infants and his friends. But he returned to remember his beloved, in order to be comforted and that his strangeness would not give him yearning or melancholy.
335. The lover was hearing words from his beloved which his intelligence saw him in, because his willpower felt pleasure in that hearing; and his memory remembered the virtues of his beloved, and his promises.
336. The lover was hearing blaming of his beloved, and in this blaming his intelligence saw the justice and the patience of his beloved, for justice punished the blamers, and patience awaited them to contrition, repentance. This is why it is wondered in which of the two the lover believed the most.
337. The lover was sick, and he made his will with advice from his beloved. Guilt and harm he bequeathed to repentance, penitence; and temporal desire he bequeathed to disdain; to his eyes he bequeathed crying, and to his hearth sighs and love; and to his intelligence he bequeathed the forms of his beloved; and to his memory the passion that his beloved bears for his love; and to his business he bequeathed the correction of the infidels, who go ignorantly to their ruin.
338. The lover smelt flowers, and he remembered the stench of the rich and miserly, and of the lustful, and of the unwise arrogant. The lover tasted sweets, and he perceived the bitterness in the temporal possessions, and in the entering and exiting from this world. The lover felt temporal pleasure, and intelligence understood the brief passage through this world and the lasting torments that are brought about by the delights that are nice in this world.
339. The lover bore hunger, thirst, heat and cold, poverty, nakedness, illness, tribulation; and he would have been finished if he had not remembered his beloved, who healed him with hopefulness, remembering, and through the renouncement of this world, and through the neglect of people's blame.
340. The lover's bed was between trouble and pleasure: with pleasure he fell asleep, and with trouble he woke up. And one wonders which one of these two the lover's bed is closest to.
341. The lover fell asleep in rage, for he feared people's blame; and he woke up in patience, when he remembered prasings to his beloved. And it is wondered who the lover felt most ashamed of: his beloved, or the people.
342. The lover reflected about death, and he was fearful until he remembered the city of his beloved, for which death and love are gates and entrance.
343. The lover complained to his beloved of the temptations that were coming to him every day to trouble his thoughts. And the beloved replied to him saying that temptations are opportunities to resort with his memory to remember God and love his honored demeanor.
344. The lover lost a jewel that he very much liked; and he was distressed until his beloved posed him the question of which thing was the most profitable to him: the jewel he had, or the patience he drew from the work of his beloved.
345. The lover was sleeping while reflecting on the trouble and the impediments he ran into to serve his beloved, and he feared that his work would die out because of those impediments. But the beloved sent him consciousness, which awoke him in his merit and in the power of his beloved.
346. The lover had to go on long, tough, harsh journeys; and it was time for him to go on those and to carry the large bundle that love compels her lovers to carry. And therefore the lover relieved his soul from temporal thoughts and pleasures, so that the body could carry the load more lightly and the soul would go through those journeys in the company of his beloved.
347. Wrong things were being said one day next to the lover of his beloved, without the lover answering or excusing his beloved. And it is asked which one is the most guilty: the men who blamed the beloved, or the lover who kept quiet and did not excuse his beloved.
348. While contemplating his beloved, the lover grew subtler in his intelligence, and he fell in love in his willpower. And one wonders which of these two made the lover's memory subtler in the strongest way in remembering his beloved.
349. With fervor and awe, the lover went along his journey to honor his beloved: he was carried by fervor, and preserved by awe. As the lover was going in this way, he ran across sighs and cryings, who brought greetings from his beloved. And it is wondered which of the four the lover was best comforted by in his beloved.
350. The lover was watching himself so as to be the mirror where he could see his beloved, and he was watching his beloved so as he were the mirror where he could have knowledge of himself. And it is wondered which of the two mirrors his understanding was closest to.
351. Theology and Philosophy, Medicine and Law ran across the lover, who asked them again if they had seen his beloved. Theology cried, Philosophy doubted, Medicine and Law rejoiced. And it is wondered what each of the four signs mean to the lover who is searching his beloved.
352. Anguished and tearful, the lover went in search of his beloved through sensuous paths and intellectual routes. And it is wondered which of these two ways he first went into as he was searching his beloved, and in which the beloved showed himself most decisively to the lover.
353. On the day of the final judgement, the beloved will ask everyone to sort out on one side that which he has been given in this world, and to place on the other that which he has given to the world, to let it be seen how he has been heartily loved and which of the two gifts is the most noble and of the largest quantity.
354. The lover's willpower loved herself, and intelligence asked her if she was most similar to her beloved in loving herself or in loving her beloved, for her beloved loves himself better than anything else. And this is why it is wondered according to which answer willpower could reply to intelligence most truthfully.
355. - Tell me, fool one: which is the greatest and most noble love that is in any creature ? He replied: - That which is one with the creator. - Why? - Because the creator has nothing out of which he can make a more noble creature.
356. One day, the lover was in prayer and he felt his eyes were not crying; and to be able to cry, he sent out his thoughts to think about money, women, children, food, and vanity; and he found in his understanding that each of these things have more people as their servants than his beloved does. And thereby his eyes cried and his soul was in sadness and pain.
357. The lover was going thoughtful in his beloved, and he met along his way large numbers of people and groups who asked him of any news; and since he found pleasure in his beloved, the lover did not respond to what he was being asked and he said he did not want to answer their words so that he was not moved away from his beloved.
358. The lover was covered inside and outside by love, and he went searching for his beloved. Love said to him: - Lover, where are you going ? He replied: - I am going to my beloved so that you may become greater.
359. - Tell me, fool one: what is religion ? He replied: - Cleanness of thought, and wishing to die to honor my beloved, and renouncing to the world so that there is no encumbrance to contemplate it and to tell the truth about its honorings.
360. - Tell me, fool one: what are trouble, laments, sighs, weepings, tribulations, danger, in the lover ? He answered: - Pleasure from the beloved. - Why ? - So that the beloved is better loved, and the lover better rewarded.
361. The lover was asked which one love was greatest in: the lover who lived, or the lover who died. He replied it was in the lover who died. - Why ? - Because it can be no greater in the lover who dies for love, and it can be greater in the lover who lives for love.
362. Two lovers met each other; one displayed his beloved, the other one understood him. And it was questioned which one was closest to his beloved. And through the solution, the lover came to know the proof of trinity.
363. - Tell me, fool one: why do you speak so subtly? He answered: - To bring about an opportunity to exalt intelligence to the nobilities of my beloved, and to bring more men to honor, love and serve my beloved.
364. The lover got drunk from wine, who remembered, understood, and loved the beloved. That wine soaked the beloved with his cryings and with his lover's tears.
365. Love was arousing and warming up the lover in the remembrance of his beloved; and the beloved cooled him down through tears and cryings, and by forgetting the desires of this world, and by renouncing to vain honorings. And his loving acts grew when the lover remembered who he was sustaining grief and tribulations for, and who the mundane men sustained trouble and persecution for.
366. - Tell me, fool one: what is this world ? He replied: - It is prison of the lovers and servers of my beloved. - And who places them in prison ? He replied: - Consciousness, love, fear, renunciation, contriction, and the company of evil people; and it is work without reward, whereby punishment is found. Since Blanquerna had to treat on the book of the Art of Contemplation , he decided to finish the Book of the Lover and the Beloved . Which book is finished to the glory and praising of God our Lord.
The most recent critical edition of the Book of the Lover and the Beloved shows that the number of lines does not correspond exactly to the number of days in a year. It is a minor detail which reveals to us the ‘practical’, that is to say, speculative and poetic, nature of the collection; in the fifth part of Blaquerna it is accompanied, in fact, by a theoretical treatise, the ‘Art of Contemplation’.
The aphorisms in the Book of the Lover and the Beloved are not organised thematically, and they display a variety of literary forms: dialogue, questions, descriptions, definitions, and narrative. The central theme is the relationship between the religious man, the lover [‘l’amic’], and the transcendent being, the beloved [‘l’amat’], in the light of the bond which unites them, namely, love.
Llull’s Art, which is inventive, demonstrative, contemplative and also ‘amative’, explains how the process of seeking out God operates in a technical sense: for this reason, an important part of the Book of the Lover and the Beloved is devoted to commentating upon the behaviour of the three faculties of the rational soul (understanding, memory and will) during the amorous leap from creature to Creator. Another section of the versicles sets out reflections upon the divine essence: the Dignities, the Trinity, and the Incarnation are always viewed in terms of the precise idiom of Llull’s Art. Behind the apparent looseness of its literary motives, this short work, therefore, has, a solid structure of thought and a strict coherence with regard to the meaning of mystical union: the intellect opens the way towards comprehension of God, but the loving will is what drives the lover, if his memory has not forgotten his beloved.
The most celebrated aspects of the Book of the Lover and the Beloved are those which describe the (always secondary) role played by creatures (the sun, stars, clouds, birds, paths…) in stimulating love for God, and the emotional condition of the enamoured soul, buffeted by desire, forgetfulness, suffering, the search for God, longing and tears. It is here that Llull’s writing echoes themes from universal love poetry, from the Song of Songs to the Occitan troubadours, and always from the particular standpoint of the impulse towards the transcendent. It is not easy to specify parallelisms with great Sufi mystical literature, just as possible borrowings from the Judaeo-Christian tradition also remain unclear. The formulations put forward by Llull in place of the old reasons of universal scope are powerfully personal.
font: http://quisestlullus.narpan.net/eng/78_amic_eng.html
[english version]
1. Exortation and Preface
1.1. How eremite Blanquerna made the "Book of the Lover and the Beloved".
It happened, one day, that the eremite who was going through Rome, referred to earlier, visited the eremites who were in Rome, and found that they were having many temptations on certain things, since they did not know how to observe the behavior that was proper of their lives; and he thought of asking the eremite Blanquerna to write a book about the life of the eremite, so that through that book the other eremites could know and were able to be in contemplation and devotion. While Blanquerna was in prayer one day, that eremite came to Blanquerna's cell and he made this request about the book. Blanquerna thought hard of the way to make the book, and what subject it would be on.
As Blanquerna was musing in this thought, he felt the will to give himself to the adoration and comtemplation of God, so that while praying, God would show him the way to make his book and the subject it should be on. While Blanquerna was crying and adoring, and God had risen his soul, who was contemplating him, to the sublime extreme of his strength, Blanquerna felt himself being elevated above form, through the great fervor and devotion he was in, and he thought that the strength of love does not follow the way the lover loves his beloved most intensely. So then, Blanquerna was willing to make the Book of the Lover and the Beloved , where the Lover would be the faithful and devoted Christian, and the beloved would be God.
While Blanquerna was deliberating in this way, he remembered that once, when he was an apostle, he was told by a Moor that the Moors have some religious men, and among the others and those who are most appreciated among them, there are the people called ``suffies'', who have words of love and brief examples which give great devotion to men; and they are words which need to be professed, and through their explanation understanding rises to a higher state, and through this rise the will of devotion can grow and multiply. Whereby, when Blanquerna had had this consideration, he proposed to make the book in the aforementioned way, and he told the eremite to go back to Rome, and that he would briefly send to him, through the deacon, the Book of the Lover and the Beloved , by which he could multiply fervor and devotion among the eremites, who he wanted to fall in love with God.
1.2. On the Book of the Lover and the Beloved. On the preface.
Blanquerna was in prayer and he reflected on the way he contemplated God and his virtues; and when he had finished his prayer, he wrote about what he had contemplated God in. He did this every day; and he put new ideas in his prayer in order to compose in many diverse ways the Book of the Lover and the Beloved , and that those compositions were brief, so that the soul could experience many of them in a short time.
And, in God's blessing, Blanquerna started his book, and he divided it into as many verses as days there are in a year. And each verse is enough for a whole day of contemplating God, according to the Art of the Book of contemplation.
2. The Moral Metaphors start
1. The lover asked his beloved if there was anything left in him that was yet to be loved; and his beloved replied that whatever could make his love stronger was to be loved.
2. The path the lover must walk to search for his beloved is long and dangerous, replete with thoughts and deliberation, with anguished moans and cries, and enlightened with love.
3. A multitude of lovers gathered to worship one beloved, who filled all of them with love; and everyone cared for his beloved and his enjoyable thoughts, for which they felt pleasant wonders.
4. The lover wept and said: - How longer till darkness ceases in the world, so that evil deeds will cease? And how longer for the water, which customarily moves downward, to have the nature to move upward? And how longer for the innocent to be more than the guilty?
5. - Ah! When will the lover rejoice, when he dies for his beloved? And the beloved, when will he see his lover languish for his love?
6. The lover said to his beloved: - You, who fillst the Sun with glare, fill my heart with love. To which the beloved answered: - Without fulfilment of love your eyes would not be in tears, neither would you have come to this place to see your loved one.
7. The beloved tempted his lover, and inquired if he loved perfectly; and he asked what the difference was between presence and absence of the beloved. Replied the lover: - From ignorance and forgetfulness, to knowledge and remembrance.
8. The beloved asked his lover: - Can you remember anything that I gave you, for which you love me? And he replied:- Yes, since among the sorrows and pleasures you give me, I make no difference.
9. - Tell me, my lover - said the beloved - : will you have patience if I double your misery? - Yes, if you just double my love.
10. The beloved said to the lover: - Do you know, yet, what love is? Replied the lover, - If I did not know what love is, would I know what hardship, sadness and pain are?
11. The lover was asked: - Why are you not answering your beloved, who is calling you? He answered: - I am already facing grave danger to attain him, and I surely speak to him wishing for his honors.
12. - Crazy lover: why do you destroy yourself and give your money away, and ignore the pleasures of this world and go disdained among the people? He answered: - To honor the principles of my beloved, who by more people is despised and dishonored, than honored and loved.
13. - Tell me, crazy for love: Who is the most visible, the beloved in the lover, or the lover in the beloved? And he said the beloved is seen in love, and the lover is seen in sorrow, in weeping, in hardship and pain.
14. The lover was seeking someone who would tell his beloved how he bore grave hardship and died for his love; and he met his beloved who was reading in a book where all the grief and all the delights which his love would give him for his beloved were written.
15. Our Lady brought her Son to the lover, so he could kiss his foot, and so that he would write in his book the virtues of our Lady.
16. - Tell me, bird who sings: have you come to my beloved so that he defends you from hatred, and he multiplies love in you? Replied the bird: - And who makes me sing, but the Lord of love, to whom hatred is dishonor?
17. Love has settled between fear and hopefulness, living with thoughts and dying by oblivion as the foundations are over the delights of this world.
18. A dispute occurred between the eyes and the memory of the lover, for the eyes said it was better to see the beloved than to remember him, and the memory said that through remembrance the water rises to the eyes and the heart swells with love.
19. The lover asked intelligence and will which one was closest to his beloved; and they both ran, and intelligence was to his beloved before will.
20. Into discord came the lover and the beloved; and it was seen by another lover, and he wept for so long until he had brought into peace and agreement the beloved and the lover.
21. Sighs and tears came to the judgement of the beloved and asked him which one he felt most strongly loved by. The beloved judged that sighs are closer to love, and tears closer to the eyes.
22. The lover came to drink from the fountain that arouses love in those who do not love, and his sorrows were doubled. And then the beloved came to drink from the fountain to double again the love of his lover, in which he would double his sorrows.
23. The lover fell sick, and the beloved looked after him: with worthiness he fed him, and with love he gave him drink, with patience he abounded him, of humbleness he dressed him, with truth he cured him.
24. The lover was asked where his beloved was. He replied: - See him in a house that is more noble than any other created nobilities; and see him in my acts of love, and in my suffering and in my weepings.
25. They said to the lover: - Where do you go? - I come from my beloved. - Where do you come to? - I go to my beloved. - When will you be back? - I will be with my beloved. - How long will you be with your beloved for? - As long as my thoughts will be with him.
26. The birds were singing the dawn, and the lover, who is the dawn, awakened; and the birds ended their song, and the lover died for his beloved in the dawn.
27. The bird was singing in the garden of the beloved, when the lover came and said to the bird: - If we don't understand each other by language, let us communicate with love; for to my eyes, my beloved is represented in your song.
28. The lover, who had worked hard to search for his beloved, felt sleep coming to him; and he feared he might forget his beloved. And he cried, so as not to fall asleep, and so that his beloved would not be absent to his consciousness.
29. The lover met his beloved, and he said: - You need not speak to me; but make a signal with your eyes, which are words to my heart, when I give you what you ask me.
30. The lover disobeyed his beloved, and he wept. And the beloved came to die in the gown of his lover, to let him recover what he had lost; and he gave him yet a greater gift than the one he had lost.
31. The beloved brings love to the lover, and does not pity him for his sorrows, whence he may more strongly be loved and, in the greatest sorrow, find pleasure and renewal.
32. Said the lover: - I am tormented by the secrets of my beloved, for they are revealed in my deeds, but they are kept secret in my mouth and they are not unraveled by the people.
33. The conditions for love are that the lover be long-suffering, patient, humble, fearful, diligent, trustful, and ready to confront great dangers to honor his beloved. And the conditions for the beloved are that he be truthful, generous, compassionate, and just to his lover.
34. The lover was searching for devoutness in the mountains and the plains, to see if his beloved was being served; but he found only failure in every place. So he dug into the earth to see if he could find compliance, since by the earth devoutness fails.
35. - Tell me, bird who sings love to my beloved: Why does he torment me with love, when he has taken me as his servant? The bird replied: - If you endured no hardship for your love, what would you love your beloved with?
36. Deep in thought, the lover mused on the paths to his beloved, when he stumbled and fell among thorns, and the thorns seemed like flowers to him, and his bed seemed to be made of love.
37. The lover was asked if he would change his beloved for someone else. He answered saying: And who could be better and more noble than supreme good, eternal, infinite in greatness, power, wisdom, love, perfection?
38. The lover was singing and weeping songs to his beloved, and he said that love is swifter in the courage of the lover than lightning is in glare, and thunder is in sound; and more lively is water in tears than in the waves of the sea; and closer to love are sighs than whiteness is to snow.
39. The lover was asked why his beloved is glorious. He answered: - Because he is glory. He was asked why he is powerful. He answered: - Because he is power. And why he is learned: - Because he is learning. And why he is kind: - Because he is love.
40. The lover woke up in the morning, and he went searching for his beloved; and he ran across people who were walking along the way, and he asked them if they had seen his beloved. Then they asked him when it was that his beloved was absent to his eyes of the mind. The lover replied: - Never, for I have seen my beloved in my thoughts, so he was not absent to my corporal eyes, since to me everything visible represents my beloved.
41. With eyes of thoughts, pangs, sighs and tears, the lover gazed at his beloved; and with eyes of grace, justice, piety, mercy, generosity, the beloved gazed at his lover. And the bird sang to this pleasant gaze.
42. The keys to the doors of love are gilded with meditation, moans and tears; and the string of the keys is made of conscience, contriction, devotion, satisfaction; and the doorman is of justice, mercy.
43. The lover knocked at the door of his beloved with a stroke of love, hope. The beloved heard the knock from his lover with humility, compassion, patience, charity. The doors were opened by deity and humanity, and the lover came in to see his beloved.
44. Property and community came together, and they mixed with each other, to bring friendship and kindness among the lover and the beloved.
45. Two fires lighten the love of the lover: one is built of wishes, pleasures, deliberations; the other is made out of fear, suffering, of tears and weepings.
46. The lover wished for solitude, and he went to be alone to have the company of his beloved, with whom he was alone among the people.
47. The lover was alone, in the shadow of a fine tree. People went by that place, and asked him why he was alone. And the lover replied that he was alone once he had seen and heard them, but he had been in the company of his beloved before.
48. With signals of love the lover and the beloved spoke, and with fear, thoughts, tears and weepings the lover told his beloved of his sorrows.
49. The lover doubted whether his beloved would fail him in his greatest need. The lover had contrition, repentance in his heart; and the beloved rendered hope and charity to the lover's heart, and tears and weepings to his eyes, to let love return to the lover.
50. The same thing is proximity and remoteness between the lover and the beloved; for just like in mixing water and wine, the love of the lover and the beloved mix together; just like with heat and glare, their love is linked; and just like essence and being, they suit themselves and come close to each other.
51. The lover said to his beloved: - My healing and my suffering are in you; and where you give me the best health, my pain grows the most, and where you give me the most suffering, your healing is greatest. Replied the beloved: - Your love is the stamp and seal where you show my glory to the people.
52. The lover was being abducted and chained, wounded, and slain for the love to his beloved. Those who tormented him asked: - Where is your beloved? He replied: - See him in my growing love and in the sustainment of my suffering he provides.
53. The lover said to the beloved: - I never fled from you, nor did I depart from loving you, ever since I knew you; for in you, for you and with you, I was where I needed to be. Replied the beloved: - Neither did I forget you, ever since you knew me and you loved me, nor was there ever deceit or desertion against you.
54. The lover was going through a city like a mad man, singing of his beloved; and people asked him if he had lost his senses. He answered that his beloved had taken his will, and he had given him his intelligence; so only memory remained in him, which he remembered his beloved with.
55. The beloved said: - It is an act against love for the lover to be asleep forgetting his beloved. Answered the lover: - And it is an act against love for the beloved not to wake the lover, since he has desired him.
56. The heart of the lover rose to the heights of the beloved, so as not to be restrained to love in the abyss of this world. And when he was with the beloved, he gazed at him with sweetness and pleasure; then, the beloved descended him to this world, so that he could gaze at him in anxiety and pain.
57. The lover was asked: - What is your wealth? He answered: - It is the poverty I sustain for my beloved. - And what gives you rest? - The grief that love gives to me. - And who is your doctor? - The trust that I have in my beloved. - And who is your teacher? He answered that his teacher was the meanings of his beloved given by all creatures.
58. The bird was singing in a bunch of leaves and flowers, and the wind stirred the leaves and brought the smell from the flowers. The lover asked the bird w:at the motion of the leaves and the smell of the flowers meant. He answered: - The leaves, in their movement, mean obedience; and the smell means suffering and misfortune.
59. The lover was desiring his beloved, and he ran into two friends who greeted each other with love and tears, and they embraced and kissed each other. The lover shivered: so strongly was he reminded of his beloved by the two friends.
60. The lover was musing about death, and he feared it until he remembered his beloved. And he called to the people around him: - Ah, gentlemen! Rejoice in honoring my beloved, so that you fear neither danger nor death.
61. They asked the lover where his love had started first. He answered it started in the good works of his beloved; and from that beginning, they would be led to love themselves and their kin, and to despise deception and failure.
62. - Tell me, crazy man: what would you do if your beloved were to loath you? He answered that he would love so that he would not die, since loathing is death, and love is life.
63. The lover was asked what perseverance is about. He said perseverance is about well-being and misfortune in the lover who perseveres in loving, honoring, and serving his beloved with fortitude, patience, hope.
64. The lover asked his beloved to pay him for the time he had served him. The beloved counted the thoughts, the wishes, the weepings, the dangers and the trouble his lover had sustained for his love; and he added to that account eternal blessing, and he gave himself in payment to his lover.
65. The lover was asked what well-being was about. He answered that it was hardship endured through love.
66. - Tell me, crazy one, what is hardship? - It is remembrance of the dishonor that is done against my beloved, who is worthy of all honor.
67. Staring back at a place where he had seen his beloved, the lover said: - Ah, place which symbolizes to me the beatiful customs of my beloved! You will tell my beloved that I am enduring trouble and hardship for his love. Answered the place: - When the beloved was in me, he suffered greater trouble and hardship than all the trouble and hardship that love could give to his servants.
68. The lover was saying to his beloved: - You are everything, you are for everything, you are in everything, you are with everything. I want everything of you, so that I have everything and everything is in me. Answered the beloved: - You cannot have all of me, without being of me. And the lover said: - Have me totally, and let me have you whole. Replied the beloved: - What will your son have, and your brother, and your father? Said the lover: - You are such totality, that you can afford being everything to all who totally give themselves to you.
69. The lover extended and lengthened his thoughts on the greatness and the durability of his beloved, and he did not find in him beginning, middle or ending. And the beloved said: - What are you measuring, crazy man? Replied the lover: - I am measuring inferior with superior, and failure with compliance, and beginning with infinity, eternity, so that humility, patience, charity and hope may more intensely be in my awareness.
70. The paths of love are long and brief, because love is clear, pure, clean, truthful, subtle, simple, strong, diligent, brilliant, plentiful with new thoughts and ancient recollections.
71. The lover was asked what the fruits of love are. He answered: - Pleasure, meditation, wishes, sighs, anxiety, difficulties, danger, pain, sorrow. Without these fruits love cannot be touched by his servants.
72. Many people were with the lover, who was complaining of his beloved that he did not make his love grow; and he complained about love giving him hardship and pain. The beloved excused himself, saying that the hardship and pain he accused love of were the growth of his love.
73. - Tell me, crazy: why do you not speak? And what is this thing you are brooding over, so thoughtful? He answered: - On the beauties of my beloved, and on the resemblance of the good fortune and the pain which bring to me and give me love.
74. - Tell me, crazy: which was earlier, your heart, or love? He answered, and said his heart and love were at the same time; for had they not been, the heart would not have been created to love, nor would love have been created to cogitate.
75. They asked the crazy man where his love had started first: in the secrets of his beloved, or in revealing them to the people. He answered that love makes no difference between the two, as long as it is in compliance, since secretly, the lover keeps the secrets of his beloved secret, and in secret he reveals them, and in revelation he keeps them secret.
76. Secret of love without revelation brings passion and sadness; and to reveal love brings fear through fervor. And this is why the lover is in affliction all the time.
77. Love called his lovers, and told them to ask for those gifts that were most desirable and pleasant to them. And they said these gifts were the robes, and asked love to adorn them with their ornaments to make them more likeable to the beloved.
78. The lover spoke to the people, and said that love commanded them to love while walking and while sitting, awake or sleep, in talking and in quietness, in buying and in selling, in crying and in laughing, in pleasure and in pain, in winning and in losing; and in whatever they were doing they were to love, for that was love's commandment.
79. - Tell me, crazy, when did love come to you? He replied: - Love came to me at that time when I became rich, and she stocked my heart with thoughts, wishes, sighs, grief, and she filled my eyes with tears and weepings. - What did love bring to you? - Beautiful images, honorings and values of my beloved. - What did they come through? - Through remembrance and intelligence. - What did you receive them with? - With charity, with hope. - What do you keep them with? - With justice, caution, fortitude, moderation.
80. The beloved was singing, and he said the lover knew little of love if he was shy to praise his beloved, or if he feared honoring him in those places where he is most strongly dishonored; and he who is distressed by misfortune knows little of loving; and he who despairs of his beloved loses harmony with love and hopefulness.
81. The lover sent letters to his beloved, where he asked if there was any another lover who could help him bear and endure the heavy burden he sustained for his love. And the beloved wrote back, saying there was nothing that he could offend or fail him with.
82. The beloved was asked about the love of his lover. He replied that the love of his lover is mixture of pleasure and affliction, and of fear and audacity.
83. The lover was asked about the love of his beloved. He replied that the love of his beloved is influence of infinite goodness, eternity, power, wisdom, charity, perfection; and the beloved has this influence on the lover.
84. - Tell me, crazy: what thing is marvel? He answered: - To better love that which is absent than that which is present; and to better love the invisible, incorruptible, than the visible and corruptible.
85. The lover was searching for his beloved, and he met a man who was dying without love; and he told what a great damnation it was for a man to die of any death without love. And so the lover said to the man who was dying: - Tell me, why do you die without love? He answered: - Because I was living without love.
86. The lover asked his beloved which one was the greatest, love or the act of loving. The beloved replied and said that, in creatures, love is the tree and loving is the fruit, and the hardship and sorrows are the flowers and leaves; and in God, love and loving are one and the same thing, without any hardship or sorrow.
87. The lover was in pain and sadness owing to the excess of his thoughts; and he pleaded to his beloved to send him a book describing his ways, to give him some solace. The beloved sent that book to his lover, and the lover had his hardship and his pain doubled.
88. The lover fell sick for love, and a doctor came to see him who multiplied his sorrows and his thoughts; and in that hour the lover was healed.
89. Love and the lover moved apart, and they had solace in the beloved; and the beloved appeared to them. The lover cried and, in his enfeeblement, love fainted. The beloved reinvigorated the lover as he reminded him of his ways.
90. The lover said to his beloved that many were the paths by which he came to his heart and he appeared in his eyes, and many were the names by which his words could call him; but the love that he enlivened him and mortified him with was one and only one.
91. The beloved adorns himself for his lover, with red, new clothes; and he extends his arms to be embraced, and he inclines his head to be kissed, and he stands high to be found by his lover.
92. The beloved became absent to the lover; the lover searched for his beloved with memory and understanding, so that he could love him. The lover found his beloved; he asked him where he had been. He replied: - In the absence of your remembrance and in the ignorance of your intelligence.
93. - Tell me, crazy: are you ashamed of people seeing you cry for your beloved? He answered that shame without sin is due to failure of love, in those who do not know how to love.
94. In the lover's heart the beloved sowed wishes, sighs, virtues and love. The lover watered the seeds with tears and weepings.
95. In the lover's body the beloved sowed hardship, sorrow, tribulation. The lover healed his body with hopefulness, devotion, patience, consolation.
96. The beloved had a big party, with a large gathering of many honored barons, and he made great gifts and donations. The lover came to that gathering; the beloved told him: - Who called you to come to my party? The lover answered: - Need and love made me come to see your ways and your demeanor.
97. The lover was asked who he belonged to. He answered: - To love. - What are you made of? - Of love. - Who begot you? - Love. - Where were you born? - In love. - Who nourished you? - Love. - What do you live out of? - Out of love. - Who named you? - Love. - Where do you come from? - From love. - Where do you go to? - To love. - Where are you? - In love. - Do you have anything but love? He answered: - Yes, blame and wrongdoings against my beloved. - Is there forgiveness in your beloved? The lover said that both mercy and justice were in his beloved, and for this reason his abode was set between fear and hopefulness.
98. The beloved became absent to his lover, and the lover searched for him with his thoughts; and he asked for him to the people with language of love.
99. The lover found his beloved being despised among the people, and he said to him that a great offence was being made against his honor. The beloved answered that he took dishonor in the lack of fervent and devout lovers. The lover cried, and his sorrows multiplied; the beloved gave him comfort, showing him his conduct.
100. The light from the beloved's room came to enlighten the lover's room, to cast away the darkness and fill it with pleasure, and with sorrows and thoughts. And the lover took everything away from his room to let his beloved fit in.
101. The lover was asked what sign his beloved carried in his flag. He replied it was a sign of a dead man. They asked why he carried such a sign. He answered: - Because he was a dead, crucified man, and in order that those who take pride in being his lovers may follow his way.
102. The beloved came to be loved at the home of his lover, and the butler asked him to pay for the lodging. But the lover said his beloved had to be lodged in forgiveness.
103. Memory and will came together, and they climbed to the mountain of the beloved to let understanding be exalted, and to let love be doubled in loving the beloved.
104. Every day sighs and weepings are messages between the lover and the beloved, to build between them solace, companionship, affection, and goodwill.
105. The lover yearned for his beloved, and he sent him his thoughts, so that they could carry from his beloved the goodwill that he had given him for so long.
106. The beloved offered his lover the benefit of crying, of sighs, sorrows, of grief and pain; and with this benefit, the lover served his beloved.
107. The lover prayed to his beloved to have generosity, peace, self-esteem in this world; and the beloved displayed his forms to the memory and the intelligence of the lover, and he offered himself as the object of his will.
108. The lover was asked what honor is about. He said it is about understanding and loving his beloved. They asked him what dishonor is. He said it is to forget and despise his beloved.
109. I was mortified by love until I said that you were present in my torment; and then love softened my pain and, as a reward, you multiplied love, who doubled my ordeal.
110. Along the path of love I ran across a lover who did not speak: with tears, distressed gestures and wretchedness, he blamed love and he cursed. Love responded with loyalty, hopefulness, patience, devotion, strength, serenity, welfare. For that, I blamed the lover who complained of love, for love was giving him offerings so noble.
111. The lover sang and said: - Oh, what a great affliction is love! Ah, what a great blessing is to love my beloved, who loves his followers with infinite, eternal love, fulfilled in all purposes!
112. The lover was going through a strange land where he planned to find his beloved, and along his way he was assailed by two lions. The lover had fear of death, for he wished to live to serve his beloved; and he sent his memories to his beloved, so that love would be present in his passing away and could better overcome death. While the lover remembered his beloved, the lions humbly approached the lover, and they leaked the tears from his crying eyes, and they kissed his hands and feet. And the lover went in peace to seek his beloved.
113. The lover was going through mounts and plains, and he could not find the door where he could get out of the jail of love which had for so long imprisoned his heart, and his thoughts and all his desires and pleasures.
114. While the lover was worried in this manner, he met an eremite who was sleeping near a beautiful fountain. The lover waked the eremite, asking if he had seen his beloved in his dreams. The eremite replied that his thoughts were equally incarcerated in the jail of love being awake or asleep. The lover was greatly pleased to have met a prison partner, for the beloved did not have many lovers like these.
115. There is nothing in the beloved the lover is not anxious and does not yearn for, nor is there anything in the lover the beloved does not feel pleasure and majesty for; hence, the love of the beloved is in action, and the love of the lover is in languor, passion.
116. In a branch a bird was singing, and was saying that he would give a new thought to a lover who would give him two. The bird gave the new thought to the lover, and the lover gave two to the bird, so that his anguish would be alleviated; and the lover felt his pain being multiplied.
117. The lover and the beloved met, and greetings, hugs, kisses, tears and weepings were present in their encounter. And the beloved asked the lover about his estate; and the lover was puzzled in the presence of his beloved.
118. The lover and the beloved were at odds, and they were pacified by their love; and one wondered whose love had given the greatest friendship.
119. The lover loved everyone who feared his beloved, and he feared anyone who did not fear his beloved; and so it was wondered which was greatest in the lover: love or fear.
120. The lover strived to follow his beloved, and he was going along a road where a nasty lion killed anybody who was going by leisurely and without devotion.
121. The lover said: - He who does not fear my beloved is bound to fear all things, and he who fears my beloved is bound to be bold and audacious in everything.
122. The lover was asked what opportunity was about; and he said that opportunity was pleasure in penitence, and intelligence in consciousness, and hopefulness in patience, and health in abstinence, solace in remembrance, and love in care, and loyalty in shame, and wealth in poverty, and peace in obedience, and war in malevolence.
123. Love illuminated the cloud which had come in between the lover and the beloved; and she made it so bright and glaring as the Moon in the night, and the star at dawn, and the Sun in the day, and intelligence in will. And through so brightened a cloud, the lover and the beloved speak.
124. The lover was asked what the darkest gloom is. He replied it is the absence of his beloved. They asked him what the brightest gleam is, and he said it is the presence of his beloved.
125. The sign of the beloved appears in the lover who, because of love, is in grief, sighs, tears, concerns, and in the scorn of the people.
126. The lover was writing these words: - Let my beloved rejoice, since to him I send my thoughts, and for him my eyes cry, and without sorrow I do not live, neither do I feel, nor see, nor hear, nor smell.
127. - Ah, understanding, willpower! Bark, and wake the great dogs who sleep, forgetting my beloved. Ah, eyes! Cry. Ah, heart! Sigh. Ah, memory! Remember the dishonor that my beloved is given by those he has honored so much.
128. - The enmity between the people and my beloved is multiplied, and my beloved promises gifts and offerings, and menaces with justice, wisdom. And memory and will dismiss his threats and promises.
129. The beloved came close to the lover to console and give solace to him for the grief he was bearing, and the tears he had; and the closer the beloved came to the lover, the more the lover wept and regretted the dishonor to his beloved.
130. With feather of love and water of tears, and in letter of passion, the lover wrote some words to his beloved where he said that devotion was slackening and love was dying, and failure and error multiplied his enemies.
131. The love of the lover and the beloved was linked by remembrance, intelligence, will, so that they would not part; and the rope that tied their love was made of thoughts, sorrows, sighs and tears.
132. The lover was lying in a bed of love; the sheets were made of pleasure, the quilt was made of sufferings, and the pillow was made of tears. And it was to be wondered whether the pillow cloth was like the sheets cloth or like the quilt cloth.
133. The beloved dressed his lover with cloak, coat, gown; and he made him a hat out of love, and a shirt out of thoughts, and trousers out of grief, and garland out of weepings.
134. The beloved pleaded to his lover not to forget him. The lover said he could not forget him, for he could not ignore him.
135. The beloved told the lover to praise him and excuse him in those places where it was most dreadful to praise him. The lover asked to be given plenty of love. The beloved answered that for his love he had been incarnated and had been hanged to die.
136. The lover asked his dear beloved to show him how he could make him be known, loved, and praised by the people. The beloved filled his lover with devotion, patience, charity, restlessness, thoughts, sighs, and tears; and boldness to praise his beloved grew in the heart of the lover, and praise for his beloved rose in his mouth, and in his will he fostered disregard for the cursing by the people who make false judgement.
137. The lover said these words to the people: - He who truly remembers my beloved, forgets, in the circumstances of his remembrance, all things; and he who forgets all things to remember his beloved is defended from everything, and is given part of everything, by my beloved.
138. The lover was asked what love was born from, and what it lived out of, and what it died for. He answered that love was born of remembrance, lived out of intelligence, and died by oblivion.
139. The lover forgot everything that is under the supreme heaven, to let his understanding rise higher to know the beloved, whom the will wished to preach and contemplate.
140. The lover was going to fight to honor his beloved, and he steered to his side faith, hopefulness, charity, justice, caution, fortitude, moderation, which he could overcome the enemies of his beloved with. The lover would have been vanquished, had his beloved not helped him in exhibiting his nobilities.
141. The lover wanted to proceed to the ultimate purpose why he loved his beloved, and the other goals became and encumbrance to his passage; whereby, long desires and thoughts gave the lover sadness and grief.
142. The lover rejoiced and took pride in the noble works of his beloved; he languished in deep meditation and thought. And it was wondered which one he felt most intensely, the pleasures or the anguish.
143. The lover was the messenger to the Christian princes, and to the infidels, of his beloved, to show them the art and the beginnings of knowing and loving his beloved.
144. If you see a lover honored in noble clothes, honored by conceit, fat from eating and sleeping, let it be known that you see in him damnation and torment. And if you see a lover poorly dressed, despised by the people, discolored and lean from fasting and staying awake, let it be known that you see in him salvation and lasting blessing.
145. The lover complains, and the heart cries out for warmth of love. The lover dies, the beloved mourns him, and he gives him solace of patience, hopefulness, reward.
146. The lover cried for that which he had lost; and he could not be comforted by anyone, since what he had lost was unrecoverable.
147. God has created night for the lover to be awake and reflect on the righteousness of his beloved; and the lover surmised that he had created it for those who have worked for love to rest and sleep.
148. The people rebuked and scoffed at teh lover for being crazy for love. And the lover disregarded their jibes, and reproved the people for not loving his beloved.
149. The lover said: - I am vilely dressed in rags, but love dresses my heart in pleasant thoughts, and my body in tears, distress, passion.
150. The beloved sang and said: - My worshippers are to praise my values; and the enemies of my graciousness hurt and disregard my values. And that is why I have informed my lover to regret and to weep for my dishonor; and his laments and his weepings are born from my love.
151. The lover promised the beloved that he bore and liked hardship and passion for his love; and therefore he pleaded the beloved to love him and to have compassion of his troubles. The beloved assured that it was the nature and property of his love to love everyone who loved him, and to have mercy of anyone who bore hardship for his love. The lover was glad and comforted by the nature and essencial property of his beloved.
152. Words were forbidden to the lover by his beloved, and the lover found solace in watching his beloved.
153. So much did the lover cry and call his beloved, till the beloved descended from the subleme heights of the Heavens, and he came to Earth to weep and to lament, to die for love, and to nurture men into loving, knowing, and praising his honors.
154. The lover blamed the Christians for not having first in their letters the name of their beloved, Jesus Christ, to make him the honor that the moors make to Muhammad, (...), whom they honor when they name him first in their letters.
155. The lover met with a squire who was going in deep thought and who was lean, discolored, and poorly dressed; and he greeted the lover wishing him to be led by God to find his beloved. And the lover asked him how he had known him. And the squire said that one secret of love reveals the others; and thereby lovers can recognize each other.
156. The kindness, and the wonders and the good deeds of the beloved are the treasure and wealth of the lover. And the treasure of the beloved are the thoughts, the wishes, the pain, the weeping and the sorrows that the lover bears to honor and to love his beloved.
157. Great hosts and battalions have been engaged with the spirits of love, and they carry a sign of love having the image and the mark of their beloved, and they do not want to bring anybody along in their company who is without love, lest their beloved would take it as a dishonor.
158. Men who pretend to be crazy in order to make money drive the lover to be crazy for love; and the shame the lover feels from the people for going like a mad man offers him a way to love and appreciate the people. So one wonders which of these two impulses is a greater opportunity for love.
159. Love had put the lover in sadness from excessive concentration; and the beloved sang, and the lover rejoiced when he had heard him. And it was wondered which of these two actions was the best occasion to multiply love in the lover.
160. In the secrets of the lover the secrets of the beloved are revealed, and in the secrets of the beloved the secrets of the lover are revealed. And one wonders which of the two secrets is the greatest means of revelation.
161. The crazy one was asked what signs his beloved was known by. He replied, and said it was by mercy, compassion, being essentially in will, without any change.
162. Because of the special love the lover had for his beloved, he loved the communal good over the special good, so that his beloved could be communally known, praised, desired.
163. Love and hatred met in a garden where the lover and the beloved were secretly talking; and love asked hatred what purpose she had come for to that place; and hatred replied it had come to take love away from the lover and to dishonor the beloved. The beloved and the lover were greatly displeased by what hatred was saying; and they multiplied love to let her defeat and destroy hatred.
164. - Tell me, crazy: what do you feel the greatest will in: loving, or hating? He answered that in loving, since he hated so that he could love.
165. - Tell me, lover: what do you have the most understanding of: truth, or falsity? He replied it was of truth. - Why? - Because I understand falsity to be able to better understand truth.
166. The lover perceived that he was loved by his beloved, and he asked the beloved if his love and his mercy were in him one and the same thing. The beloved accepted that, in their essence, there is no difference, there is no difference between his love and his mercy. Whence the lover asked why his love tormented him, and why his mercy did not heal him from his pain. And the beloved replied that mercy gave him pain to more perfectly honor his love with.
167. The lover wished to go to a strange land to honor his beloved, and wanted to disguise himself to avoid being abducted along the way. And he could never disguise weeping from his eyes, nor the lean features and yellow color from his face, nor moans, thoughts, sighs, sadness, sorrows, from his heart; hence, he was abducted on his journey, and handed over to be tormented by the enemies of his beloved.
168. The lover was locked in the jail of love. Thoughts, desires and memories guarded him and chained him to prevent him from fleeing to his beloved; distress tormented him; patience, hopefulness comforted him. The lover would have died; but the beloved showed him his glory, and the lover revived.
169. The lover ran across his beloved: he recognized his beloved, and wept. The beloved reprimanded his lover because he did not weep before recognizing him; and asked him how he had known him, since he did not weep. The lover replied he had known him in remembrance, in understanding, and in his will, which were multiplied as soon as he had been present to his corporal eyes.
170. The beloved asked the lover what love was. He replied it was the presence of the ways and words of the beloved in the longing heart of the lover, and sorrow through desires and tears in the lover's heart.
171. Love is the boiling of baldness and awe through fervor; and love is the final will to desire his beloved. And love is that thing which killed the lover when he heard the song of the beauty of his beloved. And love is that which is dead, and which my will is always with.
172. Devotion and longing sent thoughts by messengers to the heart of the lover, so that water would rise to the eyes, who wanted to cease the weeping which they had long sustained.
173. Said the lover: - If you, lovers, would like fire, come to my heart and light your lamps; if you want water, come to my eyes, which pour out tears; and if you want thoughts of love, come to take them in my meditations.
174. The lover was thinking one day on the great love he felt for his beloved, and on the great trouble and danger he had long been through for his love; and he pondered that his reward would be great. While he was meditating in this way, he remembered he had been paid by his beloved, since he had been enraptured by his features, and for his love he had given him sorrows.
175. The lover wiped his face and his eyes of the tears he sustained for love, to keep the sorrows that his beloved gave him from being discovered; and the beloved said to his lover why he was concealing from the other loving people the signs of love, which he had been given to enamour them of honoring his values.
176. - Tell me, man who goes like mad for love: how long will you be a serf, subjected to weep and to sustain hardship and sorrows? He answered: - Until that time when my beloved will bring about in me separation of the soul and the body.
177. - Tell me, crazy: do you have money? He answered: - I have my beloved. - Do you own towns, or castles, or cities, or counties, or duchies? He answered: - I have love, thoughts, plants, desires, hardship, sorrows, which are better than empires or kingdoms.
178. The lover was asked how he was aware of the sentence of his beloved. He replied it was through the balance of pleasure and sorrows, in which his beloved judged his lovers.
179. - Tell me, crazy one: who knows best about love, he who derives pleasure, or he who derives hardship and sorrows from it? He replied, and said that knowledge cannot be gained from one without the other.
180. The lover was asked why he did not excuse himself of the failures and false crimes he was accused of by the people. He answered that he had to excuse his beloved, who was falsely blamed by the people; and man, upon whom error and deceit may fall, is not quite worthy of any excuse.
181. - Tell me, crazy one: why do you excuse love, when she gives trouble and torment to your body and your heart? He answered: - Because she multiplies my merit and my blessings.
182. The lover complained of his beloved for tormenting him so gravely for love; and the beloved excused himself by multiplying hardship and danger, thoughts, tears and plants to the lover.
183. - Tell me, crazy one: why do you excuse the guilty? He answered: - Not to be like those who accuse the innocent and the guilty.
184. The beloved raised intelligence to let her understand his majesty, in order that the lover's memory were ready to realise his failings, and his will despised them and rose to love the virtues of his beloved.
185. The lover was singing of his beloved, and he said he gave him such good will that all the things he hated for the love of his beloved rewarded him with more pleasant and greater joy than the things he loved without the love of his beloved.
186. The lover was in a big city, and he was asking if he would find anyone who he could talk to at his leisure of his beloved. And they showed him a poor man who wept for love and was searching for a companion whom he could talk to about love.
187. The lover was thoughtful and puzzled over how his hardship could originate in the majesty of his beloved, who possesses so much bliss in his own self.
188. The thoughts of the lover were between oblivion of his agony and remembrance of his pleasure: for by the pleasure he derives from love he forgets hardship, and by the agony he endures for love he is reminded of the bliss he enjoys because of love.
189. The lover was asked if it might be possible that his beloved would take love away from him. He answered it was not possible, as long as his memory remembered and his intelligence understood the glory of his beloved.
190. - Tell me, crazy one: What can one make the greatest comparison of and find the greatest resemblance in? He answered: - Of lover and beloved. They asked him for what reason. He replied it was because of love, who was between them.
191. The beloved was asked if he had had mercy at any time. He answered that had he not had mercy, he would not have enamoured the lover, neither would he have tormented him with sighs, weeping, hardship, and sorrows.
192. The lover was in a great forest, where he was searching for his beloved; and he met truth and falseness who were arguing about his beloved, since truth praised him and falseness blamed him. And hence, the lover called on love to help truth.
193. A temptation came to the lover to be kept apart from his beloved, and then to let memory wake up and recover the presence of his beloved, remembering him better than ever before, so that his intelligence would rise higher in understanding, and his will in loving, his beloved.
194. One day the lover forgot his beloved, and another day he remembered he had forgotten him. And in that day when the lover remembered he had forgotten his beloved, he was sad and in pain, and he was in glory and bliss, for oblivion and remembrance.
195. So intensely was the lover wishing for praise and for the glory of his beloved, that he doubted he remembered them; and so intensely he hated dishonor for his beloved, that he doubted he hated it. Hence, the lover was puzzled, between love and fear, by his beloved.
196. The lover died through pleasure, and lived through sorrow; and the pleasure and the suffering came together and were united to be a single thing in the will of the lover. And therefore the lover died and lived at the same time.
197. The lover wanted to forget his beloved for just one hour, to have some rest in his sorrows. But, since oblivion and ignorance would fill him with passion, he had patience, and he exalted his intelligence and his memory to contemplate his beloved.
198. So much the lover loved his beloved, that he believed everything he told him, and so much he wished to understand him, that he wanted to understand everything he heard of him through necessary reason. And therefore the love of the lover was between belief and intelligence.
199. The lover was asked what thing was furthest from his courage; he answered it was neglect. They asked him why. He answered because the closest thing to his courage was love, which is opposite to neglect.
200. - Tell me, crazy one: do you have envy? He answered: - Yes, every time I forget the generosity and wealth of my beloved.
201. Tell me, lover: do you have wealth? - Yes: love. - Do you have poverty? - Yes: love. - Why? - Because love is not being greater than it is, and many lovers are not being enraptured by it to honor the principles of my beloved.
202. - Tell me, loving one: where is your power? He answered: - In the power of my beloved. - How do you strive against your enemies? - With the strength of my beloved. - How are you comforted? - With the eternal treasures of my beloved.
203. - Tell me, crazy one: what do you love the best, the mercy of your beloved, or the justice of your beloved? He answer that he should both fear and love justice, and that he should have no preference in his will to love anything over the justice of his beloved.
204. Fault and worth were struggling in the conscience and will of the lover; and justice and remembrance multiplied conscience; and mercy and hopefulness multiplied prosperity in the will of the beloved. And therefore worth defeated fault and wrong in the penance of the lover.
205. The lover asserted that full perfection was in his beloved, and he denied that there was any failure in his beloved. And so it was wondered which one was greatest: the assertion, or the denial.
206. An eclipse occurred in the heaven, and darkness came on the earth: thereby the lover remembered that sin had for long evicted from his will his beloved, and by this eviction darkness had exiled brightness from his understanding, which the beloved is expressed with to his lovers.
207. Love came to the lover, and the lover asked her what she wanted. And love told him she had come to him to train and feed him in such a way that, at his death, he could defeat his mortal enemies.
208. Love was ill when the lover forgot his beloved, and the lover is ill because, through intense remembrance, his beloved gives him hardship, anxiety, and sorrows.
209. The lover met a man who was dying without love. He wept for the dishonor given to the beloved in the loveless death of that man, and asked that man why he was dying without love; and he said it was because nobody had taught him about love, and nobody had fed him to be a lover. And thereby the lover sighed in his weeping and said: - Ah, devotion! When will you be greater, to make guilt lesser, and to let my beloved have many fervent, bold praisers, lovers, who do not doubt in praising his glory?
210. The lover tempted love to see if he could keep his courage without remembering his beloved; and his heart ceased to think, and his eyes ceased to cry; and love was wiped out, and the lover remained puzzled, and he asked the people if they had seen love.
211. So strongly are love, loving, lover and beloved joined together in the beloved, that they are one reality in essence, and lover and beloved are concordant in diverse things, without any opposition or diversity in essence. Whereby the beloved's kindness is above any other love.
212. - Tell me, crazy one: why do you have such great love? He replied: - Because the journey in search of my beloved is long and dangerous. In great hardship I must search for him, and I should do it swiftly. And I could not comply with all these things without great love.
213. The lover stayed awake, fasted, cried, gave charity, and went to strange lands to be able to move his will close to his beloved, and to enthuse his subjects to honor his principles.
214. If the lover's love does not reach far enough to move his beloved to mercy and forgiveness, the beloved's love will reach out to give his creatures grace and benediction.
215. - Tell me, crazy one: what can make you closest to your beloved? He answered: - Knowing to love in all my ability the ways of my beloved.
216. The lover was asked if his beloved had been failed by anything, and he said yes: by lovers, praisers, in not honoring his values.
217. The beloved hurt his lover's heart with thorns of love, to make him love the tree from which the beloved had picked the thorns he hurts his lovers with; in which tree he had suffered death, pain and dishonor to return to love the lovers he had lost.
218. The lover met his beloved, and he saw him in great nobility and power, and worthy of all honors; and he said he was shocked by the people, who loved him so little, and knew him and honored him so little. And the beloved said he had been greatly disappointed in having created man to love him, know him, and honor him, and out of one thousand men, only one hundred feared and loved him; and out of the one hundred, ninety feared him so that he would not give them pain, and ten loved him to be given glory; and there was hardly anybody who loved him for his goodness and nobility. When the lover heard these words, he cried desolately for the dishonor of his beloved, and he said: - Beloved, you who have given so much to man and have honored him so much, why have you been forgotten so much by man?
219. The lover praised his beloved, and he said he had transcended the where , since he was where the where cannot reach. And so, when the lover was asked on the whereabouts of his beloved, he answered: - He is. But it was not known where; however, he knew his beloved is in his remembrance.
220. The beloved bought with his virtues a slave man who was subjected to worries, sorrows, sighs, and plants; and he asked him what he ate and what he drank. He replied, whatever he wanted. He asked him what he wore. He said, whatever he wanted. The beloved said, - Do you have any will? He replied that a slave and subdued person has no will but to obey his master and his beloved.
221. The beloved asked his lover if he had patience. He answered that he was pleased by everything; and therefore there was nothing to be patient about; for he who is not the master of his will, cannot be impatient.
222. Love gave herself to whoever wanted her; and since many men did not want her, and the people were not greatly in love, she was free of them, hence the lover cried out for love, and love blamed his beloved. But love excused herself and said she was not against free will, because she wished great merit and glory for her lovers.
223. There was a great argument and discord between love and the lover, because the lover was tired of the hardship he endured for love. And it was argued if this was due to love's weakness, or the lover's; and they came to the judgement of the beloved, who punished the lover with distress, and rewarded him with growing love.
224. An argument took place on whether love was closer to thought or to patience. The lover solved the question, and he said that love is begotten in thoughts, and is sustained by patience.
225. The beautiful countenance of the beloved is the lover's neighbor, and the beloved's neighbors are the lover's thoughts, and the hardship and crying he endures for love.
226. The lover's will wanted to rise very highly to greatly love his beloved, and he ordered intelligence to rise up to all hispower; and intelligence ordered the same to memory. And all three rose to contemplate the beloved in his glory.
227. The lover's will left him and gave himself to the beloved; and the beloved confined the will in the lover, to be served and loved by him.
228. The lover said: - Let my beloved not be worried that I could leave him to love someone else, since love has led me to love only one beloved. The beloved said in reply: - Let my lover not be worried that I be loved and served only by him, since I have many other lovers who love me more strongly and for longer than he does.
229. The lover said to his beloved: - Kind beloved: you have trained and nourished my eyes to see, and my ears to hear, your honorings; and hence my heart is used to the thoughts by which you have accustomed my eyes to weep and my body to languish. The beloved answered the lover, and he said that without such habits and nourishments his name would not be written in the book where all who come to eternal blessing are inscribed, and whose names are deleted from the book where those who go to eternal damnation are inscribed.
230. The noble demeanours of the beloved gather in the heart of the lover, and the thoughts and the duress are multiplied in the lover, who would be finished and dead had the beloved multiplied in the lover's thoughts more of his honorings.
231. The beloved came to stay in his lover's lodging, and the lover made him a bed of thoughts; and he served him sighs and plants. And the beloved paid for his stay with remembrances.
232. Love mixed hardship and pleasure in the lover's thoughts; and pleasure complained of that mixture, and accused love to the beloved; and pleasure was finished and deleted once the beloved had put it apart from the torment that love gives to his people.
233. The signs of love that the lover makes to his beloved are: in the beginning tears, in the middle tribulations, and in the end death. And with those signs the lover preaches to the people on his beloved.
234. When the lover was isolated, his heart was accompanied by thoughts, and his eyes by tears and plants, and his body by afflictions and fasts. And when the lover went back to the company of the people, he was deserted by all the above mentioned things, and he was alone among the people.
235. Love is like the sea swirling with waves and wind, without port or shore. The lover perishes in the sea, and in his danger his pain perishes, and his wholeness is born.
236. - Tell me, fool: what is love? He answered: - Love is concordance of theory and practice for a goal, which the fulfillment of the lover's will moves towards, so that it makes people honor and serve their beloved. And one wonders if this goal is closest to the will of the lover who wants to be with the beloved.
237. The lover was asked who his beloved was. He answered it was that which made him love, desire, languish, sigh, cry, scoff, die.
238. The beloved was asked who his lover was. He answered it was the one who hesitated on nothing to honor and praise his glory, and who renounced to everything to obey his command and his advice.
239. - Tell me, fool: which is the heaviest and most severe burden, trouble for love, or trouble for enmity? He replied he should ask the men who are in penitence for either love of their beloved, or for dread of the hellish torments.
240. The lover fell asleep and love died, for it had nothing to live from. The lover woke up and love was revived in the thoughts tha the lover sent to his beloved.
241. The lover said that innate science comes from will, devotion, prayer; and acquired science comes from study, understanding. And so, it is a wonder which is the earliest science in the lover, and which is the most pleasant, and which is greatest in the lover.
242. - Tell me, fool: how do you satisfy all your needs? He replied: - With my thoughts, and by wishing, adoring, working, and with perseverance. - And where do you get all these things from? He replied: - From love - And where do you find love? - In my beloved. - And where do you find your beloved? - I find Him only in Himself.
243. - Tell me, fool: do you want to be free from everything? He answered he did, except from his beloved. - Do you want to be captive? He replied: - I do of sighs, thoughts, hardship, danger, exiles, plants, to serve my beloved, to whom these things have been created to honor his values.
244. Love tormented the lover, and he cried and moaned from the torment. His beloved called on him to come close to him to be healed. The closer the lover came to the beloved, the more he was tormented by love, since he felt greater love. And because he felt more deeply pleased as he loved more, his beloved could better heal him of his sorrows.
245. Love was sick. The lover cared for love with patience, perseverance, obedience, hope; love healed. The lover fell sick; he was healed by the beloved, who reminded him of his virtues and honorings.
246. - Tell me, fool one: what is solitude? He replied: - It is solace and company of lover and beloved. - And what is solace and company? He answered it was solitude in the courage of the lover, who thinks of nothing but his beloved.
247. A question was asked to the lover: - Where is the greatest danger: in enduring hardship for love, or in enjoying love's rewards? The lover agreed with his beloved, and said that danger in misfortune comes from impatience, and danger in prosperity comes from mindlessness.
248. Love was freed by the beloved, who gave license to the people to take from her as much as they wished; and hardly any people were found who would place love in their courage. And hence the lover cried and was sad for the dishonor for the dishonor that love is given down here among us, by false friend and mindless men.
249. Love slayed everything in the courage of his true lover, so that she could live and fit there; and the lover would have died had he not had remembrance of his beloved.
250. Two thoughts were in the lover: one meditated every day on the essence and the virtues of his beloved; and the other meditated on the deeds of his beloved. Whereby it was wondered which thought was the most brilliant, the most pleasant to the beloved and the lover.
251. The lover died by the strength of great love. He was buried in his land by the beloved, where the lover was resurrected. And it is wondered which act the lover received the greatest gift from.
252. In the jail of the beloved were misfortune, danger, sadness, dishonor, strangement, so that they would not hinder his lover from praising the beloved's honorings and from inspiring love in the men who had him in despise.
253. The lover was once in the presence of many men who had been excessively honored by his beloved, since they disgraced him in their thoughts. They despised their beloved and they scorned his servants. The lover cried, pulled his hair, beated his face and tore his clothes; and he loudly shouted: - Were such great wrongs ever done as despising my beloved?
254. - Tell me, fool one: do you want to die? He replied: - Yes, in the pleasures of this world and in the thoughts of the damned ones who omit and dishonor my beloved; in which thoughts I do not want to be understood or wanted, for my beloved is not in them.
255. - If you, crazy one, tell the truth, you will be wounded, scorned, reprimanded, tormented, and slayed by the people. He replied: - According to these words, it follows that if I told falsity, I would be praised, loved, served, honored by the people, and defended from the friends of my beloved.
256. False preachers were blaming one day the lover in the presence of his beloved. The lover had patience, and the beloved had justice, wisdom and power. And the lover preferred to be blamed and told off, than to be any of the false accusers.
257. The beloved sowed various seeds in the heart of his lover, from which the fruit alone was born, sprouted, flowered, and matured. And it is wondered if several different seeds may be born from that fruit.
258. Over love the beloved stands very highly, and under love the lover is placed very lowly. And love, who is in between, descends the beloved to the lover, and raises the lover to the beloved. And out of this descend and this rise, the love, which the lover languishes from and the beloved is served by, begins and lives.
259. On the right of love stands the beloved, and the lover is on the left; and therefore, without passing through love, the lover cannot attain his beloved.
260. And ahead of love is the beloved and behind the beloved is the lover. And this is why the lover cannot attain love until his thoughts and his wishes have passed through the beloved.
261. The beloved makes for the lover three beloved ones like himself, in honorings and in values. And the lover is equally in love with all three, even though love is only one, as in the meaning of unity, essentially one in three beloved ones.
262. The beloved clothed himself in the same dress as his lover, to be eternally his companion in glory. Hence the lover wished to dress in red every day, so that the cloth is more like that of his beloved.
263. - Tell me, fool one: what was your beloved doing before the world existed? He answered: - He must have existed owing to several properties that are eternal, personal, infinite, in which the lover and the beloved are present.
264. The lover cried and was sad to see the infidels lose their beloved in their ignorance; and he rejoiced in the justice of his beloved, who tormented those who knew him and were disobedient to him. And hence, he was asked which was the greatest one: his sadness or his rejoicing; and his fortune to see his beloved honored, or his misfortune to see him dishonored.
265. The lover gazed at his beloved in the greatest differentiation and concordance of virtues, and in the greatest opposition of virtues and vices, and in being perfection, which better suit each other without disheartening and without no-being, than with disheartening and no-being.
266. The lover saw the secrets of his beloved by diversity, concordance, which revealed to him plurality, unity in his beloved, for the greater suitability of essence without conflict.
267. The lover was told that if corruption, which is against being inasmuch as it is against generation, which is against no-being, were eternally corrupting the corrupted, it would be impossible for either no-being or end to agree with corruption or the corrupted. Whereby, through these words, the lover saw in his beloved eternal generation.
268. If falsehood were that through which the lover can better love his beloved, then truth would be the reason why the lover cannot love his beloved best; and this being the case, failure of the major and of thruth would follow in the beloved, and in him there would be concordance of falsehood and the minor.
269. The lover praised his beloved, and he said that inasmuch as his beloved has the greatest possibility of perfection, and the greatest impossibility of imperfection, it suits his beloved to be simple, pure realization in essence and in operation. Whereby, while the lover was praising his beloved in this way, the trinity of his beloved was being revealed to him.
270. The lover saw in the numbers one or three a greater concordance than in other numbers, because every corporal form came from no-being to being through the above said numbers. And hence the lover watched the unity and the trinity of his beloved by means of the greater concordance of number.
271. The lover praised the power, the knowledge, and the will of his beloved, which had created everything except for sin; which sin would not exist without the power, the knowledge and the will of his beloved; which sin is not brought about by neither the power, nor the knowledge, nor the will of his beloved.
272. The lover praised and loved his beloved for having created him and given everything to him; and he praised and loved him because he was pleased to have taken his resemblance and his nature. And one should ask which of these acts of praise and love has the greatest perfection.
273. The lover was tempted by love with his wisdom, and was asked if the beloved was loving him the most by taking his nature, or by recreating him. And the lover was puzzled, till he answered that recreation was needed to avoid misfortune, and incarnation was needed to give his blessing. And from the answer another question arose: which one the greatest love was.
274. The lover went asking for alms by the doorsteps to remind the love of his beloved to his servants, and to make use of humility, poverty and patience, which are pleasant to his beloved.
275. The lover was asked for forgiveness for the love of his beloved; and the lover not only forgave, but he gave himself and his estate as well.
276. With tears in his eyes the lover narrated the passion and the pain that his beloved endured for his love; and with sadness and thoughts, he wrote the words he was uttering; and with grace and hopefulness, he was comforted.
277. The beloved and love came to see the lover, who was sleeping. The beloved called his lover, and love awoke him. And the lover obeyed love, and he answered to his beloved.
278. The lover was nourished by his beloved to love; and love taught him to confront danger, and patience educated him to sustain hardship for the love of that one to whom he had given himself as servant.
279. The beloved asked the people if they had seen his lover, and they asked him for the qualities of his lover; and the beloved said that his lover was bold, fearful, wealthy and poor, joyous, sad, thoughtful, and that he grieved every day for his love.
280. And the lover was asked if he wanted to sell his wish; and he answered he had sold it to his beloved for a kind of money that could buy all the world.
281. - Do pray, you crazy one, and speak words about your beloved. Do cry out, do fast! The lover renounced the world, and he went searching for his beloved with love, and he praised him in those places where he was dishonored.
282. The lover built and worked on a beautiful city where his beloved would dwell. With love, thoughts, plants, cries and sorrows, he constructed it; and with pleasure, hopefulness, devotion, he adorned it; and with faith, justice, caution, fortitude, temperance, he garnished it.
283. The lover drank love in the fountain of his beloved, in which the beloved washed his lover's feet, who has often forgotten and neglected his principles; whereby the world is in failure.
284. - Tell me, fool: what is sin? He replied: - It is intention reversed and turned against the final intention and reason for which my beloved has created everything.
285. The lover saw that the world is created on account that eternity is better suited to his beloved, who is infinite essence in greatness and in all perfection, than with the world, which is of finite quantity. And therefore, in the justice of his beloved, the lover saw that his beloved's eternity must prevail over time and over finite quantity.
286. The lover defended his beloved from those who said the world is eternal by saying that his beloved would not have perfect justice if he did not deliver to each soul its body, to which body neither place nor prime matter would be enough; and the world would not be directed toward one end only if it were eternal; and if it were not directed toward one end, perfection of will and knowledge would fail in his beloved.
287. - Tell me, you fool: what gives you the knowledge that the catholic faith is true, and the beliefs of the jews and the moors is in falsehood and error? He replied: - Through the ten conditions of the Book of the Gentle and the three wise men .
288. - Tell me, fool one: what does wisdom start from? He replied: - From faith and devotion, which are a ladder where intelligence climbs on to understand the secrets of my beloved. - And how about faith and devotion, where do they start from? He replied: - From my beloved, who enlightens faith and warms up devotion.
289. The lover was asked which one was greater: possibility or impossibility. He replied that possibility is greater in creation, and impossibility in his beloved; because possibility and potentiality are concordant, and so are impossibility and actuality.
290. - Tell me, fool one: which one is greater, difference or concordance? He replied that, except in his beloved, difference was greater in plurality, and concordance in unity, but in his beloved they are equal in difference and unity.
291. - Tell me, loving one: what is worthiness? He answered that it is the opposite of this world's worth, which is desired by the false, vain lovers, who wish to be worthy while possessing worthlessness, and to be persecutors of worthiness.
292. - Tell me, fool one: have you seen any man who is mad? He replied he had seen a bishop who had in his table many cups, bowls and silver cutlery, and who had in his bedroom many robes and a great bed, and in his chests a lot of money; and at the door of his palace there were but few paupers.
293. - Fool one: do you know what vileness is? - Vile thoughts. - And what is loyalty ? - It is fear of my beloved, born from charity and shyness, which is afraid of the blame of the people. - And what are honorings? He replied: - To meditate of my beloved, and to wish and pray for his honorings.
294. The lover was altered and was led to impatience by the trouble and tribulations he was sustaining for love; and the beloved reprimanded him with his honorings and his promises, by saying that whoever is altered by either setbacks or bliss knows little of love. The lover cried and repented, and he prayed to his beloved to deliver love to him.
295. - Fool one, tell me: what is love? He replied that love is that thing that places the free ones into servitude and gives freedom to the servants. And it was wondered which one love is closest to: freedom, or servitude.
296. The beloved was calling his lover, and he answered him saying: - What is it that pleases you, my beloved, you who are eyes of my eyes, and thought of my thoughts, and fulfillment of my fulfillments, and love of my loving acts, and even beginning of my beginnings?
297. - Beloved - the lover said -, I go to you and I go in you, for you are calling me. I go to contemplate contemplation, by contemplation of your contemplation. I am in your virtue, and I come with your virtue, whereby I obtain virtue. I greet you in your greeting, which is my greeting in your greeting, from which I expect a lasting greeting in blessing of your blessing, in which I am blessed in my blessing.
298. You are high, my beloved, in your highness, to which you exalt my will, which is exalted in your exalting with your highness, which exalts in my remembrance my understanding, which is exalted in your exalting to come to know your principles, so that its love may be exalted by the will and memory may have it in high remembrance.
299. - You are, beloved, glory of my glory, and with your glory and in glory you give glory to my glory, which is glorious of your glory. And for this glory of yours, the trouble and grief that came to me to honor your glory are equally glorious to me as the pleasure and thoughts, that come to me from your glory.
300. - Beloved: in the prison of love you are holding me in love with your love, which has enamored me of your love, for your love and in your love. Because you are nothing but love, in which you make be alone and in the company of your love and your honorings. Because you are alone in me being alone, me lonely with my thoughts, like your own solitude, which is alone in honors and is the only one whose values I praise and honor without fear of the misunderstandings that do not have you alone in their love.
301. You are solace, my beloved, of solace; because I console my thoughts in your solace, which is solace and comfort of my sorrows and my tribulations, which are distressed in your solace when you do not console the ignorant with your solace, and when you do not more strongly engage those knowledgeable of your solace to honor your principles.
302. The lover complained to his lord about his beloved, and to his beloved about his lord. The lord and the beloved said: - Who is driving separation into us, we who are only one? The lover answered, and said it was grace from the lord and tribulation from the beloved.
303. The lover was in danger in the great sea of love, and he trusted his beloved, who came to his rescue with tribulations, thoughts, tears and plants, sighs and sorrows, since the sea was one of love and of honoring his principles.
304. The lover rejoiced in the existence of his beloved because through his being all beings are realised, and sustained, and bound, and subdued to honor and to serve the being of their beloved, who cannot be pleased, blamed, lessened or grown by any other being.
305. - Beloved: in your magnificence you magnify my desires, my thoughts and my troubles; for your magnificence is so great, that everything that has remembrance, understanding and pleasure from you is great; and your greatness belittles everything that is against your principles and commands.
306. - My beloved is eternally begun, and has begun and will begin eternally; and he does not begin nor he began nor will begin eternally. And these beginnings are not contradiction in my beloved, because it is eternal, and he includes unity and trinity.
307. - My beloved is one, and in his unity my will and my thoughts and my loving acts are united; and the unity of my beloved encompasses all unity and all plurality; and the plurality that is in my beloved encompasses all unity and all plurality.
308. - Supreme goodness is the goodness of my beloved, who is goodness of my goodness; for my beloved is goodness without any other good, for were he not, my goodness would be of another supreme good. And since it is not, let all of my goodness spent in this life be dedicated to honor the supreme good, as it should.
309. - Even though you know me, beloved, a sinner, you make yourself merciful and forgiving. And because what you know in yourself is better than myself, thereby the better I come to know forgiveness and love in you the more you let me know contrition, and grief, and desire to encounter death to praise your worth.
310. - Your power, my beloved, may save me by graciousness, piety and forgiveness, and may condemn me by justice and by guilt in my mistakes. Let your power fulfill your will in me; for everything is plenitude, whether you give me salvation or damnation.
311. - Beloved: truth visits the construction of my heart, and raises water to my eyes because she is loved by my willpower; and since your truth is supreme, truth lifts my will to honor your principles, and lowers it to dislike my failings.
312. That which my beloved was not in was never true, and false is that which my beloved is not in, and false will be that which my beloved will not be in. And therefore everything that will be, or was, or is, must be truth if my beloved is there; and hence, false is the one who is in some truth where my beloved is not, with no contradiction being implied.
313. The beloved created and the lover destroyed. The beloved judged, the lover cried. The beloved recreated, and he glorified the lover. The beloved finished his operation, and the lover remained eternally in the company of his beloved.
314. Along the paths for vegetating, and for feeling, imagination, understanding, willingness, the lover went searching for his beloved; and in those paths the lover endured danger and sorrow for his beloved to exalt his intelligence and willpower to his beloved, who wants his lovers to understand and love him highly.
315. The lover is moved to being by the perfection of his beloved, and he is moved to no-being by his enfeeblement. And hence one wonders which of the two movements naturally holds the greatest power in the lover.
316. - You have placed me, my beloved, between my wrong and your goodness. Let there be on your part piety, mercy, patience, humility and forgiveness, help and healing; let there be on my part contrition, perseverance, remembrance, with sighs, tears and weeping coming from your holy passion.
317. - Beloved, you who makes me love: if you are not helping me, why did you want to create me ? And why did you endure so much grief for me, and bear so severe a passion ? Since you have helped me to rise so much, please help me, my beloved, to come down, to remember, to despise my offences and my failures, so that my thoughts may better rise to desire, to honor, to praise your worth.
318. - You have made my will free to love your honor, and to undervalue your worth, so that you may multiply your love in my will.
319. - By means of this freedom you have put, my beloved, my willpower in danger. Beloved: in this danger you ought to remember your lover, who obtains from his free will the servitude to praise your honorings and to multiply in his heart sorrows and weepings.
320. - Beloved: no guilt or failing in your lover ever came from you, nor did any fulfillment reach your lover without your gift and forgiveness. Therefore, since the lover is possessed of you in this way, do not forget him in his trouble and endangerement.
321. - Beloved, you who are called man and God in one name! In that name, Jesus Christ, my will wants you to be man of God; and if you, beloved, have so much honored your lover without his merit in the way he calls and wishes your name, why do you not honor so many ignorant men who have not knowingly been so guilty toward your name, Jesus Christ, as your lover has been ?
322. The lover was crying, and he spoke to his beloved in these words: - Beloved, you were never mean or greedy toward your lover in giving him being, in recreating him, or in providing many creatures to his service. So how could you, my beloved who are supreme freedom, ever be mean to your lover in giving him weepings, thoughts, sorrows, wiseness and love to honor your glory ? Therefore, my beloved, your lover asks you for a long life, so he may receive from you many of the above said gifts.
323. - Beloved: if you help the just men from their mortal enemies, help to multiply my thoughts to desire your honorings; and if you help the unjust men to recover justice, help your lover to sacrifice his will for your praising, and to sacrifice his body to be testimony of love by way of martyrdom.
324. - There is no difference in my beloved between humbleness, the humble one, and the humbling one, for everything is humbleness in pure reality. And therefore the lover rebukes pride, who wants to raise to their beloved those who have been so greatly honored by my beloved's humility and who have been dressed up by pride in hipocrisy, vileness, vanity.
325. Humility humbled the beloved down to the lover, by contrition; and it was done by devotion too. And it is questioned in which of the two the beloved was most strongly humbled down to the lover.
326. The beloved, through his perfection, had mercy for his lover, as well as for the needs of his lover. And it was wondered for which of the two reasons the beloved most strongly forgave the faults of his lover.
327. Our Lady and the angels and the saints prayed of glory to my beloved; and when I remembered the error the world is in because of ignorance, I remembered well the great justice of my beloved and the great ignorance of his enemies.
328. The lover raised the power of his soul through a ladder of humanity to glorify the divine nature; and through the divine nature he descended the power of his soul to glorify in the human nature of his beloved.
329. The narrower the paths the lover goes on towards his beloved, the wider love is; and the narrower love is, the wider the paths are. And thereby, the lover experiences in every way for his beloved friendship and hardship, and suffering and pleasure and consolation.
330. Love comes out of love, and thoughts out of sorrows, and plants out of sorrows, and love comes into love, and thoughts into plants, and sorrows into sighs. And the beloved watches his lover, who for his love goes throught all these tribulations.
331. The desires and remembrances of the lover stayed up at night and made festivals and pilgrimages for the nobleties of his beloved, and furnished shape to the lover, and filled his intelligence with brilliance, for which willpower multiplied his love.
332. With his imagination, the lover painted and formed the shapes of his beloved in the bodily things, and with his intelligence he polished them in the spiritual things, and with willpower he adored them in all creatures.
333. The lover bought one day of crying for another day of thoughts, and he sold one day of love for another day of tribulations; and his love and his thoughts were multiplied.
334. The lover was in a strange land, and he forgot his beloved, and he yearned for his lord and for his wife and infants and his friends. But he returned to remember his beloved, in order to be comforted and that his strangeness would not give him yearning or melancholy.
335. The lover was hearing words from his beloved which his intelligence saw him in, because his willpower felt pleasure in that hearing; and his memory remembered the virtues of his beloved, and his promises.
336. The lover was hearing blaming of his beloved, and in this blaming his intelligence saw the justice and the patience of his beloved, for justice punished the blamers, and patience awaited them to contrition, repentance. This is why it is wondered in which of the two the lover believed the most.
337. The lover was sick, and he made his will with advice from his beloved. Guilt and harm he bequeathed to repentance, penitence; and temporal desire he bequeathed to disdain; to his eyes he bequeathed crying, and to his hearth sighs and love; and to his intelligence he bequeathed the forms of his beloved; and to his memory the passion that his beloved bears for his love; and to his business he bequeathed the correction of the infidels, who go ignorantly to their ruin.
338. The lover smelt flowers, and he remembered the stench of the rich and miserly, and of the lustful, and of the unwise arrogant. The lover tasted sweets, and he perceived the bitterness in the temporal possessions, and in the entering and exiting from this world. The lover felt temporal pleasure, and intelligence understood the brief passage through this world and the lasting torments that are brought about by the delights that are nice in this world.
339. The lover bore hunger, thirst, heat and cold, poverty, nakedness, illness, tribulation; and he would have been finished if he had not remembered his beloved, who healed him with hopefulness, remembering, and through the renouncement of this world, and through the neglect of people's blame.
340. The lover's bed was between trouble and pleasure: with pleasure he fell asleep, and with trouble he woke up. And one wonders which one of these two the lover's bed is closest to.
341. The lover fell asleep in rage, for he feared people's blame; and he woke up in patience, when he remembered prasings to his beloved. And it is wondered who the lover felt most ashamed of: his beloved, or the people.
342. The lover reflected about death, and he was fearful until he remembered the city of his beloved, for which death and love are gates and entrance.
343. The lover complained to his beloved of the temptations that were coming to him every day to trouble his thoughts. And the beloved replied to him saying that temptations are opportunities to resort with his memory to remember God and love his honored demeanor.
344. The lover lost a jewel that he very much liked; and he was distressed until his beloved posed him the question of which thing was the most profitable to him: the jewel he had, or the patience he drew from the work of his beloved.
345. The lover was sleeping while reflecting on the trouble and the impediments he ran into to serve his beloved, and he feared that his work would die out because of those impediments. But the beloved sent him consciousness, which awoke him in his merit and in the power of his beloved.
346. The lover had to go on long, tough, harsh journeys; and it was time for him to go on those and to carry the large bundle that love compels her lovers to carry. And therefore the lover relieved his soul from temporal thoughts and pleasures, so that the body could carry the load more lightly and the soul would go through those journeys in the company of his beloved.
347. Wrong things were being said one day next to the lover of his beloved, without the lover answering or excusing his beloved. And it is asked which one is the most guilty: the men who blamed the beloved, or the lover who kept quiet and did not excuse his beloved.
348. While contemplating his beloved, the lover grew subtler in his intelligence, and he fell in love in his willpower. And one wonders which of these two made the lover's memory subtler in the strongest way in remembering his beloved.
349. With fervor and awe, the lover went along his journey to honor his beloved: he was carried by fervor, and preserved by awe. As the lover was going in this way, he ran across sighs and cryings, who brought greetings from his beloved. And it is wondered which of the four the lover was best comforted by in his beloved.
350. The lover was watching himself so as to be the mirror where he could see his beloved, and he was watching his beloved so as he were the mirror where he could have knowledge of himself. And it is wondered which of the two mirrors his understanding was closest to.
351. Theology and Philosophy, Medicine and Law ran across the lover, who asked them again if they had seen his beloved. Theology cried, Philosophy doubted, Medicine and Law rejoiced. And it is wondered what each of the four signs mean to the lover who is searching his beloved.
352. Anguished and tearful, the lover went in search of his beloved through sensuous paths and intellectual routes. And it is wondered which of these two ways he first went into as he was searching his beloved, and in which the beloved showed himself most decisively to the lover.
353. On the day of the final judgement, the beloved will ask everyone to sort out on one side that which he has been given in this world, and to place on the other that which he has given to the world, to let it be seen how he has been heartily loved and which of the two gifts is the most noble and of the largest quantity.
354. The lover's willpower loved herself, and intelligence asked her if she was most similar to her beloved in loving herself or in loving her beloved, for her beloved loves himself better than anything else. And this is why it is wondered according to which answer willpower could reply to intelligence most truthfully.
355. - Tell me, fool one: which is the greatest and most noble love that is in any creature ? He replied: - That which is one with the creator. - Why? - Because the creator has nothing out of which he can make a more noble creature.
356. One day, the lover was in prayer and he felt his eyes were not crying; and to be able to cry, he sent out his thoughts to think about money, women, children, food, and vanity; and he found in his understanding that each of these things have more people as their servants than his beloved does. And thereby his eyes cried and his soul was in sadness and pain.
357. The lover was going thoughtful in his beloved, and he met along his way large numbers of people and groups who asked him of any news; and since he found pleasure in his beloved, the lover did not respond to what he was being asked and he said he did not want to answer their words so that he was not moved away from his beloved.
358. The lover was covered inside and outside by love, and he went searching for his beloved. Love said to him: - Lover, where are you going ? He replied: - I am going to my beloved so that you may become greater.
359. - Tell me, fool one: what is religion ? He replied: - Cleanness of thought, and wishing to die to honor my beloved, and renouncing to the world so that there is no encumbrance to contemplate it and to tell the truth about its honorings.
360. - Tell me, fool one: what are trouble, laments, sighs, weepings, tribulations, danger, in the lover ? He answered: - Pleasure from the beloved. - Why ? - So that the beloved is better loved, and the lover better rewarded.
361. The lover was asked which one love was greatest in: the lover who lived, or the lover who died. He replied it was in the lover who died. - Why ? - Because it can be no greater in the lover who dies for love, and it can be greater in the lover who lives for love.
362. Two lovers met each other; one displayed his beloved, the other one understood him. And it was questioned which one was closest to his beloved. And through the solution, the lover came to know the proof of trinity.
363. - Tell me, fool one: why do you speak so subtly? He answered: - To bring about an opportunity to exalt intelligence to the nobilities of my beloved, and to bring more men to honor, love and serve my beloved.
364. The lover got drunk from wine, who remembered, understood, and loved the beloved. That wine soaked the beloved with his cryings and with his lover's tears.
365. Love was arousing and warming up the lover in the remembrance of his beloved; and the beloved cooled him down through tears and cryings, and by forgetting the desires of this world, and by renouncing to vain honorings. And his loving acts grew when the lover remembered who he was sustaining grief and tribulations for, and who the mundane men sustained trouble and persecution for.
366. - Tell me, fool one: what is this world ? He replied: - It is prison of the lovers and servers of my beloved. - And who places them in prison ? He replied: - Consciousness, love, fear, renunciation, contriction, and the company of evil people; and it is work without reward, whereby punishment is found. Since Blanquerna had to treat on the book of the Art of Contemplation , he decided to finish the Book of the Lover and the Beloved . Which book is finished to the glory and praising of God our Lord.