{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_60704/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_60704","id":"gutenberg_60704","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60704","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Poetry","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Mysticism -- Spain -- Early works to 1800"],"text":"THE BOOK OF THE LOVER AND THE BELOVED\n\n\n\n\n  THE BOOK OF THE LOVER\n  AND THE BELOVED\n\n  TRANSLATED FROM THE CATALAN\n  OF RAM\u00d3N LULL WITH AN INTRODUCTORY\n  ESSAY BY\n\n  E. ALLISON PEERS\n\n  [Illustration]\n\n  LONDON\n\n  SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING\n  CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE\n\n  NEW YORK AND TORONTO: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY\n\n  1923\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nMore than six centuries have passed since this little Majorcan classic\nwas written, and, so far as I can find, it has never once been\ntranslated into English. Such an omission can only be explained by\nour comparative ignorance of the treasures of Spanish Mysticism, and\nperhaps in part by the fact that Lull wrote, not in Castilian, but in a\nlittle-known though beautiful idiom, that of Catalonia.\n\nIt would have been attractive to reproduce the original version of\nthe book together with this translation, and even more so to have\ntranslated the whole of _Blanquerna_, of which it forms a part. I hope\nthat both these projects may be realised in the future, together with\nthe translations of (at least) _Els Cent Noms de Deu_, _El Desconort_,\nand some of the short hymns and poems. But it seemed best to begin by\nmaking known some of Lull\u2019s best work to as wide a circle of readers\nas possible. Accordingly, while following, as a rule, the oldest text\n(which is of the fourteenth century) I have not scrupled to add to my\ntranslation a few passages found only in the editions of Paris (1505)\nand Valencia (1521), which illuminate the author\u2019s thought, or seem in\nother ways to be of real value.\n\nOn the other hand, I have not allowed myself, through a desire to\nexpound Lull\u2019s ideas, to substitute paraphrase for faithful and exact\ntranslation. Very few liberties have been taken with the text, and\nthese only where a slight expansion or change of construction has\nserved to bring out the meaning of an otherwise quite obscure word or\nphrase. Essentially, therefore, the reader has Lull\u2019s own vivid and\nforceful words, with the impediment of a foreign language removed.\n\n                                                        E. ALLISON PEERS\n\n  The University, Liverpool.\n    _Jan. 19, 1923._\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTORY ESSAY\n\n\nThe average man has seldom understood the Mystic. He conceives\nthe Mystic Life, with its ceaseless spiritual activity, and its\nrestlessness which knows no stay till it reaches its goal, as a life\nof tranquillity, if not of indolence and ease. He has no conception\nof what it really is, and for that, perhaps, he should not be blamed.\nBut not content with misinterpreting the mystic\u2019s life, he presently\nbecomes more daring; he asserts that mysticism is essentially\n\u2018unpractical,\u2019 and that one whose aim is to reach the state of Union\nwith God must necessarily be as a fool in his relations with the world.\nHere the average man is grossly, inexcusably mistaken. His error has\nagain and again been exposed, confuted, disproved by example after\nexample to the contrary. Yet, for all that, it seems to thrive in the\naverage mind.\n\nNow, if the story of one man\u2019s career could suffice to destroy the\nmistaken idea that the mystic is an unpractical dreamer, that man\nwould surely be the Majorcan Ram\u00f3n Lull, the \u2018Apostle of Africa.\u2019 Lull\nlived far back in the thirteenth century, not long after the days\nof St. Francis of Assisi, whose disciple he was. He gives us, as it\nwere, a prevision of the splendours of that Golden Age of Mysticism\nwhich dawned for Spain three hundred years after his birth. His mystic\nwritings--and especially his BOOK OF THE LOVER AND THE BELOVED--are\nfull of the purest and noblest spirituality, compounded with the\nquintessence of love. \u2018If ye will have fire,\u2019 he cries, \u2018O ye that\nlove, come light your lanterns at my heart.\u2019 His famous phrase, \u2018He\nwho loves not lives not,\u2019 sums up his inspiration. Yet Lull was no\ncloistered visionary. His life is full of romance and adventure: so\ncrowded with incident is it that many pages will not suffice even to\nsummarise its principal happenings. His capacities showed the rare\ncombination of scholar and man of affairs: he was both these, and he\nwas also the man of God. To the service of his Master, for Whom alone\nhe lived, and for Whom he died, Lull was able to bring the full and\ncomplete tribute of an efficient and active body, a superb mind, and an\nardent, unconquerable spirit.\n\n\nI\n\nRAM\u00d3N LULL was born in Palma, the capital of Majorca, on January 25,\n1235. His father had taken part in the conquest of Majorca from the\nSaracens some six years earlier, and for his services had received\nthe gift of an estate, which his son inherited. The boy was brought\nup as a page in the royal court of Majorca, and, in spite of a sound\nreligious education and the interest and favour of the King, he had\nhardly reached years of discretion when he began to lead a careless\nand dissolute life. His biographers tell of how the King, to stop his\ndegrading practices, married him to a certain D^a. Blanca Pica\u00f1y, but\nwithout thereby reforming him in the least. Lull was chiefly enamoured\nof a Genoese lady, so passionately that he dared one day to ride on\nhorseback into the Church of St. Eulalia, where she was engaged in\ndevotion. Eventually she herself arrested his intrigues. Receiving from\nhim some gallant verses on the theme of her bosom, she called him into\nher presence, and, uncovering herself before him, disclosed a malignant\ncancer by which her breast was slowly being consumed.\n\nThis terrible shock marked the first stage in Lull\u2019s conversion. He\nwent back to the palace another man--as taciturn and sombre as he had\nformerly been gay and jovial. The tradition may well be true that he\nsaw at this time a vision of the Crucified, saying, \u2018Ram\u00f3n, follow\nMe\u2019: he himself in some lines of autobiography tells us of five such\nvisions, though when they occurred is not certain. Be this as it may,\nhe turned from his evil life and fixed his affections on God:\n\n  When I was grown and knew the world and its vanities, I began to do\n  evil and entered on sin. Forgetting the true God I went after carnal\n  things. But it pleased Jesus Christ in His great pity to present\n  Himself to me five times as if crucified, that I might remember Him\n  and set my love on Him, doing what I could that He might be known\n  through all the world and the truth be taught concerning the great\n  Trinity and the Incarnation. And thus I was inspired and moved by\n  so great love, that I loved no other thing but that He should be\n  honoured, and I began to do Him willing service.[1]\n\nFrom the first, as these lines significantly bear evidence, Lull\u2019s\nnew ideals were directed towards specific objects. He was set upon\nthe conversion of the Jews and Mohammedans who figured so largely\nin thirteenth-century Spain. And setting aside emotional methods as\nresolutely as the idea--so general then--of conversion by force, he\nbegan to ponder what he conceived to be worthy means of compassing his\naim--a progressive and unanswerable appeal to the reason. A sermon\nheard on the Feast of St. Francis (October 4, 1266) supplied the spark\nwhich kindled Lull\u2019s plans into action. He sold all his land, with the\nexception of a portion retained for himself and his family, gave up\nhis position of seneschal in the royal palace, and retired first to a\nCistercian monastery and later to Mount Randa, near Palma, living there\na life of study and meditation with the object of fitting himself to\nbecome a missionary to the Moslems.\n\nThe record of Lull\u2019s life in Mount Randa is one not only of prayer,\nfast and vigil, ecstasy and vision, but of the study of Arabic and the\nelaboration of his scheme of a book which was to illuminate and convert\nthe world. He believed this _Art General_ to be directly inspired\nby the Holy Spirit. Once it was sufficiently developed he turned in\nhis practical way to means by which its study could be advanced. To\nKing James II of Majorca were explained the scholar\u2019s vast plans for\nthe conversion of Islam; the King submitted them to one Bertram de\nBerengario, a professor of theology, and, when satisfied of their\northodoxy, endowed a college in Miramar for the training in sciences\nand languages of thirteen Franciscan missionaries to the Saracens\n(1275). Thus one part of Lull\u2019s ideals was realised.\n\nFor a short time he remained at Miramar, teaching Arabic and the\n_Art General_. But before long we find him lecturing on the _Art_ in\nMontpellier, which was part of the Majorcan kingdom. Then he is at\nRome, where his enterprise is sanctioned by the Pope, and a School\nof Oriental Languages founded. He spends two years lecturing in the\nUniversity of Paris, learning all the time as well as teaching. A\ncollege is founded in Navarre through King Philip of France. Lull goes\nfarther afield--to Palestine, Egypt, Ethiopia and Morocco. In 1282 we\nread of his being back in France again, at Perpignan. Success continues\nto attend him, but not in a measure that can satisfy his ardent\nsoul. Ever burning for more triumphs, he resolves at last to put the\nlukewarmness of Europe to shame, and to go himself to Africa as an\nApostle of the Faith.\n\nAfter some delay (the chronology of this period is very uncertain[2])\nhe set sail from Genoa, and landed in Tunis about 1291. Professing only\na desire to learn the truth--to convert or be converted as events might\nprove--he began to debate in public with the Moslems, following his\nown logical method. He was only too successful. Many of the infidels,\nattracted by his reasoning, embraced Christianity; but the monarch\nbegan to fear for his throne, and before long Lull found himself in\nprison. Condemned to death for his preaching, he was reprieved by the\nintercession of a Saracen of influence, and banished from Africa,\nleaving Tunis amid insults and blows, on pain of being stoned to death\nshould he ever return. For a time he evaded his enemies and remained in\nthe country, but a year of this life showed him its futility, and he\nreturned to Naples. Here he remained writing and teaching for a time;\nthen he went to Rome (_c._ 1296), attempting unsuccessfully to obtain\nsanction for new missionary projects; again we find him in Genoa, next\nin Paris (1297-8), back in Majorca, once more in Genoa (1300), then\non a new campaign in Cyprus and Armenia (1300-2), back _via_ Rhodes\nand Malta, where he made stays, to Genoa and Paris (1303), Palma,\nBarcelona, Lyon and Montpellier (1305).[3] Here he saw both the King\nand Pope Clement V. With the former he planned a crusade for the Holy\nLand, but the latter, much occupied in other affairs, gave him no\nsupport.\n\nEverywhere and always evangelisation filled his thoughts. No difficulty\nor objection, as the records of these years show, could curb his zeal;\nthe thought of imprisonment or torture made no difference to his plans,\nwhile to die a martyr\u2019s death when his work should be done was his\ngreat ambition. \u2018Foolish Lover,\u2019 says an imaginary opponent to him\nin his little classic, \u2018why dost thou weary the body, throw away thy\nwealth and leave the joys of this world, and go about as an outcast of\nthe people?\u2019 And his reply is the simplest imaginable. \u2018To honour my\nBeloved\u2019s Name, for He is hated and dishonoured by more men than honour\nand love Him.\u2019\n\nIn 1306 Lull determined to make an attempt to preach once more in\nAfrica. At the outset he was successful, founding a school at Bona,\nwhere he first went. But on proceeding to Bugia, and beginning to\npreach in the market-place, he was promptly arrested, all but stoned\nby the crowds, summarily tried, and imprisoned in a loathsome dungeon\nwith a view to later execution. Something in Lull\u2019s personality,\nhowever (or, as some say, the pleas of certain Catalan and Genoese\ninhabitants), saved him once more; he was even allowed the privilege\nof a disputation with a Mohammedan champion, and eventually was exiled\nagain in the same year of his leaving Italy.\n\nThe ship in which he was returning suffered shipwreck off Pisa,\nwhere he landed and remained for two years. In Pisa he wrote a book\nincorporating his memorable dispute with the Saracen apologist and\nother experiences in Africa. But it would seem that these experiences\nhad been modifying his belief in intellectual conversion, for he\napproached Pope Clement V again with proposals for a new crusade.\nEnthusiasm for crusades, however, was a thing of the past, and neither\nthe Pope nor Italy as a whole gave the scheme any support.\n\nSo this dauntless fighter went once more to Paris, which at that time\nwas in the grip of Averroism, and hence provided a new field for\nmissionary effort. Seventy-three years old as he was, Lull lectured,\nwrote, and taught unceasingly against the infidel philosophy, and won\nfor himself fresh glory, accomplishing in Europe what only physical\nforce withheld from him in Africa. King Philip, his royal admirer, gave\nhim the name of _docteur illumin\u00e9_, by which, in one or another of its\ntranslations, he is still known to-day.\n\nThe Council of Vienne (1311-2) gave Lull another of those opportunities\nwhich he was never slow to take. The picture of the venerable\nmissionary at the feet of the Head of the Church, pouring forth his\nimpassioned pleas for those enterprises which authority so hesitated\nto allow, is indeed a moving one. He painted the glory of recovering\nthe Holy Places, the plight of the Christians in Armenia, and the\nperil which the Greeks were in from the Turks--themes not exhausted\neven after seven hundred years. These, however, were but a few of\nLull\u2019s representations. The number of his requests which were granted\nwas relatively small, but among them was a wider scheme than any yet\nsanctioned for a system of colleges for the teaching of missionary\nlanguages. This earnest of the continuance of his work must have\nencouraged beyond measure one who, in the natural course of life, was\nnearing the end of his activities.\n\nPerhaps it was this, indeed, which inspired him to cross once more to\nAfrica, to brave its terrors and to suffer martyrdom for the Faith at\nlast--as from his conversion he had wished--if it might be the will\nof God. And the will of God it proved to be. On August 14, 1314, he\nset out from Palma for Bugia. On his arrival he began his work less\nopenly than before, and for some months contrived to preach secretly,\nmake conversions and confirm the faithful of earlier days. He passed\nto Tunis, where he had further success, but for some unknown reason\nwas compelled to return to Bugia. Success made him bold. Feeling\nperhaps that the hour of supreme effort--even if it meant the supreme\nsacrifice--had come, he threw prudence to the winds, assembled a vast\nconcourse, and, proclaiming himself that same Ram\u00f3n who had formerly\nbeen condemned in Bugia, he preached once more the faith of the\nSaviour. This time the crowd broke loose, and not only clamoured for\nLull\u2019s death, but took him out of the city and stoned him (June 30,\n1315), even as a Jewish mob had stoned the first of Christian martyrs.\n\nVarious accounts are given of his burial. It seems that two Genoese\nmerchants begged his body and carried it to Majorca, but some versions\nhave it that a great pyramid of light aided them in their search for\nit, that life remained in the body until it reached Palma, and that\nadverse winds forced the vessel, which was making for Genoa, to land at\nLull\u2019s birthplace. Here the body was received with the greatest sorrow\nand mourning, and buried with due solemnity in the sacristy of the\nconvent of St. Francis of Assisi.\n\nRam\u00f3n Lull was beatified by Pius IX. The title-page of his great\nromance, _Blanquerna_, calls him \u2018Doctor illuminate, Martyr unconquered\nof Jesus Christ, Master universal in all arts and sciences.\u2019 But in his\nown country Lull receives the simpler homage of a saint.\n\n\nII\n\nThe foregoing sketch, for all its brevity, will have emphasised more\nforcibly than much argument the practical and the scholarly sides of\nLull\u2019s temperament. We shall say nothing here of the four hundred and\neighty-six treatises[4] which he is known to have written, nor of the\nthousands of other works, no longer extant if indeed they ever existed,\nwith which he is credited. Nor is there need to describe his system\nand doctrine, at once scholastic and popular in character. The _Libre\nde Amich e Amat_, which is here translated, is purely a mystical work,\nand this essay is concerned with the mystical side of Lull\u2019s mind, so\nwonderfully illumined by the flame which burnt through his long life of\nself-sacrifice.\n\n_The Book of the Lover and the Beloved_ takes us from the African\npreachings and the disputations of the Sorbonne to those long\nnight-watches and days of retreat which must always have accompanied\nthem, but which we are apt to forget in contemplating that form of\nactivity which the world counts greatest. Or the thoughts which the\n_Book_ gives us may first have come to the young convert in the\nsolitude of his monastery and the retreat of Mount Randa. Rossell\u00f3, who\nsome sixty years ago first published Lull\u2019s poems, interprets a passage\nfrom _Blanquerna_ as autobiographical. It may well be so.\n\n  Being then in his hermitage he would rise at midnight, and, opening\n  the windows of his cell, would fall to contemplating the heavens and\n  the stars, and praying with all possible devotion, that his soul\n  might be fixed upon God alone.... After long contemplation and much\n  weeping, his custom was to enter the church and ring for mattins,\n  and when his deacon appeared, to help him say them. At daybreak he\n  celebrated Mass with devotion, and spoke of God with his deacon, that\n  on God he might set his love. And as they talked together of God and\n  His works, they both wept for the greatness of the devotion which\n  their argument inspired in them. Then the deacon went into the garden\n  and busied himself with the cultivation of the trees in it, while\n  Blanquerna left the church to recreate his mind which was wearied by\n  the work he had done, to lift his eyes to the hills, and to let them\n  rest on the plains beneath. Feeling rested at last, he would betake\n  himself again to meditation and prayer, and the reading of Holy\n  Scripture or the great book of _Contemplation_, and so he would be\n  occupied until the hours of Terce, Sext and Nones.... After this he\n  dined ... and went into the garden, visited the spring, or walked in\n  the places he loved most, afterwards giving himself up for a while\n  to sleep in order to gather strength for the labours of the night.\n  On awaking he said vespers with the deacon, and then remained alone,\n  thinking on what pleased him most and was fittest preparation for his\n  hours of prayer. After sunset, he went up to the terrace, and there\n  remained long in devout meditation, his eyes fixed on the heavens and\n  the stars, discoursing with himself on the greatness of God and man\u2019s\n  inconstancies. In this state he remained until he retired to rest,\n  and such was the fervour of his contemplation that even upon his bed\n  he found himself in mystic converse with the All-Powerful.\n\nSuch a background as this we must almost of necessity assume in a life\nat once so active and so spiritual. No doubt Lull was able often to\nspend weeks, or at the least days, in some sacred retreat, and draw\nfrom God and from Nature strength and inspiration for his endless\ntasks. To these seasons of refreshing, it may be supposed, we owe his\nmystical writings.\n\nOf Lull\u2019s verses many are narrative or doctrinal: the hymns entitled\n\u2018Hours of Our Lady St. Mary\u2019 (_Horas de Nostra Dona Sancta Maria_),\nfor example; the \u2018Sin of Adam\u2019 (_Lo Peccat de n\u2019Adam_), written \u2018at\nthe request of the King of Majorca\u2019; the short \u2018Song of Ram\u00f3n\u2019 (_Lo\nCant de Ram\u00f3n_), and above all the \u2018Medicine for Sin\u2019 (_Medicina de\nPeccat_) and the purely didactic verse \u2018Application\u2019 of the _Art\nGeneral_. The collection of a hundred songs on the Names of God (_Els\nCent Noms de Deu_), on the other hand, is more mystical than doctrinal,\nand suggests, in matter as well as in title, the mystical treatise\n\u2018Of the Names of Christ\u2019 (_De los Nombres de Cristo_) written almost\nexactly three hundred years later by the Salamancan friar, Luis de\nLe\u00f3n. Mystical too, as well as autobiographical, is the dialogue poem\n_El Desconort_, \u2018made in his old age,\u2019 though its spirit is that of\ndisillusion at the refusal of those in high places to help forward his\nschemes of evangelisation. But neither of these has either the strength\nor the beauty of the collection of prose poems here translated, a\ncollection which forms part of the novel-like _Blanquerna_, Lull\u2019s\nchief contribution to mystical literature.\n\nHis chief contribution it is, mainly, though not entirely, by virtue\nof the sections entitled the _Art of Contemplation_ and our _Book of\nthe Lover and the Beloved_. _Blanquerna_, as a whole, is a somewhat\nfantastic, and in places extravagant, religious romance--a religious\n_Utopia_, if parallels to it must be found, or a Catholic _Pilgrim\u2019s\nProgress_. The story is of a certain gallant and wealthy youth named\nEvast, who marries a beautiful and virtuous girl called Aloma. They\nlive together in great piety and happiness, but have no children, until\nAloma in her sorrow prays to God, and a boy, Blanquerna, is born to\nthem. The child is brought up with great care, and in the fear of God;\nand when his father sees that he is a youth of discretion, he resolves\nto devote himself to the religious life. Aloma, however, disapproves,\nsaying that they can both serve God best in the state to which He has\ncalled them; they decide in the end to lead lives of greater austerity\nin their home, and to give Blanquerna the oversight of the household.\nBut, on proposing this to the boy, they find that he has resolved to\nbecome a hermit.\n\nAloma is grieved, and endeavours to marry Blanquerna to a beautiful\ngirl called Cana. Blanquerna\u2019s reply is to persuade Cana to become a\nnun, while he himself retires to the desert to carry out his resolve.\nThe story then describes circumstantially and with some prolixity the\nlives of Evast and Aloma after Blanquerna has left them; it passes on\nto Cana, who eventually becomes abbess of her convent; and finally,\nafter some long digressions upon convent life, to the later history of\nBlanquerna, which occupies the rest of the romance.\n\nThe second book of _Blanquerna_ deals with the hero\u2019s life before he\nis ordained priest and rises to the rank of abbot in the monastery\nwhich he has entered. A digression follows, entitled \u2018The Book of Ave\nMaria,\u2019 purporting to be an account of the devotions to Our Lady which\nthe hero established. The third book presents him as a bishop, and the\nfourth as pope.\n\nThe various religious ideals presented by Lull in succession lead\nup to the great ideal of his life: the evangelisation of the world.\nBlanquerna\u2019s supreme aim as pope is to strive \u2018that all infidels and\nschismatics may be brought into the union of the Holy Catholic Faith.\u2019\nHis cardinals are quaintly named after the clauses of the _Gloria in\nExcelsis Deo_, and every clause is expounded so as to illustrate the\nactivity which the Church should show in converting the heathen.\n\nTo the court of the Pope comes at length a jester,--one Ram\u00f3n the\nFool,--none other, of course, than Lull himself. \u2018I would be as a\nfool,\u2019 he says, \u2018to do reverence and honour to Jesus Christ, and by\nreason of my exceeding love I would know no measure in my speech.\u2019 Thus\ndisguised, the author can write much which he might not otherwise have\ndared to put into words. And above all he can deliver himself of the\nshame he feels because the Head of the Church will grant so little aid\nto those who aim at following Christ\u2019s last recorded command to convert\nall nations.\n\nThe story ends with the decision of Blanquerna, the pope now grown old\nin the service of the Church and the conversion of the heathen, to\nrenounce his high office, retire to a hermitage, and devote his last\ndays to contemplation and prayer. His new life is described in detail,\nand it is interwoven with this description that we come upon the _Book\nof the Lover and the Beloved_ and the _Art of Contemplation_.\n\nThe former is by far the simpler and more appealing of the two, the\n_Art of Contemplation_ being considerably longer and full of doctrinal\nteaching. It is, nevertheless, still read, less for its didactic\npassages than for its close relation with the whole romance, its\nmystical aspect, and in particular its prayers, which are of great\nbeauty. The _Book of the Lover and the Beloved_ is mystical throughout.\nIt was written, the author himself declares, \u2018that the hearts of\nmen might be moved to true contrition, their eyes to abundance of\ntears, and their wills and understandings to loftier flights in the\ncontemplation of God.\u2019 How well it attains its object, and how truly it\nreflects the mystic\u2019s being, the reader must judge.\n\n\nIII\n\nWe have no wish to add to these few notes a lengthy commentary upon the\nsubstance of a book which, probably for the first time, is accessible\nto those who read only English. Scholars have debated over Lull\u2019s\nprobable debt to sufism, on the one hand, and, on the other, his\ninfluence upon the long line of mystics who have followed him. There is\nmuch still to be said upon these and other topics, much that will throw\nfresh light on Spain and Spanish mysticism both. But in this essay\nenough has been said of Lull\u2019s life and works to form the indispensable\nprelude to his _Book_. For the present, therefore, we prefer to stand\nback, and allow Lull\u2019s ardent spirit to work its miracles still. Work\nthem it surely must. Writing in his native \u2018catalan-provenzal,\u2019 that he\nmight appeal, not to learned men, but to the people, by the people he\nis read still. He needs none of the \u2018Expositions,\u2019 such as were written\nin his own age and as late as the seventeenth century. Here and there\na passage confuses the modern mind by its medi\u00e6val subtleties; or the\nfrequent references to the will, understanding, and memory (so common\nin most of the mystics) may puzzle the simple reader until he has\nlearned to interpret them. But the vast majority of the three hundred\nand sixty-six \u2018verses,\u2019 put together to be read one on each day of the\nyear, may still so be read. They speak to the twentieth century as\nclearly, picturesquely, and forcibly as they spoke to the thirteenth.\nHave we perhaps even more need of their message?\n\nThey speak of elementals. Like his great successors St. Teresa and St.\nJohn of the Cross, Lull knows no Master but his Beloved, Jesus Christ;\nhe surpasses them perhaps in this, that he is never unmindful of the\nworld his Beloved came to save. His is no cloistered love. He could\nnever say, with St. John of the Cross, \u2018Live in the world as though\nthere were in it but God and thy soul.\u2019 Ringing for ever in his ears is\nthe Beloved\u2019s last command.\n\nNever was \u2018Love\u2019s regal dalmatic\u2019 worn with more grace and fitness\nthan by this \u2018jester,\u2019 this \u2018fool of love.\u2019 It is no compliment\nto Lull to call him, as the great scholar Men\u00e9ndez Pelayo does, a\n\u2018Spanish Jacopone da Todi.\u2019 Jacopone, it is true, sang of love with\nunsurpassable fervour:\n\n  Amor, amore, tanto tu me fai,\n  Amore, amor, che nol posso patire;\n  Amor, amore, tanto me te dai,\n  Amor, amore, ben credo morire;\n  Amore, amore, tanto preso m\u2019hai,\n  Amor, amore, famme \u2019n te transire;\n  Amor, dolce languire,\n  Amor mio desioso,\n  Amor mio delettoso,\n  Annegame en amore.\n\nBut Lull, who, like Jacopone, owed most of his fervour, under God, to\nSt. Francis, has a note of his own, no less deep, no less pure. His\nkey is perhaps in that eloquent definition, which has been slightly\nexpanded in translation that the full force of every phrase may be felt:\n\n  \u2018What meanest thou by love?\u2019 said the Beloved. And the Lover\n  answered: \u2018It is to bear on one\u2019s heart the sacred marks and the\n  sweet words of the Beloved. It is to long for Him with desire and\n  with tears. It is boldness. It is fervour. It is fear. It is the\n  desire for the Beloved above all things. It is that which causes the\n  Lover to grow faint when he hears the Beloved\u2019s praises. It is that\n  in which I die daily, and in which is all my will.\u2019\n\nLull might well have written, as did a late Franciscan, John of the\nAngels, of the \u2018Triumphs of the Love of God.\u2019\n\nLove impels him to tread the Mystic Way \u2018in search of his Beloved.\u2019\nMuch of his _Book_, therefore, deals with the Mystic Life. But it\nhas none of the exclusiveness of the _Living Flame of Love_ and the\n_Spiritual Canticle_. There are passages for the beginner as well as\nfor the proficient, parables in three lines for the plain man, sermons\nin phrases, reflections which, by their very simplicity, kindle the\ndevotion of the wayfaring man as he reads them. As we read the brief\nrecords of imaginary conversations between the Lover and \u2018those who\nasked him concerning his Beloved,\u2019 we can imagine ourselves in some\nAfrican coast-town where the stranger who has just landed is being\npressed, by the surging crowd which surrounds him, to give reasons for\nhis faith. The calm and confident answers supply the secret of Lull\u2019s\npower.\n\nThen we come upon some quaintly-worded, paradoxical phrase which only\nreflection will illumine and meditation make real. And we know that we\nare following in the path of Lull when he composed his treatise. For\nit was the fruit, not of subtleties, but of silence. \u2018He would engage\nin prayer,\u2019 runs the preface, \u2018and meditate upon God and His virtues,\nafter which he would write down the outcome of his contemplation.\u2019\nAnd again, more concretely: \u2018At midnight he arose, looked out upon\nthe heavens and the stars, and cast away from him all thoughts of the\nworld.\u2019\n\nSo, between meditation and prayer, he wrote this masterpiece in little,\nsigned it with his Beloved\u2019s Sign, and sent it out to a world which he\nlonged to save. It has been potent in the past, and we may believe that\nit will be so again. For it is as eternal and universal in its appeal\nas the Ideal Life which it extols. Nurtured by experience, watered by\nfaith, it is rooted and grounded in love.\n\n\n\n\nTHE BOOK OF THE LOVER AND THE BELOVED\n\n\n1 The Lover asked his Beloved if there remained in Him anything still\nto be loved. And the Beloved replied that he had still to love that by\nwhich his own love could be increased.\n\n2 Long and perilous are the paths by which the Lover seeks his Beloved.\nThey are peopled by cares, sighs and tears. They are lit up by love.\n\n3 Many Lovers came together to love One only, their Beloved, who made\nthem all to abound in love. And each declared his Beloved perfection,\nand his thoughts of Him were very pleasant, making him to suffer pain\nwhich brought delight.\n\n4 The Lover wept and said: \u2018How long shall it be till the darkness of\nthe world is past, that the mad rush of men towards hell may cease?\nWhen comes the hour in which water, that flows downwards, shall change\nits nature and mount upwards? When shall the innocent be more in number\nthan the guilty? Ah! When shall the Lover with joy lay down his life\nfor the Beloved? And when shall the Beloved see the Lover grow faint\nfor love of Him?\u2019\n\n5 Said the Lover to the Beloved: \u2018Thou that fillest the sun with\nsplendour, fill my heart with love.\u2019 And the Beloved answered: \u2018Wert\nthou not filled with love, thine eyes had not shed those tears, nor\nhadst thou come to this place to see thy Beloved.\u2019\n\n6 The Beloved made trial of His Lover to see if his love for Him were\nperfect, and He asked him how the presence of the Beloved differed from\nHis absence. The Lover answered: \u2018As knowledge and remembrance differ\nfrom ignorance and oblivion.\u2019\n\n7 The Beloved asked the Lover: \u2018Hast thou remembrance of anything with\nwhich I have rewarded thee, that thou wouldst love Me thus?\u2019 \u2018Yea,\u2019\nreplied the Lover, \u2018for I distinguish not between the trials that Thou\nsendest me and the joys.\u2019\n\n8 \u2018Say, O Lover,\u2019 asked the Beloved, \u2018if I double thy trials, wilt thou\nstill be patient?\u2019 \u2018Yea,\u2019 answered the Lover, \u2018so that Thou double also\nmy love.\u2019\n\n9 Said the Beloved to the Lover: \u2018Knowest thou yet what love meaneth?\u2019\nThe Lover replied: \u2018If I knew not the meaning of love, I should know\nthe meaning of labour, grief and sorrow.\u2019\n\n10 They asked the Lover: \u2018Why answerest thou not thy Beloved when He\ncalleth thee?\u2019 He replied: \u2018I brave great perils that He may come, and\nI speak to Him begging His graces.\u2019\n\n11 \u2018Foolish Lover, why dost thou weary thy body, throw away thy wealth\nand leave the joys of this world, and go about as an outcast of the\npeople?\u2019 \u2018To honour my Beloved\u2019s Name,\u2019 he replied, \u2018for He is hated\nand dishonoured by more men than honour and love Him.\u2019\n\n12 \u2018Say, Fool of Love, which can be the better seen, the Beloved in\nthe Lover, or the Lover in the Beloved?\u2019 The Lover answered, and said:\n\u2018By love can the Beloved be seen, and the Lover by sighs and tears, by\ngrief and by labours.\u2019\n\n13 The Lover sought for one who should tell his Beloved how great\ntrials he was enduring for love of Him, and how he was like to die. And\nhe found his Beloved, who was reading in a book wherein were written\nall the griefs which love made him to suffer for his Beloved, and the\ngraces which He gave him.\n\n14 Our Lady presented her Son to the Lover, that he might kiss His\nfeet, and that he might write in his book concerning Our Lady\u2019s virtues.\n\n15 \u2018Say, thou bird that singest, hast thou placed thyself in the care\nof my Beloved, that He may guard thee from indifference, and increase\nin thee thy love?\u2019 The bird replied: \u2018And who makes me to sing but the\nLord of love, to whom not to love is to sin.\u2019\n\n16 Between Hope and Fear, Love made her home. She lives on thought,\nand, when she is forgotten, dies. So unlike the pleasures of this world\nare her foundations.\n\n17 There was a contention between the eyes and the memory of the\nLover, for the eyes said that it was better to see the Beloved than\nto remember Him. But Memory said that remembrance brings tears to the\neyes, and makes the heart to burn with love.\n\n18 The Lover asked the Understanding and the Will which of them was\nthe nearer to his Beloved. And the two ran, and the Understanding came\nnearer to the Beloved than did the Will.\n\n19 There was strife between the Lover and the Beloved, and another who\nloved Him saw it and wept, till peace and concord were made between the\nBeloved and the Lover.\n\n20 Sighs and Tears came to be judged by the Beloved, and asked Him\nwhich of them loved Him the more deeply. And the Beloved gave judgment\nthat sighs were nearer to the seat of love, and tears to the eyes.\n\n21 The Lover came to drink of the fountain which gives love to him who\nhas none, and his griefs redoubled. And the Beloved came to drink of\nthe same fountain, that the love of one whose griefs were doubled might\nbe doubled also.\n\n22 The Lover fell sick and thought on the Beloved, who fed him on His\nmerits, quenched his thirst with love, made him to rest in patience,\nclothed him with humility, and as medicine gave him truth.\n\n23 They asked the Lover where his Beloved was. And he answered: \u2018See\nHim for yourselves in a nobler house than all the nobility of creation;\nbut see Him too in my love, my griefs and my tears.\u2019\n\n24 They said to the Lover: \u2018Whither goest thou?\u2019 He answered: \u2018I come\nfrom my Beloved.\u2019 \u2018Whence comest thou?\u2019 \u2018I go to my Beloved.\u2019 \u2018When\nwilt thou return?\u2019 \u2018I shall be with my Beloved.\u2019 \u2018How long wilt thou be\nwith thy Beloved?\u2019 \u2018As long as my thoughts remain on Him.\u2019\n\n25 The birds hymned the dawn, and the Beloved, who is the dawn,\nawakened. And the birds ended their song, and the Lover died in the\ndawn for his Beloved.\n\n26 The bird sang in the garden of the Beloved. The Lover came, and he\nsaid to the bird: \u2018If we understand not one another\u2019s speech, we may\nmake ourselves understood by love; for in thy song I see my Beloved\nbefore mine eyes.\u2019\n\n27 The Lover was wearied, for he had laboured much in seeking for his\nBeloved; and he feared lest he should forget Him. And he wept, that he\nmight not fall asleep, and his Beloved be absent from his remembrance.\n\n28 The Lover and the Beloved met, and the Beloved said to the Lover:\n\u2018Thou needest not to speak to Me. Look at Me only,--for thine eyes\nspeak to My heart,--that I may give thee what thou willest.\u2019\n\n29 The Lover was disobedient to his Beloved; and the Lover wept. And\nthe Beloved came in the venture of His Lover, and died, that His Lover\nmight regain what he had lost. So He gave him a greater gift than that\nwhich he had lost.\n\n30 The Beloved filled His Lover with gifts of love, and grieved not for\nhis tribulations, for they would but make him love the more deeply;\nand the greater the Lover\u2019s tribulations, the greater was his joy and\ndelight.\n\n31 The Lover said: \u2018The secrets of my Beloved torture me, for my deeds\nreveal them not, and my mouth keeps silence and reveals them to none.\u2019\n\n32 This is Love\u2019s contract: the Lover must be long-suffering, patient,\nhumble, fearful, diligent, trustful; he must be ready to face great\ndangers for the honour of his Beloved. And his Beloved is pledged to be\ntrue and free, just and liberal with those that love Him.\n\n33 The Lover set forth over hill and plain in search of true devotion,\nand to see if his Beloved was well served. But everywhere he found\nnought but indifference. And so he delved into the earth to see if\nthere he could find the devotion which was lacking above ground.\n\n34 \u2018Say, thou bird that singest of love, why does my Beloved, He who\nhas made me His servant, do nought but torture me now?\u2019 And the bird\nreplied: \u2018If Love made thee not to bear trials, what couldst thou give\nto show thy love for Him?\u2019\n\n35 Pensively the Lover trod those paths which lead to the Beloved. Now\nhe stumbled and fell among the thorns; but they were to him as flowers,\nand as a bed of love.\n\n36 They asked the Lover: \u2018Wilt thou for another change thy Beloved?\u2019\nAnd he answered: \u2018Why, what other is better or nobler than He? For He\nis the supreme Good; He is infinite and eternal, in greatness, wisdom\nand love; nay, He is perfection.\u2019\n\n37 The Lover wept, and sang of his Beloved, and said: \u2018Swifter is love\nin the lover\u2019s heart than is the brilliance of the lightning to the\neye, or the thunder to the ear. The tears of love gather more swiftly\nthan the waves of the sea; and sighing is more proper to love than is\nwhiteness to snow.\u2019\n\n38 They asked the Lover: \u2018Wherein is the glory of thy Beloved?\u2019 He\nanswered: \u2018He is Glory itself.\u2019 They asked him: \u2018Wherein lies His\npower?\u2019 He answered: \u2018He is Power itself.\u2019 \u2018And wherein lies His\nwisdom?\u2019 \u2018He is Wisdom itself.\u2019 \u2018And wherefore is He to be loved?\u2019\n\u2018Because He is Love itself.\u2019\n\n39 The Lover rose early and went to seek his Beloved. He found\ntravellers on the road, and he asked if they had seen his Beloved.\nThey answered him: \u2018When did the eyes of thy mind lose sight of thy\nBeloved?\u2019 The Lover replied: \u2018Since I first saw my Beloved in my\nthoughts, He has never been absent from the eyes of my body, for all\nthings that I see picture to me my Beloved.\u2019\n\n40 With eyes of thought and grief, sighs and tears the Lover gazed\nupon the Beloved; and with eyes of grace, justice and piety, mercy and\nbounty, the Beloved gazed upon His Lover. And the bird sang of that\nCountenance so full of delight, as we have already said.\n\n41 The keys of the gates of love are gilded with cares and desires,\nsighs and tears; the cord which binds them is woven of conscience,\ndevotion, contrition and atonement; the door is kept by justice and\nmercy.\n\n42 The Lover beat upon his Beloved\u2019s door with blows of love and hope.\nThe Beloved heard His Lover\u2019s blows, with humility, piety, charity and\npatience. Deity and Humanity opened the doors, and the Lover went in to\nhis Beloved.\n\n43 Deity and Humanity met, and joined together to make concord between\nLover and Beloved.\n\n44 There are two fires that warm the love of a true Lover: one is of\npleasures, desires and thoughts: the other is of weeping and crying, of\nfear and grief.\n\n45 The Lover longed for solitude, and went away to live alone, that he\nmight gain the companionship of his Beloved, for amid many people he\nwas lonely.\n\n46 The Lover was all alone, in the shade of a great tree. Men passed by\nthat place, and asked him why he was alone. And the Lover replied: \u2018I\nam alone, now that I have seen you and heard you; until now, I was in\nthe company of my Beloved.\u2019\n\n47 By signs of love, the Lover held converse with the Beloved; by means\nof fear and thought, weeping and crying, the Lover recounted his griefs\nto the Beloved.\n\n48 The Lover feared whether his Beloved would fail him in his greatest\nneed; and he ceased from loving Him. Then he had contrition and\nrepentance of heart; and the Beloved restored hope and charity to the\nLover\u2019s heart, and tears to his eyes, that love might return to him.\n\n49 Whether Lover and Beloved are near or far is all one; for their love\nmingles as water mingles with wine. They are linked as heat with light;\nthey approach and are united as Essence and Being.\n\n50 Said the Lover to the Beloved: \u2018My grief and its healing are both in\nThee: the more surely Thou healed me, the greater grows my grief; when\nThou dost wound me, even then dost Thou give me health.\u2019\n\n51 The Lover sighed and said: \u2018Ah! What is my love?\u2019 The Beloved\nanswered: \u2018Thy love is a mark and a seal by which thou dost show forth\nMy honour before men.\u2019\n\n52 The Lover saw himself taken and bound, wounded and killed, for the\nlove of his Beloved; and those who tortured him asked him: \u2018Where is\nthy Beloved?\u2019 He answered: \u2018See Him here in the increase of my love,\nand the Strength which it gives me to bear my torments.\u2019\n\n53 Said the Lover to the Beloved: \u2018I have never fled from Thee, nor\nceased to love Thee, since I knew Thee, for I was ever in Thee, by Thee\nand with Thee wheresoever I went.\u2019 The Beloved answered: \u2018Nor since\nthou hast known Me and loved Me have I once forgotten thee; never once\nhave I deceived or failed thee.\u2019\n\n54 As though mad went the Lover through a city, singing of his love;\nand they asked him if he had lost his senses. \u2018My Beloved,\u2019 he\nanswered, \u2018has taken my will, and I myself have yielded up to Him my\nunderstanding; so that there is left in me naught but memory, with\nwhich I remember my Beloved.\u2019\n\n55 The Beloved said: \u2018It would be a miracle that the Lover should sleep\nand forget the love of the Beloved.\u2019 The Lover replied: \u2018It would be\na greater miracle yet if the Beloved did not awaken him, since He has\ndesired his love.\u2019\n\n56 The heart of the Lover soared to the heights of the Beloved\u2019s\nabode, so that he might not lose his love for Him in the deep places of\nthis world. And when he reached his Beloved he contemplated Him with\njoy and delight. But the Beloved led him down again to this world to\nmake trial of him with tribulations and adversities.\n\n57 They asked the Lover: \u2018Wherein is all thy wealth?\u2019 He answered: \u2018In\nthe poverty which I bear for my Beloved.\u2019 \u2018And where dost thou rest?\u2019\n\u2018In the afflictions of love.\u2019 \u2018Who is thy physician?\u2019 \u2018The trust I\nhave in my Beloved.\u2019 \u2018And who is thy master?\u2019 \u2018The signs which in all\ncreatures I see of my Beloved.\u2019\n\n58 The bird sang upon a branch in leaf and flower, and the breeze\ncaused the leaves to tremble, and bore away the scent of the flowers.\n\u2018What means the trembling of the leaves, and the scent of the flowers?\u2019\nasked the bird of the Lover. He answered: \u2018The trembling of the leaves\nsignifies obedience, and the scent of the flowers, adversity.\u2019\n\n59 The Lover went in desire of his Beloved and met two friends, who\ngreeted each other lovingly, with kisses, embraces and tears. And the\nLover swooned, so strongly did these two lovers call to his memory his\nBeloved.\n\n60 The Lover thought on death, and was afraid, till he remembered his\nBeloved. Then in a loud voice he cried to those who were near: \u2018Ah,\nsirs! have love, that you may fear neither death nor danger, in doing\nhonour to my Beloved.\u2019\n\n61 They asked the Lover where his love first began. And he replied: \u2018It\nbegan in the glory of my Beloved; and from that beginning I was led to\nlove my neighbour even as myself, and to cease to care for deception\nand falsehood.\u2019\n\n62 \u2018Say, Fool of Love, if thy Beloved no longer cared for thee, what\nwouldst thou do?\u2019 \u2018I should love Him still,\u2019 he replied. \u2018Else must I\ndie; seeing that to cease to love is death and love is life.\u2019\n\n63 They asked the Lover what he meant by perseverance. \u2018It is both\nhappiness and sorrow,\u2019 he answered, \u2018in the Lover who ever loves,\nhonours and serves his Beloved with courage, patience and hope.\u2019\n\n64 The Lover desired his Beloved to recompense him for the time of his\nservice. And the Beloved reckoned the thoughts, tears, longings, perils\nand trials which His Lover had borne for love of Him; and the Beloved\nadded to the account eternal bliss, and gave Himself for a recompense\nto His Lover.\n\n65 They asked the Lover what he meant by happiness. \u2018It is sorrow,\u2019 he\nreplied, \u2018borne for Love\u2019s sake.\u2019 \u2018O Fool,\u2019 they answered, \u2018what, then,\nis sorrow?\u2019 \u2018It is the remembrance of dishonour done to my Beloved, who\nis worthy of all honour.\u2019 And they asked him again: \u2018What is misery?\u2019\n\u2018To get one\u2019s desires in this world,\u2019 he replied, \u2018for such fleeting\njoys are followed by perpetual torment.\u2019\n\n66 The Lover was gazing on a Place where he had seen his Beloved. And\nhe said: \u2018Ah, place that recalled the blessed haunts of my Beloved!\nThou wilt tell my Beloved that I suffer trials and griefs for His\nsake.\u2019 And that Place made reply: \u2018When thy Beloved hung upon me, He\nbore for thy love greater trials and sorrows than all other trials and\nsorrows that Love could give to its servants.\u2019\n\n67 Said the Lover to his Beloved: \u2018Thou art all, and through all, and\nin all, and with all. I would give Thee all of myself that I may have\nall of Thee, and Thou all of me.\u2019 The Beloved answered: \u2018Thou canst not\nhave Me wholly unless thou art wholly Mine.\u2019 And the Lover said: \u2018Let\nme be wholly Thine and be Thou wholly mine.\u2019 The Beloved answered: \u2018If\nI am wholly thine, what part in Me will thy son have, thy brother, thy\nsister and thy father?\u2019 The Lover replied: \u2018Thou, O my Beloved! art so\ngreat a Whole, that Thou canst abound, and yet be wholly of each one\nwho gives himself wholly to Thee.\u2019\n\n68 The Lover thought long and deeply on the greatness and\neverlastingness of his Beloved, and he found in Him neither beginning,\nnor mean, nor end. And the Beloved said: \u2018What art thou measuring,\nO Fool?\u2019 The Lover answered: \u2018I am measuring greater with lesser,\nfullness with want, infinity with quantity, and eternity with time. And\nthis I do that humility and patience, faith, love and hope may enter\nmore deeply into my mind.\u2019\n\n69 The paths of love are both long and short. For love is clear,\npure and bright, subtle yet simple, strong, diligent, brilliant, and\nabounding both in fresh thoughts and in old memories.\n\n70 They asked the Lover: \u2018What are the fruits of love?\u2019 And the Lover\nmade answer: \u2018They are pleasures, thoughts, desires, trials, perils,\ntorments, sighs and griefs. And without these fruits Love\u2019s servants\nhave no part in her.\u2019\n\n71 Many persons were with the Lover, who was complaining of his Beloved\nthat He increased not his love, and of Love, that it gave him so many\ntrials and sorrows. The Beloved made reply that the trials and sorrows\nfor which he reproached Love were that very increase of love.\n\n72 The Lover entered a delightful meadow, and saw in the meadow many\nchildren who were pursuing butterflies, and trampling down the flowers;\nand, the more the children laboured to catch the butterflies, the\nhigher did these fly. And the Lover, as he watched them, said: \u2018Such\nare they who with subtle reasoning attempt to comprehend the Beloved,\nWho opens the doors to the simple and closes them to the subtle. And\nFaith reveals the secrets of the Beloved through the casement of love.\u2019\n\n73 \u2018Say, Fool of Love, why dost thou not speak, and what is this for\nwhich thou art thoughtful and perplexed?\u2019 The Lover answered: \u2018I am\nthinking of the beauties of my Beloved, and the likeness between the\nbliss and the sorrow which are brought me by the gifts of Love.\u2019\n\n74 \u2018Say, Fool, which was in being first, thy heart or thy love?\u2019 He\nanswered and said: \u2018Both came into being together; for were it not so,\nthe heart had not been made for love, nor love for reflection.\u2019\n\n75 They asked the Fool: \u2018Where did thy love have its birth: in the\nsecrets of the Beloved, or in the revelation of them?\u2019 He replied:\n\u2018Love in its fullness makes no such distinction as this; for secretly\nthe Lover hides the secrets of his Beloved; secretly also he reveals\nthem, and yet when they are revealed he keeps them secret still.\u2019\n\n76 The secrets of love, unrevealed, cause anguish and grief; revelation\nof love brings fervour and fear. And for this cause the Lover must ever\nbe suffering.\n\n77 Love called his lovers, and bade them ask of him the most desirable\nand pleasing gifts. And they asked of Love that he would clothe and\nadorn them after his own manner, that they might be more acceptable to\nthe Beloved.\n\n78 The Lover cried aloud to all men, and said: \u2018Love bids you ever\nlove: in walking and sitting, in sleeping and waking, in buying and\nselling, in weeping and laughing, in speech and in silence, in gain\nand in loss--in short, in whatsoever you do, for this is Love\u2019s\ncommandment.\u2019\n\n79 \u2018Say, Fool, when did Love first come to thee?\u2019 \u2018In that time,\u2019 he\nreplied, \u2018when my heart was filled and enriched with thoughts and\ndesires, sighs and griefs, and my eyes with tears.\u2019 \u2018And what did Love\nbring thee?\u2019 \u2018The wondrous ways of my Beloved, His honours and His\nexceeding worth.\u2019 \u2018How did these things come?\u2019 \u2018Through my memory and\nunderstanding.\u2019 \u2018How didst thou receive them?\u2019 \u2018With love and hope.\u2019\n\u2018How dost thou keep them?\u2019 \u2018With justice and prudence, temperance and\ncourage.\u2019\n\n80 The Beloved sang, and said: \u2018Little the Lover knows of love, if he\nis ashamed to praise his Beloved, or if he fears to do Him honour in\nthat place where He is most dishonoured; and little has he learned to\nlove who is impatient of tribulations; and he who loses trust in his\nBeloved loses also his love and hope.\u2019\n\n81 The Lover wrote to his Beloved, and asked Him if there were others\nwho could help him to suffer and bear the grievous trials which he\nendured for love of Him. And the Beloved replied to the Lover: \u2018There\nis nought in Me that can forsake nor fail thee.\u2019\n\n82 They asked the Beloved concerning the love of His Lover. He\nanswered: \u2018It is a mingling of joy and sorrow, of fervency and fear.\u2019\nThey asked the Lover concerning the love of his Beloved. And he\nanswered: \u2018It is the inflowing of infinite goodness, eternal life,\npower, wisdom, charity and perfection. This is that which flows to the\nLover from the Beloved.\u2019\n\n83 \u2018Say, O Fool, what meanest thou by a marvel?\u2019 He replied: \u2018It is a\nmarvel to love things absent more than things present; and no less to\nlove things seen and things corruptible more than things unseen and\nincorruptible.\u2019\n\n84 The Lover went to seek his Beloved, and he found a man who was\ndying without love. And he said: \u2018How great a sadness is it that any\nman should die without love!\u2019 So the Lover said to him that was dying:\n\u2018Say, why dost thou die without love?\u2019 And he replied: \u2018Because I lived\nwithout love.\u2019\n\n85 The Lover asked his Beloved: \u2018Which is the greater--loving, or love\nitself?\u2019 The Beloved answered: \u2018In this mortal life, love is the tree,\nthe fruit of which is loving; the flowers and the leaves are trials and\ngriefs. And in God, love and loving are one and the same thing, without\neither griefs or trials.\u2019\n\n86 The Lover was sorrowful, and wearied with overmuch thought. And\ntherefore he begged his Beloved to send him a book, in which he might\nsee Him in His virtues, that his sorrow might thereby be relieved. So\nthe Beloved sent that book to the Lover, and his trials and griefs were\ndoubled.\n\n87 Sick with love was the Lover, and a physician came in to see him who\ndoubled his sorrows and his thoughts. And in that same hour the Lover\nwas healed.\n\n88 Love went apart with the Lover, and they had great joy of the\nBeloved as they communed of Him. The Lover wept, and afterwards was in\nrapture, and Love swooned thereat. But the Beloved brought life to His\nLover by revealing to him His Countenance.\n\n89 The Lover said to the Beloved: \u2018By many ways dost Thou come to my\nheart, and revealest Thyself to my sight. And by many names do I name\nThee. But the love by which Thou sustainest me and humblest me is one,\nand one alone.\u2019\n\n90 The Beloved revealed Himself to His Lover, clothed in new and\nscarlet robes. He stretched out His Arms to embrace him; He inclined\nHis Head to kiss him; and He remained on high that he might ever seek\nHim.\n\n91 The Beloved was absent from His Lover, and the Lover sought his\nBeloved with his memory and understanding, that he might worthily love\nHim. The Lover found his Beloved, and asked Him whither He had been.\n\u2018Far from thy memory,\u2019 answered the Beloved, \u2018and in a place which thy\nunderstanding knew not.\u2019\n\n92 \u2018Say, O Fool, hast thou shame when men see thee weep for thy\nBeloved?\u2019 \u2018Shame apart from sin,\u2019 answered the Lover, \u2018signifies want\nof love in one who knows not how to love.\u2019\n\n93 The Beloved planted in the heart of the Lover sighs and longings,\nvirtue and love. The Lover watered the seed with his tears. In the\nbody of the Lover the Beloved planted trials, tribulations and griefs.\nAnd the Lover tended his body with hope and devotion, consolation and\npatience.\n\n94 The Beloved made a great feast, gathered an assembly of many noble\nknights, sent many invitations and gave great gifts. To this assembly\ncame the Lover, and the Beloved said to him: \u2018Who called thee to come\nto this assembly?\u2019 The Lover answered: \u2018Need and love compelled me to\ncome, that I might behold Thy face, Thy wonders, Thy adornments and Thy\nglory.\u2019\n\n95 They asked the Lover: \u2018Whence art thou?\u2019 He answered: \u2018From love.\u2019\n\u2018To whom dost thou belong?\u2019 \u2018I belong to love.\u2019 \u2018Who gave thee birth?\u2019\n\u2018Love.\u2019 \u2018Where wast thou born?\u2019 \u2018In love.\u2019 \u2018Who brought thee up?\u2019\n\u2018Love.\u2019 \u2018How dost thou live?\u2019 \u2018By love.\u2019 \u2018What is thy name?\u2019 \u2018Love.\u2019\n\u2018Whence comest thou?\u2019 \u2018From love.\u2019 \u2018Whither goest thou?\u2019 \u2018To love.\u2019\n\u2018Where dwelled thou?\u2019 \u2018In love.\u2019 \u2018Hast thou aught but love?\u2019 \u2018Yea,\u2019\nhe answered, \u2018I have faults; and I have sins against my Beloved.\u2019 \u2018Is\nthere pardon in thy Beloved?\u2019 \u2018Yea,\u2019 answered the Lover, \u2018in my Beloved\nthere is justice and mercy, and therefore am I lodged between fear and\nhope; for mercy causes me to hope and justice to fear.\u2019\n\n96 The Beloved left the Lover, and the Lover sought Him in his\nthoughts, and inquired for Him of men in the language of love. The\nLover found his Beloved, who was despised among the people, and he told\nthe Beloved what great wrong was done to His Name. The Beloved answered\nhim, and said: \u2018Lo, I suffer these wrongs for want of fervent and\ndevoted lovers.\u2019 The Lover wept, and his sorrow was increased, but the\nBeloved comforted him, by revealing to him His Presence.\n\n97 The light of the Beloved\u2019s abode came to illumine the Lover\u2019s\ndwelling, which was full of darkness, and to fill it with joy, with\ngrief and with thoughts. And the Lover cast out all things from his\ndwelling, that the Beloved might be lodged there.\n\n98 They asked the Lover what sign the Beloved bore upon His banner.\nHe replied: \u2018The sign of One dead.\u2019 They asked him why He bore such a\nsign. He answered: \u2018Because He was once crucified, and was dead, and\nbecause those who glory in being His lovers must follow His steps.\u2019\n\n99 The Beloved came to lodge in the dwelling of His Lover, and the\nsteward demanded of Him the reckoning. But the Lover said: \u2018My Beloved\nis to be lodged freely,--yea, with a gift,--for long ago He paid the\nprice of all men.\u2019\n\n100 Memory and Will met together, and climbed into the mountain of the\nBeloved, that understanding might be exalted and love for the Beloved\nmight be increased.\n\n101 Every day sighs and tears are messengers between the Lover and the\nBeloved, that between them there may be solace and companionship, love\nand goodwill.\n\n102 The Lover desired his Beloved, and sent to Him his thoughts, that\nthey might bring him back from his Beloved the joys which for so long\nhad been his.\n\n103 The Beloved gave to His Lover the gift of tears, sighs, thoughts,\nweariness and grief, with which gift the Lover served his Beloved.\n\n104 The Lover begged his Beloved to give him riches, peace and honour\nin this world; and the Beloved revealed His Countenance to the memory\nand understanding of the Lover, and gave Himself as the Supreme Aim to\nhis will.\n\n105 They asked the Lover: \u2018In what consists honour?\u2019 He answered: \u2018In\ncomprehending and loving my Beloved.\u2019 And they asked him also: \u2018In\nwhat consists dishonour?\u2019 He answered: \u2018In forgetting and ceasing to\nlove Him.\u2019\n\n106 \u2018O my Beloved, I was tormented by love, until I cried that Thou\nwast present in my torments; and then did love ease my griefs, and\nThou as a guerdon didst increase my love, even as Thou didst double my\ntorment.\u2019\n\n107 In the path of love the Lover found another who was silent, and who\nwith tears, grief, and a sad countenance made accusation and reproach\nagainst Love. And Love made excuse, saying that he had given him noble\ngifts: loyalty, hope, patience, devotion, courage, temperance and\nhappiness; and he blamed the Lover who cried out upon Love, for that he\nhad given him such gifts as these.\n\n108 The Lover sang and said: \u2018Ah, what great affliction is love! Ah,\nwhat great happiness it is to love my Beloved, who loves His lovers\nwith infinite and eternal love, perfect and complete in everything!\u2019\n\n109 The Lover went into a far country seeking his Beloved, and in\nthe way he met two lions. The Lover was afraid, even to death, for\nhe desired to live and serve his Beloved. So he sent Memory to his\nBeloved, that Love might be present at his passing, for with Love\nhe could better endure death. And while the Lover thought upon his\nBeloved, the two lions came humbly to the Lover, licked the tears from\nhis eyes, and caressed his hands and feet. So the Lover went on his way\nin search of his Beloved.\n\n110 The Lover journeyed over hill and dale, but he could find no way of\nescape from the imprisonment in which Love had for so long enthralled\nhis body and his thoughts and all his desires and joys. While the Lover\nwent labouring thus, he found a hermit who was sleeping near to a fair\nspring. The Lover wakened the hermit, and asked him if in his dreams he\nhad seen the Beloved. The hermit replied that his own thoughts also,\nwhether he was sleeping or waking, were imprisoned by Love. And the\nLover joyed greatly at finding a fellow-prisoner; so they both wept,\nfor the Beloved has few such lovers as these.\n\n111 There is naught in the Beloved which is not care and sorrow for the\nLover, nor has the Lover aught in himself in which the Beloved joys not\nand has no part. And therefore is the love of the Beloved ever active,\nwhile that of the Lover is grief and suffering.\n\n112 A bird was singing upon a branch: \u2018I will give a fresh thought to\nthe lover who will give me two.\u2019 The bird gave that fresh thought to\nthe Lover, and the Lover gave two to the bird, that its grief might be\nassuaged; and the Lover felt his griefs increased.\n\n113 The Lover and the Beloved met together, and their caresses and\nembraces, their weeping and crying, bore witness to their meeting. Then\nthe Beloved asked the Lover concerning his state, and the Lover was\nspeechless before his Beloved.\n\n114 The Lover and the Beloved strove, and their love made peace between\nthem. Which of them, think you, bore the stronger love toward the other?\n\n115 The Lover loved all who feared his Beloved, and he feared all who\nfeared Him not. And there arose this doubt: Had the Lover more of love\nor of fear?\n\n116 The Lover thought to follow his Beloved, and he passed along a\nroad where there was a fierce lion which killed all who passed by it\ncarelessly and without devotion. Then the Lover said: \u2018He who fears not\nmy Beloved must fear everything, and he who fears Him may be bold and\nfervent in all things beside.\u2019\n\n117 They asked the Lover: \u2018What meanest thou by occasion of love?\u2019\nHe answered: \u2018It is to have pleasure in penance, understanding in\nknowledge, hope in patience, health in abstinence, consolation in\nremembrance, love in diligence, loyalty in destitution, riches in\npoverty, peace in obedience, strife in malevolence.\u2019\n\n118 Love shone through the cloud which came between the Lover and the\nBeloved, and made it as bright and resplendent as is the moon by night,\nas the day-star at dawn, the sun at midday, the understanding in the\nwill; and through that bright cloud the Lover and the Beloved held\nconverse.\n\n119 They asked the Lover: \u2018What is the greatest darkness?\u2019 He replied:\n\u2018The absence of my Beloved.\u2019 \u2018And what is the greatest light?\u2019 \u2018The\npresence of my Beloved.\u2019\n\n120 The marks of the Beloved are seen in the Lover, who for love\u2019s sake\nis in thought and grief, sighs and tears, and contempt of the people.\n\n121 The Lover wrote these words: \u2018My Beloved delighteth because I raise\nmy thoughts to Him, and my eyes are in grief and tears, and I neither\nlive nor feel, nor taste nor see nor hear.\u2019\n\n122 Ah, understanding and will, cry out and awaken the watchdogs who\nsleep, forgetting my Beloved. Weep, O eyes! Sigh, O heart! And,\nmemory, forget not the dishonour which is done to my Beloved by those\nwhom He has so greatly honoured.\n\n123 The enmity of men to my Beloved increases. Yet my Beloved promises\ngifts and rewards, and threatens with justice and wisdom. And memory\nand will despise both His threats and His promises.\n\n124 The Beloved drew near to the Lover, to comfort and console him for\nthe grief which he suffered and the tears which he shed. And the nearer\nwas the Lover to the Beloved, the more he grieved and wept, crying out\nupon the dishonour which his Beloved endured.\n\n125 With the pen of love, with the water of his tears, and on paper of\nsuffering, the Lover wrote letters to his Beloved. And in these he told\nhow devotion tarried, how love was dying, and how falsehood and error\nwere increasing the number of His enemies.\n\n126 The Lover and the Beloved were bound in love with the bonds of\nmemory, understanding, and will, that they might never be parted; and\nthe cord with which these two loves were bound was woven of thoughts\nand griefs, sighs and tears.\n\n127 The Lover lay in the bed of love: his sheets were of joy, his\ncoverlet was of griefs, his pillow of tears. And none knew if the\nfabric of the pillow was that of the sheets or of the coverlet.\n\n128 The Beloved clothed His Lover in vest, coat and mantle, and gave\nhim a helmet of love. His body He clothed with thoughts, his feet with\ntribulations, and his head with a garland of tears.\n\n129 The Beloved adjured His Lover not to forget Him. The Lover replied\nthat he could not forget Him because he could not do otherwise than\nknow Him.\n\n130 The Beloved said to His Lover: \u2018Thou shalt praise and defend Me\nin places where men fear to praise Me.\u2019 The Lover answered: \u2018Provide\nme then with love.\u2019 The Beloved answered: \u2018For love of thee I became\nincarnate, and endured the pains of death.\u2019\n\n131 The Lover said to his Wellbeloved: \u2018Teach me how to make Thee known\nand loved and praised among men.\u2019 The Beloved filled His Lover with\ndevotion, patience, charity, tribulations, thoughts, sighs and tears.\nAnd boldness to praise the Beloved entered the Lover\u2019s heart; and in\nhis mouth were praises of his Beloved; and in his will was contempt of\nthe murmurings of men who judge falsely.\n\n132 The Lover said to the people: \u2018He who truly remembers my Beloved,\nin remembering Him forgets all things around; and he who forgets all\nthings in remembering my Beloved, is defended by Him from all harm, and\nreceives a part in all His blessings.\u2019\n\n133 They asked the Lover: \u2018Whereof is Love born, whereon does it live,\nand wherefore does it die?\u2019 The Lover answered: \u2018Love is born of\nremembrance, it lives on understanding, it dies through forgetfulness.\u2019\n\n134 The Lover forgot all that was beneath the high heavens that his\nunderstanding might soar the higher towards a knowledge of the Beloved,\nwhom his will desired to comprehend, to contemplate, praise and preach.\n\n135 The Lover went to the wars for the honour of his Beloved, and took\nwith him faith, hope and charity, justice, prudence, strength and\ntemperance with which to vanquish his Beloved\u2019s enemies. And the Lover\nwould have been vanquished if the Beloved had not helped him to make\nknown His greatness.\n\n136 The Lover desired to attain to the farthest goal of his love for\nthe Beloved; and other objects blocked his path. For this cause his\nlonging desires and thoughts gave the Lover sorrow and grief.\n\n137 The Lover was glad, and rejoiced in the greatness of his Beloved.\nBut afterwards the Lover was sad because of overmuch thought and\nreflection. And he knew not which he felt the more deeply--the joys or\nthe sorrows.\n\n138 The Lover was sent by his Beloved to Christian princes and to\nunbelievers, to teach them by his _Art_[5] and his _Elements_[5] to\nknow and love his Beloved.\n\n139 If thou seest a lover clothed in fine raiment, prizing vainglory,\nsated with food and sleep, know that in that man thou seest damnation\nand torment. And if thou seest a lover poorly clothed, despised by the\nworld, pale and thin with fast and vigil, know that in that man thou\nlookest upon salvation and everlasting weal.\n\n140 The Lover made complaint to his Beloved of the heat of the fire\nwhich raged in his breast. The Lover was like to die, and the Beloved\nwept, and gave him the comfort of patience and the sure hope of reward.\n\n141 The Lover wept for all that he had lost; and none could comfort\nhim, for his losses could not be regained.\n\n142 God created the night that men might keep vigil, and meditate upon\nthe glories of the Beloved: there was a time when the Lover thought\nthat it was created for the rest and sleep of those who were wearied\nwith loving.\n\n143 Men reproached and reproved the Lover, because he went about as\na fool for love\u2019s sake. And the Lover despised their reproaches, and\nhimself reproved them, because they loved not his Beloved.\n\n144 The Lover said: \u2018I am clothed in vile raiment; but love clothes\nmy heart with thoughts of delight, and my body with tears, griefs and\nsufferings.\u2019\n\n145 The Beloved sang, and said: \u2018I taught those who praise Me to sing\nMy praises aright, and the enemies of My honour have tormented and\ndespised them. Therefore have I sent my Lover that he may weep and\nlament the dishonour which I have suffered, and his laments and tears\nare the fruit of My love.\u2019\n\n146 The Lover made oath to the Beloved that for love of Him he endured\nand loved trials and sufferings, and he begged the Beloved that He\nwould think upon his trials and sufferings. The Beloved made oath that\nit was the nature and property of His love to love all those that loved\nHim, and to have pity on those who endured trials for love of Him. The\nLover was glad, and rejoiced in the nature and property of his Beloved.\n\n147 The Beloved silenced His Lover, and the Lover took comfort in\ngazing upon his Beloved.\n\n148 The Lover wept and called upon his Beloved, until the Beloved came\ndown from the heights of Heaven; and He came to earth to weep and\nsuffer and die for the sake of love, and to teach men to know and love\nand praise His Name.\n\n149 The Lover reproached Christian people, because in their letters\nthey put not first the name of his Beloved, Jesus Christ, to do Him the\nsame honour that the Saracens do to the false prophet Mahomet, when\nthey honour him by naming him before everything in their letters.\n\n150 The Lover met a Squire, pale, thin, and poorly clothed, who was\nwalking along in pensive fashion; and he saluted the Lover and said:\n\u2018Now God guide thee, that thou mayest find thy Beloved!\u2019 And the Lover\nasked him how he had recognised him; and the Squire said: \u2018Some of\nLove\u2019s secrets reveal others, and therefore between lovers there is\nrecognition.\u2019\n\n151 The glory, honour and goodness of the Beloved are the riches and\ntreasure of the Lover. And the Beloved\u2019s treasure is the store of\nthoughts, desires, torments, tears and griefs with which the Lover ever\nloves and honours his Beloved.\n\n152 A great and goodly company of tried lovers have gathered together;\nthey bear the banner of love, on which is the form and figure of their\nBeloved. And they will have with them none who has not love, lest their\nBeloved should be dishonoured.\n\n153 They who show their folly by heaping up riches move the Lover to\nbe a fool for love; and the shame which the Lover feels at going as a\nfool among men makes him to be esteemed and loved. Which of the two\nemotions, think you, is the greater occasion of love?\n\n154 Love made the Lover to be sad through excess of thought; the\nBeloved sang, and the Lover rejoiced to hear Him. Which of these two\ncauses, think you, increased more the Lover\u2019s love?\n\n155 In the secrets of the Lover are revealed the secrets of the\nBeloved, and in the secrets of the Beloved are revealed the secrets of\nthe Lover. Which of these two secrets, think you, is the greater cause\nof revelation?\n\n156 They asked the Fool by what signs his Beloved might be known. He\nanswered: \u2018By mercy and pity, which are essentially in His Will,\nwithout mutation or change.\u2019\n\n157 Such was the love which the Lover had to his Beloved, that he\ndesired the good of all above the good of each, and for his Beloved to\nbe everywhere known and praised, and desired of all the world.\n\n158 Love and Indifference met in a garden, where the Lover and the\nBeloved were talking in secret. And Love asked Indifference why he had\ncome to that place. \u2018That the Lover may cease to love,\u2019 he replied,\n\u2018and the Beloved to be honoured.\u2019 The words of Indifference were\ngreatly displeasing to the Beloved and the Lover, and their love was\nincreased, that Indifference might be vanquished and destroyed thereby.\n\n159 \u2018Say, O Fool, in which dost thou take the greater pleasure--in\nloving or in hating?\u2019 \u2018In loving,\u2019 he replied, \u2018for I have only hated\nthat I may the better love.\u2019\n\n160 \u2018Say, O Lover, which dost thou strive to understand the\nbetter--falsehood or truth?\u2019 He answered: \u2018Truth.\u2019 \u2018And why so?\u2019\n\u2018Because I understand falsehood that I may the better understand\ntruth.\u2019\n\n161 The Lover perceived that he was loved by his Beloved, and he\ninquired of Him if His love and His mercy were one and the same thing.\nThe Beloved affirmed that in His essence there was no distinction\nbetween His love and His mercy. Therefore said the Lover: \u2018Why, then,\ndoes Thy love torment me, and why does not Thy mercy heal me of my\ngriefs?\u2019\n\n162 The Lover desired to go into a far country to do honour to his\nBeloved, and he wished to disguise himself that he might not be taken\ncaptive on the way; but he could not hide the tears in his eyes, nor\nhis pale and drawn face, nor the thoughts, complaints and sighs, the\nsorrow and grief of his heart. And so he was taken captive on the\njourney and delivered to the tormentors by the enemies of his Beloved.\n\n163 Imprisoned was the Lover in the prison of Love. Thoughts, desires\nand memories held and enchained him lest he might flee from his\nBeloved. Griefs tormented him; patience and hope consoled him. And the\nLover was dying, but the Beloved revealed to him His Presence, and the\nLover revived.\n\n164 The Lover met his Beloved, and he knew Him and wept. The Beloved\nreproved him, because he wept not until he knew Him. \u2018How didst thou\nknow Me,\u2019 He asked, \u2018since thine eyes were not already wet with\ntears?\u2019 And the Lover answered: \u2018By memory, understanding and will,\nthrough which, as soon as the eyes of my body saw Thee, my love was\nincreased.\u2019\n\n165 \u2018What meanest thou by love?\u2019 said the Beloved. And the Lover\nanswered: \u2018It is to bear on one\u2019s heart the sacred marks and the sweet\nwords of the Beloved. It is to long for Him with desire and with tears.\nIt is boldness. It is fervour. It is fear. It is the desire for the\nBeloved above all things. It is that which causes the Lover to grow\nfaint when he hears the Beloved\u2019s praises. It is that in which I die\ndaily, and in which is all my will.\u2019\n\n166 Devotion and Absent Longing sent thoughts as messengers to the\nLover\u2019s heart, to bring tears to his eyes, which for long had wept but\nnow would weep no more.\n\n167 Said the Lover: \u2018O ye that love, if ye will have fire, come light\nyour lanterns at my heart; if water, come to my eyes, whence flow\nthe tears in streams; if thoughts of love, come gather them from my\nmeditations.\u2019\n\n168 It happened one day that the Lover was meditating on the great\nlove which he had for his Beloved, and the great trials and perils\ninto which this love for so long had led him, and he fell to\nconsidering his reward, which, he said, would surely be great. And as\nhe thus discoursed with himself, it came to him that his Beloved had\nrecompensed him already, for had he not been inspired with a love for\nHis Presence,--with that very love through which his sufferings had\ncome?\n\n169 The Lover was wiping away the tears which for Love\u2019s sake he had\nshed, that none should see the sufferings which the Beloved sent him.\nBut the Beloved said: \u2018Why wouldst thou hide from others these marks of\nthy love? Behold, I have given them to thee that others may love and\nhonour Me also.\u2019\n\n170 \u2018Say, O thou that goest as a fool for love\u2019s sake, how long wilt\nthou be a slave, and forced to weep and suffer trials and griefs?\u2019 He\nanswered: \u2018Till my Beloved shall separate body and soul in me.\u2019\n\n171 \u2018Say, O Fool, hast thou riches?\u2019 He answered: \u2018I have my Beloved.\u2019\n\u2018Hast thou villas, castles or cities, provinces or kingdoms?\u2019 He\nanswered: \u2018I have thoughts of love, tears, desires, trials, griefs,\nwhich are better than kingdoms or empires.\u2019\n\n172 They asked the Lover: \u2018How knowest thou the justice of thy\nBeloved\u2019s decrees?\u2019 He answered: \u2018In that He allots to his lovers an\nequality of joys and of griefs.\u2019\n\n173 \u2018Say, O Fool, which of these knows the more of love--he that has\njoys or he that has trials and griefs?\u2019 He answered: \u2018There can be no\nknowledge of love without both the one and the other.\u2019\n\n174 They asked the Lover: \u2018Why wilt thou not defend thyself from the\nfalsehoods, errors and crimes of which thou art accused?\u2019 He answered\nand said: \u2018I have to defend my Beloved, whom men falsely accuse; man\nmay indeed be full of deceit and error, and is scarce worthy to be\ndefended.\u2019\n\n175 \u2018Say, O Fool, why defended thou Love when it thus tries and\ntorments thy body and thy soul?\u2019 He answered: \u2018Because it increases my\nworth and my happiness.\u2019\n\n176 The Lover grieved and cried out on his Beloved, because He caused\nLove to torment him so grievously. And the Beloved made reply by\nincreasing his trials and perils, thoughts and tears.\n\n177 \u2018Say, O Fool, why dost thou excuse the guilty?\u2019 He answered: \u2018That\nI may not be like those who accuse the innocent with the guilty.\u2019\n\n178 The Beloved raised the understanding of the Lover that he might\ncomprehend His greatness, and incline his memory to recall his own\nshortcomings, so that his will might hate them, and aspire to a love of\nthe Beloved and His perfection.\n\n179 The Lover sang of his Beloved and said: \u2018So great is my will to\nlove Thee, that all I hated once is now, through love of Thee, a\ngreater happiness and joy to me than what I once loved before ever I\nloved Thee.\u2019\n\n180 The Lover went through a city, and asked if there were none with\nwhom he might speak of his Beloved as he wished. And they showed him a\npoor man who was weeping for love, and who sought a companion with whom\nto speak of love.\n\n181 Thoughtful and perplexed was the Lover, as he wondered how his\ntrials could have their source in the glory of his Beloved, who has\nsuch great felicity in Himself. And then he thought of the sun, which,\nthough it is so high, strikes the weak eyes of us men that are here\nbelow.\n\n182 The thoughts of the Lover were between forgetfulness of his\ntorments and remembrance of his joys; for the joys of love drive the\nmemory of sorrow away, and the tortures of love recall the happiness\nwhich it brings.\n\n183 They asked the Lover: \u2018Will thy Beloved ever take away thy love?\u2019\nAnd he answered: \u2018No, not while memory has power to remember, nor\nunderstanding to comprehend the Beloved\u2019s glory.\u2019\n\n184 \u2018Say, O Fool, what is the greatest comparison and similitude of all\nthat can be made?\u2019 He answered: \u2018That between Lover and Beloved.\u2019 They\nasked him: \u2018For what reason?\u2019 He replied: \u2018For the greatness of their\nlove.\u2019\n\n185 They asked the Beloved: \u2018Hast Thou never had pity?\u2019 He answered:\n\u2018If I had not had pity, my Lover had never learned to love Me, nor had\nI tormented him with sighs and tears, with trials and with griefs.\u2019\n\n186 The Lover was in a vast forest, seeking his Beloved. He found there\nTruth and Falsehood, who were disputing of his Beloved, for Truth\npraised Him and Falsehood accused Him. And the Lover cried out to Love\nthat he would come to the aid of Truth.\n\n187 There came the temptation to the Lover to leave his Beloved, that\nmemory might awaken and find the Beloved\u2019s Presence once more; that\nhis love should thereby become deeper, that the understanding should\ncomprehend Him more sublimely, and the will love Him more truly.\n\n188 For one day the Lover ceased to remember his Beloved, and on the\nnext day he remembered that he had forgotten Him. On the day when it\ncame to the Lover that he had forgotten his Beloved, he was in sorrow\nand pain, and yet in glory and bliss,--the one for having forgotten\nHim, and the other for the joy of the remembrance.\n\n189 So earnestly did the Lover desire that his Beloved should be\nhonoured and praised, that he doubted if he honoured Him enough; and\nso strongly did he abhor the dishonour paid to his Beloved, that he\ndoubted if he abhorred it enough. And for this cause the Lover was\nthoughtful, and wavered between love and fear.\n\n190 The Lover was like to die of joy, and he lived by grief. And his\njoys and torments were mingled and united, and became one and the same\nthing in the Lover\u2019s will. And for this cause the Lover seemed to be\nliving and dying at one and the same time.\n\n191 For one hour only the Lover would fain have forgotten his Beloved,\nand known Him not, that his grief might have some rest. But such\noblivion and ignorance had themselves made him to suffer; therefore\nhe had patience, and lifted up his understanding and his memory, in\ncontemplation of his Beloved.\n\n192 So great was the love of the Lover to his Beloved that he believed\nall things that He revealed to him. And so earnestly did he desire to\ncomprehend Him that he strove with his reason to understand all things\nthat were said of Him. And therefore was the love of the Lover for ever\nbetween belief and understanding.\n\n193 They asked the Lover: \u2018What thing is farthest from thy heart?\u2019 He\nanswered: \u2018Indifference.\u2019 \u2018And why so?\u2019 \u2018Because nearest to my heart is\nlove, which is the contrary of indifference.\u2019\n\n194 \u2018Say, O Fool, hast thou envy?\u2019 He answered: \u2018Yea, whensoever I\nforget the bounty and riches of my Beloved.\u2019\n\n195 \u2018Say, O Lover, hast thou riches?\u2019 \u2018Yea,\u2019 he replied, \u2018I have love.\u2019\n\u2018Hast thou poverty?\u2019 \u2018Yea, I have love.\u2019 \u2018How then is this?\u2019 \u2018I am\npoor,\u2019 he replied, \u2018because my love is no greater, and because it fills\nso few others with love for the honour of my Beloved.\u2019\n\n196 \u2018Say, O Lover, where is thy power?\u2019 He answered: \u2018In the power\nof my Beloved.\u2019 \u2018Wherewith dost thou fight thine enemies?\u2019 \u2018With the\nstrength of my Beloved.\u2019 \u2018Wherein dost thou seek consolation?\u2019 \u2018In the\neternal treasures of my Beloved.\u2019\n\n197 \u2018Say, O Fool, which lovest thou the more--the mercy or the justice\nof thy Beloved?\u2019 He answered: \u2018So greatly do I love and fear His\njustice that I find it not in my will to love anything more.\u2019\n\n198 Sins and merits were striving among themselves in the Lover\u2019s\nconscience. Justice and remembrance increased his remorse, but mercy\nand hope increased in his will the assurance of pardon; and therefore\nin the Lover\u2019s penitence the merits conquered the sins.\n\n199 The Lover affirmed that all was perfection in his Beloved, and\ndenied that in Him was any fault at all. Which of these two, think you,\nis the greater wonder?\n\n200 There was an eclipse in the heavens and darkness over all the\nearth. And it recalled to the Lover that his guilt had separated him\nlong ago from his Wellbeloved and the darkness had banished the light\nfrom his understanding. This is that light by which the Beloved reveals\nHimself to His lovers.\n\n201 Love came to the Lover, who asked him: \u2018What wilt thou?\u2019 And Love\nreplied: \u2018I have come to thee that I may nurture and direct thy life,\nso that at thy death thou shalt be able through my aid to vanquish thy\nmortal enemies.\u2019\n\n202 When the Lover forgot his Beloved, Love fell sick; and when he gave\nhimself to overmuch thinking, he himself fell sick, and his Beloved\ngave him trials, griefs and cares.\n\n203 The Lover found a man who was dying without love. And the Lover\nwept that a man should die without love, for the dishonour which it\nbrought to his Beloved. So he asked that man: \u2018Why dost thou die\nwithout love?\u2019 And he answered: \u2018There is none who will give me\nknowledge of love, or teach me to be a lover.\u2019 So the Lover sighed and\nwept, and said: \u2018Ah, devotion, when wilt thou be great enough to drive\naway sin, and to win for my Beloved many fervent and ardent lovers who\nwill never shrink from praising His Name?\u2019\n\n204 The Lover tempted Love to see if he would remain in his heart\nthough he remembered not his Beloved; and his heart ceased to think and\nhis eyes to weep. So his love vanished, and the Lover was perplexed.\nAnd he asked all men if they had seen Love.\n\n205 Love and loving, Lover and Beloved are so straitly united in the\nBeloved that they are of His Essence, and are one. And this though\nLover and Beloved are entities distinct, which agree without diversity\nof essence. So the Beloved is to be loved above all other objects of\naffection.\n\n206 \u2018Say, O Fool, wherefore hast thou so great love?\u2019 He answered:\n\u2018Because long and perilous is the journey which I make in search of my\nBeloved, and I must seek Him with great faith, and journey with all\nspeed. And none of these things can be accomplished without great love.\u2019\n\n207 The Lover watched and fasted, wept, gave alms, and travelled afar\nthat the Will of the Beloved might be moved to inspire His subjects\nwith love to honour His Name; but the Lover considered that water does\nnot by nature grow hot, nor mount on high, unless it be first heated.\nTherefore he prayed the Beloved that He would deign first to warm him\nin his journeys, alms and vigils with the heat of love, that he might\naccomplish his desires.\n\n208 The Lover met a pilgrim who sang: \u2018If the love of the Lover\nsuffices not to move his Beloved to pity and pardon, the love of the\nBeloved is sufficient to give graces and blessings to His creatures.\u2019\n\n209 \u2018Say, O Fool, how canst thou be most like to thy Beloved?\u2019 He\nreplied: \u2018By comprehending and loving with all my power the beauties\nand the perfections of my Beloved.\u2019\n\n210 They asked the Lover if his Beloved had need of aught. \u2018Yea,\u2019\nhe answered, \u2018of those who will love and praise Him, and extol His\nsurpassing worth.\u2019\n\n211 The Beloved chastened His Lover\u2019s heart with rods of love, to make\nhim love the tree whence He plucks the rods wherewith He chastens His\nlovers. And this is that tree on which He suffered grief, dishonour and\ndeath, that He might bring back to love of Him those lovers whom He had\nlost.\n\n212 The Lover met his Beloved, who appeared in power and glory, as One\nworthy of all honour. And he cried: \u2018How strange a thing it is that so\nfew among men revere and know and love Thee as Thou deservest!\u2019 And\nthe Beloved answered him and said: \u2018Greatly has man grieved Me; for\nI created him to revere Me, know Me and love Me, and now, of every\nthousand, but a hundred fear and love Me; and ninety of these hundred\nfear Me by reason of the pains of hell, and ten love Me for the sake of\nthe glory hereafter; hardly is there one who loves Me for My goodness\nand nobility.\u2019 When the Lover heard these words, he wept bitterly for\nthe dishonour paid to his Beloved; and he said: \u2018Ah, my Beloved, how\nmuch hast Thou given to man and how greatly hast Thou honoured him! Why\nthen has man thus forgotten Thee?\u2019\n\n213 The Lover was praising his Beloved, and he said that He was\ntranscendent because He is in a place where place is not. And\ntherefore, when they asked the Lover where his Beloved was, he\nreplied: \u2018He is, but I know not where; I only know that my Beloved is\nin my remembrance.\u2019\n\n214 The Beloved bought a slave that He might show him His graces, and\nmade him to suffer griefs and heavy thoughts, sighs and tears. And He\nasked him: \u2018What wilt thou eat and drink?\u2019 The slave replied: \u2018What\nThou wilt.\u2019 \u2018But what wilt thou?\u2019 \u2018My will is as Thine.\u2019 \u2018Hast thou\nthen no will?\u2019 asked the Beloved. He answered: \u2018A subject and a slave\nhas no other will than to obey his Lord and his Beloved.\u2019\n\n215 The Beloved inquired of His Lover if he had patience. He answered:\n\u2018All things please me, and therefore I cannot but be patient, for he\nwho is no more lord of his will can not be impatient.\u2019\n\n216 Love gave himself to any who would receive him; and since he gave\nhimself to few and inspired few with love, as he was free and had not\nbeen constrained, therefore the Lover cried out on Love, and accused\nhim before the Beloved. But Love made his defence and said: \u2018I strive\nnot against free will, for I desire all lovers to have the greatest\nmerit and glory.\u2019\n\n217 There was great strife and contention between Love and the Lover,\nbecause the Lover was incensed at the trials which Love made him to\nbear. And they debated whether Love or the Lover was to blame. So both\nof them came to the judgment-seat of the Beloved; and He chastened the\nLover with griefs and rewarded him with increase of love.\n\n218 There was a contention whether Love has more of thought than of\npatience. And the Lover resolved the contention, saying that Love is\nborn of thought and nourished with patience.\n\n219 The Lover has for neighbours the perfections of the Beloved; and\nthe Beloved\u2019s neighbours are the thoughts of the Lover, and the trials\nand tears which Love gives him to bear.\n\n220 The Lover\u2019s will loved to soar on high, that he might have great\nlove toward his Beloved; so he commanded the understanding to soar as\nhigh as it might; and the understanding commanded the memory, so that\nall three mounted to the contemplation of the Beloved\u2019s glories.\n\n221 The will of the Lover left him and flew to the Beloved. And the\nBeloved gave it into the captivity of the Lover, that he might use it\nto love and serve Him.\n\n222 The Lover said: \u2018O let not my Beloved think that I have left Him\nto love another, for my love has united me to One, and to One alone.\u2019\nThe Beloved answered and said: \u2018Let not My Lover think that I am loved\nand served by him alone; for I have many lovers who have loved Me more\nfervently and for longer than he.\u2019\n\n223 Said the Lover to his Beloved: \u2018O my Beloved, that art worthy\nof all love, Thou hast taught and accustomed my eyes to see and my\nears to hear Thy wonders. And these have inspired thoughts which have\nbrought tears to my eyes and griefs to my heart.\u2019 The Beloved answered\nthe Lover: \u2018Had I not taught and guided thee so, thy name had not\nbeen written in the book of those who shall come to eternal bliss,\nfrom which are wiped out the names of such as shall go to eternal\npunishment.\u2019\n\n224 In the heart of the Lover gathered the glories and beauties of the\nBeloved, increasing his thoughts and griefs, so that he had altogether\ndied if the Beloved had increased in him any further the thoughts of\nHis greatness.\n\n225 The Beloved came to sojourn in the hostelry of the Lover; and His\nLover made Him a bed of thoughts, and there served Him sighs and tears;\nand the Beloved paid His reckoning with memories.\n\n226 Love put joys and trials together into the Lover\u2019s thoughts, and\nthe joys made complaint of that company and accused Love before the\nBeloved. But when He had parted them from the sorrows which Love gives\nto his lovers, behold, they vanished and were gone.\n\n227 The marks of the love which the Lover has to his Beloved are, in\nthe beginning, tears; then, tribulations; and, in the end, death. And\nwith those marks did the Lover preach before the lovers of his Beloved.\n\n228 The Lover went into solitude; and his heart was accompanied by\nthoughts, his eyes by tears, and his body by fasts and afflictions. But\nwhen the Lover returned to the companionship of men, these things went\nno longer with him, and the Lover remained quite alone in the company\nof many people.\n\n229 Love is an ocean, its waves troubled by the winds; it has no port\nor shore. The Lover perished in this ocean, and with him perished his\ntrials, and the work of his fulfilment began.\n\n230 \u2018Say, O Fool, what is love?\u2019 He answered: \u2018Love is a working\ntogether of thought and action towards one end, to which in like manner\nthe Lover\u2019s will also moves; and this is the end, that men may serve\nand honour his Beloved.\u2019 Think you now that the Lover\u2019s will is in\ntruer harmony with this end when he longs to be with his Beloved, or\nwhen he longs to convert to Him many lovers?\n\n231 They asked the Lover: \u2018Who is thy Beloved?\u2019 He answered: \u2018He who\nmakes me to love, desire, pine, weep, sigh and suffer, and die.\u2019\n\n232 They asked the Beloved: \u2018Who is Thy Lover?\u2019 He answered: \u2018He\nwho fears naught so that he may honour and praise My Name, and who\nrenounces all things to obey My commandments and counsels.\u2019\n\n233 \u2018Say, O Fool, which is the heavier and more grievous burden--the\ntrials of love, or the trials of those that love not?\u2019 And he answered:\n\u2018Go, ask it of those who do penance for the love of their Beloved, and\nof those who do penance from fear of the pains of hell.\u2019\n\n234 The Lover slept, and Love died, for he had naught whereby to live.\nThe Lover wakened, and Love revived in the thoughts which the Lover\nsent to his Beloved.\n\n235 The Lover said: \u2018The infused science comes from the will, from\nprayer and devotion; and acquired science comes from study and\nunderstanding.\u2019 Which of the two, then, think you, is more proper and\nmore pleasing to the Lover, and which possesses he the more perfectly?\n\n236 \u2018Say, O Fool, whence hast thou thy needs?\u2019 He answered: \u2018From\nthoughts, from longing, from adoration, from trials and from\nperseverance.\u2019 \u2018And whence hast thou all these things?\u2019 He answered:\n\u2018From love.\u2019 \u2018And whence hast thou thy Beloved?\u2019 \u2018From Himself alone.\u2019\n\n237 \u2018Say, O Fool, wilt thou be free of all things?\u2019 He answered: \u2018Yea,\nsave only of my Beloved.\u2019 \u2018Wilt thou be a prisoner?\u2019 \u2018Yea, of sighs and\ntears, thoughts and trials, dangers and exiles, that I may serve my\nBeloved, for to praise His exceeding worthiness was I created.\u2019\n\n238 Love tormented the Lover, for which cause he lamented and wept. His\nBeloved called him to come to Him, and be healed; and the nearer came\nthe Lover to his Beloved, the more grievously did love afflict him; and\nthe more he felt of love and grief, the more he loved, and the more\nperfectly did the Beloved heal him of his sickness.\n\n239 Love fell sick, and the Lover tended him with patience,\nperseverance, obedience and hope. Love grew well, and the Lover fell\nsick; and he was cured by his Beloved, who made him to remember His\nvirtue and honour.\n\n240 \u2018Say, O Fool, what is solitude?\u2019 He answered: \u2018It is solace and\ncompanionship between Lover and Beloved.\u2019 \u2018And what are solace and\ncompanionship?\u2019 \u2018Solitude in the Lover\u2019s heart, when he remembers\nnaught save his Beloved.\u2019\n\n241 They asked the Lover: \u2018In which is there greater danger, in bearing\ntrials for love\u2019s sake or in enjoying pleasures?\u2019 The Lover took\ncounsel with his Beloved, and replied: \u2018The perils which come through\npleasures are the perils of ignorance; and those which come through\nafflictions are the perils of impatience.\u2019\n\n242 The Beloved gave Love his freedom, and allowed men to take him to\nthemselves as much as they would; but scarce one was found who would\ntake him to his heart. And for this cause the Lover wept, and was sad\nat the dishonour which is paid to Love by the ungrateful among men and\nby false lovers.\n\n243 Love destroyed all that was in the heart of his faithful Lover that\nhe might live and have free course in it; and the Lover would have died\nhad memory not revealed to him his Beloved.\n\n244 On two things the Lover was wont to meditate: the one was the\nEssence and the goodness of his Beloved, and the other was his\nBeloved\u2019s works. He knew not which of these was the more excellent and\nthe more pleasing to the Beloved.\n\n245 \u2018Say, O Fool, wouldst thou fain die?\u2019 He answered: \u2018Yea, to the\npleasures of this world and the thoughts of the unhappy sinners who\ndishonour and forget my Beloved; in whose thoughts I would have no part\nnor lot, since my Beloved has no part in them.\u2019\n\n246 \u2018If thou speakest truth, O Fool, thou wilt be beaten by men,\ntormented, mocked, reproved and killed.\u2019 He answered: \u2018From those\nwords it follows that if I spoke falsehoods I should be praised by\nmen, served, loved and honoured, and defended by those who despise my\nBeloved.\u2019\n\n247 False flatterers were speaking ill of the Lover one day in the\npresence of his Beloved. The Lover was patient, and the Beloved shewed\nHis justice, wisdom and power. And the Lover preferred to be blamed and\nreproved in this wise, than to be one of those that falsely accused him.\n\n248 The Beloved planted many seeds in the heart of His Lover, but one\nof them only took life and put forth leaf and gave flower and fruit.\nThink you that from this single fruit may come many seeds?\n\n249 Far above Love is the Beloved; far beneath it is the Lover; and\nLove, which lies between these two, made the Beloved to descend to the\nLover, and the Lover to rise toward the Beloved. And this ascending and\ndescending is the being and the life of Love--of that Love which makes\nthe Lover to endure pain and which ever serves the Beloved.\n\n250 On the right side of Love stands the Beloved, and on the left side\nis the Lover; and thus he cannot reach the Beloved unless he pass\nthrough Love. And before Love stands the Beloved, and beyond is the\nLover; so that the Lover cannot reach Love unless his thoughts and\ndesires have first passed through the Beloved.\n\n251 The Beloved clothed Himself in the garment of His Lover, that he\nmight be His companion in glory for ever. So the Lover desired to\nwear crimson garments daily, that his dress might be like that of his\nBeloved.\n\n252 \u2018Say, O Fool, what did thy Beloved before the world was?\u2019 He\nanswered: \u2018My Beloved loved, because of His manifold properties,\neternal, personal, and infinite, in which are Lover, Love and Beloved.\u2019\n\n253 The Lover wept and was sad, when he saw how the unbelievers were\nlosing his Beloved through ignorance; but he rejoiced in the justice\nof his Beloved, who punishes those that know Him and are disobedient.\nWhich, think you, was greater, his sorrow or his joy? And was his joy\ngreater when he saw his Beloved honoured than his sorrow at seeing Him\ndespised?\n\n254 The Lover contemplated his Beloved in all the variety and harmony\nof His virtues; and again in the contrariety between virtue and vice;\nand again in His Being and perfection, which have greater harmony\nbetween themselves than non-existence and imperfection.\n\n255 The variety and harmony which the Lover found in the Beloved\nrevealed to him His secrets, to wit, His plurality and unity, to the\ngreater concordance of essence without contrariety.\n\n256 They said to the Lover: \u2018Corruption is contrary to being, as\ngeneration, which is opposed to it, is the contrary of non-existence.\nIf it were eternally corrupting and corrupted, it would be impossible\nthat non-existence or end should harmonise with corruption.\u2019 By these\nwords the Lover saw in his Beloved the principle of eternal generation.\n\n257 If that which increases the love of the Lover for his Beloved were\nfalseness, that which diminished it would be truth. And if this were\nso, it would follow that there would be a want of the great and the\ntrue in the Beloved, and that there would be harmony in Him between the\nfalse and the mean.\n\n258 The Lover praised his Beloved, and said that if in Him were the\ngreatest degree of perfection and the greatest possible freedom from\nimperfection, his Beloved must be simple, pure and present in essence\nand operation. And while the Lover praised his Beloved thus, there was\nrevealed to him the Trinity of his Beloved.\n\n259 In the numbers 1 and 3 the Lover found greater harmony than between\nany others, because by these numbers every bodily form passed to\nexistence from non-existence. And the greatest harmony of number, the\nLover thought, was in the Unity and the Trinity of his Beloved.\n\n260 The Lover extolled the power, the wisdom and the will of his\nBeloved, who had created all things, save only sin; so that, but for\nHis power and wisdom and will, had nothing existed. And neither the\npower, the wisdom nor the will of the Beloved are an occasion of sin.\n\n261 The Lover praised and loved his Beloved, for He had created him\nand given him all things; and he praised and loved Him too because it\npleased Him to take his form and nature. And it may be asked, Which\nhad more of perfection, his praise or his love?\n\n262 Love tempted the wisdom of the Lover, and asked him whether the\nBeloved showed the greater love in taking his nature, or in redeeming\nhim. And the Lover was perplexed, and replied at last that redemption\nwas destined to put away unhappiness, and the Incarnation to bring\nabout bliss. And this reply provoked the question again: \u2018Which was the\ngreater love?\u2019\n\n263 The Lover went from door to door asking alms to keep in mind the\nlove of his Beloved for His servants, and to practise the virtues of\npoverty, humility and patience, which are well-pleasing to the Beloved.\n\n264 They asked pardon of the Lover, for the love of his Beloved; and\nthe Lover not only pardoned them but gave them himself and his goods.\n\n265 With tears in his eyes the Lover described the Passion and the\npains which his Beloved bore for love of him; and with sad and heavy\nthoughts he wrote down the words which He uttered; and by mercy and\nhope he was comforted.\n\n266 The Beloved taught His Lover how to love; and Love intruded him in\nspeech; and Patience, to bear afflictions for the love of Him to whom\nhe had given himself to be a servant.\n\n267 The Beloved asked men if they had seen His Lover, and they asked\nHim: \u2018What are the qualities of Thy Lover?\u2019 And the Beloved said:\n\u2018My Lover is ardent yet fearful; rich and yet poor; joyful, sad and\npensive; and every day he grieves because of his love.\u2019\n\n268 They asked the Lover: \u2018Wilt thou sell thy desire?\u2019 He answered: \u2018I\nhave sold it already to my Beloved, for such a price as would buy the\nwhole world.\u2019\n\n269 \u2018Preach, O Fool, speak concerning thy Beloved; weep and fast.\u2019 So\nthe Lover renounced the world, and went forth lovingly to seek his\nBeloved, and to praise Him in those places wherein He was dishonoured.\n\n270 The Lover builded a fair city wherein his Beloved might dwell; of\nlove, thoughts, tears, complaints and griefs he builded it; with joy,\ndevotion and hope he adorned it; and with justice, prudence, faith,\nfortitude and temperance he furnished it.\n\n271 The Lover drank of love at the fountain of the Beloved, and\nthere the Beloved washed the Lover\u2019s feet, though many a time he\nhad despised and forgotten His greatness, and the world had suffered\nthereby.\n\n272 \u2018Say, O Fool, what is sin?\u2019 He answered: \u2018It is the turning and\ndirecting of the intention away from the final Cause and Intention for\nwhich all things have been created by my Beloved.\u2019\n\n273 The Lover saw that the world was created so that eternity should be\nmore in harmony with his Beloved, who is Infinite Essence of greatness\nand all perfection, than with the world, which is a finite quantity;\nand therefore the justice of his Beloved was before time and finite\nquantities were.\n\n274 The Lover defended his Beloved against those who said that the\nworld is eternal, saying that the justice of his Beloved would not be\nperfect, if He restored not to every man his own body, and for this no\nplace or material order would suffice; nor, if the world were eternal,\ncould it be ordered for one end only; and yet, if it were not so\nordered, there would be wanting in his Beloved perfection of wisdom and\nwill.\n\n275 \u2018Say, O Fool, wherein is the beginning of wisdom?\u2019 He answered: \u2018In\nfaith and devotion, which are a ladder whereby understanding may rise\nto a comprehension of the secrets of my Beloved.\u2019\n\n276 \u2018Where then have faith and devotion their beginning?\u2019 He answered:\n\u2018In my Beloved, who illumines faith and nurtures devotion.\u2019\n\n277 They asked the Lover: \u2018Which is greater--the possible or the\nimpossible?\u2019 He answered: \u2018The possible is greater in man, and the\nimpossible in my Beloved, since power and possibility are in agreement,\nand impossibility and actuality.\u2019\n\n278 \u2018Say, O Fool, which is the greater--difference or harmony?\u2019 He\nanswered: \u2018Save in my Beloved, difference is greater in plurality, and\nharmony in unity; but in my Beloved they are equal in plurality and in\nunity.\u2019\n\n279 \u2018Say, O Lover, what is true worth?\u2019 He answered: \u2018It is the\nopposite of this world\u2019s worth, which false and vainglorious lovers\ndesire; for they go after worth and achieve only worthlessness.\u2019\n\n280 \u2018Say, O Fool, hast thou seen one without his reason?\u2019 He answered:\n\u2018I have seen a lord of the Church, who had many cups on his table, and\nmany plates and knives of silver, and in his chamber had many garments\nand a great bed, and in his coffers great wealth--and at the gates of\nhis palace but few poor.\u2019\n\n281 \u2018Knowest thou, O Fool, what is evil?\u2019 He answered: \u2018Evil thoughts.\u2019\n\u2018And what is loyalty?\u2019 \u2018It is fear of my Beloved, born of charity and\nof shame which men reproach.\u2019 \u2018And what is honour?\u2019 He answered: \u2018It is\nto think on my Beloved, to desire Him and to praise His glorious Name.\u2019\n\n282 The Lover went one day into a cloister, and the monks inquired of\nhim if he, too, were a religious. \u2018Yea,\u2019 he answered, \u2018of the order of\nmy Beloved.\u2019 \u2018What rule dost thou follow?\u2019 He answered: \u2018My Beloved\u2019s.\u2019\n\u2018To whom art thou vowed?\u2019 He said: \u2018To my Beloved.\u2019 \u2018Hast thou thy\nwill?\u2019 He answered: \u2018Nay, it is given to my Beloved.\u2019 \u2018Hast thou added\naught to the rule of thy Beloved?\u2019 He answered: \u2018Naught can be added to\nthat which is already perfect. And why,\u2019 continued the Lover, \u2018do not\nyou that are religious take the Name of my Beloved? May it not be that,\nas you bear the name of another, your love may grow less, and, hearing\nthe voice of another, you may not catch the voice of the Beloved?\u2019\n\n283 The trials and tribulations that the Lover endured for love\u2019s sake\nmade him weary and apt to be impatient; and the Beloved reproved him,\nsaying that he whom either trouble or happiness affected thus knew but\nlittle of love. So the Lover was contrite and wept, and he begged his\nBeloved to restore his love again.\n\n284 \u2018Say, O Fool, what is love?\u2019 He answered: \u2018Love is that which\nthrows the free into bondage, and to those that are in bonds gives\nliberty.\u2019 And who can say whether in love there is more of liberty or\nof bondage?\n\n285 The Beloved called His Lover, and he answered Him, saying: \u2018What\nwilt Thou, O my Beloved, Thou who art the sight of my eyes, thought of\nmy thoughts, love of my love and sum of my perfections,--yea, and the\nsource of all my beginnings?\u2019\n\n286 \u2018O my Beloved,\u2019 said the Lover, \u2018I come to Thee, I walk in Thee,\nfor Thou dost call me. And I greet Thee with Thine own Sign, by which I\nhope for eternal life and eternal blessing.\u2019\n\n287 The Lover cried aloud and said: \u2018Fire gives warmth, its heat gives\nlightness, and that lightness draws on high. And in like manner love\ninflames the thoughts, gives lightness and draws on high. And one love\nunites three things, binding them securely the one to the others.\u2019\n\n288 They asked the Lover: \u2018What is the world?\u2019 He answered: \u2018It is\na book for such as can read, in which is revealed my Beloved.\u2019 They\nasked him: \u2018Is thy Beloved, then, in the world?\u2019 He answered: \u2018Yea,\neven as the writer is in his book.\u2019 \u2018And wherein consists this book?\u2019\nHe answered: \u2018In my Beloved, since my Beloved contains it all, and\ntherefore is the world in my Beloved rather than my Beloved in the\nworld.\u2019\n\n289 \u2018Say, O Lover, who is he that loves and seems to thee as a fool?\u2019\nThe Lover answered: \u2018He that loves the shadow and makes no account of\nthe truth.\u2019 \u2018And whom dost thou call rich?\u2019 \u2018He that loves truth.\u2019 \u2018And\nwho is poor?\u2019 \u2018He that loves falsehood.\u2019\n\n290 They asked the Lover: \u2018Is the world to be loved?\u2019 He answered:\n\u2018Truly it is, but as a piece of work, for its artificer\u2019s sake, or as\nthe night by reason of the day which follows it.\u2019\n\n291 The Lover cried out to his Lord concerning his Beloved, and to his\nBeloved concerning his Lord. And the Lord and the Beloved said: \u2018Who is\nthis that makes division in Us, that are One only?\u2019 The Lover answered\nand said: \u2018It is pity, which belongs to the Lord, and tribulation,\nwhich comes through the Beloved.\u2019\n\n292 The Lover was in peril in the great ocean of love, and he trusted\nin his Beloved, who came to him with troubles, thoughts, tears, sighs\nand griefs; for the ocean was of love.\n\n293 The Lover rejoiced in the Being of his Beloved, for (said he) from\nHis Being is all other Being derived, and by It sustained, and made\nsubject and constrained to honour and serve my Beloved. By no being can\nHe be condemned or destroyed, or made greater or less.\n\n294 \u2018What is the Being of thy Beloved?\u2019 He answered: \u2018It is a bright\nray throughout all things, even as the sun which shines over all the\nworld. For if it withdraw its brightness, it leaves all things in\ndarkness, and when it shines forth it brings the day. Even more so is\nmy Beloved.\u2019\n\n295 \u2018My Beloved is one, and in His unity my thoughts and my love are\nunited in one will; my Beloved\u2019s unity is the source of all unities and\nall pluralities; and His plurality of all pluralities and unities.\u2019\n\n296 \u2018O Beloved, by Thy greatness my desires, my thoughts and my\nafflictions are made great; for so great art Thou that all things which\nhave remembrance and joy and understanding of Thee are great; and Thy\ngreatness makes all things small which are contrary to Thy honour and\ncommandments.\u2019\n\n297 \u2018Thou knowest my sinfulness, O Beloved; be merciful, then, and\npardon. Thou knowest better than I who Thou art; yet even I know Thy\npardon and love, since Thou hast awakened in me contrition and pain,\nand the desire to die a shameful death that Thy Name may be thereby\nexalted.\u2019\n\n298 \u2018Thy power, O Beloved, can save me through Thy goodness, mercy and\npardon, yet it can condemn me through Thy justice, and my failures and\nimperfections. But let Thy power work its will in me, for it is wholly\nperfection, whether it bring salvation or eternal punishment.\u2019\n\n299 \u2018O Truth that I love, visit my contrite heart, draw water from mine\neyes, that my will may love Thee; and since Thy truth, O Beloved, is\nsovereign, draw truth from my will, that I may honour Thy Name, and\ncause it to hate my shortcomings.\u2019\n\n300 The Lover gazed at the rainbow, and it seemed to him as though\nit were of three colours. And he cried: \u2018O marvellous distinction of\nthree, for the three together are one! And how can this be in the\nimage, unless it be so of itself, in truth?\u2019\n\n301 The Beloved created, and the Lover destroyed. The Beloved judged,\nand the Lover wept. Then the Beloved created glory again for the Lover.\nThe Beloved finished His work, and the Lover remained for ever in the\ncompanionship of his Beloved.\n\n302 By verdant paths, with feeling, imagination, understanding and\nwill, the Lover went in search of his Beloved. And in those paths the\nLover endured griefs and perils for his Beloved\u2019s sake, that he might\nlift up his will and understanding to his Beloved, who wills that His\nlovers may comprehend and love Him exceedingly.\n\n303 The perfection of the Beloved uplifted His Lover, and his own\nshortcomings cast him down. Which of these two forces, think you, has\nby nature the greater power over the Lover?\n\n304 \u2018Thou hast placed me, O my Beloved, between my evil and Thy good.\nOn Thy part may there be mercy and pity, patience, humility, pardon,\nrestoration and help; on mine let there be contrition, perseverance and\nremembrance of Thy sacred Passion, with sighs and tears.\u2019\n\n305 \u2018O Beloved, that makest me to love, if Thou aidest me not, why\ndidst Thou will to create me, and why didst Thou endure grief for my\nsake and bear Thy so grievous Passion? Since Thou didst help me thus to\nrise, my Beloved, help me also to descend to the remembrance and hatred\nof my faults and failings, that my thoughts may the better rise again\nto desire, honour and praise Thee.\u2019\n\n306 \u2018My will, O Beloved, hast Thou made free to love Thy honour or\ndespise Thy worth, that in my will my love to Thee may be increased;\nand in granting me this liberty, O Beloved, hast Thou put my will into\ndanger. Remember, then, Thy Lover in this danger, that I may place in\nservitude my free will, praise Thy honour, and multiply tears and grief\nin my heart.\u2019\n\n307 \u2018O Beloved, never from Thee came fault nor failing to Thy Lover,\nnor can Thy Lover attain to perfection but through Thy grace and mercy.\nThen, since the Lover has Thee in such possessions, do Thou remember\nhim in his perils and tribulations.\u2019\n\n308 \u2018O Beloved, who in one Name, Jesus Christ, art called both God and\nMan, by that Name my will seeks to adore Thee as God and Man. And if\nThou, Beloved, hast so greatly honoured Thy Lover, through none of his\nmerits, why honourest Thou not so many ignorant men, who knowingly have\nbeen less guilty of dishonouring Thy Name, Jesus Christ, than has this\nThy Lover?\u2019\n\n309 The Lover wept, and he spake to his Beloved in these words: \u2018O\nBeloved, never wert Thou sparing or aught but liberal to Thy Lover,\nin giving him being or in granting him many creatures to serve him.\nThen wherefore, O Beloved, Thou who art sovereign liberality, shouldst\nThou be slow to give Thy Lover tears, thoughts, griefs, wisdom and\nlove that he may do honour to Thy Name? So then, O Beloved, Thy Lover\nasks of Thee long life that he may receive of Thee many of the gifts\naforesaid.\u2019\n\n310 \u2018O Beloved, if Thou dost help just men against their mortal\nenemies, help to increase my thoughts and desires for Thy honour. And\nif Thou dost help sinners to lead just lives, help Thy Lover that he\nmay sacrifice his will to Thy glory; and as to his body, that he may\ntread the martyr\u2019s path as a testimony of love.\u2019\n\n311 The Lover made complaint to his Beloved of temptations which came\nto him daily to disturb his thoughts. And the Beloved answered him:\n\u2018Such temptations are occasions of recourse to the memory, that the\nlover may think upon God and love His grace and honour.\u2019\n\n312 The Beloved had mercy upon His Lover, because of His perfect love,\nand because of His Lover\u2019s needs. Which of those two reasons, think\nyou, moved the Beloved the more strongly to forgive His Lover\u2019s sins?\n\n313 Our Lady and the Saints and angels in glory cried to my Beloved:\n\u2018Remember the errors into which the world has fallen through ignorance,\nbut remember how great is Thy justice, O Beloved, and how great the\nignorance of Thine enemies.\u2019\n\n314 The Lover lifted up the powers of his soul, and mounted the ladder\nof humanity to glory in the Divine Nature; and from the Divine Nature\nthe powers of his soul descended, to glory in the human nature of his\nBeloved.\n\n315 The straiter are the paths along which the Lover journeys to his\nBeloved, the vaster is his love; and the straiter his love, the broader\nare the paths. So that however it be the Lover receives love, trials\nand griefs, comforts and joys from his Beloved.\n\n316 Love comes from love, thoughts from thoughts and tears from griefs;\nand love leads to love, as thoughts lead to tears and griefs to sighs.\nAnd the Beloved watches His Lover, who bears all these afflictions for\nHis love.\n\n317 The desires of the Lover and his memories of the Beloved\u2019s\ngreatness kept vigils and went on journeys and pilgrimages. And they\nbrought to the Lover graces which lit up his understanding and made his\nwill to increase in love.\n\n318 With his imagination the Lover formed and pictured his Beloved\u2019s\nCountenance in bodily wise, and with his understanding he beautified\nIt in spiritual things; and with his will he worshipped It in all\ncreatures.\n\n319 The Lover purchased a day of tears with another of thoughts; and a\nday of love came through a day of tribulations; and both his thoughts\nand his love were increased.\n\n320 The Lover was in a far country, and he forgot his Beloved, but was\nsad at the absence of his lord, his wife, his children and his friends.\nBut soon the memory of his Beloved returned to him, that he might be\ncomforted, and that his exile might cause him neither vexation nor\nsorrow.\n\n321 The Lover heard his Beloved\u2019s words; his understanding beheld Him\nin them; his will had pleasure in that which he heard; and his memory\nrecalled his Beloved\u2019s virtues and His promises.\n\n322 The Lover heard men speak evil of his Beloved, and in this\nevil-speaking his understanding perceived his Beloved\u2019s justice and\npatience; for His justice would punish the evil-speakers, while His\npatience would await their contrition and repentance. In which of these\ntwo think you that the Lover believed more earnestly?\n\n323 The Lover fell sick, and made his testament with the counsel of his\nBeloved. His sins and faults he bequeathed to penance and contrition;\nworldly pleasures to contempt. To his eyes he left tears; to his heart\nsighs of love; to his understanding his Beloved\u2019s graces, and to his\nmemory the Passion which his Beloved endured for love of him. And to\nhis activity he bequeathed the guidance of unbelievers, who go to their\ndoom through ignorance.\n\n324 The scent of flowers brought to the Lover\u2019s mind the evil stench\nof riches and meanness, of old age and lasciviousness, of discontent\nand pride. The taste of sweet things recalled to him the bitterness\nof temporal possessions and of entering and quitting this world. The\nenjoyment of earthly pleasures made him feel how quickly this world\npasses, and how the delights which are here so pleasant may be the\noccasion of eternal torments.\n\n325 The Lover endured hunger and thirst, cold and heat, poverty and\nnakedness, sickness and tribulations; and he would have died had he not\nhad remembrance of his Beloved, who healed him with hope and memory,\nwith the renunciation of this world and contempt for the revilings of\nmen.\n\n326 The Lover made his bed between trials and joys: in joys he lay down\nto sleep and in trials he awakened. Which of these two, think you, was\nnearer to the bed of the Lover?\n\n327 In anger the Lover lay down to sleep, resenting the revilings of\nmen; in patience he awakened, remembering his Beloved. Which, think\nyou, did the Lover feel the more deeply--the love of his Beloved or the\nscorn of men?\n\n328 The Lover thought upon death, and he was afraid, until he\nremembered the city of his Beloved, to which love and death are the\ngates and the entrance.\n\n329 Two men were disputing concerning simplicity, the one against the\nother. And the one said: \u2018The simple man is he who knows nothing.\u2019 The\nother said: \u2018The simple man is he who lives without sin.\u2019 And the Lover\ncame and said: \u2018True simplicity has he who commits all his ways to my\nBeloved.\u2019\n\n330 \u2018For simplicity is to exalt faith above understanding, which it\nso far exceeds, and in all that pertains to my Beloved it is to avoid\ncompletely all things vain, superfluous, curious, over-subtle and\npresumptuous. For all these are contrary to simplicity.\u2019\n\n331 Another time they both inquired of him, asking that he would tell\nthem if the science of the simple is a great one. He answered: \u2018The\nscience of great sages is as a great heap of a few grains, but the\nscience of the simple is a small heap of numberless grains, because\nneither presumption nor curiosity nor over-subtlety are added to\nthe heap of simple men.\u2019 \u2018And what is the work of presumption and\ncuriosity?\u2019 The Lover replied: \u2018Vanity is the mother of curiosity,\nand pride is the mother of presumption, and therefore is their work\nthe work of vanity and pride. And the enemies of my Beloved are known\nby presumption and curiosity, even as love for Him is acquired by\nsimplicity.\u2019\n\n332 The Lover lost a jewel which he greatly prized, and was sorely\ndistressed, until his Beloved put to him this question: \u2018Which\nprofiteth thee more, the jewel that thou hadst or thy patience in all\nthe acts of thy Beloved?\u2019\n\n333 Many lovers came together, and they asked Love\u2019s messenger where\nand in what thing the heart was most ardently inflamed with devotion\nand love. Love\u2019s messenger answered: \u2018In the House of God, when we\nhumble ourselves and adore Him with all our powers; for He alone is\nHoliest of the holy. And those that know not how to do this, know not\nwhat it is truly to love Him.\u2019\n\n334 The Lover thought upon his sins, and for fear of hell he would fain\nhave wept, but he could not. So he begged Love to give him tears, and\nWisdom answered that he must weep earnestly and often, but for the love\nof his Beloved rather than for the pains of hell; for tears of love are\nmore pleasing to Him than tears shed through fear.\n\n335 The Lover obeyed Wisdom; and, on the one hand, he shed many and\ngreat tears for love\u2019s sake, and, on the other, few and small tears for\nfear, that by love and not by fear he might honour his Beloved. And the\ntears which he shed for love brought him solace and rest, while the\ntears of fear gave him sorrow and tribulation.\n\n336 The Lover fell asleep while thinking on the trials and the\nobstacles which he met in serving his Beloved; and he feared lest\nthrough those hindrances his works might be lost. But the Beloved sent\nconsciousness to him, and he awakened to the merits and powers of his\nBeloved.\n\n337 The Lover had to journey long over roads that were rough and hard;\nand the time came when he should set out, carrying the heavy burden\nthat Love makes his lovers to bear. So the Lover unburdened his soul of\nthe cares and pleasures of this world, that his heart might bear the\nweight with more ease, and his soul journey along those roads in its\nBeloved\u2019s company.\n\n338 Before the Lover, one day, they spoke ill of the Beloved, and the\nLover made neither reply nor defence of his Beloved. Which, think you,\nwas the more to be blamed, the men who spoke ill of the Beloved, or the\nLover who was silent and defended Him not?\n\n339 As the Lover contemplated his Beloved, his understanding conceived\nsubtleties and his will loved Him more and more. In which of the two\nthink you that memory grew more fruitful in thinking on the Beloved?\n\n340 With fervour and fear the Lover journeyed abroad to honour his\nBeloved. Fervour bore him along and fear preserved him from danger. And\nwhile the Lover was journeying thus, he found sighs and tears, which\nbrought him greetings from his Beloved. Through which of these four\ncompanions think you that the Lover received the greatest consolation\nin his Beloved?\n\n341 The Lover gazed upon himself that he might be a mirror in which\nto behold his Beloved; and he gazed upon his Beloved, as in a mirror\nwherein he could learn to know himself. Which of these two mirrors,\nthink you, was the nearer to his understanding?\n\n342 They asked the Lover in what manner the heart of man was turned\ntowards the love of his Beloved. He answered them and said: \u2018Even as\nthe sunflower turns to the sun.\u2019 \u2018How is it, then, that all men love\nnot thy Beloved?\u2019 He answered: \u2018They that love Him not have night in\ntheir hearts, because of their sin.\u2019\n\n343 Theology and Philosophy, Medicine and Law met the Lover, who asked\nthem if they had seen his Beloved. The first wept, the second was\ndoubtful, but the other two were glad. What, think you, was the meaning\nof these happenings to the Lover that was seeking his Beloved?\n\n344 Full of tears and anguish the Lover went in search of his Beloved,\nby the path of the senses and also by the intellectual road. Which of\nthose two ways, think you, did he enter first, as he went after his\nBeloved? And in which of them did the Beloved reveal Himself to him the\nmore openly?\n\n345 The Lover met an astrologer, and inquired of him: \u2018What means thy\nastrology?\u2019 He replied: \u2018It is a science that foretells things to\ncome.\u2019 \u2018Thou art deceived,\u2019 said the Lover; \u2018it is no science, but one\nfalsely so called. It is necromancy, or the black art, in disguise, and\nthe science of deceiving and lying prophets which dishonour the work of\nthe sovereign Master. At all times it has been the messenger of evil\ntidings; and it runs clean contrary to the providence of my Beloved,\nfor in place of the evils which it threatens He promises good things.\u2019\n\n346 The Lover went forth, crying: \u2018Oh, how vain are all they who follow\nafter lust of knowledge and presumption! For through lust of knowledge\ndo they fall into the greatest depths of impiety, insulting the Name\nof God and with curses and incantations invoking evil spirits as good\nangels, inventing them with the names of God and of good angels, and\nprofaning holy things with figures and images and by writings. And\nthrough presumption all errors are implanted in the world.\u2019 And the\nLover wept bitterly, for all the insults which are offered to his\nBeloved by ignorant men.\n\n347 At the Day of Judgment the Beloved will cause all that men have\ngiven Him in this world to be placed on one side, and on the other side\nall that they have given to the world. Thus it shall be clearly seen to\nwhat extent they have loved Him, and which of their two gifts is the\ngreater and nobler.\n\n348 The Lover\u2019s will was enamoured of itself and the understanding\nasked: \u2018Is it more like the Beloved to love oneself or to love the\nBeloved? For the Beloved is to be loved more than anything beside.\u2019\nWith what answer, think you, could the will make reply to the\nunderstanding most truly?\n\n349 \u2018Say, O Fool, what is the greatest and noblest love to be found\nin the creature?\u2019 He answered: \u2018That which is one with the Creator.\u2019\n\u2018And why so?\u2019 \u2018Because there is nothing with which the Creator can make\nnobler a creature.\u2019\n\n350 One day the Lover was at prayer, and he perceived that he wept\nnot; and in order that he might weep he bade his thoughts to think\nupon wealth, and women, and sons, and meats, and vainglory. And his\nunderstanding found that more men have each of the things aforesaid to\ntheir servants than has his Beloved. And thereupon were his eyes wet\nwith tears, and his soul was in sorrow and pain.\n\n351 One day the Lover was looking towards the east, and towards the\nwest, towards the south and towards the north, and he espied the Sign\nof his Beloved. And therefore he caused that Sign to be engraven, and\nat each of its four extremities he had a precious jewel set, as bright\nas the sun. That Sign he wore ever upon him, and it brought the Truth\nto his remembrance.\n\n352 The Lover was walking pensively, thinking on his Beloved, and he\nfound on the way many people and great multitudes who asked him for\nnews. And the Lover, who was rejoicing in his Beloved, gave them not\nthat which they asked of him, and said that he could not reply to their\nwords without departing far from his Beloved.\n\n353 Behind and before was the Lover vested in love, and he went\nseeking his Beloved. Love said to him: \u2018Where goest thou, O Lover?\u2019 He\nanswered: \u2018I go to my Beloved, that thou mayest be increased.\u2019\n\n354 \u2018Say, O Fool, what is Religion?\u2019 He answered: \u2018Purity of thought,\nand longing for death by which the Beloved may be honoured, and\nrenouncing the world, that nothing may hinder one from contemplating\nHim and speaking truth of His Name.\u2019\n\n355 \u2018Say, O Fool, what are trials, sighs, laments, afflictions, perils,\ntears?\u2019 He answered: \u2018The joys of the Beloved.\u2019 \u2018And why are they so?\u2019\n\u2018That He may be the more deeply loved by reason of them, and the Lover\nbe the more bounteously rewarded.\u2019\n\n356 The Lover passed through divers places and found many men who were\nrejoicing, laughing and singing and living in great joy and comfort.\nAnd he wondered if this world were meant for laughing or for weeping.\n\n357 So the Virtues came, to pronounce upon that question. And Faith\nsaid: \u2018It is for weeping, because the faithless are more in number than\nthe believers.\u2019 Hope said: \u2018It is for weeping, because few are those\nthat hope in God, whereas many put their trust in the riches of earth.\u2019\nCharity said: \u2018It is for weeping, because so few are those that love\nGod and their neighbour.\u2019 And there followed the other Virtues, and so\ndeclared they all.\n\n358 The lovers sought to prove Love\u2019s messenger, and they said that\nthey should go through the world, crying that worshippers must honour\nservants as servants and the Lord as a lord, so that their requests\nmight better be heard, and because there needs not to love, save the\nBeloved.\n\n359 They asked Love\u2019s messenger whence came to the Beloved so many\nuseless servants, viler, more abject, and more contemptible than\nsecular men. Love\u2019s messenger answered and said: \u2018They come through the\nfault of those whose task it is to furnish their Sovereign,--the King\nof Kings,--the Beloved,--with servants. They make no question, as they\nought, concerning the wisdom nor the lives nor the habits of those whom\nthey choose. And those whom they will not take for His train they allow\nto serve the Eternal King in His palace, and in the most holy ministry\nof His Table. Wherefore ought they to fear the severest retributions\nwhen they are called by the Beloved to their account.\u2019\n\n360 They asked the Lover: \u2018In which is love greater, in the Lover who\nlives or in the Lover who dies?\u2019 He answered: \u2018In the Lover who dies.\u2019\n\u2018And why?\u2019 \u2018Because in one who lives for love it may yet be greater,\nbut in one who dies for love it can be no greater.\u2019\n\n361 Two lovers met: the one revealed his Beloved, and the other\nlearned of Him. And it was disputed which of those two was nearer\nto his Beloved; and in the solution the Lover took knowledge of the\ndemonstration of the Trinity.\n\n362 \u2018Say, O Fool, why dost thou speak with such subtlety?\u2019 He answered:\n\u2018That I may raise my understanding to the height of my Beloved\u2019s\ngreatness, and that thereby more men may honour, love and serve Him.\u2019\n\n363 The Lover drank deeply of the wine of memory, understanding and\nlove for his Beloved. And that wine the Beloved made bitter with His\nLover\u2019s tears.\n\n364 Love heated and inflamed the Lover with remembrance of his\nBeloved; and the Beloved cooled his ardour, with sorrows and tears and\nforgetfulness of the delights of this world, and the renunciation of\nvainglories. So his love grew, when he remembered wherefore he suffered\ngrief and affliction, and the men of the world persecutions and trials.\n\n365 They asked the Lover this question: \u2018Wherein dies love?\u2019 The Lover\nanswered: \u2018In the delights of this world.\u2019 \u2018And whence has it life and\nsustenance?\u2019 \u2018In thoughts of the world to come.\u2019 Wherefore they that\nhad inquired of him prepared to renounce this world, that they might\nthink the more deeply upon the next, and that their love might live and\nfind nourishment.\n\n366 \u2018Say, O Fool, what is this world?\u2019 He answered: \u2018It is the\nprison-house of those that love and serve my Beloved.\u2019 \u2018And who\nis he that imprisons them?\u2019 He answered: \u2018Conscience, love, fear,\nrenunciation and contrition, and the companionship of wilful men.\u2019\n\u2018And who is he that frees them?\u2019 \u2018Mercy, pity and justice.\u2019 \u2018And\nwhere are they then sent?\u2019 \u2018To eternal bliss, and the joyful company\nof true lovers, where they shall laud, bless and glorify the Beloved\neverlastingly, to whom be ever given praise, honour and glory\nthroughout all the world.\u2019\n\n\n  _Printed in England at_ THE BALLANTYNE PRESS\n  SPOTTISWOODE, BALLANTYNE & CO. LTD.\n  _Colchester, London & Eton_\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] _El Desconort_, ii.\n\n[2] The date of _Blanquerna_, and hence of our classic, is put down at\n1283.\n\n[3] Lull is said to have been enticed to England (in the summer of\n1305) by King Edward I, who believed him to have the secret of the\nPhilosopher\u2019s Stone. But this story has no sure foundation.\n\n[4] Less than half of these works are theological. The remainder deal\nwith the most diverse subjects, such as metaphysics, logic, ethics,\nphysics, medicine, mathematics, and chemistry.\n\n[5] Works of Lull himself.\n\n\n\n\nTRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTES:\n\n\n  Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.\n\n  Superscripted characters are preceded by a carat character: D^a.\n\n  Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.\n\n  Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.","title":"The Book of the Lover and the Beloved: Translated from the Catalan of Ram\u00f3n Lull with an Introductory Essay by E. Allison Peers","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":23263}