Chapter III (1)

We have no wish to add to these few notes a lengthy commentary upon the substance of a book which, probably for the first time, is accessible to those who read only English. Scholars have debated over Lull’s probable debt to sufism, on the one hand, and, on the other, his influence upon the long line of mystics who have followed him. There is much still to be said upon these and other topics, much that will throw fresh light on Spain and Spanish mysticism both. But in this essay enough has been said of Lull’s life and works to form the indispensable prelude to his _Book_. For the present, therefore, we prefer to stand back, and allow Lull’s ardent spirit to work its miracles still. Work them it surely must. Writing in his native ‘catalan-provenzal,’ that he might appeal, not to learned men, but to the people, by the people he is read still. He needs none of the ‘Expositions,’ such as were written in his own age and as late as the seventeenth century. Here and there a passage confuses the modern mind by its mediæval subtleties; or the frequent references to the will, understanding, and memory (so common in most of the mystics) may puzzle the simple reader until he has learned to interpret them. But the vast majority of the three hundred and sixty-six ‘verses,’ put together to be read one on each day of the year, may still so be read. They speak to the twentieth century as clearly, picturesquely, and forcibly as they spoke to the thirteenth. Have we perhaps even more need of their message?

They speak of elementals. Like his great successors St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross, Lull knows no Master but his Beloved, Jesus Christ; he surpasses them perhaps in this, that he is never unmindful of the world his Beloved came to save. His is no cloistered love. He could never say, with St. John of the Cross, ‘Live in the world as though there were in it but God and thy soul.’ Ringing for ever in his ears is the Beloved’s last command.

Never was ‘Love’s regal dalmatic’ worn with more grace and fitness than by this ‘jester,’ this ‘fool of love.’ It is no compliment to Lull to call him, as the great scholar Menéndez Pelayo does, a ‘Spanish Jacopone da Todi.’ Jacopone, it is true, sang of love with unsurpassable fervour:

Amor, amore, tanto tu me fai,
Amore, amor, che nol posso patire;
Amor, amore, tanto me te dai,
Amor, amore, ben credo morire;
Amore, amore, tanto preso m’hai,
Amor, amore, famme ’n te transire;
Amor, dolce languire,
Amor mio desioso,
Amor mio delettoso,
Annegame en amore.

But Lull, who, like Jacopone, owed most of his fervour, under God, to St. Francis, has a note of his own, no less deep, no less pure. His key is perhaps in that eloquent definition, which has been slightly expanded in translation that the full force of every phrase may be felt:

‘What meanest thou by love?’ said the Beloved. And the Lover
answered: ‘It is to bear on one’s heart the sacred marks and the
sweet words of the Beloved. It is to long for Him with desire and
with tears. It is boldness. It is fervour. It is fear. It is the
desire for the Beloved above all things. It is that which causes the
Lover to grow faint when he hears the Beloved’s praises. It is that
in which I die daily, and in which is all my will.’

Lull might well have written, as did a late Franciscan, John of the Angels, of the ‘Triumphs of the Love of God.’

Love impels him to tread the Mystic Way ‘in search of his Beloved.’ Much of his _Book_, therefore, deals with the Mystic Life. But it has none of the exclusiveness of the _Living Flame of Love_ and the _Spiritual Canticle_. There are passages for the beginner as well as for the proficient, parables in three lines for the plain man, sermons in phrases, reflections which, by their very simplicity, kindle the devotion of the wayfaring man as he reads them. As we read the brief records of imaginary conversations between the Lover and ‘those who asked him concerning his Beloved,’ we can imagine ourselves in some African coast-town where the stranger who has just landed is being pressed, by the surging crowd which surrounds him, to give reasons for his faith. The calm and confident answers supply the secret of Lull’s power.

Then we come upon some quaintly-worded, paradoxical phrase which only reflection will illumine and meditation make real. And we know that we are following in the path of Lull when he composed his treatise. For it was the fruit, not of subtleties, but of silence. ‘He would engage in prayer,’ runs the preface, ‘and meditate upon God and His virtues, after which he would write down the outcome of his contemplation.’ And again, more concretely: ‘At midnight he arose, looked out upon the heavens and the stars, and cast away from him all thoughts of the world.’

So, between meditation and prayer, he wrote this masterpiece in little, signed it with his Beloved’s Sign, and sent it out to a world which he longed to save. It has been potent in the past, and we may believe that it will be so again. For it is as eternal and universal in its appeal as the Ideal Life which it extols. Nurtured by experience, watered by faith, it is rooted and grounded in love.

THE BOOK OF THE LOVER AND THE BELOVED

1 The Lover asked his Beloved if there remained in Him anything still to be loved. And the Beloved replied that he had still to love that by which his own love could be increased.

2 Long and perilous are the paths by which the Lover seeks his Beloved. They are peopled by cares, sighs and tears. They are lit up by love.

3 Many Lovers came together to love One only, their Beloved, who made them all to abound in love. And each declared his Beloved perfection, and his thoughts of Him were very pleasant, making him to suffer pain which brought delight.

4 The Lover wept and said: ‘How long shall it be till the darkness of the world is past, that the mad rush of men towards hell may cease? When comes the hour in which water, that flows downwards, shall change its nature and mount upwards? When shall the innocent be more in number than the guilty? Ah! When shall the Lover with joy lay down his life for the Beloved? And when shall the Beloved see the Lover grow faint for love of Him?’

5 Said the Lover to the Beloved: ‘Thou that fillest the sun with splendour, fill my heart with love.’ And the Beloved answered: ‘Wert thou not filled with love, thine eyes had not shed those tears, nor hadst thou come to this place to see thy Beloved.’

6 The Beloved made trial of His Lover to see if his love for Him were perfect, and He asked him how the presence of the Beloved differed from His absence. The Lover answered: ‘As knowledge and remembrance differ from ignorance and oblivion.’

7 The Beloved asked the Lover: ‘Hast thou remembrance of anything with which I have rewarded thee, that thou wouldst love Me thus?’ ‘Yea,’ replied the Lover, ‘for I distinguish not between the trials that Thou sendest me and the joys.’

8 ‘Say, O Lover,’ asked the Beloved, ‘if I double thy trials, wilt thou still be patient?’ ‘Yea,’ answered the Lover, ‘so that Thou double also my love.’

9 Said the Beloved to the Lover: ‘Knowest thou yet what love meaneth?’ The Lover replied: ‘If I knew not the meaning of love, I should know the meaning of labour, grief and sorrow.’

10 They asked the Lover: ‘Why answerest thou not thy Beloved when He calleth thee?’ He replied: ‘I brave great perils that He may come, and I speak to Him begging His graces.’

11 ‘Foolish Lover, why dost thou weary thy body, throw away thy wealth and leave the joys of this world, and go about as an outcast of the people?’ ‘To honour my Beloved’s Name,’ he replied, ‘for He is hated and dishonoured by more men than honour and love Him.’

12 ‘Say, Fool of Love, which can be the better seen, the Beloved in the Lover, or the Lover in the Beloved?’ The Lover answered, and said: ‘By love can the Beloved be seen, and the Lover by sighs and tears, by grief and by labours.’

13 The Lover sought for one who should tell his Beloved how great trials he was enduring for love of Him, and how he was like to die. And he found his Beloved, who was reading in a book wherein were written all the griefs which love made him to suffer for his Beloved, and the graces which He gave him.

14 Our Lady presented her Son to the Lover, that he might kiss His feet, and that he might write in his book concerning Our Lady’s virtues.

15 ‘Say, thou bird that singest, hast thou placed thyself in the care of my Beloved, that He may guard thee from indifference, and increase in thee thy love?’ The bird replied: ‘And who makes me to sing but the Lord of love, to whom not to love is to sin.’

16 Between Hope and Fear, Love made her home. She lives on thought, and, when she is forgotten, dies. So unlike the pleasures of this world are her foundations.

17 There was a contention between the eyes and the memory of the Lover, for the eyes said that it was better to see the Beloved than to remember Him. But Memory said that remembrance brings tears to the eyes, and makes the heart to burn with love.

18 The Lover asked the Understanding and the Will which of them was the nearer to his Beloved. And the two ran, and the Understanding came nearer to the Beloved than did the Will.

19 There was strife between the Lover and the Beloved, and another who loved Him saw it and wept, till peace and concord were made between the Beloved and the Lover.

20 Sighs and Tears came to be judged by the Beloved, and asked Him which of them loved Him the more deeply. And the Beloved gave judgment that sighs were nearer to the seat of love, and tears to the eyes.

21 The Lover came to drink of the fountain which gives love to him who has none, and his griefs redoubled. And the Beloved came to drink of the same fountain, that the love of one whose griefs were doubled might be doubled also.

22 The Lover fell sick and thought on the Beloved, who fed him on His merits, quenched his thirst with love, made him to rest in patience, clothed him with humility, and as medicine gave him truth.

23 They asked the Lover where his Beloved was. And he answered: ‘See Him for yourselves in a nobler house than all the nobility of creation; but see Him too in my love, my griefs and my tears.’

24 They said to the Lover: ‘Whither goest thou?’ He answered: ‘I come from my Beloved.’ ‘Whence comest thou?’ ‘I go to my Beloved.’ ‘When wilt thou return?’ ‘I shall be with my Beloved.’ ‘How long wilt thou be with thy Beloved?’ ‘As long as my thoughts remain on Him.’

25 The birds hymned the dawn, and the Beloved, who is the dawn, awakened. And the birds ended their song, and the Lover died in the dawn for his Beloved.

26 The bird sang in the garden of the Beloved. The Lover came, and he said to the bird: ‘If we understand not one another’s speech, we may make ourselves understood by love; for in thy song I see my Beloved before mine eyes.’

27 The Lover was wearied, for he had laboured much in seeking for his Beloved; and he feared lest he should forget Him. And he wept, that he might not fall asleep, and his Beloved be absent from his remembrance.

28 The Lover and the Beloved met, and the Beloved said to the Lover: ‘Thou needest not to speak to Me. Look at Me only,--for thine eyes speak to My heart,--that I may give thee what thou willest.’

29 The Lover was disobedient to his Beloved; and the Lover wept. And the Beloved came in the venture of His Lover, and died, that His Lover might regain what he had lost. So He gave him a greater gift than that which he had lost.

30 The Beloved filled His Lover with gifts of love, and grieved not for his tribulations, for they would but make him love the more deeply; and the greater the Lover’s tribulations, the greater was his joy and delight.

31 The Lover said: ‘The secrets of my Beloved torture me, for my deeds reveal them not, and my mouth keeps silence and reveals them to none.’

32 This is Love’s contract: the Lover must be long-suffering, patient, humble, fearful, diligent, trustful; he must be ready to face great dangers for the honour of his Beloved. And his Beloved is pledged to be true and free, just and liberal with those that love Him.

33 The Lover set forth over hill and plain in search of true devotion, and to see if his Beloved was well served. But everywhere he found nought but indifference. And so he delved into the earth to see if there he could find the devotion which was lacking above ground.

34 ‘Say, thou bird that singest of love, why does my Beloved, He who has made me His servant, do nought but torture me now?’ And the bird replied: ‘If Love made thee not to bear trials, what couldst thou give to show thy love for Him?’

35 Pensively the Lover trod those paths which lead to the Beloved. Now he stumbled and fell among the thorns; but they were to him as flowers, and as a bed of love.

36 They asked the Lover: ‘Wilt thou for another change thy Beloved?’ And he answered: ‘Why, what other is better or nobler than He? For He is the supreme Good; He is infinite and eternal, in greatness, wisdom and love; nay, He is perfection.’

37 The Lover wept, and sang of his Beloved, and said: ‘Swifter is love in the lover’s heart than is the brilliance of the lightning to the eye, or the thunder to the ear. The tears of love gather more swiftly than the waves of the sea; and sighing is more proper to love than is whiteness to snow.’

38 They asked the Lover: ‘Wherein is the glory of thy Beloved?’ He answered: ‘He is Glory itself.’ They asked him: ‘Wherein lies His power?’ He answered: ‘He is Power itself.’ ‘And wherein lies His wisdom?’ ‘He is Wisdom itself.’ ‘And wherefore is He to be loved?’ ‘Because He is Love itself.’

39 The Lover rose early and went to seek his Beloved. He found travellers on the road, and he asked if they had seen his Beloved. They answered him: ‘When did the eyes of thy mind lose sight of thy Beloved?’ The Lover replied: ‘Since I first saw my Beloved in my thoughts, He has never been absent from the eyes of my body, for all things that I see picture to me my Beloved.’

40 With eyes of thought and grief, sighs and tears the Lover gazed upon the Beloved; and with eyes of grace, justice and piety, mercy and bounty, the Beloved gazed upon His Lover. And the bird sang of that Countenance so full of delight, as we have already said.

41 The keys of the gates of love are gilded with cares and desires, sighs and tears; the cord which binds them is woven of conscience, devotion, contrition and atonement; the door is kept by justice and mercy.

42 The Lover beat upon his Beloved’s door with blows of love and hope. The Beloved heard His Lover’s blows, with humility, piety, charity and patience. Deity and Humanity opened the doors, and the Lover went in to his Beloved.

43 Deity and Humanity met, and joined together to make concord between Lover and Beloved.

44 There are two fires that warm the love of a true Lover: one is of pleasures, desires and thoughts: the other is of weeping and crying, of fear and grief.

45 The Lover longed for solitude, and went away to live alone, that he might gain the companionship of his Beloved, for amid many people he was lonely.

46 The Lover was all alone, in the shade of a great tree. Men passed by that place, and asked him why he was alone. And the Lover replied: ‘I am alone, now that I have seen you and heard you; until now, I was in the company of my Beloved.’

47 By signs of love, the Lover held converse with the Beloved; by means of fear and thought, weeping and crying, the Lover recounted his griefs to the Beloved.

48 The Lover feared whether his Beloved would fail him in his greatest need; and he ceased from loving Him. Then he had contrition and repentance of heart; and the Beloved restored hope and charity to the Lover’s heart, and tears to his eyes, that love might return to him.

49 Whether Lover and Beloved are near or far is all one; for their love mingles as water mingles with wine. They are linked as heat with light; they approach and are united as Essence and Being.

50 Said the Lover to the Beloved: ‘My grief and its healing are both in Thee: the more surely Thou healed me, the greater grows my grief; when Thou dost wound me, even then dost Thou give me health.’

51 The Lover sighed and said: ‘Ah! What is my love?’ The Beloved answered: ‘Thy love is a mark and a seal by which thou dost show forth My honour before men.’

52 The Lover saw himself taken and bound, wounded and killed, for the love of his Beloved; and those who tortured him asked him: ‘Where is thy Beloved?’ He answered: ‘See Him here in the increase of my love, and the Strength which it gives me to bear my torments.’

53 Said the Lover to the Beloved: ‘I have never fled from Thee, nor ceased to love Thee, since I knew Thee, for I was ever in Thee, by Thee and with Thee wheresoever I went.’ The Beloved answered: ‘Nor since thou hast known Me and loved Me have I once forgotten thee; never once have I deceived or failed thee.’

54 As though mad went the Lover through a city, singing of his love; and they asked him if he had lost his senses. ‘My Beloved,’ he answered, ‘has taken my will, and I myself have yielded up to Him my understanding; so that there is left in me naught but memory, with which I remember my Beloved.’

55 The Beloved said: ‘It would be a miracle that the Lover should sleep and forget the love of the Beloved.’ The Lover replied: ‘It would be a greater miracle yet if the Beloved did not awaken him, since He has desired his love.’

56 The heart of the Lover soared to the heights of the Beloved’s abode, so that he might not lose his love for Him in the deep places of this world. And when he reached his Beloved he contemplated Him with joy and delight. But the Beloved led him down again to this world to make trial of him with tribulations and adversities.

57 They asked the Lover: ‘Wherein is all thy wealth?’ He answered: ‘In the poverty which I bear for my Beloved.’ ‘And where dost thou rest?’ ‘In the afflictions of love.’ ‘Who is thy physician?’ ‘The trust I have in my Beloved.’ ‘And who is thy master?’ ‘The signs which in all creatures I see of my Beloved.’

58 The bird sang upon a branch in leaf and flower, and the breeze caused the leaves to tremble, and bore away the scent of the flowers. ‘What means the trembling of the leaves, and the scent of the flowers?’ asked the bird of the Lover. He answered: ‘The trembling of the leaves signifies obedience, and the scent of the flowers, adversity.’

59 The Lover went in desire of his Beloved and met two friends, who greeted each other lovingly, with kisses, embraces and tears. And the Lover swooned, so strongly did these two lovers call to his memory his Beloved.

60 The Lover thought on death, and was afraid, till he remembered his Beloved. Then in a loud voice he cried to those who were near: ‘Ah, sirs! have love, that you may fear neither death nor danger, in doing honour to my Beloved.’

61 They asked the Lover where his love first began. And he replied: ‘It began in the glory of my Beloved; and from that beginning I was led to love my neighbour even as myself, and to cease to care for deception and falsehood.’

62 ‘Say, Fool of Love, if thy Beloved no longer cared for thee, what wouldst thou do?’ ‘I should love Him still,’ he replied. ‘Else must I die; seeing that to cease to love is death and love is life.’

63 They asked the Lover what he meant by perseverance. ‘It is both happiness and sorrow,’ he answered, ‘in the Lover who ever loves, honours and serves his Beloved with courage, patience and hope.’

64 The Lover desired his Beloved to recompense him for the time of his service. And the Beloved reckoned the thoughts, tears, longings, perils and trials which His Lover had borne for love of Him; and the Beloved added to the account eternal bliss, and gave Himself for a recompense to His Lover.

65 They asked the Lover what he meant by happiness. ‘It is sorrow,’ he replied, ‘borne for Love’s sake.’ ‘O Fool,’ they answered, ‘what, then, is sorrow?’ ‘It is the remembrance of dishonour done to my Beloved, who is worthy of all honour.’ And they asked him again: ‘What is misery?’ ‘To get one’s desires in this world,’ he replied, ‘for such fleeting joys are followed by perpetual torment.’

66 The Lover was gazing on a Place where he had seen his Beloved. And he said: ‘Ah, place that recalled the blessed haunts of my Beloved! Thou wilt tell my Beloved that I suffer trials and griefs for His sake.’ And that Place made reply: ‘When thy Beloved hung upon me, He bore for thy love greater trials and sorrows than all other trials and sorrows that Love could give to its servants.’

67 Said the Lover to his Beloved: ‘Thou art all, and through all, and in all, and with all. I would give Thee all of myself that I may have all of Thee, and Thou all of me.’ The Beloved answered: ‘Thou canst not have Me wholly unless thou art wholly Mine.’ And the Lover said: ‘Let me be wholly Thine and be Thou wholly mine.’ The Beloved answered: ‘If I am wholly thine, what part in Me will thy son have, thy brother, thy sister and thy father?’ The Lover replied: ‘Thou, O my Beloved! art so great a Whole, that Thou canst abound, and yet be wholly of each one who gives himself wholly to Thee.’

68 The Lover thought long and deeply on the greatness and everlastingness of his Beloved, and he found in Him neither beginning, nor mean, nor end. And the Beloved said: ‘What art thou measuring, O Fool?’ The Lover answered: ‘I am measuring greater with lesser, fullness with want, infinity with quantity, and eternity with time. And this I do that humility and patience, faith, love and hope may enter more deeply into my mind.’

69 The paths of love are both long and short. For love is clear, pure and bright, subtle yet simple, strong, diligent, brilliant, and abounding both in fresh thoughts and in old memories.

70 They asked the Lover: ‘What are the fruits of love?’ And the Lover made answer: ‘They are pleasures, thoughts, desires, trials, perils, torments, sighs and griefs. And without these fruits Love’s servants have no part in her.’

71 Many persons were with the Lover, who was complaining of his Beloved that He increased not his love, and of Love, that it gave him so many trials and sorrows. The Beloved made reply that the trials and sorrows for which he reproached Love were that very increase of love.

72 The Lover entered a delightful meadow, and saw in the meadow many children who were pursuing butterflies, and trampling down the flowers; and, the more the children laboured to catch the butterflies, the higher did these fly. And the Lover, as he watched them, said: ‘Such are they who with subtle reasoning attempt to comprehend the Beloved, Who opens the doors to the simple and closes them to the subtle. And Faith reveals the secrets of the Beloved through the casement of love.’

73 ‘Say, Fool of Love, why dost thou not speak, and what is this for which thou art thoughtful and perplexed?’ The Lover answered: ‘I am thinking of the beauties of my Beloved, and the likeness between the bliss and the sorrow which are brought me by the gifts of Love.’

74 ‘Say, Fool, which was in being first, thy heart or thy love?’ He answered and said: ‘Both came into being together; for were it not so, the heart had not been made for love, nor love for reflection.’

75 They asked the Fool: ‘Where did thy love have its birth: in the secrets of the Beloved, or in the revelation of them?’ He replied: ‘Love in its fullness makes no such distinction as this; for secretly the Lover hides the secrets of his Beloved; secretly also he reveals them, and yet when they are revealed he keeps them secret still.’

76 The secrets of love, unrevealed, cause anguish and grief; revelation of love brings fervour and fear. And for this cause the Lover must ever be suffering.

77 Love called his lovers, and bade them ask of him the most desirable and pleasing gifts. And they asked of Love that he would clothe and adorn them after his own manner, that they might be more acceptable to the Beloved.

78 The Lover cried aloud to all men, and said: ‘Love bids you ever love: in walking and sitting, in sleeping and waking, in buying and selling, in weeping and laughing, in speech and in silence, in gain and in loss--in short, in whatsoever you do, for this is Love’s commandment.’

79 ‘Say, Fool, when did Love first come to thee?’ ‘In that time,’ he replied, ‘when my heart was filled and enriched with thoughts and desires, sighs and griefs, and my eyes with tears.’ ‘And what did Love bring thee?’ ‘The wondrous ways of my Beloved, His honours and His exceeding worth.’ ‘How did these things come?’ ‘Through my memory and understanding.’ ‘How didst thou receive them?’ ‘With love and hope.’ ‘How dost thou keep them?’ ‘With justice and prudence, temperance and courage.’

80 The Beloved sang, and said: ‘Little the Lover knows of love, if he is ashamed to praise his Beloved, or if he fears to do Him honour in that place where He is most dishonoured; and little has he learned to love who is impatient of tribulations; and he who loses trust in his Beloved loses also his love and hope.’

81 The Lover wrote to his Beloved, and asked Him if there were others who could help him to suffer and bear the grievous trials which he endured for love of Him. And the Beloved replied to the Lover: ‘There is nought in Me that can forsake nor fail thee.’

82 They asked the Beloved concerning the love of His Lover. He answered: ‘It is a mingling of joy and sorrow, of fervency and fear.’ They asked the Lover concerning the love of his Beloved. And he answered: ‘It is the inflowing of infinite goodness, eternal life, power, wisdom, charity and perfection. This is that which flows to the Lover from the Beloved.’

83 ‘Say, O Fool, what meanest thou by a marvel?’ He replied: ‘It is a marvel to love things absent more than things present; and no less to love things seen and things corruptible more than things unseen and incorruptible.’

84 The Lover went to seek his Beloved, and he found a man who was dying without love. And he said: ‘How great a sadness is it that any man should die without love!’ So the Lover said to him that was dying: ‘Say, why dost thou die without love?’ And he replied: ‘Because I lived without love.’

85 The Lover asked his Beloved: ‘Which is the greater--loving, or love itself?’ The Beloved answered: ‘In this mortal life, love is the tree, the fruit of which is loving; the flowers and the leaves are trials and griefs. And in God, love and loving are one and the same thing, without either griefs or trials.’

86 The Lover was sorrowful, and wearied with overmuch thought. And therefore he begged his Beloved to send him a book, in which he might see Him in His virtues, that his sorrow might thereby be relieved. So the Beloved sent that book to the Lover, and his trials and griefs were doubled.

87 Sick with love was the Lover, and a physician came in to see him who doubled his sorrows and his thoughts. And in that same hour the Lover was healed.

88 Love went apart with the Lover, and they had great joy of the Beloved as they communed of Him. The Lover wept, and afterwards was in rapture, and Love swooned thereat. But the Beloved brought life to His Lover by revealing to him His Countenance.

89 The Lover said to the Beloved: ‘By many ways dost Thou come to my heart, and revealest Thyself to my sight. And by many names do I name Thee. But the love by which Thou sustainest me and humblest me is one, and one alone.’

90 The Beloved revealed Himself to His Lover, clothed in new and scarlet robes. He stretched out His Arms to embrace him; He inclined His Head to kiss him; and He remained on high that he might ever seek Him.

91 The Beloved was absent from His Lover, and the Lover sought his Beloved with his memory and understanding, that he might worthily love Him. The Lover found his Beloved, and asked Him whither He had been. ‘Far from thy memory,’ answered the Beloved, ‘and in a place which thy understanding knew not.’

92 ‘Say, O Fool, hast thou shame when men see thee weep for thy Beloved?’ ‘Shame apart from sin,’ answered the Lover, ‘signifies want of love in one who knows not how to love.’

93 The Beloved planted in the heart of the Lover sighs and longings, virtue and love. The Lover watered the seed with his tears. In the body of the Lover the Beloved planted trials, tribulations and griefs. And the Lover tended his body with hope and devotion, consolation and patience.

94 The Beloved made a great feast, gathered an assembly of many noble knights, sent many invitations and gave great gifts. To this assembly came the Lover, and the Beloved said to him: ‘Who called thee to come to this assembly?’ The Lover answered: ‘Need and love compelled me to come, that I might behold Thy face, Thy wonders, Thy adornments and Thy glory.’

95 They asked the Lover: ‘Whence art thou?’ He answered: ‘From love.’ ‘To whom dost thou belong?’ ‘I belong to love.’ ‘Who gave thee birth?’ ‘Love.’ ‘Where wast thou born?’ ‘In love.’ ‘Who brought thee up?’ ‘Love.’ ‘How dost thou live?’ ‘By love.’ ‘What is thy name?’ ‘Love.’ ‘Whence comest thou?’ ‘From love.’ ‘Whither goest thou?’ ‘To love.’ ‘Where dwelled thou?’ ‘In love.’ ‘Hast thou aught but love?’ ‘Yea,’ he answered, ‘I have faults; and I have sins against my Beloved.’ ‘Is there pardon in thy Beloved?’ ‘Yea,’ answered the Lover, ‘in my Beloved there is justice and mercy, and therefore am I lodged between fear and hope; for mercy causes me to hope and justice to fear.’

96 The Beloved left the Lover, and the Lover sought Him in his thoughts, and inquired for Him of men in the language of love. The Lover found his Beloved, who was despised among the people, and he told the Beloved what great wrong was done to His Name. The Beloved answered him, and said: ‘Lo, I suffer these wrongs for want of fervent and devoted lovers.’ The Lover wept, and his sorrow was increased, but the Beloved comforted him, by revealing to him His Presence.

97 The light of the Beloved’s abode came to illumine the Lover’s dwelling, which was full of darkness, and to fill it with joy, with grief and with thoughts. And the Lover cast out all things from his dwelling, that the Beloved might be lodged there.

98 They asked the Lover what sign the Beloved bore upon His banner. He replied: ‘The sign of One dead.’ They asked him why He bore such a sign. He answered: ‘Because He was once crucified, and was dead, and because those who glory in being His lovers must follow His steps.’

99 The Beloved came to lodge in the dwelling of His Lover, and the steward demanded of Him the reckoning. But the Lover said: ‘My Beloved is to be lodged freely,--yea, with a gift,--for long ago He paid the price of all men.’

100 Memory and Will met together, and climbed into the mountain of the Beloved, that understanding might be exalted and love for the Beloved might be increased.

101 Every day sighs and tears are messengers between the Lover and the Beloved, that between them there may be solace and companionship, love and goodwill.

102 The Lover desired his Beloved, and sent to Him his thoughts, that they might bring him back from his Beloved the joys which for so long had been his.

103 The Beloved gave to His Lover the gift of tears, sighs, thoughts, weariness and grief, with which gift the Lover served his Beloved.

104 The Lover begged his Beloved to give him riches, peace and honour in this world; and the Beloved revealed His Countenance to the memory and understanding of the Lover, and gave Himself as the Supreme Aim to his will.

105 They asked the Lover: ‘In what consists honour?’ He answered: ‘In comprehending and loving my Beloved.’ And they asked him also: ‘In what consists dishonour?’ He answered: ‘In forgetting and ceasing to love Him.’

106 ‘O my Beloved, I was tormented by love, until I cried that Thou wast present in my torments; and then did love ease my griefs, and Thou as a guerdon didst increase my love, even as Thou didst double my torment.’

107 In the path of love the Lover found another who was silent, and who with tears, grief, and a sad countenance made accusation and reproach against Love. And Love made excuse, saying that he had given him noble gifts: loyalty, hope, patience, devotion, courage, temperance and happiness; and he blamed the Lover who cried out upon Love, for that he had given him such gifts as these.

108 The Lover sang and said: ‘Ah, what great affliction is love! Ah, what great happiness it is to love my Beloved, who loves His lovers with infinite and eternal love, perfect and complete in everything!’

109 The Lover went into a far country seeking his Beloved, and in the way he met two lions. The Lover was afraid, even to death, for he desired to live and serve his Beloved. So he sent Memory to his Beloved, that Love might be present at his passing, for with Love he could better endure death. And while the Lover thought upon his Beloved, the two lions came humbly to the Lover, licked the tears from his eyes, and caressed his hands and feet. So the Lover went on his way in search of his Beloved.

110 The Lover journeyed over hill and dale, but he could find no way of escape from the imprisonment in which Love had for so long enthralled his body and his thoughts and all his desires and joys. While the Lover went labouring thus, he found a hermit who was sleeping near to a fair spring. The Lover wakened the hermit, and asked him if in his dreams he had seen the Beloved. The hermit replied that his own thoughts also, whether he was sleeping or waking, were imprisoned by Love. And the Lover joyed greatly at finding a fellow-prisoner; so they both wept, for the Beloved has few such lovers as these.

111 There is naught in the Beloved which is not care and sorrow for the Lover, nor has the Lover aught in himself in which the Beloved joys not and has no part. And therefore is the love of the Beloved ever active, while that of the Lover is grief and suffering.

112 A bird was singing upon a branch: ‘I will give a fresh thought to the lover who will give me two.’ The bird gave that fresh thought to the Lover, and the Lover gave two to the bird, that its grief might be assuaged; and the Lover felt his griefs increased.

113 The Lover and the Beloved met together, and their caresses and embraces, their weeping and crying, bore witness to their meeting. Then the Beloved asked the Lover concerning his state, and the Lover was speechless before his Beloved.

114 The Lover and the Beloved strove, and their love made peace between them. Which of them, think you, bore the stronger love toward the other?

115 The Lover loved all who feared his Beloved, and he feared all who feared Him not. And there arose this doubt: Had the Lover more of love or of fear?

116 The Lover thought to follow his Beloved, and he passed along a road where there was a fierce lion which killed all who passed by it carelessly and without devotion. Then the Lover said: ‘He who fears not my Beloved must fear everything, and he who fears Him may be bold and fervent in all things beside.’

117 They asked the Lover: ‘What meanest thou by occasion of love?’ He answered: ‘It is to have pleasure in penance, understanding in knowledge, hope in patience, health in abstinence, consolation in remembrance, love in diligence, loyalty in destitution, riches in poverty, peace in obedience, strife in malevolence.’

118 Love shone through the cloud which came between the Lover and the Beloved, and made it as bright and resplendent as is the moon by night, as the day-star at dawn, the sun at midday, the understanding in the will; and through that bright cloud the Lover and the Beloved held converse.

119 They asked the Lover: ‘What is the greatest darkness?’ He replied: ‘The absence of my Beloved.’ ‘And what is the greatest light?’ ‘The presence of my Beloved.’

120 The marks of the Beloved are seen in the Lover, who for love’s sake is in thought and grief, sighs and tears, and contempt of the people.

121 The Lover wrote these words: ‘My Beloved delighteth because I raise my thoughts to Him, and my eyes are in grief and tears, and I neither live nor feel, nor taste nor see nor hear.’

122 Ah, understanding and will, cry out and awaken the watchdogs who sleep, forgetting my Beloved. Weep, O eyes! Sigh, O heart! And, memory, forget not the dishonour which is done to my Beloved by those whom He has so greatly honoured.

123 The enmity of men to my Beloved increases. Yet my Beloved promises gifts and rewards, and threatens with justice and wisdom. And memory and will despise both His threats and His promises.

124 The Beloved drew near to the Lover, to comfort and console him for the grief which he suffered and the tears which he shed. And the nearer was the Lover to the Beloved, the more he grieved and wept, crying out upon the dishonour which his Beloved endured.

125 With the pen of love, with the water of his tears, and on paper of suffering, the Lover wrote letters to his Beloved. And in these he told how devotion tarried, how love was dying, and how falsehood and error were increasing the number of His enemies.

126 The Lover and the Beloved were bound in love with the bonds of memory, understanding, and will, that they might never be parted; and the cord with which these two loves were bound was woven of thoughts and griefs, sighs and tears.

127 The Lover lay in the bed of love: his sheets were of joy, his coverlet was of griefs, his pillow of tears. And none knew if the fabric of the pillow was that of the sheets or of the coverlet.

128 The Beloved clothed His Lover in vest, coat and mantle, and gave him a helmet of love. His body He clothed with thoughts, his feet with tribulations, and his head with a garland of tears.

129 The Beloved adjured His Lover not to forget Him. The Lover replied that he could not forget Him because he could not do otherwise than know Him.

130 The Beloved said to His Lover: ‘Thou shalt praise and defend Me in places where men fear to praise Me.’ The Lover answered: ‘Provide me then with love.’ The Beloved answered: ‘For love of thee I became incarnate, and endured the pains of death.’

131 The Lover said to his Wellbeloved: ‘Teach me how to make Thee known and loved and praised among men.’ The Beloved filled His Lover with devotion, patience, charity, tribulations, thoughts, sighs and tears. And boldness to praise the Beloved entered the Lover’s heart; and in his mouth were praises of his Beloved; and in his will was contempt of the murmurings of men who judge falsely.

132 The Lover said to the people: ‘He who truly remembers my Beloved, in remembering Him forgets all things around; and he who forgets all things in remembering my Beloved, is defended by Him from all harm, and receives a part in all His blessings.’

133 They asked the Lover: ‘Whereof is Love born, whereon does it live, and wherefore does it die?’ The Lover answered: ‘Love is born of remembrance, it lives on understanding, it dies through forgetfulness.’

134 The Lover forgot all that was beneath the high heavens that his understanding might soar the higher towards a knowledge of the Beloved, whom his will desired to comprehend, to contemplate, praise and preach.

135 The Lover went to the wars for the honour of his Beloved, and took with him faith, hope and charity, justice, prudence, strength and temperance with which to vanquish his Beloved’s enemies. And the Lover would have been vanquished if the Beloved had not helped him to make known His greatness.

136 The Lover desired to attain to the farthest goal of his love for the Beloved; and other objects blocked his path. For this cause his longing desires and thoughts gave the Lover sorrow and grief.

137 The Lover was glad, and rejoiced in the greatness of his Beloved. But afterwards the Lover was sad because of overmuch thought and reflection. And he knew not which he felt the more deeply--the joys or the sorrows.

138 The Lover was sent by his Beloved to Christian princes and to unbelievers, to teach them by his _Art_[5] and his _Elements_[5] to know and love his Beloved.

139 If thou seest a lover clothed in fine raiment, prizing vainglory, sated with food and sleep, know that in that man thou seest damnation and torment. And if thou seest a lover poorly clothed, despised by the world, pale and thin with fast and vigil, know that in that man thou lookest upon salvation and everlasting weal.

140 The Lover made complaint to his Beloved of the heat of the fire which raged in his breast. The Lover was like to die, and the Beloved wept, and gave him the comfort of patience and the sure hope of reward.

141 The Lover wept for all that he had lost; and none could comfort him, for his losses could not be regained.

142 God created the night that men might keep vigil, and meditate upon the glories of the Beloved: there was a time when the Lover thought that it was created for the rest and sleep of those who were wearied with loving.

143 Men reproached and reproved the Lover, because he went about as a fool for love’s sake. And the Lover despised their reproaches, and himself reproved them, because they loved not his Beloved.

144 The Lover said: ‘I am clothed in vile raiment; but love clothes my heart with thoughts of delight, and my body with tears, griefs and sufferings.’

145 The Beloved sang, and said: ‘I taught those who praise Me to sing My praises aright, and the enemies of My honour have tormented and despised them. Therefore have I sent my Lover that he may weep and lament the dishonour which I have suffered, and his laments and tears are the fruit of My love.’

146 The Lover made oath to the Beloved that for love of Him he endured and loved trials and sufferings, and he begged the Beloved that He would think upon his trials and sufferings. The Beloved made oath that it was the nature and property of His love to love all those that loved Him, and to have pity on those who endured trials for love of Him. The Lover was glad, and rejoiced in the nature and property of his Beloved.

147 The Beloved silenced His Lover, and the Lover took comfort in gazing upon his Beloved.

148 The Lover wept and called upon his Beloved, until the Beloved came down from the heights of Heaven; and He came to earth to weep and suffer and die for the sake of love, and to teach men to know and love and praise His Name.

149 The Lover reproached Christian people, because in their letters they put not first the name of his Beloved, Jesus Christ, to do Him the same honour that the Saracens do to the false prophet Mahomet, when they honour him by naming him before everything in their letters.

150 The Lover met a Squire, pale, thin, and poorly clothed, who was walking along in pensive fashion; and he saluted the Lover and said: ‘Now God guide thee, that thou mayest find thy Beloved!’ And the Lover asked him how he had recognised him; and the Squire said: ‘Some of Love’s secrets reveal others, and therefore between lovers there is recognition.’

151 The glory, honour and goodness of the Beloved are the riches and treasure of the Lover. And the Beloved’s treasure is the store of thoughts, desires, torments, tears and griefs with which the Lover ever loves and honours his Beloved.

152 A great and goodly company of tried lovers have gathered together; they bear the banner of love, on which is the form and figure of their Beloved. And they will have with them none who has not love, lest their Beloved should be dishonoured.

153 They who show their folly by heaping up riches move the Lover to be a fool for love; and the shame which the Lover feels at going as a fool among men makes him to be esteemed and loved. Which of the two emotions, think you, is the greater occasion of love?

154 Love made the Lover to be sad through excess of thought; the Beloved sang, and the Lover rejoiced to hear Him. Which of these two causes, think you, increased more the Lover’s love?

155 In the secrets of the Lover are revealed the secrets of the Beloved, and in the secrets of the Beloved are revealed the secrets of the Lover. Which of these two secrets, think you, is the greater cause of revelation?

156 They asked the Fool by what signs his Beloved might be known. He answered: ‘By mercy and pity, which are essentially in His Will, without mutation or change.’

157 Such was the love which the Lover had to his Beloved, that he desired the good of all above the good of each, and for his Beloved to be everywhere known and praised, and desired of all the world.

158 Love and Indifference met in a garden, where the Lover and the Beloved were talking in secret. And Love asked Indifference why he had come to that place. ‘That the Lover may cease to love,’ he replied, ‘and the Beloved to be honoured.’ The words of Indifference were greatly displeasing to the Beloved and the Lover, and their love was increased, that Indifference might be vanquished and destroyed thereby.

159 ‘Say, O Fool, in which dost thou take the greater pleasure--in loving or in hating?’ ‘In loving,’ he replied, ‘for I have only hated that I may the better love.’

160 ‘Say, O Lover, which dost thou strive to understand the better--falsehood or truth?’ He answered: ‘Truth.’ ‘And why so?’ ‘Because I understand falsehood that I may the better understand truth.’

161 The Lover perceived that he was loved by his Beloved, and he inquired of Him if His love and His mercy were one and the same thing. The Beloved affirmed that in His essence there was no distinction between His love and His mercy. Therefore said the Lover: ‘Why, then, does Thy love torment me, and why does not Thy mercy heal me of my griefs?’

162 The Lover desired to go into a far country to do honour to his Beloved, and he wished to disguise himself that he might not be taken captive on the way; but he could not hide the tears in his eyes, nor his pale and drawn face, nor the thoughts, complaints and sighs, the sorrow and grief of his heart. And so he was taken captive on the journey and delivered to the tormentors by the enemies of his Beloved.

163 Imprisoned was the Lover in the prison of Love. Thoughts, desires and memories held and enchained him lest he might flee from his Beloved. Griefs tormented him; patience and hope consoled him. And the Lover was dying, but the Beloved revealed to him His Presence, and the Lover revived.

164 The Lover met his Beloved, and he knew Him and wept. The Beloved reproved him, because he wept not until he knew Him. ‘How didst thou know Me,’ He asked, ‘since thine eyes were not already wet with tears?’ And the Lover answered: ‘By memory, understanding and will, through which, as soon as the eyes of my body saw Thee, my love was increased.’

165 ‘What meanest thou by love?’ said the Beloved. And the Lover answered: ‘It is to bear on one’s heart the sacred marks and the sweet words of the Beloved. It is to long for Him with desire and with tears. It is boldness. It is fervour. It is fear. It is the desire for the Beloved above all things. It is that which causes the Lover to grow faint when he hears the Beloved’s praises. It is that in which I die daily, and in which is all my will.’

166 Devotion and Absent Longing sent thoughts as messengers to the Lover’s heart, to bring tears to his eyes, which for long had wept but now would weep no more.

167 Said the Lover: ‘O ye that love, if ye will have fire, come light your lanterns at my heart; if water, come to my eyes, whence flow the tears in streams; if thoughts of love, come gather them from my meditations.’

168 It happened one day that the Lover was meditating on the great love which he had for his Beloved, and the great trials and perils into which this love for so long had led him, and he fell to considering his reward, which, he said, would surely be great. And as he thus discoursed with himself, it came to him that his Beloved had recompensed him already, for had he not been inspired with a love for His Presence,--with that very love through which his sufferings had come?

169 The Lover was wiping away the tears which for Love’s sake he had shed, that none should see the sufferings which the Beloved sent him. But the Beloved said: ‘Why wouldst thou hide from others these marks of thy love? Behold, I have given them to thee that others may love and honour Me also.’

170 ‘Say, O thou that goest as a fool for love’s sake, how long wilt thou be a slave, and forced to weep and suffer trials and griefs?’ He answered: ‘Till my Beloved shall separate body and soul in me.’

171 ‘Say, O Fool, hast thou riches?’ He answered: ‘I have my Beloved.’ ‘Hast thou villas, castles or cities, provinces or kingdoms?’ He answered: ‘I have thoughts of love, tears, desires, trials, griefs, which are better than kingdoms or empires.’