Part 2

The former is by far the simpler and more appealing of the two, the _Art of Contemplation_ being considerably longer and full of doctrinal teaching. It is, nevertheless, still read, less for its didactic passages than for its close relation with the whole romance, its mystical aspect, and in particular its prayers, which are of great beauty. The _Book of the Lover and the Beloved_ is mystical throughout. It was written, the author himself declares, ‘that the hearts of men might be moved to true contrition, their eyes to abundance of tears, and their wills and understandings to loftier flights in the contemplation of God.’ How well it attains its object, and how truly it reflects the mystic’s being, the reader must judge.

III

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.’