THE BOOK OF THE LOVERAND THE BELOVED
THE BOOK OF THE LOVER
AND THE BELOVED
TRANSLATED FROM THE CATALAN
OF RAMÓN LULL WITH AN INTRODUCTORY
ESSAY BY
E. ALLISON PEERS
LONDON
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING
CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE
NEW YORK AND TORONTO: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1923
PREFACE
MORE than six centuries have passed since thislittle Majorcan classic was written, and, so faras I can find, it has never once been translated intoEnglish. Such an omission can only be explainedby our comparative ignorance of the treasures ofSpanish Mysticism, and perhaps in part by the factthat Lull wrote, not in Castilian, but in a little-knownthough beautiful idiom, that of Catalonia.
It would have been attractive to reproduce theoriginal version of the book together with this translation,and even more so to have translated thewhole of Blanquerna, of which it forms a part. Ihope that both these projects may be realised in thefuture, together with the translations of (at least) ElsCent Noms de Deu, El Desconort, and some of theshort hymns and poems. But it seemed best tobegin by making known some of Lull’s best work toas wide a circle of readers as possible. Accordingly,while following, as a rule, the oldest text (which is ofthe fourteenth century) I have not scrupled to addto my translation a few passages found only in theeditions of Paris (1505) and Valencia (1521), whichilluminate the author’s thought, or seem in otherways to be of real value.
On the other hand, I have not allowed myself,through a desire to expound Lull’s ideas, to substituteparaphrase for faithful and exact translation.Very few liberties have been taken with the text, and[viii]these only where a slight expansion or change ofconstruction has served to bring out the meaning ofan otherwise quite obscure word or phrase. Essentially,therefore, the reader has Lull’s own vivid andforceful words, with the impediment of a foreignlanguage removed.
E. ALLISON PEERS
The University, Liverpool.
Jan. 19, 1923.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY
THE average man has seldom understood theMystic. He conceives the Mystic Life, with itsceaseless spiritual activity, and its restlessness whichknows no stay till it reaches its goal, as a life oftranquillity, if not of indolence and ease. He has noconception of what it really is, and for that, perhaps,he should not be blamed. But not content withmisinterpreting the mystic’s life, he presently becomesmore daring; he asserts that mysticism isessentially ‘unpractical,’ and that one whose aim isto reach the state of Union with God must necessarilybe as a fool in his relations with the world. Here theaverage man is grossly, inexcusably mistaken. Hiserror has again and again been exposed, confuted,disproved by exam