More than six centuries have passed since this little Majorcan classic
was written, and, so far as I can find, it has never once been
translated into English. Such an omission can only be explained by
our comparative ignorance of the treasures of Spanish Mysticism, and
perhaps in part by the fact that Lull wrote, not in Castilian, but in a
little-known though beautiful idiom, that of Catalonia.
It would have been attractive to reproduce the original version of
the book together with this translation, and even more so to have
translated the whole of _Blanquerna_, of which it forms a part. I hope
that both these projects may be realised in the future, together with
the translations of (at least) _Els Cent Noms de Deu_, _El Desconort_,
and some of the short hymns and poems. But it seemed best to begin by
making known some of Lull’s best work to as wide a circle of readers
as possible. Accordingly, while following, as a rule, the oldest text
(which is of the fourteenth century) I have not scrupled to add to my
translation a few passages found only in the editions of Paris (1505)
and Valencia (1521), which illuminate the author’s thought, or seem in
other ways to be of real value.
On the other hand, I have not allowed myself, through a desire to
expound Lull’s ideas, to substitute paraphrase for faithful and exact
translation. Very few liberties have been taken with the text, and
these only where a slight expansion or change of construction has
served to bring out the meaning of an otherwise quite obscure word or
phrase. Essentially, therefore, the reader has Lull’s own vivid and
forceful words, with the impediment of a foreign language removed.