his own anxiety that his beloved may grow bored with him. Thus his heart ever burns, his mind to his beloved ever turns. The sweetness comes from his greater awareness of his beloved’s worth, as noted above, and from his love being as a result permanent and strong, for he believes with all his heart that he is pursuing what will bring him happiness and his due portion of good fortune.
3.2.15
ولها ايضا ثلث حالات اخرى باعتبار الاستطاعة وعدمها اعنى اليسر والعسر وحالة ما بينهما * اما الموسر فان محبته ابرد واحول * لان غناه يحمله على استبدال محبوبه والتنقل من حال الى حال * فلتحذر النسآ المحصنات هذا الصنف من الناس وان ماس بينهن١ ماسه * الا اذا كن لا يخفن على سرّهن وعرضهن * لان الغنىّ يستحلّ افشآ الاسرار * كما يستحيل خزن الدينار * وعنده ان كل شى عبد درهمه * وطوع نَهَمه * فاما الفقير فان محبته اشطّ واشذ واَلْوَع * لان فقره من حيث كان مانعًا له من ازالة الموانع التى تحول بينه وبين محبوبه لا يلبث ان يفضى به الى اليأس او الخبال او الى الانتحار * فاما المتوسط فان حبّه اعدل واصحّ *
١ ١٨٥٥: بهن.
Love has likewise three states with respect to means or the lack thereof—by which I have in mind material comfort, hardship, and their midpoint. The affection of the man of comfortable means is the coolest and most fickle, for his wealth allows him to change beloveds and shift from state to state. Let respectable women beware this type of man lest he spread scandal among them, unless they have no fear for their secrets and their honor, for the rich man has as little against giving away secrets as he has against piling up money, and to him everything is to his coin subservient, to his greed obedient. The affection of the poor man, in contrast, is the most excessive, deviant, and agonized, for his poverty, being an obstacle to his removal of the impediments that stand between him and his beloved, leads him in no time to despair, insanity, or suicide. The love of the man of middling means is the most balanced and healthy.
3.2.16
ولها ايضا ثلث حالات اخرى وهى الذل والعزّ والمساواة * فالذل غالبا صفة العاشق والعزّ صفة المعشوق * ومن اعجب انواع المحبة الحبّ المختلط بالبغض * وذلك كان يهوى رجل امراة وهى تهوى غيره وتتمنع عليه * فيهيج به وجده الى وصالها تشفّيا منها * فان فاز به غلبت محبته على كراهيته والّا فلا * ولا يزال هذا دابه حتى يسلو عنها * والغالب ان المحب لا يسلو محبوبه اذا عامله بالصد والحرمان الا اذا ظفر باخر شبيه له فى خلقه وخلقه وهيهات ذلك *
There are three more states of love, namely abjection, pride, and equality. Abjection usually is the state of the suitor, pride that of the one to whom suit is made. One of the most amazing kinds of affection is love mixed with hatred. An example would be a man who loves a woman who loves another man, and therefore refuses his advances. His fervor then urges him to pursue union with her as a form of vengeance against her. If he is successful in this, his love overcomes his hatred for her; if he isn’t, it doesn’t, and he remains in this state until some consolation distracts him from her. Generally speaking, the lover doesn’t forget his beloved when the latter treats him with aversion and denial but only on winning another who resembles the first physically and temperamentally (though how rarely that happens!).
3.2.17
فاما بواعث المحبة فقد تكون عن نظرة واحدة تقع من قلب الناظر موقعا مكينا * فتخلج فيه من محركات الوجد والشوق ما تخلجه عِشرة مدة مديدة * وعندى انه لا بدّ وان يكون المحبّ قد تصوّر فى عقله سابقا صفات وكيفيات من الحسن فصبا اليها * حتى اذا شاهدها حقيقة فى ذات من الذوات كما كان تصورها عَلِق بها قلبه وخاطره فكان كمن وجد ضالّة ينشدها * وقد تكون المحبة عن طول سماع عن شخص فيسترسل السامع اليه شيا فشيا حتى يكلف به * واكثر اسباب المحبة النظر والعشرة *
As to the incitements to love, these include a single sighting that touches a sensitive chord in the seer’s heart, after which he is pervaded by the same feelings conducive to ardor and longing that long association would create. In such cases, in my opinion, the lover must previously have pictured in his mind certain characteristics and specifics of comeliness and fallen in love with these; then, when he sees them as he had pictured them, realized in a particular body, his heart and mind cleave to it and he is like one who finds something he had lost and was looking for. Love may also come about as a result of hearing about someone for such a long time that, little by little, the hearer becomes so familiar with that person that he becomes devoted to them. The commonest causes of love, however, are looking and association.
3.2.18
واعلم ان كثيرا من الناس قد عشقوا الصور الجميلة فى الذكور والاناث لغير دعارة وفسق * وانما هو ارتياح نفس ووجد بال * ويويّده ما ورد فى الاثر * من عشق فكتم فعفَّ فمات مات شهيدا * والعاشق فى هذه الحالة يرضى من معشوقه بادنى شى * فالقبلة عنده وفتح وغنيمة * قال الشريف الرضى
| سلوا مضجعى عنى وعنها فاننا | رضينا بما يخبرن عنا المضاجع |
قلت لو كان لى تصرف فى هذا البيت لقلت عنها وعنى * وقال ابن الفارض رحٓمه
| كم بات طوع يدى والوصل يجمعنا | فى بردتيه التقى لا نعرف الدنسا |
وهذا العشق يسمى عند الافرنج العشق الافلاطونى نسبة الى افلاطون الحكيم * ولا حقيقة له عندهم وانما هو مجرد تسمية * ويعرف عندنا بالهوى العُذْرى * نسبة الى عُذرة
