In essence, courtly love was an experience between erotic desire and spiritual attainment, "a love at once illicit and morally elevating, passionate and disciplined, humiliating and exalting, human and transcendent".
En esencia, o amor cortés era unha experiencia contraditoria entre o desexo erótico e a realización espiritual, "un amor ao mesmo tempo ilícito e moralmente elevado, paixonal e auto-disciplinado, humillante e exaltante, humano e transcendente".