(72) Corresponding to that root grow up branches The tops of the perfect trees reach the heavens, The roots firm, and the branches in the sky. Since then the tree of love has grown up to heaven, How shall it not also grow in the heart of the Prince? A wave washes away the remembrance of the sin from his heart, Since in each heart there is a window to other hearts, They are not, separated and shut off like two bodies. Thus, even though two lamp-dishes be not joined, No lover ever seeks union with his beloved,

(4) Meanwhile, the grandmother was crying and lamenting before the reeds which they had left planted. The reeds sprouted, then they dried up when [the boys] were consumed in the bonfire; afterward [the reeds] sprouted again. Then the grandmother lighted the fire and burned incense before the reeds in memory of her grandchildren. And the grandmother's heart filled with joy when, for the second time, the reeds sprouted. Then they were worshiped by the grandmother, and she called them the Center of the House, Nicah [the center] they were called.

(13) From this root there grow and ripen the fruits of birth, of the life-span, of all that is tasted in life.

(3) Then he [i.e. Yajnavalkya] questioned them with these verses: — As a tree of the forest, Just so, surely, is man. His hairs are leaves. His skin the outer bark. From his skin blood, Sap from the bark flows forth. From him when pierced there comes forth A stream, as from the tree when struck. His pieces of flesh are under-layers of wood. The fibre is muscle-like, strong. The bones are the wood within. The marrow is made resembling pith. A tree, when it is felled, grows up From the root, more new again; A mortal, when cut down by death — From what root does he grow up? Say not 'from semen/ For that is produced from the living, As the tree, forsooth, springing from seed, Clearly arises without having died. If with its roots they should pull up The tree, it would not come into being again. A mortal, when cut down by death — From what root does he grow up? When born, indeed, he is not born [again]. Who would again beget him? Brahma is knowledge, is bliss, The final goal of the giver of offerings, Of him, too, who stands still and knows It. J For a similar comparison in Hebrew literature see Job 14, 7-10.

(51) Moses and I are Thy nurslings both alike, Some of these branches Thou plantest in the ground, Can branch strive against axe? Not so. Can branch elude the power of the axe? Nay, O Lord of the power that dwells in Thy axe, In mercy make these crooked things straight!" The dissension of this husband and wife is a parable; This husband and wife are the reason and the flesh, And in this earthly house this linked pair The wife is ever seeking dainties for domestic needs,

(9) "We are going, grandmother, we came only to say goodbye. But here will be the sign which we shall leave of our fate: each of us shall plant a reed, in the middle of the house we shall plant it; if it dries, this shall be the sign of our death. 'They are dead!' you shall say, if it begins to dry up. But if it sprouts again: 'They are living!' you shall say, oh, our grandmother. And you, mother, do not weep, for here we leave the sign of our fate," thus they said. And before going, Hunahpú planted one [reed] and Xbalanqué planted another; they planted them in the house and not in the field, nor did they plant them in moist soil, but in dry soil; in the middle of their house, they left them planted.

(7) "And in that hour the three-hundred-and-sixty-and-five servitors of the rulers go into her womb and take up their abode in it. The servitors bring the two portions the one to the other, and moreover the servitors withhold the blood of all the food of the woman which she will eat and which she will drink, and they withhold [it] in the womb of the woman up to forty days. And after forty days they knead the blood of the power of all the food and knead it well in the woman's womb. "After forty days they spend another thirty days in building its members in the image of the body of the man; each buildeth a member. I will tell you the decans who will build it [ sc. the body]; I will tell them you at the expansion of the universe.

(66) Do they not all grow out of the earth? Do they not stand one by another? Does the one grudge the beauteous form of the other?

(3) Observe and see how (in the winter) all the trees ⌈⌈seem as though they had withered and shed all their leaves, except fourteen trees, which do not lose their foliage but retain the old foliage from two to three years till the new comes.

(119) And what would the tree be that you spoke of? He said to him: [It is] the powers/kochot of the Holy One, this on back of this, and they resemble/domin a tree: just as this tree, by means of the waters, brings out fruit, even so the Holy One by means of the waters increases the powers of the tree. And what are these waters of the Holy One? They are wisdom, and they are the souls/n’shamot of the righteous that bloom/grow/fly/por’chin from the spring unto the great channel. And he goes up and joins with the tree, and by what means does [the tree] bloom/grow? By means of Israel, [for] when they are righteous and good, Shekhinah rests among them, and through their deeds she rests in the bosom of the Holy One, and makes them fruitful and increases them.