(2) Thou'lt see me come unto thy darling tree, And crown myself thereafter with those leaves Of which the theme and thou shall make me worthy. So seldom, Father, do we gather them For triumph or of Caesar or of Poet, (The fault and shame of human inclinations,) That the Peneian foliage should bring forth Joy to the joyous Delphic deity, When any one it makes to thirst for it. A little spark is followed by great flame; Perchance with better voices after me Shall prayer be made that Cyrrha may respond! To mortal men by passages diverse Uprises the world's lamp; but by that one Which circles four uniteth with three crosses, With better course and with a better star Conjoined it issues, and the mundane wax Tempers and stamps more after its own fashion. Almost that passage had made morning there And evening here, and there was wholly white That hemisphere, and black the other part, When Beatrice towards the left-hand side I saw turned round, and gazing at the sun; Never did eagle fasten so upon it!

(38) Besides, I hear a great Howling and Lamentation, that all thy Servants cry Woe over thee, because thou plaguest them; and moreover, thou hast shed my noble Seed, and not sown it, but [thou hast sown] thy wild [Seed] for [the promoting of] thy great Devouring and Pomp. Behold, I have spewed thee out towards Babel in the Press of my fierce Wrath, and there I will press thee; and I will plant my Lily-Branch in my Garden of Roses, which brings me forth Fruit, after which my Soul lusts, of which my sick Adam shall eat, that he may be strong, and may go into Paradise. Of the Thrusting Adam and Eve out of the Paradise of the Garden in Eden.

(36) But the divine Answer in the Light of Nature says to me; Behold, out of what art thou grown? Have I planted thee? Art thou not grown in my wild Garden? When Adam went into the wild Garden, there he a planted thee. How art thou grown so great? Who has given thee Virtue [or Sap,] thou wild Tree? My Love never stirred thee up, all thy Branches are wild, and thy Fruit is wild. Dost thou think that my Soul lusts after thy Food? I will not eat of thy Fruit: I am strong, and the Kingdom is mine; he that comes under my Wings, I will shelter him, no Storm can touch him; moreover, the Country is mine. I have left it to you, to be used in unanimous Love; and have set you out of one [and the same] Root, that you should be alike, and love one another, and prevent one another in chaste Love.

(46) And the young Man said; Thy Ornament is mine already, I [will] use thee according to my Will; in that thou sayest I shall be broken, (corrupted or destroyed,) yet my Worm is eternal, I will rule with that; and yet I will dwell in thee, and cloath thee with my Garments.

(63) Then thou has great Honour for thy Shame. And therefore why art thou so sad? Lift up thyself out of thy wild Beast, Hunter, or Persecutor, as a fair Flower springs out of the Earth. O dost thou suppose, thou wild Beast, that my Spirit is mad, that it so little esteemed thee? Thou sayest I am indeed thy Beast, yet thou art born out of me; if I had not grown forth, thou hadst not been neither. Hearken thou my Beast, I am greater than thou; when thou wast to be, there I was thy Master- framer; my Essences are out of the Root of the Eternity, but thou art from this World, and thou breakest [or corruptest,] but I live in my Source [or Quality] eternally; therefore am I much nobler than thou; thou livest in the fierce [wrathful] Source, but I will put strong fierce Property into the Light, into the eternal Joy; my Works stand in Power, and thine remain in the Figure; when I shall once be released from thee, then I shall take thee no more to be my Beast again, but [I will take] my new Body which I brought forth in thee, in thy deepest Root of the holy Element. I will no more have thy rough Productions of the four Elements, Death swallows thee up. But I spring and grow out of thee, with my new Body, as a Flower out of the Root; I will forget thee. For the Glory of God (which cursed thee together with the Earth) has grafted my Root again in his Son, and my Body grows in the holy Element before God. Therefore thou art but my wild Beast, which dost plague me, and make me sick here, upon which the Devil rides, as upon his accursed Horse; and although the World scorn thee, I regard not that, it does that for my Sake; and yet it cannot see me, neither can it know me. And why then is it so mad? It cannot murder me, for I am not in it.

(7) I have come to my abode. I have united the two diadems. I shine like a star. O ye flowers, the name of which is “the precious bunch,” I am the lotus which cometh out of the holy earth; when I am plucked, I settle myself at the nostrils of the Great Figure

(111) Since you have made fiery lust as a verdant garden, And have sowed therein the seed of fidelity, So that nightingales of prayer and praise Ever warble sweetly around this garden; Since you have responded to the call of God, And have drawn water out of the hell of lust, For this cause my hell also, for your behoof, Becomes a verdant garden and yields leaves and fruit." What is the recompense of well-doing, O son? Have ye not said, "We are victims,

(12) I am, I am, I live, I live, I grow, I grow, and when I shall awake in peace, I shall not be in corruption, I shall not be destroyed in my bandages. I shall be free of pestilence, my eye will not be corrupted, my skin (?) will not disappear. My ear will not be deaf, my head will not be taken away from my neck, my tongue will not be torn away, my hair will not be cut off, my eyebrows shall not be shaven off. No grievous harm shall come upon me, my body is firm, it shall not be destroyed. It shall not perish in this earth for ever

(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,

(54) You issue from God's attributes at first; Return again back to those attributes with all speed! You come from the clouds and sunshine and sky, You come in the form of rain and sunshine, You begin as a part of the sun, clouds, and stars, You rise to be breath, act, word, and thought! True is the saying, 'Kill me, O faithful ones!' True it is that 'In our death is life.' Acts, words, and faith are the food of the King, Thus, as potherbs become the food of men,

(4) 'Sperent in te,' in the high Theody He sayeth, 'those who know thy name;' and who Knoweth it not, if he my faith possess? Thou didst instil me, then, with his instilling In the Epistle, so that I am full, And upon others rain again your rain." While I was speaking, in the living bosom Of that combustion quivered an effulgence, Sudden and frequent, in the guise of lightning; Then breathed: "The love wherewith I am inflamed Towards the virtue still which followed me Unto the palm and issue of the field, Wills that I breathe to thee that thou delight In her; and grateful to me is thy telling Whatever things Hope promises to thee." And I: "The ancient Scriptures and the new The mark establish, and this shows it me, Of all the souls whom God hath made his friends. Isaiah saith, that each one garmented In his own land shall be with twofold garments, And his own land is this delightful life. Thy brother, too, far more explicitly, There where he treateth of the robes of white, This revelation manifests to us."

(2) I think he thought that I perhaps might think So many voices issued through those trunks From people who concealed themselves from us; Therefore the Master said: "If thou break off Some little spray from any of these trees, The thoughts thou hast will wholly be made vain." Then stretched I forth my hand a little forward, And plucked a branchlet off from a great thorn; And the trunk cried, "Why dost thou mangle me?" After it had become embrowned with blood, It recommenced its cry: "Why dost thou rend me? Hast thou no spirit of pity whatsoever? Men once we were, and now are changed to trees; Indeed, thy hand should be more pitiful, Even if the souls of serpents we had been." As out of a green brand, that is on fire At one of the ends, and from the other drips And hisses with the wind that is escaping; So from that splinter issued forth together Both words and blood; whereat I let the tip Fall, and stood like a man who is afraid. "Had he been able sooner to believe," My Sage made answer, "O thou wounded soul, What only in my verses he has seen,

(44) I cut off your head, but that head is such That it is restored to life by being cut off!" My main object herein is to inculcate resignation, O Mosalman! it behoves you to seek resignation. O potherbs, you boil in trials and sufferings Though you once smiled in that earthly garden, If you are torn away from the garden of earth, You become sweet food to revive man's life; Yea, become his food and strength and thought! You were only milk, you become a lion of the forest!

(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.

(37) Thou wild Beast, how comest thou so great and strong? Hast thou not trampled in my Garden of Roses, and there made thee a Couch? Where are thy Brothers and Sisters? How comes it to pass, that they lie at thy Feet, and that they are so lean, and thou only art strong [and lusty?] Hast thou not devoured my Branches, and brought forth young Wolves, which devour thy I suffer thee in my Garden of Roses? Where is the noble Fruit which I sowed? Have you not turned them all into wild Branches? And where now shall I seek for the Fruit and Profit of my Garden of Roses? My Soul would fain eat of the good Fruit, but thou hast trampled all under-foot, and made it a Den of Murder.

(7) Now that which was behind thee is before thee; But that thou know that I with thee am pleased, With a corollary will I mantle thee. Evermore nature, if it fortune find Discordant to it, like each other seed Out of its region, maketh evil thrift; And if the world below would fix its mind On the foundation which is laid by nature, Pursuing that, 'twould have the people good. But you unto religion wrench aside Him who was born to gird him with the sword, And make a king of him who is for sermons; Therefore your footsteps wander from the road."

(7) I'll give thee a corollary still in grace, Nor think my speech will be to thee less dear If it spread out beyond my promise to thee. Those who in ancient times have feigned in song The Age of Gold and its felicity, Dreamed of this place perhaps upon Parnassus. Here was the human race in innocence; Here evermore was Spring, and every fruit; This is the nectar of which each one speaks." Then backward did I turn me wholly round Unto my Poets, and saw that with a smile They had been listening to these closing words; Then to the beautiful lady turned mine eyes.

(11) Now the love always breaketh through the house of death, and generateth holy, heavenly twigs in the great tree; which twigs stand in the light. For they spring up through the shell or skin of darkness, as the twigs do through the shell or bark of the tree, and are one life with God.

(2) I am the sap coming out of its tree, I am the flow coming out of its form; for I stand before the lord of the white crown, I am gracious; my words are well established before the lord of the red crown, he who avenges his eye

(24) Then I said: '⌈How⌉ beautiful is this tree, and fragrant, and its leaves are fair, and its blooms ⌈⌈very⌉⌉ delightful in appearance.'