emmerich -10

In the center of the glittering garden...

I saw a sheet of water, in which lay an island, connected with the opposite land by a pier. 

Both island and pier were covered with beautiful trees, but in the middle of the former stood one, more magnificent than the others. It towered high over them, as if guarding them. Its roots extended over the whole island, as did also its branches, which were broad below and tapering to a point above. 

Its boughs [grote takken] were horizontal, and from them arose others like little trees. The leaves were fine, the fruit yellow and sessile in a leafy calyx [lommerrijke kelk] like a budding rose. It was something like a cedar. 

I do not remember ever having seen Adam, Eve, or any animal near that tree on the island. But I saw beautiful noble-looking white birds and heard them singing in its branches. 

That Tree was the Tree of Life.

Just before the pier that led to the island... 

stood the Tree of Knowledge. 

The trunk was scaly [geschubd] like that of the palm. The leaves, which spread out directly from the stem, were very large and broad, in shape like the sole of a shoe. 

Hidden in the forepart of the leaves, hung the fruit clustering in fives, one in front, and four around the stem [stengel]. The yellow fruit had something of the shape of an apple, though more of the nature of a pear or fig. 

It had five ribs, uniting in a little cavity [holte]. It was pulpy [vlezig] like a fig inside, of the color of brown sugar, and streaked with blood-red veins. 

The tree was broader above than below, and its branches struck deep roots into the ground. I see a species of this tree still in warm countries. Its branches throw down shoots to the earth where they root and rise as new trunks. 

These in turn send forth branches, and so one such tree often covers a large tract of country. Whole families dwell under the dense foliage.

~bron~