Hope for a Tree

Hope.

What strength do I have that I should hope?

At least there is hope for a tree: if it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new sprouts will not fail.

But man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last and is no more.

What strength?
What hope?
A man dies.
As water vanishes from a lake,
and a river wastes away and dries up,
so a man lies down and rises not again;
till the heavens are no more,
people will not awake
or be roused from their sleep.

At least there is hope for a tree: its roots may grow old in the earth and its stump die in the ground, yet at the scent of water it will bud.

It will hope.