How do I interpret these two sentences?


> 人樹ニ華アリ。人華ニ華アリ。

I see two versions of English translations:

  * Flowers are present in human trees, flowers are present in human flowers.
  * Human trees have blossoms. Human flowers have blossoms.

I read Chinese and my interpretation is "Blossoming are in people and trees;
Blossoming are in people and flowers.

This is from a Zen literature as such there is no logic on the _phenomena_
that is described. I am more interested in understanding the sentences based
on grammatical rules.




Looks like this is from
[_Shōbōgenzō_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%8Db%C5%8Dgenz%C5%8D) (13th
century). It is too difficult for me to explain the Zen philosophy behind this
sentence, but if it is simply to be interpreted literally as a Japanese
sentence, as you requested, the most faithful English translation would be "In
a human tree, a flower is present. In a human flower, a flower is present" or
"There are flowers in human trees. There are flowers in human flowers".
(Plurality is not indicated, so it can be either "a tree" or "trees".)

There is no explicit "and" in 人樹 and 人華, so the straightforward
interpretations of these compounds would be "human tree" and "human flower"
(don't ask me what they are). But if the context clearly tells otherwise,
"human and tree" and "human and flower" are possible interpretations.

* * *

**EDIT:**

So this is the original text:

> コノユヱニ百草ミナ華果アリ。諸樹ミナ華果アリ。金銀銅鐵珊瑚頗瓈樹等。ミナ華果アリ。地水火風空樹。ミナ華果アリ。 **人樹ニ華アリ。人華ニ華アリ**
> 。枯木ニ華アリ。
>
> This is why various grasses all bear flowers and fruit. All kinds of tree
> bear flowers and fruit. Goldtrees, silvertrees, coppertrees, irontrees,
> coraltrees and crystaltrees, _et cetera_ , they all bear flowers and fruit.
> Earthtrees, watertrees, firetrees, windtrees and skytrees, they all bear
> flowers and fruit. **Humantrees bear flowers. (In turn, such) humanflowers
> bear (yet another) flower**. (Even) dead trees bear flowers.

The text is basically saying all elements in the world are actually like
trees, and thus bear fruit and flowers. Here the kanji 樹 is clearly used as a
kind of **suffix** meaning "-tree", as shown above. I know "humantree" and
"humanflower" are not common words, but this 人樹 is indeed "humantree" or "tree
of human" rather than "human and tree".

