Conjugal love, or the friendship of spouses, persists after sexual desires have weakened, withered, and disappeared.
Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.
O wise man! Give your wealth only to the worthy and never to others. The water of the sea received by the clouds is always sweet.
Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; chop wood, carry water.
Does a dragon still sing from within a withered tree?
My sorrow, when she's here with me, thinks these dark days of autumn rain are beautiful as days can be; she loves the bare, the withered tree; she walks the sodden pasture lane.
As a single withered tree, if set aflame, causes a whole forest to burn, so does a rascal son destroy a whole family.
From a withered tree, a flower blooms
Love likes not the falling fruit, Nor the withered tree.
It cuts one sadly to see the grief of old people; they've no way o' working it off; and the new spring brings no new shoots out on the withered tree.
or simply:
