Yajnavalkya Kanda. Adhyaya 4, Brahmana 5. Yajnavalkya and Maitreyi, again
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Each mantra is given four ways: the Sanskrit in its Devanagari script, the same sounds in Roman letters, an English translation set in our own voice, and then the line once more in plain words, for a first and unhurried reading.
Not every passage is opened to the same depth. A few central mantras carry the full cross-school commentary, where the schools are set side by side. The rest are kept here whole and faithful, set in their place but not expounded, so the book stays entire and nothing is dropped for being thought minor.
Where the schools read a line differently, the difference is kept open. None is crowned and none is corrected. Each is met on its own terms, and where they contradict, the contradiction is left standing for you to sit with.
Breathed forth as smoke from fire
As from a fire kindled with damp fuel clouds of smoke pour forth, even so, O Maitreyi, from this great Being has been breathed forth all this: the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda, the hymns of the Atharvans and Angirases, history, ancient lore, the sciences, the secret teachings, verses, aphorisms, explanations, commentaries, what is offered in sacrifice, what is offered as food and drink, this world and the other world and all beings. From this very One all these have been breathed forth.
Just as, when a fire is fed with damp wood, billows of smoke pour out of their own accord, so from this great Being (the Supreme Self) the whole body of revelation and creation has been breathed out without effort: the Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva Vedas, the histories (itihasa), the ancient legends (purana), the sciences, the Upanishads, verses, aphorisms (sutra), expositions and commentaries, the oblations and the food and drink offered, this world and the next, and all beings. All of these are simply the breath (nihsvasita) of this one Reality.
In the commentaries
Sankara takes the smoke-from-fire image to show the effortless emanation of scripture and world alike from the great Being: the whole Veda and all creation issue from the Supreme Self as naturally as breath, which establishes Its supreme reality.