Khila Kanda. Adhyaya 6, Brahmana 2. The five fires, and the two paths after death
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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.
Second fire, the rain-god
Parjanya, the rain-god, O Gautama, is the fire. The year is its fuel; the clouds, its smoke; the lightning, its flame; the thunderbolt, its embers; the rumblings, its sparks. In this fire the gods offer King Soma. Out of that oblation rain arises.
The second fire: the rain-god Parjanya is a fire, with the year as fuel, the clouds as smoke, lightning as flame, the thunderbolt as embers, the thunder-rumblings as sparks. In this fire the gods offer King Soma (carried down from the first fire), and from that offering rain is produced.