Abstract

In the original English version of _I and Thou_ (1937) and in a postscript to the second English edition (1958), Martin Buber assured his readers that an _I–Thou_ relationship is possible between a person and a tree. Considering the importance of dialogue in that form of relationship, commentators have often looked for ways to bypass the tree’s inability to speak in reconceptualising the _I–Thou_ relationship. This article looks instead at the importance of the person’s ability to hear what trees may be telling us as a way of understanding Buber’s point. A story found in Viktor Frankl’s _Man’s Search for Meaning_ (1946) is used as an illustration.