Gold Dust Spring Wang Wei Let's drink each day from Gold Dust Spring's gold waters, And we shall live a thousand years or more. With feathered flags, we'll join the Jade King's courtiers, As phoenix flies and brindled dragons soar. 王维 金屑泉 日食金屑泉,少当千余岁。 翠凤翔文螭,羽节朝玉帝。
The Jade King was the emperor in the heavens.
Pei Di's poem at the same site (prose translation):
It swirls in place, a still pool;/the gold and jade seem there for the taking./It the morning light, it holds white flowers;/I go alone to collect our morning water.
This pair of poems seems to invite us to luxuriate in Wang Wei’s more expansive imagination. Pei Di noticed the bright, jewel-like colours in the pond, just as Wang did. But Pei thought they were merely a beautiful moment. Only Wang realised that this pool held the key to immortality and membership of the heavenly host…
Thank you, but how do the moments at the pool hold the key to immortality? I will guess that there's nothing more than the moment. Where do grand ideas actually exist, but in the moment?