“To hope for [immortality],' said the Patriarch, 'would be like trying to fish the moon out of the water.'
'There you go again!' said Monkey. 'What pray do you mean by fishing the moon out of the water?'
'When the moon is in the sky,' said the Patriarch, 'it is reflected in the water. It looks just like a real thing, but if you try to catch hold of it, you find it is only an illusion.”

—  Arthur Waley

Source: Translations, Monkey: Folk Novel of China (1942), Ch. 2 (p. 22)

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Arthur Waley 21
British academic 1889–1966

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