Dic# writ in water, write on water

자료 1: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/179500.html

Here lies one whose name was writ in water

Meaning: Fame, and indeed life, is fleeting.

Origin:
A version of the words originate from Beaumont and Fletcher's play Philaster, 1611:
"All your better deeds Shall be in water writ, but this in Marble."
In the better known form 'writ in water' they appeared in Keat's Poetic Works, 1821.

Keats travelled to Rome and died there, aged just 25, in February, 1821. He told his friend Joseph Severn that he didn't want his name to appear on his tombstone, but merely this line:

"Here lies one whose name was writ in water."

Severn honoured that wish, as the gravestone shows - Keats is commemorated just as 'A young English poet'.

Keats's Grave - New Protestant Cemetery, Rome

THIS GRAVE CONTAINS
ALL THAT WAS MORTAL OF
A YOUNG ENGLISH POET
WHO
ON HIS DEATH-BED
IN THE BITTERNESS OF HIS HEART
at the malicious power of his enemies
desired these words to be engraved
on his tomstone
"HERE LIES ONE WHOSE NAME
WAS WRIT IN WATER"
FEB 24 1821


자료 2: writ in water, http://riowang.blogspot.com/2010/03/writ-in-water.html

(... 전략) However, the best example of the adage’s new interpretation is Keats’ epitaph in the Protestant cemetery in Rome. This bitter epitaph announces that the young poet, embittered by his evil enemies, only wanted to have written on his tomb: Here lies one whose name was writ in water.

“This Grave contains all that was Mortal, of a Young English Poet, Who, on his Death Bed, in the Bitterness of his Heart, at the Malicious Power of his Enemies, Desired these Words to be engraven on his Tomb Stone: Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water.”

English history of literature holds that this saying can be reduced to a verse in Beaumont and Fletcher’s Philaster (1611) – All your better deeds Shall be in water writ – and alludes to the vanity of all noble efforts. However, if we also take into account the complete history of the adage from classical times through Erasmus to Spenser, then the inscription suggests just the contrary: the eternity of the poet’s oeuvre, triumphing over everything transitory and evil in this world.