HIC IACET
PARVULUM
QUODDAM
EX AQUA
LONGIORE
EXCERPTUM

The Latin, meaning Here lies a small excerpt from a longer water, implies a gravestone, but 'excerpt' subverts this and invites us to 'read' the pond as one might read a book or a poem. The pond is indeed an excerpt from the system of ponds and streams at Little Sparta, but it is also, of course, an excerpt from the great waters of the earth.