“Poems that can be incorporated into paintings are just gold specks in the eye” means: if poems can be incorporated into paintings, they will still be blinding, and they cannot be regarded as ethereal and good poems.
Zhang Dai said: "Poetry must be ethereal to be a good poem. Poems that can be incorporated into paintings are just gold dust in the eyes."
Translation: Poetry must be ethereal to be a good poem. Poems that can be incorporated into paintings still have "golden dust" in their eyes. That is to say, if poems can be incorporated into paintings, they will still be blinding, and they cannot be regarded as ethereal and good poems.
The main emphasis of this sentence is that poetry must have an ethereal artistic conception, while paintings must be tangible.
Historical achievements
Zhang Dai loves beautiful mountains and rivers by nature, and is "deeply affectionate". Landscapes in his works often become objects of aesthetic understanding with strong philosophical meaning. Regardless of whether he was "young and strong" or "unsustainable", Zhang Dai never changed his basic life pursuits of "willfulness" and "lofty ambitions". Until his later years, he was still full of infinite yearning for freedom after suffering all kinds of hardships in life.