Fame and fortune are to him as flowers in a mirror.
Tips
history
Traced to a Tang-dynasty Buddhist inscription by 裴休 that compares worldly appearances to "reflections of moon and mirror-flowers, coming and going with no will of their own". Later Ming critics used it for the elusive aesthetic ideal of poetry.
memory
Literal 镜 (mirror) + 花 (flower), 水 (water) + 月, two classic images of things you can see but never grasp.
