Fame and fortune are to him as flowers in a mirror.
Tips
history
Traced to a Tang-dynasty Buddhist inscription by Pei Xiu 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(moon) — two classic images of things you can see but never grasp.
