drawing | mirror

not to say i found this easy, how to interpret mirror? i helped myself to a little 3w search. as you can see i decided to play about with chinese fonts, well, with the border more like [no. i did not draw the chinese signs myself. sorry]. read also this accompanying beautiful love story about a mirror. its conclusion is timeless.

pò jìng chóng yuán
a broken mirror leads to reunion

king chén of the southern dynasty cared nothing for ruling his country, and instead spent his days in pursuit of pleasure. the general, whose name was xú dé yán, felt his country was in grave danger because of the king’s behavior. and if ever war came, he would most likely be separated from his wife. so he took a round mirror and broke it in half, giving one piece to his wife and keeping the other for himself. he told her that if they were separated, they could use the pieces of the mirror to recognize each other. they agreed to search for each other every year on lantern festival, when they would go to the market to sell mirrors.

it came to pass that the kingdom was attacked, and xú dé yán and his wife were separated. they kept searching for each other nonetheless, until finally, two broken mirrors reflected exactly what the seekers were looking for, and the general and his loving wife were reunited. 

an afterthought : i'm wondering if perhaps similar stories exist in other cultures?  ARIANE is hosting this week's drawing challenge. i'm now looking for reflections in her mirror, mirror...