破镜重圆

make up

破镜重圆

In the Northern and Southern Dynasties (南北朝,420-589AD) when the State of Chen (陈国) was facing its demise, Xu Deyan (徐德言), husband of the princess, broke a bronze mirror into halves.

南朝的陈国将要灭亡的时候，驸马徐德言把一面铜镜破开。

Each of them kept a half as tokens in case they were separated.

他跟妻子各留下一半。

Soon afterwards, they did lose touch with each other, but the two halves of the mirror enabled them to be reunited.

后来，夫妻二人真的失散了，凭借着各人留下的半面镜子，他们最终又得到团圆。

This idiom is used to refer to the reunion of a couple after they lose touch or break up.

“破镜重圆”这个成语比喻夫妻失散或分离后重新团聚。

【文化链接】

现在我们大多用成语“破镜重圆”来表达“分开或决裂后和好”的意思，英文中相应的我们可以使用“make up”这个短语，"make up"不但可以表示“化妆”，也可以用来表达“夫妻或者情侣分手后重归于好、破镜重圆“的意思。

同时，英文中“break up”的意思是“分手，决裂”，所以“break up”与“make up”可以说是一对反义词，有一首歌的名字就叫做“Break Up To Make Up”(《从分手到和好》)。