纵使相逢应不识

縱使相逢應不識

zòngshǐ xiāngféng yīng bù shí

quotation

Meanings

1 even if we were to meet, she would surely not recognize me
2 the unbridgeable gap of death, distance, or the ravages of time between two people who once knew each other
3 (lit.) even-if meet should not recognize

Characters

to cause (纵使 = even though)

to meet (相逢 = encounter)

Examples

HSK 7-9

老友多年不见，如今再相遇，纵使相逢应不识。

Lǎoyǒu duōnián bùjiàn, rújīn zài xiāngyù, zòngshǐ xiāngféng yīng bù shí.

Friends parted for years - should they now meet again, 'even if they met, they probably wouldn't recognize each other.'

HSK 7-9

苏轼写尘满面，鬓如霜，纵使相逢应不识，令人心碎。

Sū Shì xiě chén mǎn miàn, bìn rú shuāng, zòngshǐ xiāngféng yīng bù shí, lìngrén xīnsuì.

Su Shi's 'dust covers my face, my temples like frost - even if we met, you would not recognize me' is heart-breaking.

Tips

history

From 苏轼《江城子·乙卯正月二十日夜记梦》(Su Shi / Su Dongpo, 'Jiang Cheng Zi: Recording a Dream on the 20th Night of the First Month, 1075,' Northern Song): 十年生死两茫茫，不思量，自难忘...纵使相逢应不识，尘满面，鬓如霜 (Ten years between life and death, two worlds vast; I do not dwell on it, yet cannot forget... Even if we met you would not know me - dust covers my face, my temples like frost). Su Shi wrote this on the tenth anniversary of his wife Wang Fu's death - the foundational Chinese mourning-a-wife poem.

usage

Reading: 应 = yīng (1st tone, 'should / likely'). Always quoted with the following 尘满面，鬓如霜. Used today for old friends estranged by time, grief, or change.

Stroke Order

纵 zòng

使 shǐ

相 xiāng

逢 féng

应 yīng

不 bù

识 shí