纵使相逢应不识

縱使相逢應不識

zòngshǐxiāngféngyīngbùshí

phrase

Meanings

1 even if we were to meet, she would surely not recognize me
2 (fig.) 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

老友多年不见，如今再相遇，纵使相逢应不识。

Lǎoyǒu duō nián bù jiàn, 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.'

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, lìng rén xīn suì.

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