When those red berries come in springtime,
Flushing on your southland branches,
Take home an armful, for my sake,
As a symbol of our love.
Original Poem:
「相思」
王维
红豆生南国， 春来发几枝。
愿君多采撷， 此物最相思。
Interpretation:
One of the most famous of these poems is Wang Wei’s “Lovesickness”, which was written before the outbreak of the An Shi Rebellion.
It is a poem that expresses his longing for his friend through the use of aphorisms. In the first line, it is written that the southern country is also the place where the friend is located, and remembering the red beans also reminds the friend.
The second line is natural. Such a question is meaningful, explicitly asking how many branches of red beans have sprouted, but secretly saying how much do you miss each other?
The third sentence is still dialoguing with the friend. The third line is still conversing with the friend. An earnest exhortation is implying that the friendship is valued. On the surface, it seems to tell the friend not to forget the lovesickness, but in the back, it is deeply implying the weight of the lovesickness; not saying that he loves the lovesickness, but urging others to love the lovesickness, so the weight of the lovesickness is adding another weight.
The last line of the poem back to the title of the poem, “lovesickness” and with the first line “red beans” corresponds to the beauty of the loop twists and turns, repeated aria, but also off with the love of lovesickness, a double entendre, Wanqu moving.
The poem cleverly uses red beans as a metaphor, euphemistically and implicitly showing the deep and long love of love. The whole poem has a beautiful and elegant mood, full and unrestrained thoughts, simple language, and harmonious and soft rhymes.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Wang Wei (王维), 701-761 A.D., was a native of Yuncheng, Shanxi Province. Wang Wei was a poet of landscape and idylls. His poems of landscape and idylls, with far-reaching images and mysterious meanings, were widely loved by readers in later generations, but Wang Wei never really became a man of landscape and idylls.
