ChineseStudy

213. Longing | Wang Wei

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English translation

Red beans grow in the southern lands; when spring comes, how many new branches will they put forth?

The red bean is a southern plant later widely associated with longing. The question appears to concern its spring growth, but it also reaches toward a distant person and news from the south.

I hope you will gather many of them, for this is the token that best bears longing.

The request is more than an invitation to pick fruit: it asks the other person to treasure an object capable of carrying affection. This small thing gives an otherwise unspoken feeling something that can be held in the hand.

赏析 · Commentary

红豆怎样成为相思的信物 · How the Red Bean Became a Token of Longing

红豆颜色鲜明，种子坚硬，适合保存和赠送；诗歌又把它与南方、友人和离别反复联系起来，它才逐渐成为相思的象征。这首诗没有讲故事，只写生长、采撷两个动作。植物每年发枝，种子可以带走，思念也就有了具体形状。

Red beans are vivid, hard-seeded, easy to keep, and easy to give. Poetry repeatedly linked them with the south, absent friends, and separation, until they became a familiar emblem of longing. This poem tells no story and uses only two actions, growing and gathering. The plant sends out branches each year, its seeds can be carried away, and longing takes on a visible form.

“春来”与“秋来”的异文 · The Variant Readings Spring Comes and Autumn Comes

通行的《唐诗三百首》多作“春来发几枝”，另有文本作“秋来发故枝”。本站采用读者更熟悉的“春来”本。这个选择也让首联的时间更直接：春天正是发枝的季节。异文不影响全诗的核心，问红豆生长，仍是在问远方的人是否安好。

The widely read Three Hundred Tang Poems version has when spring comes, how many branches, while another textual line reads when autumn comes, it puts forth the old branches. This site follows the more familiar spring reading, which also makes the season of new growth immediate. The variant does not alter the poem's center: asking after the red bean's growth is still a way of asking after someone far away.

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