似曾相识
- Literal
- as if we had met somewhere before
- Figurative
- The sense of having seen a face, a place or a scene before, without being able to say where or when.
Where does 似曾相识 come from?
The four syllables come from a famous line by Yan Shu, a poet and minister of the Song dynasty: "无可奈何花落去，似曾相识燕归来" — helplessly the blossoms fall; the swallows, seemingly known before, come back. The poet watches swallows return that look to him like last year's birds, though he cannot be sure. That mix of recognition and doubt is exactly what the idiom names today. It works both for a face that rings a faint bell and for a situation that feels like a rerun, and it maps closely onto what English speakers call déjà vu.
Source (出处): 晏殊《浣溪沙》
How is 似曾相识 used? Two examples
- 这个地方我好像来过，有一种似曾相识的感觉。
I think I've been here before; there's this odd feeling that I've seen it all already.
- 他的脸让我觉得似曾相识，可是想不起来在哪儿见过。
His face looks familiar somehow, but I can't place where I've seen him.
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