Book of Songs
王风·采葛
佚名
彼采葛兮，一日不见，如三月兮。
彼采萧兮，一日不见，如三秋兮。
彼采艾兮，一日不见，如三岁兮。
Translation
She has gone to gather vines; one day without seeing her feels like three months. She has gone to gather mugwort; one day without seeing her feels like three autumns. She has gone to gather wormwood; one day without seeing her feels like three years.
Analysis
Cai Ge captures, with extraordinary brevity, how longing changes the experience of time. Each stanza repeats the same structure, replacing the plant gathered and lengthening the imagined duration: three months, three autumns, three years. The act of gathering plants is ordinary; the poem is interested not in labor but in absence. A single day without seeing the beloved expands beyond measure. The poem gives no detailed story and no clear identity for the beloved, which makes the feeling universal. Its simplicity is its strength: love turns time into longing.
About the Author
Wang Feng is one of the regional sections in the Airs of the States within the Book of Songs. Its poems are anonymous and belong to an early tradition of songs later gathered and preserved as part of the classical canon. Compared with some brighter regional airs, Wang Feng often carries tones of separation, service, social unease, and inward feeling. Its language is simple, but its repeated forms and everyday images give it lasting emotional force.