Mandarin learning guide
Learn with 以前,以後
This guide follows the song’s repeated contrast between “以前” and “以後,” showing how the lyrics move from shared warmth to quiet distance. It is a useful short study for reading repeated structures, emotional questions, and figurative verbs in Mandarin.
What to listen for
The lyrics repeatedly compare what was expected before with what is happening now, using direct questions and strong contrasts to show emotional distance. Key lines move from holding hands and romantic warmth to loneliness, heaviness, and silence, while later lines add broader reflections on happiness, memory, and whether love is still worth it. The song is especially useful for noticing how Mandarin repeats a frame like “以前... / 现在...” to organize feelings and meaning.
- Recognize how the lyrics contrast past expectation with present reality.
- Understand relationship and emotion words used to describe distance, tenderness, and loneliness.
- Read figurative verbs like 磨成, 辗过, and 褪色 in context.
How the song moves
Opening contrast
The lyrics begin with a remembered closeness, then immediately ask why the present has become lonely and distant.
Middle reflection
The song turns to questions about tenderness, heavy dreams, and whether letting go or crying is the only response.
Repeated refrain
The repeated “以前...不是这种以后” lines underline the gap between earlier hopes and the current relationship.
Closing judgment
Later lines broaden into images of suffocation, accusation, fading happiness, and the final question of whether love is worth it.
Translation choices
现在怎么各自寂寞
- Natural English
- Now, how are we both lonely in our own ways?
- Why
- This keeps the present-time question and the sense of separate loneliness in 各自寂寞 without overexplaining.
我还能够做什么 是放手或泪流
- Natural English
- What else can I do? Let go or cry.
- Why
- This is concise and preserves the speaker’s dilemma in 放手或泪流, with the choice-like structure intact.
爱你 值得不值得
- Natural English
- Loving you—was it worth it or not?
- Why
- This rendering stays close to the final evaluative question and preserves the open-ended uncertainty of 值得不值得.
Useful Mandarin from the song
各自 marks separation between people or sides. Here it pairs with 寂寞 to show two people no longer sharing the same emotional space.
是否 is a neutral, written-style way to ask a yes/no question. In this line it introduces the question about whether tenderness remains.
In this line it is used figuratively with 生活, giving the sense that life has crushed or worn down feeling.
Originally about color fading, here it describes happiness gradually losing intensity. The verb is useful outside the song for both literal and figurative fading.
Listen closely
- Listen for the repeated frame around 以前 and 现在/以后; it organizes the lyric’s contrast.
- Notice how questions pile up: 怎么, 是否, 什么, and 值得不值得 all push the singer’s uncertainty forward.
- Pay attention to the figurative verbs in the later lines: 磨成, 辗过, and 褪色 create a sense of gradual damage rather than a single event.
Check your understanding
Which phrase shows a separation between two people rather than shared loneliness?
Show answer
各自寂寞.
What does 以前要得不是这种以后 express in simple terms?
Show answer
It says the future hoped for before is not the future that has arrived.