久别重逢的那阵欢喜——法语里它永远是复数：重逢从来不止一个人的份。 The joy of finding someone again after long separation — always plural in French, because a reunion is never one person's alone.
The joy of finding someone again after long separation — always plural in French, because a reunion is never one person's alone. 久别重逢的那阵欢喜——法语里它永远是复数：重逢从来不止一个人的份。
词源etymology
法语 re-（再）＋ trouver（找到）→ retrouvailles——「再次找到」。 语法里藏着一处温柔：这个词只有复数。 法语替所有人决定了：重逢是复数的事件——至少两个人，至少两份欢喜。
French re- (again) + trouver (to find) → retrouvailles — “the finding-agains.” A tenderness hides in the grammar: the word exists only in the plural. French decided for everyone that a reunion is a plural event — two people at least, two joys at least.
背景the story
它是分离词汇家族里罕见的亮色：saudade、hiraeth、乡愁，全站在「不在」那一侧， retrouvailles 一个词守着「回来了」的月台。 Le Robert 在录，法语日常用语——机场到达口、战后码头、假期结束的校门口， 都是它的执勤点。
有意思的是词根：不是「重逢」（meet again），是「重新找到」（find again）—— 法语把别后的那个人当成丢失过的东西。找回来的，才叫 retrouvailles。
It is the rare bright word in the vocabulary of separation: saudade, hiraeth, homesickness all stand on the side of absence; retrouvailles alone keeps watch on the platform of return. In the Robert, in daily French — arrivals gates, postwar docks, school doors at summer’s end are its duty stations.
The root is the interesting part: not “meet again” but “find again” — French treats the person you were parted from as something that had been lost. Only what is recovered earns the word.
中文里的邻居neighbors in chinese
中文这块存货雄厚：「久别重逢」四字几乎全等，人生四喜还专门给了它一个席位—— 「他乡遇故知」。差别在词性与场合：中文这些是成语与诗句，引用时自带仪式感； retrouvailles 是个能进日程表的普通名词——「周六是我们的 retrouvailles」， 法语说得毫不隆重。中文的重逢在典礼上，法语的重逢在日历上。
Chinese holds deep stock here: 久别重逢 is a near-exact fit, and the Four Great Joys of life reserve it a seat — 他乡遇故知, meeting an old friend far from home. The difference is part of speech and occasion: the Chinese are idioms and verse, ceremonial to quote; retrouvailles is an ordinary noun that fits in a calendar — “Saturday is our retrouvailles,” said without any pomp at all. The Chinese reunion lives in liturgy; the French one lives in the datebook.
The arrivals hall at any airport runs a permanent exhibition of retrouvailles. 自拟例句 our own example, not a quotation They planned the retrouvailles for months and spent the first ten minutes unable to say anything at all. 自拟例句 our own example, not a quotation 法语真词（Le Robert 在录）。 英文写作斜体 retrouvailles，记得保持复数； 写机场、写老同学、写战后书信，它是现成的月台。
A real French word (in the Robert). In English, italicize retrouvailles and keep it plural; for airports, old classmates and postwar letters, it is a platform kept ready.