Draw a Snake and Add Feet to It “畫(huà)蛇添足”
Long long ago, several people had a jar of wine among them and all of them wanted to drink it by himself. So they set a rule that every one would draw a snake on the ground and the man who finished first would have the wine. One man finished his snake very soon and he was about to drink the wine when he saw the others were still busy drawing, so he decided to draw the feet to the snake. However, before he could finish the feet, another man finished and grabbed the jar from him, saying, "Who has ever seen a snake with feet?” The story of "Draw a snake and add feet to It.” tells us going too far is as bad as not going far enough.
古時(shí)幾個(gè)人分一壺酒。他們都想獨(dú)自喝完那壺酒，所以就定了一個(gè)規(guī)矩：每人在地上畫(huà)一條蛇，誰(shuí)畫(huà)得最快，這壺酒就歸誰(shuí)。有一個(gè)人很快就把蛇畫(huà)好了。他正打算喝這壺酒時(shí)，看見(jiàn)別人都還在忙著畫(huà)，就決定給蛇再畫(huà)上幾只腳。結(jié)果，他的蛇腳還沒(méi)加完，另一個(gè)人已經(jīng)把蛇畫(huà)好了。那人一下把酒壺奪了過(guò)去，說(shuō)：“有誰(shuí)見(jiàn)過(guò)長(zhǎng)腳的蛇?”。這個(gè)故事告訴我們這樣的道理：做得過(guò)分和做得不夠都是不對(duì)的
On a vacation trip, Duke Huan of the state of Qi came to the ruin of the capital of Guo Shi , which perished long ago.
Seeing the desolate and bleak prospects of broken tiles, collapsed walls, and clusters of weeds, he could not help asking the local people about the reason of the ruin of Guo Shi.
They replied,"Guo Shi was fond of doing good deeds, and averse to evildoing, which led to the perdition."
When the Duke could not understand the answer, people explained ," Though he liked doing good, he had never been able to do so; though he hated evildoing, never could he help not participating. That caused the ruin of his capital."
郭氏之墟
齊桓公出游途中，來(lái)到已經(jīng)滅亡許久的郭氏都城的廢墟。
看到瓦礫殘?jiān)㈦s草叢生的蕭條景象，忍不住問(wèn)當(dāng)?shù)匕傩展蠝缤龅脑颉?/p>
百姓們回答說(shuō)："郭氏由于喜愛(ài)善行善事。厭惡邪惡丑行而導(dǎo)致滅亡。"
齊桓公不能理解這種回答，百姓們便解釋說(shuō)："郭氏雖然喜愛(ài)善行善事，但從來(lái)都不能做到;盡管厭惡邪惡丑行，卻總是忍不住參與其中。這就是他的都城變成廢墟的原因。"
A mouse once took a bite out of a bull's tail as he lay dozing. The bull jumped up in a rage and, with his head low to the ground, chased the mouse right across the yard. The mouse was too quick for him, however, and slipped easily into a hole in the wall.
The bull charged the wall furiously again and again, but although he bruised his head and chipped his horns, the mouse stayed safely inside his hole. After a time the bull gave up and sank down to rest again.
As soon as the bull was asleep, the little mouse crept to the mouth of the hole, pattered across the yard, bit the bull again -- this time on the nose -- and rushed back to safety. As the bull roared helplessly the mouse squeaked:
"It's not always the big people who come off best. Sometimes the small ones win, you know."
老鼠和公牛
有一次，公牛躺著打盹，一只老鼠咬了他的尾巴。公牛怒氣沖沖地跳起來(lái)，低著頭追老鼠，一直追過(guò)院子。然而，老鼠跑得比他快多了，從容地鉆到墻洞里去了。
公牛一次又一次地猛撞墻壁，盡管頭撞腫了，角撞裂了，老鼠卻安然待在洞里。過(guò)了一會(huì)兒，公牛不撞了，倒下歇著。
公牛剛睡著，小老鼠就爬到洞口，嗒嗒地跑過(guò)院子，又咬了公牛一口 ?? 這回咬了鼻子 ?? 又跑回安全的地方去。當(dāng)公牛毫無(wú)辦法地吼叫時(shí)，老鼠吱吱叫道：
"大人物并不總占上風(fēng)。有時(shí)小人物也會(huì)取勝。"