譯林絮談

沙楓

“畫蛇添足”

“虎蛇添足”，這句成語的意思，誰都知道乃是“多余”。商務(wù)印書館出版的《漢語成語小詞典》對(duì)“畫蛇添足”的解釋是這樣的：

《戰(zhàn)國(guó)策?齊策》中的故事。楚國(guó)有個(gè)人請(qǐng)人喝酒，大家約定：在地上畫蛇，誰先畫好，誰喝酒。一個(gè)人先畫成，拿過酒準(zhǔn)備喝，另用一只手為蛇畫腳，并說：“我還能給蛇畫腳呢！”腳還沒有畫完，另一個(gè)人已把蛇畫好，說：“蛇本來是沒有腳的，你怎能添上個(gè)腳呢！”奪過酒一飲而盡。后來用“畫蛇添足”比喻做多余的事，反而不恰當(dāng)。

《戰(zhàn)國(guó)策》的原文是這樣的：

楚有祠者，賜其舍人卮酒。舍人相謂曰：“數(shù)人飲之不足，一人飲之有余。請(qǐng)畫地為蛇，先成者飲酒?！?一人蛇先成，引酒且飲之，乃左手持卮，右手畫蛇曰：“我能為之足！”未成，一人之蛇成奪取卮曰：“蛇固無足，子安能為之足？”遂飲其酒。為蛇足者，終亡其酒。

茲介紹何文匯的英譯如下：

There was a man in the State of Chu who, after offering sacrifice to his ancestors, gave a cup of wine to his retainers. The retainers said to one another, "The wine isn't enough for several people but is more than enough for one. Let's each draw a snake on the ground, the one who finishes first will drink the wine." One of them finished drawing the snaked first, took the cup of wine and was about to drink it. He held the cup of wine in his left hand, with his right hand he continued drawing the snake and said, "I can even add legs to it." But before he could finish adding the legs, another man had finished drawing his snake and snatched the cup of wine from him, saying, "To be sure, a snake doesn't have legs. How can you add legs to it?" Thereupon he drank the cup of wine. The one who added legs to the snake ended up losing his wine.

這一英譯，是老老實(shí)實(shí)的。

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