译林絮谈

沙枫

“朝三暮四”与英译

“朝三暮四”这句成语，《辞海》的解释是这样的：

庄子齐物论：“狙公赋茅，曰：‘朝三暮四’，众狙皆怒；曰：‘然则朝四而暮三’，众狙皆悦，名实未亏，而喜怒为用，亦因是也。”按朝三暮四与朝四暮三，名异实同，乃众狙因之有喜怒；此以喻愚者之昧于审辨，巧者之工于设辞也。

列子把这则寓言写得详细一些，如下：

“宋有狙公者，爱狙，养之成群，能解狙之意；狙亦得公之心。损其家口，充狙之欲。俄而匮焉，将限其食。恐众狙之不驯于己也，先诳之曰：“与若芧，朝三而暮四，足乎？”众狙皆起而怒。俄而曰：“与若芧，朝四而暮三，足乎？” 众狙皆伏而喜。”

上文的“狙”与“茅”是什么呢？看了一则英译，就明白了。这是英人A. L. Graham 译的：

There was a keeper of monkeys in Sung who loved monkeys so much that he reared flocks of them. Hoe could interpret the monkey's thoughts, and the monkeys too caught what was in his mind. He made his own family go short in order to give the monkeys whatever they wanted. Before long he found himself in need, and decided to give them less to eat. Fearing that the monkeys would not submit to it tamely, he played a trick on them beforehand:

"If I give you three chestnuts in the morning and four in the evening, will that be enough?"

The monkeys all got up by a rage.

"Will it be enough if I give you four in the morning and three in the evening?"

The monkeys were all pleased and lay down again.

北京商务印书馆出版的《汉语成语小词典》对“朝三暮四”一词解释说：“原指玩弄手法欺骗人，后用来比喻常常变卦，反复无常。”