译林絮谈

沙枫

“画蛇添足”

“虎蛇添足”，这句成语的意思，谁都知道乃是“多余”。商务印书馆出版的《汉语成语小词典》对“画蛇添足”的解释是这样的：

《战国策•齐策》中的故事。楚国有个人请人喝酒，大家约定：在地上画蛇，谁先画好，谁喝酒。一个人先画成，拿过酒准备喝，另用一只手为蛇画脚，并说：“我还能给蛇画脚呢！”脚还没有画完，另一个人已把蛇画好，说：“蛇本来是没有脚的，你怎能添上个脚呢！”夺过酒一饮而尽。后来用“画蛇添足”比喻做多余的事，反而不恰当。

《战国策》的原文是这样的：

楚有祠者，赐其舍人卮酒。舍人相谓曰：“数人饮之不足，一人饮之有余。请画地为蛇，先成者饮酒。” 一人蛇先成，引酒且饮之，乃左手持卮，右手画蛇曰：“我能为之足！”未成，一人之蛇成夺取卮曰：“蛇固无足，子安能为之足？”遂饮其酒。为蛇足者，终亡其酒。

兹介绍何文汇的英译如下：

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.

这一英译，是老老实实的。