发表于 2003/11/17 22:07:00
有些英语谚语可以这样译吗? If you WANT a thing done well, do it yourself 自己动手,事事圆满?(丰衣足食)
For WANT of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the man was lost 因小失大?小不忍则乱大谋?丢了西瓜拣芝麻?
One does not WASH one's dirty linen in public 家丑不可外扬?
WASTE not, want not 旧的不去新的不来?
A WATCHED pot never boils 心急吃不了热豆腐?
Don't near the WATER until you learn how to swim 不会游泳切忽近水?
The WAY to a man's heart is through his stomach 人心隔肚皮?
第二种译法: For WANT of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the man was lost
缺一只鞋钉,不成其鞋;少一个马掌,不成其马;没有马骑,不成其人(???!! !)
WASTE not, want not 勤俭节约,吃穿不缺(抄字典)
Don't near the WATER until you learn how to swim 没有金刚钻,别揽瓷器活儿;
The WAY to a man's heart is through his stomach 要拴住男人的心,须从胃口入手。(作一手好菜) 三八国际警句:烧不出好菜,拴不住男人心。:-) The WAY to a man's heart is through his stomach. 烧不出好菜,拴不住男人心。
A WATCHED pot never boils. 盯着的母鸡不下蛋。
Some thoughts and irrelevant comments
(i) I believe " For WANT of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the man was lost." is a variation of "For the want of a horseshoe, a kingdom is lost." i.e. 因小失 大 but not in the sense of "penny wise , pounds foolish". Rather, it means for the lack of something insignificant, a fortune is lost. The expression is from a king in a battle who is missing a horseshoe, as a consequence of that, he lost his horse, then the battle, and finally, his kingdom.
(ii) A WATCHED pot never boils Refers to a common believe that the more you watch "an event", the slower it developes. It is an "old wife's tale" that if you check on a pot of stew, soup or water, it never boils, but as soon as you turn your back , it boils over. In an episode of Star Trek, the Second Generation, the android DATA , after hearing of this expression, started to do an experiment in which he compares the time it takes for a pot of water to boil, with and without being watched. (*For physicist out-there, yes, yes, there is a parallel in quantum mechanics and there had been an experiment done, with positive result, on that.)
(iii) I think it is Don't go near the WATER until you learn how to swim 不会游泳切忽近水?
(vi) The WAY to a man's heart is through his stomach. This one means that if you want to win a man's heart, the best way to do it is to feed him good food. In recent years there has been numerous results from hmm...psychological studies showing that man is indeed more interested in food than sex. I don't know how true those results were. There was also some silly suggestion about making perfumes with the smell of doungnut and/or fresh bacon. An interesting story appeared on the local newspaper recent talked about strippers in a strip club complaining about the patrons not paying them any attention when the Stanley Cup (Hocky) finally is on. Apparently in these strip clubs there are these large screen TV set up showing the spots channel, and on nights of important hocky playoffs, male patrons look at the TV instead of the girls.( OK , guys,I read this on the newspaper, I don't know how the inside of those clubs are like.) Bye now, i am going off to find a link to a cartoon related to this.