跟著中國"第一天團"學英語: 2017年外交部十大經典成語回應, 很硬氣!

時間＼2017-12-21

時間飛快，2017年已經進入10天倒計時。回顧這一年，發生了很多重大外交事件，中國外交部的表態也多次成為中外輿論熱點。

這些回應不但有理有據，不卑不亢，更是巧妙地運用了大家耳熟能詳的成語，

既顯得文化底蘊十足，又使得措辭意味深長，讓人直呼“厲害了！我的大國外交”！

今天，世紀君帶大家一起用中英文回顧2017年外交部十大經典成語回應，跟著“第一天團”一起學英語~

懸崖勒馬 cease and desist

Clearly, deploying THAAD is the wrong choice. It's not how neighbors should behave to each other, and it may very well make the ROK less secure. We strongly advise some elements in the ROK not to pursue this course of action, otherwise they will only end up hurting themselves as well as others. China urges the ROK to cease and desist, halt the THAAD deployment and not to go further down the wrong path.

世紀君說成語

“懸崖勒馬”還可以這麼說：

pull back before it is too late

例句：In spite of having done wrong, pull back now before it is too late and work for a bright future.（雖然做錯事，

但你如果能懸崖勒馬重新做人，仍然會有光明的前途。）

枉費心機waste one’s efforts

We have noted the relevant report but have not seen clarification by the Japanese side. If what is told in the report is true, I can only say that they are wasting their efforts doing so. Japan's credibility is called into question when it on the one hand calls for an improved relationship with China and throws mud at China on the other. We urge the Japanese side to correct its attitude toward China and work for the improvement of the bilateral relationship rather than the opposite.

世紀君說成語

“枉費心機”還可以這麼說：

bark/bay at the moon/bay the moon

狗有時會對著月亮吠叫，藉以嚇唬月亮，可是無論它再怎麼兇猛咆哮都只是白費力氣而已。後來人們就用bay the moon或bark at the moon來比喻空嚷嚷，徒勞，

無事空擾。

捕風捉影

make speculations out of thin air

We have said repeatedly that China takes a positive and open attitude towards China-ROK exchanges and cooperation, but such exchanges and cooperation hinge on proper popular support and appropriate public opinion.

I have to add that rather than making speculations out of thin air or filling oneself with suspicions, it is better to heed the voice of the people and take effective measures to avoid affecting China-ROK relations and bilateral exchanges and cooperation.

世紀君說成語

“捕風捉影”還可以這麼說：

put two and two together and make five

“put two and two together 把二和二放一起”的意思就是“根據所見所聞推定，綜合判斷”。多在口語交流中表達強調根據已知的一些情況來判斷事情的真相。

與這個表達相關聯的一個說法“put two and two together and make five 把二和二放一起得出五”的意思是“聽風就是雨”，強調誇大事實，捕風捉影。

例句：It’s typical of him to put two and two together and make five. I am used to it now. （他經常亂下結論，我都已經習慣了。）

別有用心

an attempt out of ulterior motives

The illegal trespass by the Indian troops took place at the Sikkim section of the China-India boundary over 2000 meters away from Mount Gipmochi and has nothing to do with the tri-junction. The Indian side, in disregard of the boundary convention, takes the whole Doklam area as part of the tri-junction. This is obviously an attempt out of ulterior motives.The Indian side tries to introduce the concept of tri-junction into this incident and equate that point with an area. They are misleading the public.

世紀君說成語

“別有用心”：

（made with）ulterior motives

例句：She must have some ulterior motives for being nice to me – what does she really want? （她對我這麼好肯定別有用心——她到底想幹什麼呢？）

井底之蛙a frog in a well

We hope the Taiwan authorities can make a correct assessment of the situation and return to the 1992 consensus as soon as possible, and do no more things that are against the trend of the times and the will of the people.

We would also like to advise certain people in Taiwan to open their eyes to see the world, place themselves in a right position, stop being a frog in a well and deceiving themselves.

世紀君說成語

“井底之蛙”：

frog in the well

例句：The frog in the well knows nothing of the great ocean. （井底之蛙，不知大海。）

其他和動物相關的表達還包括：熱鍋上的螞蟻（as restless as ants on a hot pan）、雞皮疙瘩（goose bumps）、狐假虎威（ass in the lion’s skin）等。

過河拆橋

tear down the bridge after crossing the river

For a long time, China has been making unremitting efforts to resolve the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, and played an important and constructive role. As a permanent member of the Security Council, China has actively participated in the consultation of a series of the Security Council's DPRK-related draft resolutions and supported the adoption of relevant drafts. Relevant country asked China for help and cooperation before the draft is adopted, but after the adoption, it is going to impose unilateral sanctions on China. Isn't it tearing down the bridge after crossing the river?

世紀君說成語

“過河拆橋”還可以這麼說：

kick down the ladder

此外，還有一個表達很貼切——The danger past and God forgotten. 危險過去了就忘了上帝了，不是過河拆橋是啥？

仁至義盡

show one’s utmost patience and tolerance

So far, China has exercised utmost restraint. We can show our utmost patience and tolerance, but we hope that India, as a major country, can adopt the responsible attitude of abiding by the law and respecting the fact and make reasonable and wise judgment and decision.

“仁至義盡”還可以這麼說：

Our forbearance has been utterly exhausted.

中國翻譯研究院（微信號ChinaTranslationAcad）是這樣解釋的：

“仁至義盡”意為“竭盡仁義之道。指人的善意和幫助已經做到了最大限度”。結合語境，可知這裡的“仁至義盡”具體指中方的善意已經到了最大限度。

翻譯“善意”，可能首先想到的是kindness。《韋氏詞典》對kind的解釋是：

Kind釋義中包含三個形容詞，即sympathetic，helpful和forebearing，其中，前兩個明顯不是中方態度，只有forebearing，即“容忍”符合語境。這時使用kind沒有問題，但如果直接使用forbearance顯然意思要更為清晰，力度也更合適。這裡能不能用tolerance代替forbearance呢？看一下《韋氏詞典》對兩個詞的釋義：

比較兩者在這裡適用的解釋（以紅框標出），不難發現tolerance是容忍與自己不同的信仰與行為，容忍的物件不一定犯了錯誤，tolerance這種品質甚至被鼓勵與提倡，你不去tolerate反而是思維狹隘。Tolerance是仁愛，不是仁義。反觀forbearance，這個詞的意思是採取克制態度，不去用實際行動主張理應主張的權利。相比之下，forbearance自然優於tolerance。同樣地，forbearance比restraint也更加具體一些。

“仁至義盡”除了是對中方過往行為與態度的總結，更多地是暗示未來將不再姑息縱容印方越界挑釁。因此，We have shown utmost forbearance這樣的表述就不是最佳，因為utmost雖是最高程度，但沒有完結，窮盡之意，表達不出原文的弦外之音。

綜合以上內容，“仁至義盡”在本文討論語境中或可譯為：Our forbearance has been utterly exhausted。

草木皆兵、杯弓蛇影

Staying panic-stricken and being jittery with imaginary fear

Tiankun represents China's new achievement in the area of dredging equipment development and construction. We hope that relevant media can put China's scientific and technological development and engineering progress in perspective and refrain from making unwarranted connections, or even staying panic-stricken and being jittery with imaginary fear.

世紀君說成語

“杯弓蛇影”、“草木皆兵”還可以這麼說：

afraid of one's own shadow

如果表示虛驚一場還可以用a false alarm“拉錯了的警報”，比喻“事後才發現不必要的驚慌”。如果是反義詞“空歡喜一場”，則是false hope或者a bubble burst，如：He gave us false hope. We had our bubble burst.

混淆視聽

Pull the wool over the eyes of the public

The concept of the so-called non-market economy can be found in no multilateral WTO rules, since it was created by several countries during the Cold War and only incorporated into domestic laws of a scanty few of the 164 WTO members.

According to the Article 15 of China's Protocol on the Accession to the WTO, the surrogate country approach in anti-dumping cases must be abandoned as scheduled in the Protocol. It has nothing to do with whether China meets the so-called standards of market economy status or not. Some countries and individuals are trying to force a connection between these two just to serve their purpose of pulling the wool over the eyes of the public.

世紀君說成語

“混淆視聽”：

pull the wool over someone’s eyes

短語“pull the wool over someone’s eyes”意思為“欺騙，隱瞞某人”，也可以說“deceive someone to stop them from knowing what you’re really doing”。

無事生非 Stir troubles

It’s just normal for China to carry out peaceful construction and deploy necessary defense equipment in its own territory, which is part of China’s sovereignty. We believe it is out of ulterior motives that certain people make a fuss over and create trouble out of this issue.

At present, with the concerted efforts of China and ASEAN countries, the situation in the South China Sea continues to be stabilized and get better. Besides, China and ASEAN countries have reached sound consensus and are implementing it. Therefore we hope non-regional countries and the relevant party will respect the efforts of regional countries and refrain from stirring troubles.

世紀君說成語

“無事生非”還可以這麼說：

a fuss about nothing，也可以表示大驚小怪

例句：She must be making a fuss about nothing again. （她肯定又在為一些無謂的事情大驚小怪。）