雙語美文欣賞：異曲同工的中英文諺語

    After a storm comes a calm——雨過天晴

    劇變騷亂之后，總會歸于平靜，此語緣于1200年，在美國首見于《拉迪松航行記》一書，此書敘述的是法國探險家拉迪松的航行故事。該諺語的其它常用形式還有the calm before the storm. The storm before the calm

    E.g. In fact I‘m actually starting to view the age of thirty-nine as the storm before the calm. As I hear tell ， many woman reach a state of grace at forty.——Ladies’ Home Journal

    事實上，我如今已經開始把三十九歲看成平靜之前的暴風雨了。我聽說，很多女性四十歲就達到一種優雅的境界。——《婦女家庭雜志》

    Threatened man live long

    “是故天將降大任于斯人也，必先苦其心志，勞其筋骨，餓其體膚，空乏其身……然后知生于憂患，死于安樂也。”兩千年前孟子如是說。古往今來，無數的世人世事為此提供例證。兩種語言，兩種竟如此吻合，不能不令人稱奇。

    E.g. Their enemies have been vowing to stop their supplies， yet threatened man live long. They seem to be growing steadily all the same.

    There‘s no such thing as free lunch.

    世界上沒有免費的午餐。這句諺語來自英文，卻普遍被國人所接受，中國諺語有：無功不受祿；吃人家嘴軟，拿人家手短。貪欲是致命的深淵。

    E.g. John is fond of taking petty advantages. Once， he walked into a restaurant that had a sign reading： free food on our third anniversary. He ordered his food and found it enjoyable untilled was given a bill—the food was， indeed， free， but the drinks he ordered cost him twice as much as the food itself. There‘s no such thing as free food.

    From clogs to clogs is only three generations.

    中國有句俗話叫做富不過三代，上面這句起源于英國的諺語表達的也是這個意思。Clog是英格蘭常見的下層勞動者的裝束，直譯就是：從穿clog（木底鞋）到clog不過三代人而已。二者可謂異曲同工。皆體現出創業于守成二者之間的道理，其中深意，或可為誡。

    亦作：From shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.

    E.g. The father buys， the son buildings， The grandchild sells and his son begs. So goes an English saying. The curse of God rest on idleness and that‘s why “from clog to clog is only three generations”

    New brooms sweep clean.

    新買的掃帚掃的干凈。與中文諺語：新官上任三把火。有驚人的相似之處。都是人們對一種常見情形的批評。

    E.g. When Tom became the general manager， everybody in office placed great hopes on him. New broom sweep clean. They felt .he seemed quite energetic during the frist few months， but his enthusiasm soon petered out and everything was back to normal.