【楊愛民】
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成語：畫蛇添足(HUA SHE TIAN ZU): Painting a snake with feet—superfluous; add legs t one’s sketch of a serpent—are completely superfluous; carry coals to Newcastle—dangerous superfluous; to draw a snake and add feet to it—spoil things by giving to extremes; fan the breeze; gild the lily; to overreach the mark is just as bad as not reaching it; to ruin the effect by adding what is superfluous; the action (measure) just taken was really unnecessary.
出處：戰國策，楚策。
釋義：不必要的、多餘的言行，不但無益，反而有損。類似於：多此一舉。
故事： 據說一位廟主人賞賜一小壺酒給保護廟門的人喝。他們其中一個人說，“只有一小壺酒，如果大家分享，是不夠大家過癮的。若給一個人喝，給誰喝呢？誰有資格喝這壺酒呢？”有人提出一個建議來解決他們的難題。他說，“我們在地上畫蛇比賽，誰最先畫好誰就獨享這壺酒。”經過討論後，大家都同意這個辦法。每個人同時在地上開始畫蛇。一個人首先完成他的畫作，看到別人尚未完成，他就用左手拿起酒壺準備喝酒，其右手不經意地在他的蛇上加上了腳；還洋洋得意的說，“我還能夠在我的蛇上添上腳呢! ”另一個已經完成畫蛇的人奪下他的酒壺說，“蛇本來沒有腳，你怎麼能夠給蛇添上腳呢？所以你並非贏家，我才是贏家。” 說罷，就將酒喝完了。那個畫蛇添足的傢伙懊惱不已，只得看著別人享受喝酒。
用法：一個穿著雨衣的人在風雨中行走，他又撐起一把傘，真是“畫蛇添足”。
故事英譯：It was said that the lord of a temple rewarded a small pot of wine to the several doormen who guarded the temple. One of them said, “There is only one small pot of liquor, if we share it, it is not enough for satisfying our addiction to alcohol. If let it be enjoyed by someone, but by whom? Who should be the drinker? ” One guy gave an idea for solving their problem. He said, “We may compete to draw a snake on the ground at the same time and the one who first completes his drawing is the winner and he should enjoy the wine by himself.” After discussion, they agreed with this method, and everyone started to draw a snake on the ground simultaneously. One guy completed his work first and found that others hadn’t yet finished their sketches. Then he took up the liquor pot with his left hand preparing to enjoy the wine, and in the meantime, he casually used his right hand to add feet to his sketching snake. He triumphantly said, “I can still add feet to my snake.” Another guy who had finished his snake drawing seized the wine pot back and said, “A snake is originally having no foot, now how can you add feet to it? So you’re not the winner, the winner should be me.” After saying, he drank all the wine. The one who drew feet to his snake regretted very much; he could not but just watch the other guy to enjoy the wine.
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