whatsthis
走马观花
正文
英语说－－举棋不定/左右为难／进退维谷／风箱里的老鼠
一周末朋友几个出游，在崎岖的山间小路上，车开着开着前面出现一截很陡的坡，试了几次小吉普无法爬上去。大家很沮丧，有的说掉头，有的不甘愿。一“美”友唉声叹气道：Now what? We are stuck between a rock and a hard place.
回家查了字典，原来 between a rock and a hard place 意思是：Faced with a choice between two unpleasant alternatives, or two evils。相当于汉语里的：左右为难，进退维谷，进退两难
GoEnglish.com是这样解释的：
To say that one is stuck "between a rock and a hard place" stresses that there are two forces which are restricting one's movement. Often it is the opposite direction of these forces that causes the sticking point. One is unable for some particular reason to do something that one would like to do, such as act or not act in a certain way.
从字面意思看，一边是岩石，一边是很硬的地方，你被夹在里面，行动受到限制。在这种情况下，很难决定你到底该怎么做，陷入左右为难，进退维谷等境况。该成语常和be caught连用，还可以同be stuck搭配。
I'd like to help you but I am stuck between a rock and a hard place.
我想帮你的忙，但我实在是左右为难。
You've got me between a rock and a hard place; I'll sell it to you at the price you quoted.
做人实在难；算了，我就按你报的价卖给你吧。
在美国，为什么‘左右为难，进退维谷’等之意用between a rock and a hard place来表达呢？
请看www.phrases.org.uk里摘录的一段说明：
US origin. The earliest known printed reference is Dialect Notes V, 1921:
"To be between a rock and a hard place, ..to be bankrupt. Common in Arizona in recent panics; sporadic in California."
The 'recent panics' referred to in that citation are undoubtedly the events surrounding the Bisbee deportations of 1917. In Bisbee, Arizona, in the early years of the 20th century, a dispute between copper mining companies and mineworkers developed. In 1917, the workers, some of whom had organized in labour unions, approached the company management with a list of demands for better pay and conditions. These were refused and subsequently many workers at the Bisbee mines were forcibly deported to New Mexico.
It's tempting to surmise, given that the mineworkers were faced with a choice between harsh and underpaid work at the rock-face on the one hand and unemployment and poverty on the other, that this is the source of the phrase.
原来，这种表达源自20世纪初的1917年的美国。当时，亚利桑那州的Bisbee铜矿矿工要求工厂提高工资，改善工作环境，遭到厂方的拒绝。结果，很多工人被驱逐到新墨西哥州。这些可怜的矿工被置于进退两难的境地。要么继续干苦工，要么失业，真是进退维谷。
相同的说法还有：between the devil and the deep blue sea
一般人认为该语原为航海用语，十八世纪中叶开始被接受使用。语中的devil 实际并不是指魔鬼，而是指船只靠吃水线附近部位的裂缝。受命修补此处裂缝是十分危险的工作， 一不小心就可能坠入波涛汹涌的大海，由此产生该成语， 意指“进退两难，进退维谷”。......it referred not to the devil of hellfire and brimstone but to a seam around a ship's hull near the waterline. A sailor attempting to caulk this seam in heavy seas was in danger of falling overboard and drowning ----to mean any dilemma in which one faced danger. It became a cliche about the middle of the eighteenth century.
Example：
If we pay the rent to the landlady, we won't have any money for food; we are between the devil and the deep blue sea.
如果把房租付给女房东，我们就没钱买食物，真是进退两难。
He finds it very difficult to please both his wife and his mother. He is often caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.
他觉得很难同时让他的太太和他的母亲都感到高兴，他常常是风箱里的老鼠－－两头受气。
另一表达相同喻意的古老成语是：between Scylla and Charybdis
出自希腊神话。斯库拉（Scylla）是一个6头女妖，居住在墨西拿（Messina）海峡的岩礁上。她有12只脚，每个头有三排利齿，随时准备撕咬猎物。但她原先是一美丽仙女，为英雄歌劳可思钟爱，后她的情敌女巫喀尔克吃醋，将她变成面目狰狞的妖怪。在她对面的靠西西里岛的一边，住着另一个女妖卡瑞布狄斯（Charybdis），她每天三次吞吐海水，形成巨大旋涡。这两个妖物严重地危害着往来的船只。据此，该成语就用来形容“左右为难”。
In Homer's Odyssey, the hero must sail a narrow passage between Scylla, a monster on a rock, and Charybdis, a fatal whirlpool. If he avoids one evil, he must run into the other. 荷马史诗《奥德塞》里，这位英雄必须驾船驶过这狭窄通道。如果避开一个女妖，必定撞上另一个，进退两难。
Example：
One doctor tells me that only an operation can save my life, shile another says that my heart will never stand the chloroform, so I am between Scylla and Charybdis, and don't know what to do.
一位医生对我说，只有动一次手术才能挽救我的生命；而另一位医生则说，我的心脏承受不了麻醉剂。我举棋不定，不知如何是好。
He would have preferred to be on good terms with both his wife and his mother, but the effort of pleasing one without offending the other was like steering between Scylla and Charybdis.
他本愿和妻子与母亲都处好关系，但要讨好一方而不得罪另一方简直如同驾船在斯库拉和卡瑞布狄斯间航行，左右为难。
参考：张向阳主编的《最新实用英语典故词典》
Cliches----Christine Ammer
一周末朋友几个出游，在崎岖的山间小路上，车开着开着前面出现一截很陡的坡，试了几次小吉普无法爬上去。大家很沮丧，有的说掉头，有的不甘愿。一“美”友唉声叹气道：Now what? We are stuck between a rock and a hard place.
回家查了字典，原来 between a rock and a hard place 意思是：Faced with a choice between two unpleasant alternatives, or two evils。相当于汉语里的：左右为难，进退维谷，进退两难
GoEnglish.com是这样解释的：
To say that one is stuck "between a rock and a hard place" stresses that there are two forces which are restricting one's movement. Often it is the opposite direction of these forces that causes the sticking point. One is unable for some particular reason to do something that one would like to do, such as act or not act in a certain way.
从字面意思看，一边是岩石，一边是很硬的地方，你被夹在里面，行动受到限制。在这种情况下，很难决定你到底该怎么做，陷入左右为难，进退维谷等境况。该成语常和be caught连用，还可以同be stuck搭配。
I'd like to help you but I am stuck between a rock and a hard place.
我想帮你的忙，但我实在是左右为难。
You've got me between a rock and a hard place; I'll sell it to you at the price you quoted.
做人实在难；算了，我就按你报的价卖给你吧。
在美国，为什么‘左右为难，进退维谷’等之意用between a rock and a hard place来表达呢？
请看www.phrases.org.uk里摘录的一段说明：
US origin. The earliest known printed reference is Dialect Notes V, 1921:
"To be between a rock and a hard place, ..to be bankrupt. Common in Arizona in recent panics; sporadic in California."
The 'recent panics' referred to in that citation are undoubtedly the events surrounding the Bisbee deportations of 1917. In Bisbee, Arizona, in the early years of the 20th century, a dispute between copper mining companies and mineworkers developed. In 1917, the workers, some of whom had organized in labour unions, approached the company management with a list of demands for better pay and conditions. These were refused and subsequently many workers at the Bisbee mines were forcibly deported to New Mexico.
It's tempting to surmise, given that the mineworkers were faced with a choice between harsh and underpaid work at the rock-face on the one hand and unemployment and poverty on the other, that this is the source of the phrase.
原来，这种表达源自20世纪初的1917年的美国。当时，亚利桑那州的Bisbee铜矿矿工要求工厂提高工资，改善工作环境，遭到厂方的拒绝。结果，很多工人被驱逐到新墨西哥州。这些可怜的矿工被置于进退两难的境地。要么继续干苦工，要么失业，真是进退维谷。
相同的说法还有：between the devil and the deep blue sea
一般人认为该语原为航海用语，十八世纪中叶开始被接受使用。语中的devil 实际并不是指魔鬼，而是指船只靠吃水线附近部位的裂缝。受命修补此处裂缝是十分危险的工作， 一不小心就可能坠入波涛汹涌的大海，由此产生该成语， 意指“进退两难，进退维谷”。......it referred not to the devil of hellfire and brimstone but to a seam around a ship's hull near the waterline. A sailor attempting to caulk this seam in heavy seas was in danger of falling overboard and drowning ----to mean any dilemma in which one faced danger. It became a cliche about the middle of the eighteenth century.
Example：
If we pay the rent to the landlady, we won't have any money for food; we are between the devil and the deep blue sea.
如果把房租付给女房东，我们就没钱买食物，真是进退两难。
He finds it very difficult to please both his wife and his mother. He is often caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.
他觉得很难同时让他的太太和他的母亲都感到高兴，他常常是风箱里的老鼠－－两头受气。
另一表达相同喻意的古老成语是：between Scylla and Charybdis
出自希腊神话。斯库拉（Scylla）是一个6头女妖，居住在墨西拿（Messina）海峡的岩礁上。她有12只脚，每个头有三排利齿，随时准备撕咬猎物。但她原先是一美丽仙女，为英雄歌劳可思钟爱，后她的情敌女巫喀尔克吃醋，将她变成面目狰狞的妖怪。在她对面的靠西西里岛的一边，住着另一个女妖卡瑞布狄斯（Charybdis），她每天三次吞吐海水，形成巨大旋涡。这两个妖物严重地危害着往来的船只。据此，该成语就用来形容“左右为难”。
In Homer's Odyssey, the hero must sail a narrow passage between Scylla, a monster on a rock, and Charybdis, a fatal whirlpool. If he avoids one evil, he must run into the other. 荷马史诗《奥德塞》里，这位英雄必须驾船驶过这狭窄通道。如果避开一个女妖，必定撞上另一个，进退两难。
Example：
One doctor tells me that only an operation can save my life, shile another says that my heart will never stand the chloroform, so I am between Scylla and Charybdis, and don't know what to do.
一位医生对我说，只有动一次手术才能挽救我的生命；而另一位医生则说，我的心脏承受不了麻醉剂。我举棋不定，不知如何是好。
He would have preferred to be on good terms with both his wife and his mother, but the effort of pleasing one without offending the other was like steering between Scylla and Charybdis.
他本愿和妻子与母亲都处好关系，但要讨好一方而不得罪另一方简直如同驾船在斯库拉和卡瑞布狄斯间航行，左右为难。
参考：张向阳主编的《最新实用英语典故词典》
Cliches----Christine Ammer
评论
目前还没有任何评论
登录后才可评论.
