双语美文欣赏：异曲同工的中英文谚语

After a storm comes a calm——雨过天晴

　　剧变骚乱之后，总会归于平静，此语缘于1200年，在美国首见于《拉迪松航行记》一书，此书叙述的是法国探险家拉迪松的航行故事。该谚语的其它常用形式还有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

　　事实上，我如今已经开始把三十九岁看成平静之前的暴风雨了。我听说，很多女性四十岁就达到一种优雅的境界。——《妇女家庭杂志》

　　Threatened man live long

　　“是故天将降大任于斯人也，必先苦其心志，劳其筋骨，饿其体肤，空乏其身……然后知生于忧患，死于安乐也。”两千年前孟子如是说。古往今来，无数的世人世事为此提供例证。两种语言，两种竟如此吻合，不能不令人称奇。

　　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.

　　世界上没有免费的午餐。这句谚语来自英文，却普遍被国人所接受，中国谚语有：无功不受禄；吃人家嘴软，拿人家手短。贪欲是致命的深渊。

　　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.

　　中国有句俗话叫做富不过三代，上面这句起源于英国的谚语表达的也是这个意思。Clog是英格兰常见的下层劳动者的装束，直译就是：从穿clog(木底鞋)到clog不过三代人而已。二者可谓异曲同工。皆体现出创业于守成二者之间的道理，其中深意，或可为诫。

　　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.

　　新买的扫帚扫的干净。与中文谚语：新官上任三把火。有惊人的相似之处。都是人们对一种常见情形的批评。

　　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.