中國成語故事中英對照 畫蛇添足

　　In the Warring States Period, a man in the state of Chu was offering a sacrifice(祭品) to his ancestors. After the ceremony, the man gave a beaker of wine to his servants. The servants thought that there was not enought wine for all of them, and decided to each draw a picture of snake; the one who finished the picture first would get the wine. One of them drew very rapidly. Seeing that the others were still busy drawing, he added feet to the snake. At this moment, another man finished, snatched the beaker(燒杯，大口杯) and drank the wine, saying,"A snake doesn't have feet. How can you add feet to a snake?"

　　This idiom refers to ruining a venture by doing unnecessary and surplus things.

　　故事：

　　楚國有一家人，祭過了祖宗之後，便將一壺祭祀時用的酒，留給辦事人員喝。辦事人員很多，僅僅一壺酒，到底給誰喝呢?有人提議讓每人在地上畫一條蛇，誰畫得快畫得好，就把這壺酒給他。大家都認為這辦法很好。有一個人很快就把蛇畫好了。這壺酒就歸他所得。這時，他回頭看別人，都沒有畫好，就得意揚揚地說："你們畫得好慢呀ⅵ等我再畫上幾只腳吧ⅵ"正在他畫蛇腳的時候，另一個人已經(jīng)把蛇畫好了。那人把酒壺奪了過去說："蛇是沒有腳的，你怎麼畫上了腳?"說罷，就喝起酒來。

　　【畫蛇添上腳：比喻增添多余的東西。】