口蜜腹劍

Honey in the mouth and swords in the stomach/Judas kiss

口蜜腹劍

Li Lin-fu was a prime minister of China during the T'ang dynasty (唐朝, 618—907AD).

李林甫，唐玄宗時(shí)官居“兵部尚書(shū)”兼“中書(shū)令”這是宰相的職位。

He was good at both calligraphy and painting, but had a crafty and sinister personality which made him disliked by everyone.

此人若論才藝倒也不錯(cuò)，能書(shū)善畫(huà)。但若論品德，那是壞透了，所以并不受歡迎。

Li Lin-fu would bribe the palace eunuchs and concubines to tell him what the emperor liked, and then would immediately go prepare that thing for the emperor. The emperor was therefore very fond of Li Lin-fu, and trusted him unduly.

李林甫常常賄賂宦官來(lái)告訴他皇上的喜好，然后再準(zhǔn)備東西討好皇上。因此皇上很倚重李林甫。

One time, the minister Li Shr-jr offended Li Lin-fu. Li Lin-fu pretended not to care, and was in fact especially nice to the minister.

有一次，大臣李適之冒犯了李林甫，李林甫表面上并不在意，還裝作對(duì)這個(gè)大臣特別好。

Then on a day, he told Li Shr-jr about some gold that was hidden over in Hua Mountain, and encouraged him to suggest mining this gold to the emperor.

然后有一天，李林甫告訴李適之在華山后面藏著金子，并慫恿他讓皇上去挖金。

Li Shr-jr being of an honest and upright disposition, believed that it was true, and immediately went and told the emperor.

李適之為人老實(shí)，就信以為真，馬上就去告訴了皇上。

But when the emperor began to discuss this with Li Lin-fu, Li Lin-fu acted very frightened and said,

"Hua Mountain in the place where all of Your Majesty's auspicious aurora are gathered. If we were to mine that area, it could be very dangerous for you. Who is it that wants to harm you?”

玄宗立刻把李林甫找來(lái)商議，李林甫卻說(shuō)：“這件事我早知道了，華山是帝王風(fēng)水集中的地方，怎么可以隨便開(kāi)采呢?別人勸您開(kāi)采，恐怕是不懷好意;我?guī)状蜗氚堰@件事告訴您，只是不敢開(kāi)口。”

Today we can describe someone who is two-faced and always nice on the outside and yet is mean to people behind their backs as having "Honey in the Mouth and Swords in the Stomach."

如今當(dāng)我們形容一個(gè)人是兩面派，表面對(duì)人溫文爾雅，但暗地傷人的人時(shí)，我們就用“口蜜腹劍”這個(gè)成語(yǔ)。

【文化鏈接】

“口蜜腹劍”的英文表達(dá)是“Judas kiss”，就是“猶大之吻”的意思，該詞源出于圣經(jīng)故事。

Judas 是耶穌的十二門(mén)徒之一，但為了三十個(gè)銀幣卻出賣了自己的老師耶穌。他假惺惺地向耶穌問(wèn)好，并且親吻他，以此向前來(lái)捉拿耶穌的人示意誰(shuí)是耶穌，結(jié)果耶穌被他們捉走并釘死在十字架上。所以“Judas kiss”就是“口蜜腹劍”，“笑面虎”的意思啦~同時(shí)，單單用““Judas”可以表示“叛徒、背叛者”的意思，所以“play Judas(扮演 Judas 的角色)”就是“當(dāng)叛徒”的意思。