英语谚语寓言故事

1、农夫与蛇

一个寒冷的冬天，农夫在回家的路上，发现了一条冻得半死的蛇。他对这条蛇起了怜悯之心，捡起来放在怀里，带回了家。回家后，他把蛇放在火炉旁边。蛇逐渐地活了起来。蛇刚一暖和过来，就和农夫要水喝。农夫送来了一碗温水给它喝。

蛇又和农夫要肉吃。农夫见它可怜，就把自家舍不得吃的肉给了它一块，蛇吃了一块肉，没吃饱，还叫喊着要肉吃。

农夫无奈，只好把家中的肉都给它吃了。 蛇吃了农夫家中所有的肉后，仍觉得不满足，张开血盆似的大口，把善良的农夫吃掉了。

2、猎人与蛇

猎人在打猎途中遇见一条花蛇，当即举起，瞄准它就要扣动板机。花蛇急叫道：“你可千万不要打我，我是好蛇，不会害人的！”

猎人气鼓鼓地说：“你上次连救你命的恩人农夫都害了，还说什么不会害人，这不是大白天说瞎话又是什么？”

“不，不，你千万不要误解！”花蛇急忙分辩道，“那绝对是一场误会，我醒来以后，以为农夫要来害我，才误咬了他一口，我现在每想起这些，就懊悔得要命啊！”花蛇说着说着，还挤出了几滴眼泪。

猎人一见眼泪，心不由就软了，情不自禁地放下了。花蛇趁其不备，扑上去狠狠地咬了他一口。看到猎人临死前那痛苦的表情，花蛇叫道：“这不能怪我，我不是故意的，谁叫你手里总是拿着呢，我不赶紧咬你，你早晚总会把我打死的啊！”

3、懦弱的蛇

一条大蛇为害人间，伤了不少人畜，以致农夫不敢下田耕地，商贾无法外出做买卖，大人无法放心让孩子上学，到最后，每个人都不敢外出了。

大家无奈之余，便到寺庙的住持那儿求救，大伙儿听说这位住持是位高僧，讲道时连顽石都会被点化，无论多凶残的野兽都会被驯服。

不久之后，大师就以自己的修为，驯服并教化了这条蛇，不但教它不可随意伤人，还点化了许多做人处世的道理，而蛇也在那天仿佛有了灵性一般。

人们慢慢发现这条蛇完全变了，甚至还有些畏怯与懦弱，于是纷纷欺侮它。有人拿竹棍打它，有人拿石头砸它，连一些顽皮的小孩，都敢去逗弄它。

某日，蛇遍体鳞伤，气喘吁吁地爬到住持那儿。“你怎么啦？”住持见到蛇这副德性，不禁大吃一惊。“我……我……我……”大蛇一时间为之语塞。

“别急，有话慢慢说！”住持的眼神满是关怀。“你不是一再教导我应该与世无争，和大家和睦相处，不要做出伤害人畜的行为吗？可是你看，人善被人欺，蛇善遭人戏，你的教导真的对吗？”

4、父亲与蛇

一条蛇住在茅屋门口，把住在茅屋中的婴孩狠狠地咬了一口，那婴孩因此受伤而死。婴儿的父母很伤心，父亲决定要杀死这条蛇替他的孩子报仇。翌日，他在那蛇出洞觅食的时候，举起斧头，朝蛇头砍下去。

但因为砍得太快，没有砍下蛇的头，只砍掉了尾巴。从此之後，他们怕蛇会再来报仇，于是每天提心吊胆的度日子，蛇在洞口对外头斥责地说：“我和你不可能再和平共存了，因为我一看见你，便会想起我失去的尾巴!”而父亲也不甘示弱地说：“我一遇见你，就会记起我死去的儿子!”?

5、画蛇添足

古时候，楚国有一家人，祭完祖宗之后，准备将祭祀用的一壶酒，赏给手下的办事人员喝。参加的人很多，这壶酒如果大家都喝是不够的，若是让一个人喝，那能喝个痛快。这一壶酒到底给谁喝呢？

大家都安静下来，这时有人建议：每个人在地上画一条蛇，谁画得快又画得好，就把这壶酒归他喝。大家都认为这个办法好，都同意这样做。于是，在地上画起蛇来。

有个人画得很快，一转眼最先画好了，他就端起酒壶要喝酒。但是他回 头看看别人，还都没有画好呢。心里想：他们画得真慢。

再想显示自己的本领， 于是，他便左手提着酒壶，右手拿了一根树枝，给蛇画起脚来，还洋洋得意地说： “你们画得好慢啊！我再给蛇画几只脚也不算晚呢！”

正在他一边画着脚，一边说话的时候，另外一个人已经画好了。那个人 马上把酒壶从他手里夺过去，说："你见过蛇么？蛇是没有脚的，你为什么要给 他添上脚呢？所以第一个画好蛇的人不是你，而是我了！"

那个人说罢就仰起头来，咕咚咕咚把酒喝下去了。

以后人们根据这个故事引申出“画蛇添足”这句成语，比喻有的人自作聪明，常做多余的事，反而弄巧成拙，把事情办糟了。

The Dog in the Manger出自《伊索寓言》(Aesop's Fables)，有一篇狗站马槽的故事，说的是一头狗躺在堆满稻草的马槽里，狗是不吃草的动物，而当马或牛一走进稻草时，这头狗却朝着马，牛狂哮，不准食草动物享用。 因此，“狗站马槽”就成了一个家喻户晓的成语而进入英语中，常用来比喻a person who prevents others from enjoying sth that is useless to himself; a churlish fellow who will neither use a thing himself nor let others use it，讽刺那些占据说职位或某些物质却不做事的人。 The Dog in the Manger is a fable attributed to Aesop, concerning a dog who one afternoon lay down to sleep in the manger. On being awoken, he ferociously kept the cattle in the farm from eating the hay on which he chose to sleep, even though he was unable to eat it himself, leading an ox to mutter the moral of the fable: People often begrudge others what they cannot enjoy themselves. The phrase is proverbial, referring to people who prevent others from having something that they themselves have no use for. A typical example is the child who discards a toy — until a sibling tries to play with it. Then the first child becomes possessive about something they no longer wanted. A twist on the story was used by Charles Schulz in a "Peanuts" strip, in which Lucy van Pelt acquires a baseball card of Charlie Brown's favorite player, and she refuses to give it to him. After he leaves disconsolately, she decides she doesn't really like the card that well, and throws it away. In Spanish, the story is called El Perro del Hortelano, or The Vegetable Gardener's Dog. The metaphor is also attributed to Jesus in The Gospel of Thomas by comparing the dog with the Pharisees.

The Dog in the Manger出自《伊索寓言》(Aesop's Fables)，The Dog in the Manger is a fable attributed to Aesop, concerning a dog who one afternoon lay down to sleep in the manger. On being awoken, he ferociously kept the cattle in the farm from eating the hay on which he chose to sleep, even though he was unable to eat it himself, leading an ox to mutter the moral of the fable: People often begrudge others what they cannot enjoy themselves.狗站马槽的故事，说的是一头狗躺在堆满稻草的马槽里，狗是不吃草的动物，而当马或牛一走进稻草时，这头狗却朝着马，牛狂哮，不准食草动物享用。 因此，“狗站马槽”就成了一个家喻户晓的成语而进入英语中，常用来比喻a person who prevents others from enjoying sth that is useless to himself; a churlish fellow who will neither use a thing himself nor let others use it，讽刺那些占据说职位或某些物质却不做事的人。

Once upon a time there was a poor man who could no longer afford to keep his only son. So his son said:" Dear father, you have fallen on very hard times and I'm a burden to you; it will be better if I go away and try to earn my living." His father gave him his blessing and took leave of him with great sadness. At this time the king of a powerful kingdom was engaged in a war; the young man took service with him and joined the fighting. And when they met the enemy a battle took place, and there was great peril and a great hail of bullets, with his comrades falling all round him. And when even the commander was killed the rest wanted to take to their heels, but the young man stepped forward and rallied them, crying:" We must not let our fatherland perish." At this the others followed him, and he pressed forward and defeated the enemy. When the king heard that he owed the victory to him alone, he raised him above all the others, gave him great wealth and made him the first man in his kingdom. The king had a daughter who was very beautiful, but there was also something very strange about her. She had made a vow to take no man for her lord and husband unless he promised to let himself be buried alive with her if she died before him. "If he truly loves me," she said, "why would he want to go on living?" In return she was prepared to do the same for him and go down into the grave with him if he died first. This strange vow had hitherto deterred all suitors, but the young man was so entranced by her beauty that he was heedless of everything, and asked her father for her hand. "But do you know what promise you will have to make?" said the king. "I shall have to go to her grave with her if I outlive her," he replied, "but my love is so great that I care not for this danger." Then the king consented and the marriage was celebrated with great magnificence. They now lived happily and contentedly for a time, and then it happened that the young queen fell seriously ill and no doctor could help her. And when she lay there dead, the young king remembered what he had had to promise, and he was filled with horror at the thought of being buried alive, but there was no help for it: the king had ordered all the gates to be watched, and there was no way of escaping his fate. When the day came for the queen's dead body to be laid to rest in the royal vault, he was taken down into it with her, and then the door was locked and bolted. Beside the coffin stood a table on which there were four candles, four loaves of bread and four bottles of wine. As soon as these provisions gave out he would have to die of hunger. So there he sat full of grief and sorrow, eating only a morsel of bread each day and drinking only a mouthful of wine, and yet he realized that his death was coming closer and closer. Now as he sat there staring in front of him, he saw a snake crawl out of one corner of the vault and approach the coffin. Thinking it was going to gnaw at the dead body, he drew his sword and exclaimed:" You shan't touch her so long as I am alive!" And he hacked the snake into three pieces. A few moments later a second snake came crawling out of the corner, but when it saw the other one lying dead and dismembered it turned back, and presently approached again carrying three green leaves in its mouth. Then it took the three pieces of the snake, put them together the way they belonged, and laid one of the leaves on each of the wounds. At once the dismembered parts joined, the snake stirred and came to life again, and both snakes crawled quickly away leaving the leaves behind them. The unfortunate prince had watched all this, and he now began to wonder whether the miraculous power of the leaves which had restored the snake to life might also help a human being. So he picked up the leaves and laid one of them on the dead woman's mouth and the other two on her eyes. and scarcely had he done so when her blood stirred in her veins, rose into her pallid countenance and gave it the flush of life again. She drew breath, opened her eyes and said:" Alas, where am I?" "You are with me, my dear wife," he answered and told her all that had happened and how he had revived her. Then he gave her some wine and bread and when she had recovered her strength she stood up, and they went to the door and knocked on it and shouted so loudly that the guards heard them and reported it to the king. The king himself came down and opened the door; he found both of them in full health and vigor, and rejoiced with them that now all their troubles were over. But the young king took the three snake-leaves with him, gave them to a servant and said:" Keep them carefully for me, and carry them on you wherever you go; who knows what trouble they may yet help us out of." But since being brought back to life his wife had undergone a change: it was as if all her love for husband had been drained out of her heart. Some time later he decided to make a voyage across the sea to visit his old father, and after they had boarded the ship she forgot the great love and grace he had shown her and how he had saved her from death, and conceived a guilty passion for the ship's captain. One day when the young king was lying there asleep, she called the captain and seized her sleeping husband by the head and made the captain take him by the feet, and thus they threw him into the sea. When this shameful deed had been done she said to the captain:" Now let's go home, and we'll say he died at sea. You can leave it to me to keep singing your praises to my father till he marries me to you and makes you heir to his crown." But the faithful servant, who had witnessed the whole thing, secretly lowered a small boat from the ship and set out in it, following his master and letting the traitors sail away. He fished up the drowned man, and by putting the three snake-leaves, which he had with him, on the young king's eyes and mouth, he successfully restored him to life. Then they both rowed day and night with might and main, and their boat sped along so quickly that they got home to the old king before the others. He was astonished to see them arriving alone, and asked what had happened to them. When he heard of his daughter's wickedness he said:" I can't believe that she did so evil a thing, but the truth will soon come to light." He told them both to go into a secret room and let no one know of their presence. Soon after this the big ship came sailing in, and the prince's godless wife appeared before her father with a sorrowful air. He said:" Why have you returned alone? Where is your husband?" "Oh, dear father," she replied, "I have come home in great grief: during the voyage my husband suddenly fell sick and died, and if the kind ship's captain had not helped me it would have gone ill with me. But he was present at my husband's death and can tell you all that happened." The king said:" I will bring this dead man back to life." And he opened the door of the room and told the two men to come out. When the woman saw her husband she stood as if thunderstruck, then fell to her knees and begged for mercy. The king said:" There can be no mercy for you: he was ready to die with you, and he gave you your life back again, but you murdered him in his sleep and you shall have your just reward." Then she and her accomplice were put on board a ship full of holes and sent out to sea, where they soon perished in the waves. I. Reference Version (参考译文)

刀公蛇影 打草惊蛇

刀公蛇影打草惊蛇