北京翻译公司教您英汉互译“ 画蛇添足”

战国时代有个楚国人祭他的祖先。仪式结束后，他拿出一壶酒赏给手下的几个人。大家商量说：“我们都来画蛇，谁先画好谁就喝这壶酒。”其中有一个人先画好了。但他看到同伴还没有画完，就又给蛇添上了脚。这时，另一个人也画好了，夺过酒壶吧酒喝了，并且说：“蛇本来是没有脚的，你怎么能给它添上脚呢？”

In the Warring States Period, a man in the State of Chu was offering a sacrifice to his ancestors. After the ceremony, the man gave a beaker of wine to his servants. The servants thought that there was not enough wine for all them, and decided to each draw a picture of a 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 and drank the wine, saying, 'A snake doesn't have feet. How can you add feet to a snake? '  

“画蛇添足”这个成语比喻做了多余而不恰上海英语口译当的事，反而把事情弄糟了。

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

例1：对一个这样漂亮的女孩来说，化妆有些画蛇添足。
                For such a beautiful girl, to use make-up would be to gild the lily.
       例2：我觉得这幅画是十分完美的，如果在角上再添上些花，倒有画蛇添足之感了。
                The painting, as it is, seems perfect to me. If you ad some flowers in the corner, you will be painting the lily.