《东施效颦（pín）》成语英译与典故

十二、东施效颦（pín）

古时有个美女叫西施，

有一天正从田里往家走，

感觉身体不舒服，

就手捂着胸口皱眉头。

邻居家有个丑女叫东施，

见西施就从旁边仔细瞅，

呀！怪不得人人都夸西施美，

原来她手捂胸口还皱眉头！

嗯！打今后俺也学她那模样，

看谁个还敢笑俺东施丑！

从那起，丑女若从人前过，

就学西施手捂胸口皱眉头。

到后来弄巧成拙落笑谈，

丑丫头这样模仿更加丑。

“东施效颦”作成语，

常比喻仿美不当丑更丑。

成语中“颦”字不难认，

意思就是皱眉头。

Ugly Dong Shi Imitating Beautiful Xi Shi's Frown

In ancient China there was a beautiful girl called Xi Shi.One day she went home from the fields，be⁃cause she was not feeling very well.She put her hand on her chest and knitted her brow.This caught the eye of an ugly girl by the name of Dong Shi，who lived next⁃door.She carefully looked at Xi Shi for quite some time.Alas，no wonder people spoke high⁃ly of Xi Shi's beauty.She put her hand on her chest and frowned！“Well，from now on I'll just follow suit，and there will be no⁃one laughing at me！”

Ever since then，whenever the ugly girl passed by anyone，she would put her hand on her chest and frown，and thus she became a laughing stock.An ug⁃ly girl looking this way was even uglier.

“Dong Shi imitating Xi Shi's frown”as an idiom，means an ugly one becomes uglier because of a poor imitation.The character“Pin”in the idiom takes the meaning of“frown”in Chinese.