《返老还童》成语英译与典故

十三、返老还童

汉朝淮南王刘安，

晚年学道想成仙。

传说他想得长生不老术，

有一天来八个老翁要求见，

都自称已经练成“不老术”，

想给他当面把术献。

刘安想他们都老成了那个样，

无非是想把我的钱财骗。

叫门人快把他们都赶走，

气呼呼地不接见。

八老翁不以为意笑了笑，

对门人说：“若不信，

待我们变给你看一看。”

眨眼间，八老翁变成了八儿童，

门人一见傻了眼。

忙进去，请出刘安观看时，

八人早已影不见。

老翁能够变儿童，

无稽之谈属荒诞；

人们把“返老还童”作成语，

常形容老年人恢复青春容光焕。

Change from an Old Man Into a Child

In the Dynasty of Han（206B.C.—220A.D.）the Lord of Huainan was Liu An.When he was old，he wanted to be an immortal.The legend goes that he wanted the gift of immortality.

One day eight old men came to see him，and they said that they had the“Art of Rejuvenation”and would like to give a demonstration of it to him.Liu An thought that as they all were so old they would try to cheat him out of his money.He then asked his men to drive the old men away，and angrily slammed the door behind them.

The eight old men laughed indifferently，and said to the janitor，“If you don't believe us，we'll show you.”In a wink of time，eight old men turned into eight children，which quite astonished the janitor.The janitor then went back quickly to tell Liu An，but the eight men had already gone from sight.

The old men changing into children，was actually a conjurer's trick，but“Change from an Old Man Into a Child”was later adopted as an idiom that means to recover one's youthful vigor.