《坐山观虎斗》成语英译与典故

一百、坐山观虎斗

春秋时期有一天，

在鲁国境内有一座山，

山上两只凶恶的大老虎，

老虎把一头老牛腿咬断。

咬死了老牛撕牛皮，

顷刻之间肉吃完。

吃完肉两只老虎咬起来，

一大一小猛开战。

小的哪是大的敌，

喉咙管一口被咬断。

尽管小虎被咬死，

大虎也受伤直喘气，

这时候那边冲来一猛士，

挥剑直把虎喉穿。

大虎受伤难招架，

被猛士刺死在山边。

猛士名叫卞庄子，

已经观斗整一天。

“坐山观虎斗”作成语。

常形容甲乙双方争斗时，

丙不介入只旁观。

待它两败俱伤时，

丙再从中捡便宜。

Sit on Top of the Mountain to Watch the Tigers Fighting

One day during the Spring and Autumn Period（770—476B.C.），on a mountain in the State of Lu，two furious tigers broke the legs of an ox，killed it and devoured it.They ate up all the flesh soon，and then the two tigers began biting each other.The two biting tigers，one was big and the other was small.

How could the small one deal with the big，and its throat was soon torn off.Though the small tiger was at last killed，the big tiger was gasping exhaust⁃edly.Just then a hunter came up over，and held out his sword to stab the tiger's throat.The tiger was too tired to resist，and was killed by the hunter at the foot of the mountain.The man's name was Bian Zhuangzi.He had been watching the tigers fighting for a whole day.

Later“Sit on Top of the Mountain to Watch the Tigers Fighting”became an idiom，and passed from mouth to mouth.It denotes when two parties are in a fight，a third one doesn't get in but only looks on，and when he sees both of them are on the decline，he takes advantage of them in the end.