像猪一样快乐

曾经在一个英语学习上，看到有一篇“中翻英”的短文，译得很不错，只是其中的一句话有点问题。这句话是as stupid as a pig，您看出问题了吗？在汉语中，我们确实经常说“蠢猪”这个词，用来形容某个人很笨，因此在一般中国人的感觉中，猪就代表愚蠢。但在西方文化中，代表愚蠢的并不是猪，而是驴，因此这句话应当翻译成as stupid as an ass。在西方文化中，猪不仅不代表愚蠢，有时甚至还代表快乐，比如as happy as a pig，因此我们有必要在这里为猪先生平反昭雪。

通过这个小例子，我们可以看出，在翻译这种与动物有关的比喻性句子时，我们一定要考虑西方文化的因素，避免用中国人的习惯说法代替西方人的习惯说话。由于这个问题并不是一个很重要的问题，一般的英语教科书上很可能没有介绍，这里特意了一些常用的形容词与动物的搭配，供初学者朋友们参考，请看：

as blind as a bat

as hungry as a bear

as busy as a beaver

as busy as a bee

as songful as a bird

as angry as a bull

as changeful as a chameleon

as bald as an eagle

as sly as a fox

as tall as a giraffe

as silly as a goose

as fast as a hare

as playful as a kitten

as gentle as a lamb

as brave as a lion

as stubborn as a mule

as wise as an owl

as quick as a rabbit

as slow as a snail

as graceful as a swan

as slow as a turtle

as hungry as a wolf

最后我还想再补充一句：上面的搭配，并不是固定不变的，比如bull这种动物，经常跟angry搭配，但它也可以跟mad、strong等搭配，因此初学者朋友们千万不要搞教条，一定要灵活运用。

闲聊英语：像猪一样快乐