📚tit-for-tat(以牙還牙,以眼還眼;投桃報李)此歐美人士熟悉的idiom(慣用語),據說與狐狸與鸛「一報還一報」( respond to another person’s action with a similar action)的成語故事有關。
📚某日狐狸(fox)邀請鸛(stork)到家中晚宴。狐狸故意將羹湯倒進光滑的大理石板盤(a smooth slab of marble)裡,細長尖嘴的鸛因扁平的容器無法嚐到羹湯。。晚宴結束後,鸛(stork)也回請狐狸擇日到家中用餐。鸛效仿狐狸「禮尚往來」待客之道,將pap(流質食物)倒進一隻小口的flagon(長頸大肚瓶)。當狐狸乾瞪眼鸛輕鬆享受美食時,鸛道出:「以某人之道還治其人之身」一報還一報的世道。
The story is that a stork which had arrived from foreign parts received an invitation to dinner from a fox, who served her with clear soup on a smooth slab of marble, so that the hungry bird could not taste a drop of it. Returning the invitation, the stork produced a flagon filled with pap, into which she stuck her bill and had a good meal, while her guest was tormented with hunger. ‘You set the example,’ she said, ‘and you must not complain at my following it.’
📚英文原文出處:S.A. Handford, Fables of Aesop. Great Britain: Penguin Books Ltd, 1954.
🤔當英文學習者深入學習tit-for-tat(以牙還牙,以眼還眼;投桃報李)故事的來龍去脈,及在歐美學術界隱含之寓意後,就華人就能輕鬆讀懂昨日Bloomberg Businessweek《彭博商業周刊》新聞摘要中,標題為China Restricts Export of Chipmaking Metals in Clash With US以下第一段文字敘述。
“China imposed restrictions on exporting two metals that are crucial to parts of the semiconductor, telecommunications and electric-vehicle industries in an escalation of the country’s tit-for-tat trade war on technology with the US and Europe.” (中國對兩種對半導體、電信和電動車產業至關重要的金屬實施出口限制,這是該國在與美國和歐洲的科技貿易戰中升級的報復行動。)
📚註解:華人熟悉的an eye for an eye(以眼還眼)及a tooth for a tooth(以牙還牙),源自於舊約聖經Exodus 21:24-25(出埃及記第二十一章二十四與二十五節), Leviticus 24:19-20(舊約利未記第二十四章第十九節與二十節), 及 Deuteronomy 19:21(身命記第十九章第二十一節)。後人在闡述這三處聖經經文,傾向「防範作惡」制定法規或政策。