英文成语故事：拔苗助长

拔苗助长 ( bá miáo zhù zhǎng )

Meaning
【解析】把苗拔起，以助其生长。后用来比喻违反事物的发展规律，急于求成，反而坏事。
【近义词】适得其反、欲速不达、揠苗助长、急功近利
【反义词】循序渐进、水到渠成、顺其自然、听天由命、听之任之
【相似词】揠苗助长、拔刀相助、助长、幼苗、苗条、苗头、苗裔、菜苗
【英译】Try to help the shoots grow by pulling them upward.


Chinese version

春秋时代，宋国有个急性子的农夫。庄稼长出禾苗以后，他每天都去观看。令他沮丧的是，禾苗长得太慢。农夫绞尽脑汁想让禾苗长快些。一天他终于想出方法。他跑到田里，把禾苗一颗颗往上拔，使它们长高。农夫虽然很累但他很高兴看到禾苗长高。当农夫回家时，把这个好办法告诉了他儿子。他的儿子赶忙跑到田里去看，禾苗全都枯萎了。

English version
There was once an impatient farmer who lived during the Song Dynasty (sòng cháo 宋国, 960-1279 AD). Every day the anxious farmer would measure the growth of the crops. To his disappointment, his crops were growing much slower than he expected. The farmer racked his brains (绞尽脑汁) trying to find better ways of planting in order to get quicker results.
One day he finally came up with an idea. He started to pull the crops up a little to make them taller. The farmer worked very hard, and at the end of the day he was very tired but happy as his plan did produce the desired results. When the farmer went home, he told his son of his “brilliant” method. His son went to the field only to find that all of his crops were dead.