英文成语故事：画蛇添足

Meaning
【解释】画蛇时给蛇添上脚。比喻做了多余的事，非但无益，反而不合适。也比喻虚构事实，无中生有。
【近义词】多此一举 节外生枝 徒劳无功
【反义词】画龙点睛 恰到好处 恰如其分
【相似词】人心不足蛇吞象 增添 添丁 添加 添补 添置 添麻烦 蟒蛇
【英译】 To draw a snake with feet added to it -- superfluous;redundant./ To draw a snake and add feet to it -- to spoil things by going to extremes./ To gild/paint the lily./ To ruin the effect by adding what is superfluous./ The action/measure/step just taken was really unnecessary.
Learning Chinese
1.不要弄巧成拙。
Don't gild the lily.
2.实际上原文是：为纯金镀金，为百合花添彩。
The actual quote is "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily".
3.对此发表评论无异于画蛇添足。
Comment upon this would be to paint the lily.
4.对一个这样漂亮的女孩来说，化妆简直就是画蛇添足。
For such a beautiful girl to use make-up would be to gild the lily.
5.这几句话把要说的意思说得很清楚了，再多说就是画蛇添足。
These words are sufficient to express what you want to say. Anything further would be overdoing it.
6.我觉得这幅画是十分完美的，如果在角上再添上些花，倒有画蛇添足之感了。
The painting, as it is , seems perfect to me. If you add some flowers in the corner, you will be gilding the lily.

Chinese version

战国时代有个楚国人祭他的祖先。仪式结束后，他拿出一壶酒赏给手下的几个人。大家商量说：“我们都来画蛇，谁先画好谁就喝这壶酒。”其中有一个人先画好了。但他看到同伴还没有画完，就又给蛇添上了脚。这时，另一个人也画好了，夺过酒壶吧酒喝了，并且说：“蛇本来是没有脚的，你怎么能给它添上脚呢？”
“画蛇添足”这个成语比喻做了多余而不恰当的事，反而把事情弄糟了。


English version
In the Warring States Period (zhàn guó 战国, 475-221BC), a man in the State of Chu (chǔ guǒ楚国) was offering a sacrifice (祭品) to his ancestors. After the ceremony, the man gave a bottle of wine to his servants. The servants thought that there was not enough wine for all of them, and decided each of them tried to draw a picture of a snake and that the one who finished the picture first would get the wine. One of them drew very fast. Seeing that the others were still busy drawing, he added four feet to the snake. At this moment another man finished; he snatched the bottle and drank the wine, saying, “A snake doesn't have feet. How can you add feet to a snake?”
This idiom refers to spoiling things by going to extremes.