Chinese practice
露出馬腳
to reveal the cloven hoof
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
照片:維基共享資源
(lou4 chu1 ma2 jiao3)
一七八三年,法國巡防艦「希比耶號」掛著英格蘭軍旗──船旗是用來表示船隻的國籍──來誘使英格蘭籍船「赫薩號」靠近,並讓赫薩號誤以為希比耶號陷入了困境。於是赫薩號駛近,這時希比耶號迅速而挑釁地開到這艘英籍船旁、向它開火,並試圖登船。赫薩號船長羅素閃避了開,最終取得優勢,並佔據了希比耶號、俘虜其船長。羅素在眾人面前折斷了法籍船長的劍,因為法籍船長以「false colors」(他國旗幟)偽裝,以向他船開火,這種行為非常可恥。
一艘船的「colors」指是它的海軍旗幟。根據當時英格蘭皇家海軍的「戰爭條例」(戰爭行為準則),升起他國的旗幟來欺騙敵人、使之誤以為你是盟友,這是被允許的。但若你要向另一艘船發動攻擊或開火,你必需展示出你真實的顏色──升起你真正的海軍旗幟──否則就違反了戰爭條例。
以「顏色」來表示效忠某國家或主子,這種做法可追溯到很久以前,早期有個成語便是「to sail under false colors」(以他國旗幟航行)。
英格蘭外交官及學者湯馬斯‧伊利亞特在他一五三一年的教育論文《統治者之培養》寫道:「He wyll .... sette a false colour of lernying on proper wittes, which wyll be wasshed away with one shoure of raine」(他會......偽裝成一種顏色,假裝學習某種高尚的儀式,這種偽裝色只消下一次雨,就會被沖刷掉);莎士比亞一五九五的劇作《理查二世》中,第四幕第一景描寫流亡的諾福克公爵死於和土耳其人及撒拉遜人的戰鬥,莎翁寫道:
在威尼斯獻出了
他的身體,給那可愛的國土,
把他純潔的靈魂奉獻給他的主帥基督,
在基督的旗幟色彩下,他曾奮戰了如此之久......
羅伯‧路易斯‧史蒂文森未完成的小說《St. Ives: Being the Adventures of a French Prisoner in England》(聖艾夫斯:法國囚犯在英格蘭的冒險)(一八九七年)有此一句:「I had so much wisdom as to sail under false colours in this foolish jaunt of mine」(我這麼明智,知道這可笑的旅程要用別國的船旗航行。
查爾斯‧狄更斯在他一八四○年的書《老古玩店》中,將此句反過來,以「true」(真實的)一字取代了「false」(虛假),他寫道:「“[He] didn’t venture ... to come out in his true colours.」(〔他〕沒有這個膽子......去讓他的本色顯露出來。)
英文片語「to show one’s true colors」(顯示其真實顏色)意味某人顯露出其真實本性,這本性原是想要隱藏起來的,通常是出於不軌之動機。
成語「露出馬腳」的出處很難確定,但一般認為是源自一種古老的遊戲──把一頭驢子偽裝成麒麟(一種類似獨角獸的神秘生物),但是沒有人會被這把戲騙倒,因為我們仍可看到從偽裝下露出的驢子的蹄。
初唐有個故事提到這遊戲,出自張鷟的《朝野僉載》(引自馮贄《雲仙雜記.卷九.麒麟楦》)。
這故事談到初唐四大詩人之一的楊炯(西元六五○~約六九三年)的佚事。有人問楊炯說,為何他常用「麒麟楦」一詞來取笑在朝為官的人。楊炯回答說:「今假弄麒麟者,必修飾其形,覆之驢上,宛然異物,及去其皮,還是驢耳。無德而朱紫,何以異是」(我們若要做一頭假的麒麟,就需要製作一件麒麟形狀的斗篷,把它罩在一頭驢子上,以改變驢子的外觀。然而,把斗篷揭開後,底下仍是一頭驢子。這跟掩藏在繽紛色彩服飾下的沒道德的朝廷官員,有什麼不同呢?)
這則軼事很有可能便是成語「露出馬腳」的由來。(台北時報林俐凱譯)
那個人在提款機前東張西望,形跡可疑,警察上前盤查,他果然露出了馬腳。
(That person was looking suspicious, standing at the ATM machine and casting glances around him. When the police went to investigate, their suspicions were confirmed.)
英文練習
to show one’s true colors
In the year 1783, a French frigate named the Sybille displayed the English ensign — a flag denoting a vessel’s nationality — to lure the British ship the Hussar to draw near, and to give the impression the Sybille was in distress. When the Hussar approached, the Sybille made a rapid and aggressive maneuver, coming alongside and firing on the British ship, its crew attempting to board her. Captain Russell of the Hussar took evasive action, eventually gaining the upper hand and capturing the Sybille and taking the captain into custody. Russell publicly broke the French captain’s sword, as he had disgraced himself by firing on another ship under false colors.
A ship’s “colors” were its naval flag. According to the Royal Navy’s Articles of War (code of conduct) at the time, it was permissible to hoist false colors (the flag of another country) in order to deceive the enemy and make them think you were an ally. If you intended to attack, or fire upon the other ship, you would need to show your true colors — to hoist your true naval flag — or you would be in violation of the Articles.
The idea of one’s “colors” denoting allegiance to a country or master goes a long way back: an early idiom was “to sail under false colors.”
In his 1531 educational treatise The Boke named the Governour, the English diplomat and scholar Thomas Elyot wrote, “He wyll .... sette a false colour of lernying on proper wittes, which wyll be wasshed away with one shoure of raine.” (He will ... set a false color of learning on proper rites, which will be washed away with a single rain shower); in Act 4, Scene 1 of his 1595 play Richard II, William Shakespeare, describing how the exiled Duke of Norfolk had died in combat while fighting against the Turks and the Saracens, wrote:
And there at Venice gave
His body to that pleasant country’s earth,
And his pure soul unto his captain Christ,
Under whose colours he had fought so long....
The unfinished Robert Louis Stevenson novel St. Ives: Being The Adventures of a French Prisoner in England (1897) has the sentence “I had so much wisdom as to sail under false colours in this foolish jaunt of mine.”
It was for Charles Dickens to turn the phrase around, replacing “false” with “true,” in his 1840 book The Old Curiosity Shop, in which he wrote: “[He] didn’t venture ... to come out in his true colours.”
The English phrase “to show one’s true colors” means to reveal one’s true nature, having previously attempted to conceal it, usually for nefarious reasons.
The origin of the Chinese idiom 露出馬腳 (literally, “to reveal the cloven hoof”) is difficult to pinpoint, but it is thought to be an allusion to an ancient game in which an ass was dressed up as a qilin (a mythical creature similar to a unicorn), a pretense that fooled nobody as you could still see the ass’ hooves underneath the cover.
A reference to the game is found in an early Tang Dynasty story called qilin xuan from Zhang Zhuo’s chaoye qian zai (Complete Records from Court and Commonality) quoted in Chapter 9 of Feng Zhi’s yuan xian zaji (Immortals of the Clouds).
The story relates how Yang Jiong (650-693?), one of the Four Great Poets of the early Tang Dynasty, was pressed on why he often called court officials “asses in qilin’s clothing.” He replied, “When we want to make a fake qilin, we need to fashion a qilin-shaped cloak and drape it over an ass to change its appearance. When we remove the cloak, however, it’s still an ass underneath. How are court officials, with their lack of moral cultivation under their colorful finery, any different?”
It is very possible this anecdote is the origin of 露出馬腳. (Paul Cooper, Taipei Times)
Mr Smith tries to give the impression that he’s a nice person, but if you get on the wrong side of him he reveals his true colors.
(史密斯先生想讓大家覺得他是好人,但如果你惹到他的話,他就會露出馬腳了。)
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