用英語(yǔ)說(shuō)成語(yǔ):臨渴掘井（雙語(yǔ)）

During the Spring and Autumn Period (春秋 ,770 - 221BC),the ruler of the state
of Lu(魯國(guó)) was Lu Zhaogong (魯昭公),a man without the ability to jude the right from
wrong. He preferred to listen to the sweet words rather than the opinions which
might seemd pretty harsh but quite ture. As a result of this,a large mount of
treacherous court officials who were good at licking leader's boots gradully
gained their power within the government since they knew exactly how to cater to
the vain king. Meanwhile,the dedicated and rayal ones who really committed
themselves to contribute to the coutry’s welfare were elbowed out of the central
administration. As a consequence of that, nation's comprehensive strength of Lu
was weakened day by day on account of the poor managenment and serious
corruptions. Before long,the once vigorous state was totally smashed by one army
country.

Chu Zhaogong himself had a narrow escape from being killed.He then came to
the state of Qi(齊國(guó)) to seek the shielter for that he and Qi Jinggong (齊景公), the
king of Qi had developed a good friendship. He told Qi Jinggong that he
regretted to death for trusting the wrong persons. If not,he would not be down
and out right now. Hearing his remark,Yan Zi (晏子),the intelligent and renowned
minster of Qi,replied:"Only when a man falls into the water,can he take care of
hie feet;Only when a man be confronted with the invasion,can he manufactured
weapons rashily;Only when a man is badly thirsty,can he dig a well for the
water. So,it’ s too little to late for your regret. After all ,you can’t turn
the clock back."

Today,the phrase"to begin to dig a well when feeling thirsty”is used to refer
to people who aren’t well prepared for the future crisis. At that time,it’s too
late to complain.

春秋時(shí)期，魯國(guó)的國(guó)王魯昭公喜歡聽(tīng)人說(shuō)好話，不喜歡接受別人的意見(jiàn)。于是，擅長(zhǎng)拍馬屁的小人們逐漸掌握了權(quán)利，正直忠誠(chéng)的大臣們反而被排擠出了中央政府。慢慢地，魯國(guó)由于政府的無(wú)能漸漸衰落了，最后被一個(gè)敵國(guó)消滅了。

魯昭公逃到了齊國(guó)，因?yàn)樗妄R國(guó)的國(guó)王齊景公有很好的私交。他對(duì)自己以前的行為后悔得要死，覺(jué)得自己當(dāng)時(shí)能分清好壞，就不會(huì)落到今天如此下場(chǎng)。齊國(guó)有名的大臣晏子卻認(rèn)為：掉在水里的人，一定要等到掉進(jìn)水里以后，才會(huì)想起應(yīng)該防備失足;迷路的人，迷失了方向之后，才知道應(yīng)該注意路徑。猶如面臨災(zāi)難的人，才急著鑄造兵器;只有感覺(jué)到口渴的人，才會(huì)去挖井取水。雖然這時(shí)候用最快的速度，但是已經(jīng)來(lái)不及了。

后來(lái)，“臨渴掘井”就用來(lái)形容平時(shí)對(duì)各種事情不做準(zhǔn)備，不加提防，等到事情已就要發(fā)生時(shí)，才忙著采取措施去應(yīng)付，那是行不通的。

臨渴掘井 【翻譯】to begin to dig a well when feeling thirsty.