刘谦的壶和托

今年没看春晚，刚刚补了课，看了“刘谦换壶”，学到了新成语：

图片来自网络

如何向外国人安利这个新“成语”呢？我在这里提供一些表达素材供大家参考。

英语中有很多和名字有关的典故，比如 Achellie’s heel，The Sword of Damocles。因此“刘谦换壶”可以说成：

Qian’s Teapot-switching / The Teapot of Qian

英语为母语的人不太会发中文“q”的音，这里可以把 Qian 换成他的英文名 Louis。

“近景魔术”是 close-up magic。“术托”我们直接解释为：The magician’s secret partner/assistance who pretends to be a spectator.

还有更地道简洁的表达。英语中常用这几个词表示这种托：confederate，stooge 或者 plant。

来看一下他们的英文解释：

confederate：audience member planted to act in a cooperative manner

来自Wikipedia的Glossary of magic

stooge：A stooge is magician's confederate who pretends to be a spectator. A stooge may fake amazement, deny his previous personal contact with the magician, behave in a certain way, say certain things, lie about something

plant：The stooge or assistance who was placed in the audience was called a plant. When the particular act came on stage, at some point a volunteer was called for, and the plant responded quickly before someone else in the audience could. Chosen, the plant came onto the stage and joined the act of prearranged business.

“刘谦擅长近景法术和术托众多而闻名”就可以说成：

Louis is known for his mastery of close-up magic and frequent use of stooges/confederates/plants.

“把人当作傻子一样糊弄”，可以直接说成 to fool, make a fool of someone 等。这里我们学一个很地道的表达：play someone for a sucker.

CNN 在报道“韭菜”时就用到了这个表达：

最后的几个刘谦换壶的近义词也很有意思：

皇帝的新装：the emperor’s new clothes

指鹿为马：call a stag/deer a horse

掩耳盗铃：to cover one’s ears while stealing a bell / to bury one’s head in the sand

碰到这样的中文表达，用我之前推荐过的免费词典 Pleco（如上图所示）就能解决，如果你还没有用过它，赶紧下一个吧。

看完这个刘谦换壶，我发了条微博：

Talk the talk, pass the buck也是地道的英文表达

魔术最重要的是带给人惊喜和欢乐，感谢刘谦老师的表演：猪年春晚变魔术，一片冰心在茶壶。