You Can’t Have Your Cake, and Eat It 魚和熊掌,不能兼得
Don't we all want to have the cake and eat it?Diarmuid: Hi, and welcome to BBC Learning English. I’m Diarmuid.
Feifei: 大家好,我是馮菲菲。
Diarmuid: In this Real English programme we’ll be looking at an English idiom.
Feifei: 還有對應的漢語成語諺語。
Diarmuid: Today’s English idiom is you can’t have your cake, and eat it.
Feifei: 什么意思呢?
Diarmuid: It means that you can’t have everything, or you can’t have things both ways.
Feifei: 意思是你不可能什么都有,或兩者兼得。
Diarmuid: You can’t have your cake, and eat it.
Feifei: 這個成語的字面意思是, 你不可能吃了蛋糕,同時又想拿著蛋糕。
Diarmuid: Do you have an equivalent idiom in Chinese?
Feifei: Yes. 漢語我們說魚和熊掌,不可兼得。我覺得也可以翻譯為,世事兩難全。
Diarmuid: Let’s hear some examples of people using this idiom in conversation.
Examples
A: I’d love to spend more time with my daughter, but I’d miss out on my career if I worked part time.
B: Yeah, it’s tricky. You can’t have your cake and eat it.
A: I’ve saved loads of money because I’ve stopped going out. The problem is, now I’m really bored with staying in!
B: Well you can’t have your cake and eat it.
Feifei: 第一段對話中的母親特別想多和女兒共度時光,可是又不想改半天上班,怕耽誤了自己的事業(yè)。
Diarmuid: She can’t have her cake, and eat it.
Feifei: 第二段對話中的女孩子說,她攢了不少錢,因為她不在外出社交,省了不少開銷,可是日久天長,沒有社交的生活又讓她感到煩了。
Diarmuid: She can’t have her cake, and eat it.
Feifei: 她不可能社交,省錢兩者兼得。
Diarmuid: The English idiom is: You can’t have your cake, and eat it.
Feifei: 漢語我們說魚和熊掌,不可兼得。換句話說就是世事兩難全。
Diarmuid: Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed our programme. You can get a new programme every day on our website.