Chinese language vocabulary 汉语词汇 一叶障目(Yí Yè Zhàng Mù)

Cóngqián, Chǔguó yǒu gè qióng shūshēng, zhěng tiān xiǎng de shì zěnme yàng cái néng fācái.
从前，楚国有个穷书生，整天想的是怎么样才能发财。

once upon a time there was a poor scholar who was obsessed with how to get rich.

Yǒu yì tiān, tā kàn dào yì běn shū shàng shuō:” rúguǒ néng zhǎodào tangling- bǔchán de shíhòu yòng lái zhēdǎng zìjǐ de nà piàn yèzǐ, ránhòu yòng tā zhē zhù yǎnjīng, biérén jiù kàn bú jiàn nǐ le.” Yúshì tā měitiān dōu qù shùlín lǐ zhǎo, guǒrán zhǎo dào yí piàn zhè yàng de yèzǐ.
有一天，他看到一本书上说：“如果能找到螳螂捕蝉的时候用来遮挡自己的那片叶子，然后用它遮住眼睛，别人就看不见你了。”于是他每天都去树林里找，果然找到一片这样的叶子。

One day he read in a book that if one could find the leaf which was used as a screen by a mantis to catch cicada, and blocked his view with that leaf, he would be invisible to others. So he went to the woods everyday and finally found such a leaf as described.

Kě shì yí bù xiǎoxīn, zhè piàn yèzǐ luò dào le yì duī yèzǐ lǐ, tā zhī hǎo bǎ suǒyǒu de yèzǐ dōu dài huí le jiā. Tā bǎ shùyè yí piàn yí piàn dì fàng zài yǎnjīng qián, wèn qīzǐ:” nǐ kàn dé jiàn wǒ ma?” Kāi shǐ de shíhòu, qīzǐ zǒngshì shuō:” kàn dé jiàn . ” Hòu lái, qīzǐ bú nàifán le, jiù shuō “kàn bú jiàn le!”
可是一不小心，这片叶子落到了一堆叶子里，他只好把所有的叶子都带回了家。他把树叶一片一片地放在眼睛前，问妻子：“你看得见我吗？”开始的时候，妻子总是说：“看得见。”后来，妻子不耐烦了，就说“看不见了！”

But by accident he dropped it into a heap of leaves, so he had to take home all of them. He held the leave over his eyes and kept asking his wife: "Can you see me?" At first his wife replied with “yes”, but in the end she got annoyed and lost her patience, saying:" No, I can't see you now!"

Shūshēng tīng le yǐhòu fēicháng xìngfèn, mǎshàng lái dào jíshì shàng, bǎ yèzǐ fàng zài yǎnjīng qiánmiàn, qù ná biérén diàn lǐ de dōngxī. Diànzhǔ zhuā zhù tā, sòng dào le guānfǔ lǐ. Xiànguān tīng tā shuō wán zhěng jiàn shì qíng hòu, fěngcì de shuō:” nǐ zhēn shì yíyè-zhàngmù, bú jiàn tàishān ā!”
书生听了以后非常兴奋，马上来到集市上，把叶子放在眼睛前面，去拿别人店里的东西。店主抓住他，送到了官府里。县官听他说完整件事情后，讽刺地说：“你真是一叶障目，不见泰山啊！”

The scholar got excited and hurried to the market. Confident that he was lost to people's sight with the leaf over his eyes, and began to grab things from the shops. Of course he was caught by the shopkeepers and was sent to the local authority. When the official had listened to the ins and outs of the story, he said sardonically to the scholar:" A leaf before the eye makes you shut out the mountain Tai!"

Words：
书生shūshēng： intellectual; scholar（n.）
发财fācái： make a fortune （ v.）
螳螂tángláng： mantis（n.）
蝉chán： cicada （n.）
遮zhē： hide from view（v.）
耐烦nàifán：patient （adj.）
官府guānfǔ： local authority（n.）
县官xiànguān： feudal official （n. ）
讽刺fěngcì： satirize（v.）

Meanings：

“一叶障目”的意思是眼睛被一片树叶挡住。常用来比喻某人被眼前小的事物蒙蔽，看不到事物的整体和本质。

" 一叶障目(Yí Yè Zhàng Mù)" literally means one's view is blocked by a leaf. This idiom refers to people who have their view of the important shut out by the trivial and fail to see the wholeness and essence of things.

Sentences：

1.Zhè jiàn shìqíng nǐ yào cóng duō fāngmiàn kǎolǜ yí xià, bú yào yíyè-zhàngmù.
这件事情你要从多方面考虑一下，不要一叶障目。

You should think about this matter comprehensively and do not 一叶障目.

2. Nǐ bù néng yíyè-zhàngmù, yīnwèi zhè yí gè cuòwù jiù fǒudìng le dàjiā de nǔlì.
你不能一叶障目，因为这一个错误就否定了大家的努力。

You should not 一叶障目 only by such a minor mistake and deny all our efforts.