Chinese language vocabulary 汉语词汇 对牛弹琴 （Duìniútánqín ）

Zhànguó shí, yǒu yí wèi jiào Gōngmíng Yí de yīnyuè jiā, tā tán de qǔzǐ yōuměi dòngtīng, hěn duō rén dōu xǐhuān tīng tā tánqín.
战国时，有一位叫公明仪的音乐家，他弹的曲子优美动听，很多人都喜欢听他弹琴。

During the Warring States period, there was a musician named GongmingYi. The music he played was exquisite and pleasant to listen to. Many people loved to hear him play.

Yǒu yì tiān, Gōngmíng Yí lái dào jiāowài, kàn dào chūnfēng xúxú de chuīdòng zhe yángliǔ, yì tóu huángniú zhèng zài cǎodì shàng dītóu chīcǎo, tā lái le xìngzhì, lìkè bǎi shàng qín, bō dòng qínxián, gěi zhè tóu niú tán qǐ le yuèqǔ. Kěshì lǎo huángniú què méi shénme fǎnyìng, réngrán dītóu chīcǎo. Gōngmíng Yí xiǎng, zhè zhī qǔzǐ kěnéng tài gāoyǎ le, yúshì jiù huàn le jǐ shǒu tōngsú qǔzǐ, dànshì lǎo huángniú shǐzhōng háo wú fǎnyìng. Gōngmíng Yí hěn shīwàng.
有一天，公明仪来到郊外，看到春风徐徐地吹动着杨柳，一头黄牛正在草地上低头吃草，他来了兴致，立刻摆上琴，拨动琴弦，给这头牛弹起了乐曲。可是老黄牛却 没什么反应，仍然低头吃草。公明仪想，这支曲子可能太高雅了，于是就换了几首通俗曲子，但是老黄牛始终毫无反应。公明仪很失望。

One day, GongmingYi went out of town and saw the spring breeze gently blowing the willows as a yellow cow was busy eating grass in the field. He was very interested and immediately took up his instrument and began plucking the strings, playing his music for the cow. The cow, however, took no notice, but continued calmly eating the grass. GongmingYi thought, maybe this music was too refined, so he switched to some more popular tunes, but the cow still paid no attention to him whatsoever. Gongming Yi was very disappointed.

Zhèshí, yǒu rén duì tā shuō:” nǐ bú yào shēngqì le, bú shì nǐ dàn de qǔzǐ bù hǎotīng, érshì nǐ tán de qǔzǐ niú xīnshǎng bù le ā!”
这时，有人对他说：“你不要生气了，不是你弹的曲子不好听，而是你弹的曲子牛欣赏不了啊！”

At this time, someone said to him: "Don't be upset. It's not that your music is not beautiful, but just that the cows can't appreciate it!"

Words:
优美yōuměi： graceful; exquisite (adj.)
动听dòngtīng： interesting or pleasant to the ear (adj.)
徐徐xúxú： slowly and gently (adv.)
兴致xīngzhì： interest;gusto (n.)
高雅gāoyǎ： elegant; refined (adj.)
始终shǐzhōng： from beginning to end(adv.)

Meanings:

对牛弹琴中“对”是“对着，向着”。“对牛弹琴”的本意是对着牛弹琴，但牛并无理睬。比喻试图和不讲道理的人理论。也可以讽刺那些不看对象是谁就大发言论的人。

The meaning of "对(duì)" is "to; towards". "对牛弹琴(DuìNiú TánQín)" literally means playing the music towards the cow, but the cow took no notice. This is a metaphor for trying to reason with those who are unreasonable. It is also used ironically to refer to those who talk without noticing who their audience is.

Sentences:

1.Tā bù dǒng yīnyuè, dài tā qù tīng yīnyuè huì, jiǎnzhí jiù shì duìniútánqín.
他不懂音乐，带他去听音乐会，简直就是对牛弹琴。

He doesn't know anything about music, so taking him to a concert is like 对牛弹琴.

2. Gēn tā shuō le nàme duō dàolǐ, tā hái shì bù míngbái, zhēn shì duìniútánqín ā !
跟他说了那么多道理，他还是不明白，真是对牛弹琴啊！

After explaining it to him so many times, he still couldn't understand. It is really like 对牛弹琴!