第三年第八十五天

[nnozomi]

ETA: wtf is going on with the formatting of this entry? I did everything exactly the way I always do and it's very weird, and I can't make it come out normal no matter how many times I edit. Apologies for difficulty reading.

成语
肝脑涂地 to lay down one's life (lit. to paint the ground with liver and brain)
在所不辞 not to hesitate regardless of circumstances
临渊羡鱼，不如退而结网 better to take practical measures than just hope for the best (lit. go home and weave a net rather than standing around wishing for fish)
肝脑涂地 gānnǎo túdì; 在所不辞 zàisuǒ bùcí; 临渊羡鱼,不如退而结网 línyuān xiànyú，bùrú tuì ér jiéwǎng

词汇
准确, accuracy (pinyin in tags)
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-2-word-list/

Guardian:
楚恕之愿为尊使大人肝脑涂地在所不辞, I, Chu Shuzhi, would not hesitate to lay down my life for the honorable Lord Envoy.
临渊羡鱼，不如退而结网, better to take practical measures than simply wish for the best [in context, this is a pun because the line before it is 大人是要钓鱼, your Lordship is on a (metaphorical) fishing expedition]
[no 准确]

Me:
如果他把你伤害，我在所不辞让他明白。
她的工作很准确。

Comments

[china_shop]

to lay down one's life (lit. to paint the ground with liver and brain)

Wow.

(Thanks for sign-posting the pun, too!)

[trobadora]

What's wrong with the formatting? It looks normal to me ...

in context, this is a pun because the line before it is 大人是要钓鱼

Oooh, that is delightful! Thank you for pointing that out!

[donutsweeper]

Oooh, these idioms are great. I love when you can really see how the literal meaning became the idiom.

[nnozomi]

to lay down one's life (lit. to paint the ground with liver and brain)
Wow.
There are a lot of "liver" and other innard-related expressions! They're not all that graphic...

[nnozomi]

(of course as soon as I posted the ETA the formatting snapped back to normal, sigh. Let's see how today goes.)

And I love it that the Black-Cloaked Envoy canonically makes puns.

[nnozomi]

Yes! I suppose we use similar ones in English all the time, but it's so much fun to learn them new.

painting the ground, weaving a net...

[saffronhouse]

Like other folks here, just chiming in to say how much I love the idioms! I may not be working seriously enough to actually learn much mandarin, but the literal translations make me so happy. Today's was just especially great, but they are always wonderful. Thanks so much for your posts!

[trobadora]

Yes! That is so delightful to know about him. :D

[nnozomi]

It's one of the pleasures of going deeper into the script!

Re: painting the ground, weaving a net...

[nnozomi]

I'm so glad you're enjoying them! (I don't think there's any "working seriously enough," whatever works for you at the moment should be fine...). Lots and lots more idioms to come, we've hardly started ;) <3

[trobadora]

Yes! It's wonderful that almost six years later there's still new things to discover. So much love!

[nnozomi]

<3 <3 <3