这是一则名为画蛇添足的谚语故事 中文故事 战国时代有个楚国人祭他的祖先。仪式结束后，他拿出一壶酒赏给手下的几个人。大家商量说：“我们都来画蛇，谁先画好谁就喝这壶酒。”其中有一个人先画好了。但他看到同伴还没有画完，就又给蛇添上了脚。这时，另一个人也画好了，夺过酒壶把酒喝了，并且说：“蛇本来是没有脚的，你怎么能给它添上脚呢？” 英文故事 In the Warring States Period, a man in the State of Chu was offering a sacrifice to his ancestors. After the ceremony, the man gave a beaker of wine to his servants. The servants thought that there was not enough wine for all of them, and decided to each draw a picture of a snake; the one who finished the picture first would get the wine. One of them drew very rapidly. Seeing that the others were still busy drawing, he added feet to the snake. At this moment another man finished, snatched the beaker and drank the wine, saying, 'A snake doesn't have feet. How can you add feet to a snake? ' 这则谚语故事告诉我们，做事情要恰到好处，不要多此一举，否则可能会把事情弄糟。其对应的英文谚语是“Draw a snake and add feet to it”，也可以用“Gild the lily”来表达类似的意思，即“给百合花镀金”，寓意过度装饰或做多余的事情。
