A COLLECTION OF GOOD WORDS
徒劳
Futility
Mass is not repeated for the deaf.
弥撒不为聋人重复。
You cannot squeeze blood out of a stone.
你不能从石头里挤出血来。
Cry not for the hair when the head is off.
头掉下来时，不要为头发哭泣。
It's ill to take the breeks off a hielandman.
让一个强盗扫兴是不好的。
Pigs may whistle, but they hae an ill mouth for 't.
猪会吹口哨，但它的嘴却不好使。
You cannot drive a windmill with a pair of bellows.
你不能用一对风箱来驱动风车。
A buddha made of mud crossing a river cannot protect even himself.
泥菩萨过江，自身难保。
To talk much and arrive nowhere is the same as climbing a tree to catch a fish.
多说而无所成，犹如爬树捉鱼。
When the itch is inside the boot, scratching outside provides little consolation.
当痒在靴子里的时候，在外面抓痒不会给你多少安慰。
Dusting is a good example of the futility of trying to put things right. As soon as you dust, the fact of your next dusting has already been established.
除尘就是一个很好的例子，说明试图把事情做好是徒劳的。一旦你掸去灰尘，你下一次掸灰的事实就已经确定了。
The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor.
西西弗斯被神罚不停地把一块石头滚到山顶，石头就会从山顶上掉下来。出于某种原因，他们认为没有什么比徒劳无功、毫无希望的劳动更可怕的惩罚了。