【英文对照赏析】Chinese Idiom: "Wholly Absorbed"专心致志
Chinese Idiom: "Wholly Absorbed"
"Wholly absorbed" is an idiom meaning to do things wholeheartedly, with total concentration. It originated from the text of debates between Mencius and Gaozi.
Long ago, there was a famous Go player called Qiu. People called him Yi Qiu because of his excellent skills.
Yi Qiu once recruited two students and taught them at the same time. He sincerely wanted to have them grasp the intricacies of Go as soon as possible and pass his skills on to them. Therefore, he very earnestly explained things for them.
One of the students listened carefully and earnestly, wholeheartedly concentrating on what Yi Qiu explained and analyzed for him. He ignored everything else. However, the other student, though he was sitting there physically, had his heart somewhere else. He looked at the fields and forest outside of the window at one moment and listened to the wild goose cry in the air at another. Seeing several swans flying overhead, he thought, "It would be nice if I had a bow and several arrows to shoot one of the swans. It would make a nice meal!"
But it would not help if he had the bow and arrows since he was in class. So he sighed and had to put his desire aside.
After a while, he could not help himself and looked out the window again. He saw another swan flying overhead. His desire to shoot it and eat it came up again, which lasted until Yi Qiu finished teaching. He still had not paid any attention to what Yi Qiu explained.
At this time, Yi Qiu asked the two students to play a game of Go to check how much they had learned. At the beginning, the student who did not pay attention in class could cope a little by relying on his previous foundation. However, he gradually showed that he was lacking. On the other hand, the student who listened to Yi Qiu wholeheartedly completed the offense and defense calmly. The other student, who had not paid attention to Yi Qiu in class, only had the ability to parry but not enough strength to strike back.
Seeing this, Yi Qiu said sincerely to the two students, "Though playing Go is a small skill and not considered a great capability, if you however don’t concentrate wholeheartedly, you still cannot learn it!"
专心致志
“专心致志”这则成语的意思是指一心一意、聚精会神，思想高度集中。它来源于《孟子•告子上》：今夫奕之为数，小数也，不专心致志，则不得也。
从前，有个下棋名手叫秋，由于他棋艺高超，所以别人就叫他奕秋。
有一次，奕秋收了两个学生，为他们同时上课。他一心想使这两个学生尽快掌握要诀，把自己的棋艺教给他们，就非常认真的给他们讲解。
一个学生听讲非常仔细认真，一心一意的注意奕秋的讲解和分析，对旁的事全都不加理会。而另一个学生呢，看上去也坐在那里，实际上却是心不在焉。他一会儿看看窗外的田野和树林，一会儿又听听天上的雁鸣，当他发现有好几只天鹅飞过，便想：“要是有一张弓，几支箭，射下一只天鹅煮来吃，那该有多好啊！”
可是，有弓有箭也没用，他正在上课呀。所以，他只好暗暗叹了口气，权且压下了这个念头。
不一会儿，他不禁又向窗外看了一眼，发现又一只天鹅飞过，便再一次起了射天鹅吃的念头，直到奕秋全讲完了，他也没在意。
这时，奕秋叫两个学生对下一局，看看他们究竟学的怎样。起初，那个开小差的学生凭著以前的基础还能勉强应付，可渐渐的就显出差距来。那个专心致志的学生攻守从容有序，而老是三心二意的学生只有招架之功，却无还手之力了。
奕秋一见，语重心长的对两个学生说：“虽然下棋只是一种小小的技艺，算不得什么大本事，但不专心致志的学习，也是学不好的啊！”