差不多先生传 Mr. “Close Enough”

差不多先生传

Mr. “Close Enough”

你知道中國最有名的人是誰？提起此人，人人皆曉，處處聞名，他姓差，名不多，是各省各縣各村人氏。你一定見過他，一定聽過別人談起他，差不多先生的名字，天天掛在大家的口頭，因為他是中國全國人的代表。
Do you know who the most famous individual is in China? The name is—alas, don’t we know it well—Mr. "Close Enough", a guy from Any Village, Any County, Any Province. You must have met with him or heard people talk about him. His name, Close Enough, is on our lips every day. He is the representative of us all.
差不多先生的相貌，和你和我都差不多。他有一雙眼睛，但看的不很清楚；有兩隻耳朵，但聽的不很分明；有鼻子和嘴，但他對於氣味和口味都不很講究；他的腦子也不小，但他的記性卻不很精明，他的思想也不細密。
Mr. Close Enough looks average, not much different from you and me anyway. He has a pair of eyes, which unfortunately don’t see clearly. He has two ears, which hear rather poorly. He has a nose and a mouth, but they are not particularly sensitive to smells and tastes. His brain, although not small, doesn't excel in memory and is incapable of thorough thinking.
他常常說：「凡事只要差不多，就好了。何必太精明呢？」
What he often says is “Close enough, then we will be fine. Why bother being precise?”
他小時候，他媽叫他去買紅糖，他買了白糖回來，他媽罵他，他搖搖頭道：「紅糖，白糖，不是差不多嗎？」
When he was a child, his mother sent him to buy brown sugar, and he came back with white sugar instead. When scolded, he shook his head and said: “Brown sugar and white sugar, aren’t they close enough?”
他在學堂的時候，先生問他：「直隸省的西邊是哪一省？」他說是陝西。先生說：「錯了，是山西，不是陝西。」他說：「陝西同山西，不是差不多嗎？」
When he was in school, his teacher once asked him: “Which province borders Zhili to the west?” He answered "Shaanxi". The teacher said:“Wrong. It should be Shanxi.” He replied: “Shaanxi and Shanxi, aren’t they close enough?”
後來他在一個錢鋪裏做夥計；他也會寫，也會算，只是總不會精細；十字常常寫成千字，千字常常寫成十字。掌櫃的生氣了，常常罵他，他只笑嘻嘻地賠小心道：「千字比十字多一小撇，不是差不多嗎？」
Later he became a clerk in a money shop. He could write and calculate, but was rarely accurate. He would mistake the character of "thousand" for that of "ten", or the other way around. His boss would get angry and reproch him. He would pacify the issue with a grin and say: “‘Thousand’ and ‘Ten’ are only one stroke apart. Wouldn't you say they are close enough?”