成语故事 - 对牛弹琴 Play tune to the cow

对牛弹琴(dui niu tan qin)
Play a tune to the cow

指说话人或作者没有考虑到听众或读者的水平。
When the one who speaks or writes has not considered his audience well and thus over-estimated their level of understanding.


从前，有个筝弹得非常好的著名音乐家叫做公明仪。有一天，他看到一头牛正在他家附近的田里吃草。突然之间他有了灵感，就跑出去为这头牛弹琴。公明仪弹的曲子非常优美，连他自己也陶醉在音乐之中，偏偏那头牛根本不理会那美妙的音乐，只顾着吃草。公明仪感到十分讶异，不明白为什么那头牛对他的演奏无动于衷。当然，我们都知道那头牛不理会他的原因并不是因为他的演奏很差，而是因为它根本听不懂也不会欣赏这种高深的曲调。


Once upon a time, there lived a musician named Gong Mingyi who was very good at playing the Zheng, an ancient string instrument. One day, he saw a cow eating grass in the field near his house. He was inspired by the scene and immediately ran out to play a tune for the cow. Gong Mingyi played so beautifully that he was even mesmerized by the music. However the cow paid no attention to the music at all, but simply focused on eating the grass. Gong Mingyi was shocked to see that happening and he wondered,"My music so bad meh?". Of course, we all know that the only reason that the cow had been indifferent to Gong Mingyi's musical performance was because it could neither understand nor appreciate such elegant music.