A short story about an older cat teaching a younger cat a lesson as they fish together.
老猫和小猫一块儿在河边钓鱼。
一只蜻蜓飞来了。小猫看见了，放下钓鱼竿，就去捉蜻蜓。蜻蜓飞走了，小猫没捉着，空着手回到河边来。小猫一看，老猫钓着了一条大鱼。
一只蝴蝶飞来了。小猫看见了，放下钓鱼竿，又去捉蝴蝶。蝴蝶飞走了，小猫又没捉着，空着手回到河边来。小猫一看，老猫又钓着了一条大鱼。
小猫说: “真气人，我怎么一条小鱼也钓不着？”
老猫看了看小猫，说: “钓鱼就钓鱼，不要这么三心二意的。一会儿捉蜻蜓，一会儿捉蝴蝶，怎么能钓着鱼呢？”
小猫听了老猫的话，就一心一意地钓鱼。
蜻蜓又飞来了，蝴蝶又飞来了，小猫就象没看见一样。不大一会儿，小猫也钓着了一条大鱼。
Hover a word for its pinyin & meaning; click to pin it.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 老 | lǎo | prefix used before the surname of a person or a numeral indicating the order of birth of the children in a family or to indicate affection or familiarity; old (of people); venerabl… |
| 猫 | māo | cat (CL:隻|只[zhi1]); (dialect) to hide oneself; (loanword) (coll.) modem |
| 和 | hé | old variant of 和[he2]; surname He; (literary) harmonious (variant of 和[he2]) |
| 小猫 | xiǎo māo | kitten |
| 一块儿 | yī kuài r | erhua variant of 一塊|一块[yi1 kuai4] |
| 在 | zài | to exist; to be alive; (of sb or sth) to be (located) at; (used before a verb to indicate an action in progress) |
| 河边 | hé biān | river bank |
| 钓 | diǎo | to fish with a hook and line; to angle |
| 鱼 | Yú | surname Yu |
| 一 | yī | one; single; a (article); as soon as; entire; whole; all; throughout; "one" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 1); also pr. [yao1] for greater clarity when spelling out … |
| 只 | zhī | variant of 隻|只[zhi1]; variant of 只[zhi3]; grain that has begun to ripen; classifier for birds and certain animals, one of a pair, some utensils, vessels etc |
| 蜻 | ||
| 蜓 | ||
| 飞 | fēi | to fly |
| 来 | lái | to come; (used as a substitute for a more specific verb); hither (directional complement for motion toward the speaker, as in 回來|回来[hui2 lai5]); ever since (as in 自古以來|自古以来[zi4 gu3… |
| 了 | le | (completed action marker); (modal particle indicating change of state, situation now); (modal particle intensifying preceding clause); (bound form) clear in one's mind; to understand clearly |
| 看见 | kàn jiàn | to see; to catch sight of |
| 放下 | fàng xià | to lay down; to put down; to let go of; to relinquish; to set aside; to lower (the blinds etc) |
| 鱼竿 | yú gān | fishing rod |
| 就 | jìu | (after a suppositional clause) in that case; then; (after a clause of action) as soon as; immediately after; (same as 就是[jiu4 shi4]) merely; nothing else but; simply; just; precise… |
| 去 | qù | to go; to go to (a place); (of a time etc) last; just passed; to send; to remove; to get rid of; to reduce; to be apart from in space or time; to die (euphemism); to play (a part);… |
| 捉 | zhuo | to clutch; to capture |
| 走 | zǒu | to walk; to go; to run; to move (of vehicle); to visit; to leave; to go away; to die (euph.); from; through; away (in compound verbs, such as 撤走[che4 zou3]); to change (shape, form… |
| 没 | méi | (negative prefix for verbs) have not; not |
| 着 | zhāo | variant of 著|着[zhao1]; a move in chess (Taiwan pr. [zhuo2]); trick; tactic; (dialect) okay; all right; (dialect) to put in; to add |
| 空着手 | kōng zhe shǒu | empty-handed |
| 回到 | huí dào | to return to |
| 看 | kān | to look after; to take care of; to watch; to guard |
| 条 | tiáo | strip; item; article; clause (of law or treaty); classifier for long thin things (ribbon, river, road, trousers etc) |
| 大 | dà | big; large; great; older (than another person); eldest (as in 大姐[da4 jie3]); greatly; freely; fully; (dialect) father; (dialect) uncle (father's brother) |
| 蝴 | hū | used in 蝴蝶[hu2 die2] |
| 蝶 | dié | variant of 蝶[die2]; (bound form) butterfly |
| 又 | yòu | (once) again; also; both... and...; and yet; (used for emphasis) anyway |
| 说 | shuì | to persuade; variant of 說|说[shuo1] |
| 真 | zhēn | really; truly; indeed; real; true; genuine |
| 气人 | qì rén | to anger; to annoy |
| 我 | wǒ | I; me; my |
| 怎 | zěn | how |
| 么 | má | exclamatory final particle; variant of 麼|么[me5] |
| 小 | xiǎo | small; tiny; few; young |
| 也 | Yě | surname Ye |
| 不着 | bù zháo | no need; need not |
| 不要 | bù yào | don't!; must not |
| 这么 | zhè me | so much; this much; how much?; this way; like this |
| 三 | Sān | surname San |
| 心 | xīn | heart; mind; intention; center; core; CL:顆|颗[ke1],個|个[ge4] |
| 二 | èr | two; 2; (Beijing dialect) stupid |
| 意 | yì | (bound form) idea; thought; meaning; sense; (bound form) intention; feeling; inclination; state of mind; (bound form) Italy (abbr. for 意大利[Yi4 da4 li4]) |
| 的 | de | of; ~'s (possessive particle); (used after an attribute when it modifies a noun); (used at the end of a declarative sentence for emphasis); (used after a noun, verb or adjective to… |
| 一会儿 | yī huì r | a moment; a while; in a moment; now...now...; also pr. [yi1 hui3 r5] |
| 能 | Néng | surname Neng |
| 呢 | ne | (sentence-final particle) used in questions to link back to prior discourse or context ("what about...?", "and...?"); (sentence-final particle) indicating that a state or situation… |
| 听 | yǐn | smile (archaic); to listen to; to hear; to heed; to obey; a can (loanword from English "tin"); classifier for canned beverages; to let be; to allow (Taiwan pr. [ting4]); (literary) to administer; t… |
| 的话 | de huà | if (coming after a conditional clause) |
| 一心 | yī xīn | wholeheartedly; heart and soul |
| 一意 | yī yì | focus; with complete devotion; stubbornly |
| 地 | de | -ly; structural particle: used before a verb or adjective, linking it to preceding modifying adverbial adjunct |
| 象 | xiàng | elephant; CL:隻|只[zhi1]; shape; form; appearance; to imitate |
| 样 | yàng | manner; pattern; way; appearance; shape; classifier: kind, type |
| 不大 | bù dà | not very (clear, far away etc); not too; not often; infrequently |
Old Cat and Little Cat were fishing together on the riverbank.
A dragonfly flew over. The little cat saw it, put down his fishing pole, and tried to grab the dragonfly. The dragonfly flew away, and the little cat, unable to grab it, stopped trying and went back to fishing on the riverbank. As soon as Little Cat was back [lit: as soon as little cat looked], Old Cat caught a big fish. [This time] a butterfly flew over. The little cat saw it, put down his fishing pole and again tried to catch it. The butterfly flew away without the little cat having caught it, and Little Cat again went back to the riverbank. As soon as he looked over at Old Cat, Old Cat had caught another big fish.
Little Cat said: “How annoying, why is it that I haven’t caught even one little fish?”
Old Cat looked him over and said: “If you’re fishing just fish, don’t be in two minds about it. If you spend a while catching dragonflies, then you spend another while catching butterflies, how can you catch fish?”
Little Cat listened to Old Cat’s words and begin to fish intently.
The dragonfly flew over again, and the butterfly flew over also, but it was as if Little Cat didn’t see them. Not long after that, Little Cat caught a big fish.