緣木求魚（續篇）

#2020-0506

Just now I checked the meaning of Yuanmuqiuyu (緣木求魚) on the Internet, and I found this Chinese idiom (Yuan mu qiu yu) could be explained in several ways in English. For example:

• climb trees to catch [look for] fish -- cannot get blood from a stone;    [While the first part shows the original meaning, the second part is a good figure of speech.]
• catch fish in a tree -- a useless search;
• milk the bull;    [I like this very much!]
• seek roses in December;    [I like this, too.]
• try to do the impossible; to attempt the impossible;
• wring [get] water from a flint;    [I also like this very much.]
• look (for something) in the wrong place -- toil with no gain;    [This explanation is good; it's easy to understand!]
• conduct [carry out] something in the wrong way (or by taking the wrong approach);
• ...

Well, it's been a true story of mine that I failed to see the bird (see photos) actually swallow the fish on the tree last Wednesday. I just knew it had caught a fish from the pool and took it up there on the top of a tree; however, I was not sure if it could swallow up such a big fish.

One week later, I came back to the same park this afternoon and saw the same bird standing on (or should I say in?) another tree by the pond. I was still wondering whether it had actually swallowed the fish or not. -- See also: Yuan mu qiu yu (posted on April 29)

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