文革时期常用词汇的英译

蒋割荆

S（4）

司空见惯: it is quite common for/a matter of repeated occurrence
司马昭之心，路人皆知: This Szuma Chao trick is obvious to every man in the street./all too evident/obvious to everybody
私心杂念: selfish ideas and personal considerations
私字当头: make the self-interest the first consideration
思想过硬，生活过硬，本领过硬: stand severe tests in one's thinking, life and professional skills
思想改造: ideological remold
思想革命化: ideological revolutionization
思想根源: ideological root-cause
思想混乱: ideological confusion
思想落后: ideological backwardness
思想落后于实际: thinking lags behind reality
思想认识问题: a matter of ideology and understanding
思想政治工作: ideological and political work
死路一条: There is only one road, the road to extinction.
死不回头: never repent
死不认罪: be adamant in refusing to admit one's guilt
死不改悔的走资本主义道路的当权派: absolutely unrepentant persons in power taking the capitalist road
死不要脸: lose all sense of shame
死党: sworn followers/someone's followeer even unto death
死得其所: worthy death
死胡同: blindy alley/dead end
死灰复燃: like dying embers that flare up/come to life again/rise again from
死老虎: the slain tiger
死气沉沉: without vitality/lose one's vitality
死心塌地: be dead set on
死心眼: pig-headed
死硬派: die-hands
死有余辜: deserve more than death
死有重于泰山有轻于鸿毛: The death may be weightier than Mt. Tai or lighter than a feather.
四个第一（即林彪提出的“人的因素第一，政治工作第一，思想工作第一，活的思想第一”）: The "four-first" are: first place to man, first place to political work, first place to ideological work and first place to living ideas. (The details of the "four-first" are: First place must be given to man in handling the relationship between man and weapons; to political work in handling the relationship between political and other work; to ideological work in relation to routine tasks in political work; and, in ideological work, to the living ideas in a person's mind as distinguished from ideas in books.)
四海之内: within the limit of the four seas
四好连队（指的是：政治思想工作好，“三八作风”好，军事训练好，生活管理好）: "Four-Good" companies are: companies which are good in political and ideologicalwork, in the "three-eight" working style, in military training and in arranging their everyday life.
四旧（即“旧思想、旧文化、旧风俗、旧习惯”）: "Four-Olds" (old ideas, old culture, old customs and old habits
四类分子: the landlords, rich peasants, counter-revolutionaries and other bad elements
四面树敌: make too many enemies
四面楚歌: be surrounded by the enemy on four sides/find oneself besieged on all sides
四清复查: check the results of the "four clean-ups" movement
四清工作队: four clean-ups work teams
“四清四不清的矛盾”: "the contradiction between the 'four cleans' and the 'four uncleans'"
四清运动: the "four clean-ups" movement (the socialist education movement to clean things up in the fields of politics, ideology, organization and economy)
四人帮: Gang of Four (Wang Hongwen, Zhang Chunqiao, Jiang Qing, Yao Wenyuan)
四体不勤，五谷不分: can neither do physical work nor distinguish rice from wheat
四新（即“新思想、新文化、新风俗、新习惯”）: "four news" (new ideas, new culture, new customs and new habits)
伺机再起: wait for an opportunity to stage a comeback
伺机而动: wait for the opportune moment to go into action again
似是而非: appear what it is really not/look right, but really wrong
肆无忌惮: unscrupulously/reckless and unbridled
肆意污蔑: wantonly slander
肆意挥霍: freely squander public money
松懈情绪: mood of relaxation
耸人听闻: sensational
送货上门: home delivery service
送进历史博物馆: be consigned to the museum of history
诉苦: pour out grievances/air one's sufferings
塑造典型形象: create typical characters
塑造工农兵形象: create images of workers, peasants and soldiers
塑造英雄形象: create the heroic images
肃反: clean out the counter-revolutionaries
肃清暗藏的反革命分子: ferret (weed) out undercover counter-revolutionaries
算剥削账: calculate the extent of exploitation
算总账: general check-up
随波逐流: go with the stream (tide)
随大流: go (flow) with the tide
随风倒: veer with the wind
随机应变: adjust to changing circumstances
随军家属: the families who have followed the army
随声附和: agree to what other people say
随时准备歼灭入侵之敌: ready at all times to wipe out the enemy intruders
随心所欲: wilfully/arbitrarily
谁说鸡毛不能上天: Who says that a chicken feather cannot fly up to the sky?
“孙行者钻进肚皮的战术”: the tactics of the Monkey King making his way into the stomach
损人利己: injure others for the sake of one's own advantage
"损失是最小最小最小，成绩是最大最大最大": The losses are of the smallest while the gains are of the biggest.
损公肥私: injure the public interest to profut the private interest
缩手缩脚: be handicapped
缩小打击面: reduce the number to be attacked/narrow the target of attack
所向披靡: ever triumphant