Michael Chugani 褚简宁 - Too little, too late.｜又中又英

A day late and a dollar short. I came across this expression while reading a news item. It's an American idiom I have not used for a long time. If you are a day late and a dollar short it means you have taken action too late and the action you have taken is too ineffective to be of any use. For example, you can say Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor's efforts to stop the fifth wave of the coronavirus were a day late and a dollar short. This means she didn't prepare adequately for a fifth wave and when the highly infectious Omicron variant reached Hong Kong her efforts to stop it were ineffective.

Government figures show over 1.2 million Hong Kong people became infected and about 10,000 people died because she was a day late and a dollar short. This American idiom is very popular in the south of the US. It is not clear how it started but some language experts believe it started during the Great Depression in the 1930s in the US. It was caused by a sharp fall in stock prices which impoverished many Americans. They were short of money. If you are short of money it means you don't have enough money. People who cannot find work for many months are usually short of money.

Some language experts believe a day late and a dollar short originally meant not having enough money and if money came, it was too late. The idiom is similar to the expression "too little, too late". If something is too little, too late it means action taken to solve a problem is not enough and it came too late to be effective. Some language experts believe the idiom originated in the military when reinforcements were not enough and arrived too late to ensure victory or avoid defeat. Ukraine, which Russia has invaded, often warns Western countries that the action they are taking to help Ukraine is too little, too late.
＊＊＊＊＊

A day late and a dollar short. 我读着一则新闻时，碰到这个习语。这是一个美式成语，我已很久没有用过了。若你是a day late and a dollar short，意即你做事拖拉，太迟行动，而且你所做的行动太无效，起不了作用。譬如你可以说，特首林郑月娥在遏止第五波新冠肺炎疫情方面所付出的努力是 a day late and a dollar short——意思是她没有为第五波疫情作充足的准备，而当传播率甚高的Omicron变种病毒入侵香港时，她制止病毒传播的努力都是没有作用的。

政府数据显示，超过一百二十万香港人受到感染，约有一万人死亡，都因她反应迟缓又没做好准备（a day late and a dollar short）。这句美式成语在美国南部非常流行。这句话到底是怎样开始的，至今仍不明确，但一些语言专家认为它是在一九三○年代美国经济大萧条期间开始的。大萧条是由股价急速下跌所引起，令许多美国人一贫如洗。他们都是short of money——若你是short of money意即你财政拮据。人若多个月也找不到工作，通常都会缺钱（short of money）。

一些语言学专家相信，a day late and a dollar short原本的意思是没有足够的金钱，而即使金钱到手，却已经太迟了。这个成语跟习语 "too little, too late" 意思相近，若某事是too little, too late，意即用以解决问题的行动并不足够，也太迟了，起不到作用。一些语言专家认为，这个成语来自军事用语，指增援不足，亦来得太迟，并不确保能战胜或避免战败。俄罗斯侵袭的乌克兰就经常警告西方国家，他们协助乌克兰所采取的行动太少也太迟（too little, too late）。
[email protected]
中译：七刻
Michael Chugani 褚简宁