burn the boat

破釜沉舟

In the late years of the Qin Dynasty (秦朝，221 - 206BC)， Xiang Yu (項羽) launched a rebellion.

秦朝末年，項羽發(fā)動了叛亂。

After crossing the Zhang River (漳河)， Xiang Yu ordered his soldiers to sink all the boats and break their cooking pots.

在部隊渡過漳河之后，項羽命令士兵把所有的船只都鑿破，沉到河底，再把煮飯鍋完全打碎。

He distributed each soldier three days‘ rations and warned them that there was no way return; the only thing they could do to survive was to fight against the enemy.

項羽給每個人只發(fā)三天的糧食，然后再上戰(zhàn)場，這樣做，是為了向大家表示“寧死不退”的決心。

After nine furious war， the Qin army was finally defeated.

果然，經(jīng)過九次的激烈奮戰(zhàn)，項羽的軍隊終于打敗了秦國的軍隊。

This idiom is used to reveal one’s strong determination to achieve one‘s goal at any cost.

后來，我們使用“破釜沉舟”比喻：下定決心，不達(dá)目的絕不罷休的精神。

英文中“破釜沉舟”可以用“burn the boat ”來表達(dá)，就是“燒掉船只”，即“破釜沉舟，自絕退路”。

我們一起來看幾個例句：

Andy is intelligent， energetic and is ready to burn his boat.

安迪聰明熱情，且隨時準(zhǔn)備破釜沉舟干到底。

但是，這個短語并不是時時都是褒義的，如果“破釜沉舟”精神領(lǐng)會的不好，那有時會真的是自絕后路，比如說：

Think carefully before you resign ---if so， you will have burnt your boat.

你對辭職的事情要三思呀，不然就自絕了后路了。