Raining Cats and Dogs

小兒英文考試，成績不及格，才從寧波返家，便立即被老婆大人罵了一頓，大意仍是「自己會，兒子不會」所以該罵！小兒說題目太難，所以考不及格是「有道理」的（小兒向來樂天，成績高低一直不以為意），於是，立即問我其中一題：「Raining cats and dogs」是啥意思！我回答：「傾盆大雨」。小兒隨即語塞，原本以為我不是應該知道的。之後我問：「你怎麼作答？」他說：「下雨把貓、狗都下下來了」，我思忖一會，想想，這翻譯其實也沒錯，只是原意轉化後的意思，是「下大雨」而已！傾盆大雨如果真要翻譯，不也就是：「下雨像打翻了一盆子水」嗎？直譯與意譯，兩者當然有別。

那「Raining cats and dogs」是怎麼來的？這是小兒進一步的追問。打破沙鍋確實問的好，英語成語背後，正如同中文一般，一樣有個故事，依照Michael Quinion 的說法，此一成語的語源有五種以上，而我個人比較喜歡「通俗」的說法，亦即： 早期房子是以稻草為頂，其中貓、狗會覓藏於稻草頂下之隔板上，一旦天降大雨，稻草漏水，躲在上面的貓、狗便會跑出來另覓棲身之所，因此才會成為：「下雨把貓、狗都下下來了」。另外，Quinion 還提出了其他比較「引經據典」的說法，說是貓會帶來「雨」，而狗會帶來「風」，所以有風有雨，就是「Raining cats and dogs」。

貓跟狗在英文裏的成語其實不少，動物嘛，跟人生活久了，就必然衍生成語。比如說中國人講：「狗眼看人低」，在英文裡面有一類似相對的成語：「The cat will mew and dog will have his day.」 這意思是說：「切莫狗眼看人低」，因為誰也不知道哪天誰會「飛上枝頭做鳳凰」。而我們所說的生不如死，在英文裡面有點像「leads cat-and-dog life」！每天活的「如貓似狗」，想必也是天天苦哈哈的過日子，還有人拿這句話來形容「夫妻失和」大吵大鬧的日子。狗與貓，沒得罪人，但在中西方，都入了成語！有好的，也有難堪的。

至 於其他 Raining Cats & Dogs 可能的由來，有興趣的，請自己閱讀以下Quinion的文字，我就不譯了。

Adapted from "World Wide Words" by Michael Quinion (http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-rai1.htm)

The most common one says that in olden times, homes had thatched roofs in which domestic animals such as cats and dogs would like to hide. In heavy rain, the animals would either be washed out of the thatch, or rapidly abandon it for better shelter, so it would seem to be raining cats and dogs. Other suggestions include derivation from an unspecified Greek aphorism that was similar in sound and which meant "an unlikely occurrence", or that it is a corrupted version of a rare French word, catadoupe, meaning a waterfall. It has also been suggested that at one time the streets of British towns were so poorly constructed that many cats and dogs would drown whenever there was a storm; people seeing the corpses floating by would think they had fallen from the sky, like the proverbial rains of frogs.

The most favoured one in the references I have found is mythological. It seems that cats were at one time thought to have influence over storms, especially by sailors, and that dogs were symbols of storms, often accompanying images and descriptions of the Norse storm god Odin. So when some particularly violent tempest appeared, people suggested it was caused by cats (bringing the rain) and dogs (the wind).

There is, I have to report, no evidence that I can find for any connection between the saying and the mythology other than the flat assertions of writers. The phrase first appears in its modern form in Jonathan Swift's A Complete Collection of Polite and Ingenious Conversation in 1738: "I know Sir John will go, though he was sure it would rain cats and dogs", though a variant form is recorded in 1653 in City Wit, a work of the English playwright Richard Brome, in which he wrote "It shall raine ... Dogs and Polecats", which seems to suggest a stranger and less easily comprehensible origin.

There are other similes which employ falls of improbable objects as figurative ways of expressing the sensory overload of noise and confusion that can occur during a violent rainstorm; people have said that it's raining like pitchforks (first recorded in 1815), hammer handles, and even chicken coops. It's probable that the version with cats and dogs fits into this model, without needing to invoke supernatural beliefs or inadequate drainage.