17 alpha and omega和gild the lily都是成语

问：我在阅读时遇到这样两个词组alpha and omega和gild the lily，不知是什么意思，查阅了几部词典都未能解决，请解释。

答：alpha and omega和gild the lily都是习语（idioms）。前者意为“首尾，（自）始（至）终，全部；最好（重要）的部分”（the first and the last；the beginning and the end，the best or most important part），alpha（α）和oraega（Ω）分别是希腊文字母表中的第一个字母和最后一个字母。该习语源自《圣经·新约·启示录》（The Holy Bible（New Testament）The Revelation）第一章第八节：“I am（the）Alpha and（the）Omega，the beginning and the end，”said the Lord，“who is and who was and who is to come，the Almighty.”（主 神说：“我是阿拉法，我是俄梅戛，是昔在、今在、以后永在的全能者。”），并常与介词of搭配使用。例如：

（1）The alpha and omega of my heart’s wishes broke involuntarily from my lips. in the words—“Jane！Jane！Jane！”（我内心的全部愿望，不由自主地从我嘴里用这样的话说出：“简！简！简！”）

（2）Adherence to the objectives of the Fourth Plan remains the alpha and omega of French economic and financial policy.

（3）Wheat is the alpha and omega of their diet.

现在来看第二个习语gild the lily，其意为“画蛇添足，多此一举”（to spoil something by trying to improve it when it is already good enough, add unnecessarily to something already beautiful or good enough），用于指人们去做不必要去做的事情；也可以说paint the lily，但不如gild the lily多用、普通。此外，gild the lily和paint the lily均与gild refined gold同义。gild the lily是英国英语，源自莎士比亚戏剧《约翰王》

（King John）第四幕第二场。在索利兹伯里（Sallibury）伯爵劝谏约翰王不必再重新加冕时说道：“Therefore, to be possess’d with double pomp, to guard a title that was rich before, to gild refined gold, to paint the liy,…is wasteful and ridiculous excess.”（“所以，炫耀着双重的豪华，在尊贵的爵号上添加饰美的谀辞，把纯金镀上金箔，替洁白的百合花涂上一道颜色，……实在是浪费而可笑的多事。”）（朱生豪译），意指做多此一举的事情。例如：

（4）To talk about a beautiful sunset is to gild the lily.（夕阳已经很美了，不需要说美丽的夕阳。）

（5）For the beautiful girl to use makeup would be to gild the lily.（漂亮的姑娘使用化妆品实在是多此一举。）

（6）Many people waste their time in painting the lily.