張倩云
“Dinah will miss me very much tonight, I should think!”(Dinah was the cat) “I hope theyll remember her saucer of milk at tea-time. Dinah my dear! I wish you were down here with me! There are no mice in the air, Im afraid, but you might catch a bat, and thats very like a mouse, you know. But do cats eat bats, I wonder?”
“我敢肯定,黛娜今晚一定非常想念我?!保炷仁侵回垼拔蚁M麄冊谖绮钑r間別忘了給她準(zhǔn)備一碟牛奶。黛娜,我親愛的,我真希望你和我一起掉到這里來,恐怕路上沒有你吃的小老鼠,不過你也許能捉到一只蝙蝠,你知道的,它很像老鼠。可是貓吃不吃蝙蝠呢?”
And here Alice began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of way, “Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?” and sometimes, “Do bats eat cats?” you see, as she couldnt answer either question, it didnt much matter which way she put it.
這時,愛麗絲開始瞌睡了,她困得迷迷糊糊時還在說:“貓吃蝙蝠嗎?貓吃蝙蝠嗎?”有時又說:“蝙蝠吃貓嗎?”反正這兩個問題她都回答不出來,所以,她說成哪種都沒關(guān)系。
“Come, theres no use in crying like that!” said Alice to herself, rather sharply, “I advise you to leave off this minute!” She generally gave herself very good advice(though she very seldom followed it), and sometimes she scolded herself so severely (嚴(yán)厲地) as to bring tears into her eyes.
“振作起來,哭是沒用的!”愛麗絲尖刻地地對自己說,“我命令你馬上停止哭!”她經(jīng)常愛給自己下個命令(雖然她很少聽從這種命令),有時甚至嚴(yán)厲得都把自己罵哭了。
Soon her eyes fell on a little glass box that was lying under the table. She opened it, and found in it a very small cake, on which the words “EAT ME” were beautifully marked in currants (葡萄干). “Well, Ill eat it,” said Alice, “and if it makes me grow larger, I can reach the key; and if it makes me grow smaller, I can creep (爬行) under the door; so either way Ill get into the garden, and I dont care which happens!”
不一會兒,她的眼光落在桌子下面的一個小玻璃盒上。打開一看,里面有塊很小的點心,點心上用葡萄干精致地嵌著“吃我”兩個字,“好吧,我吃了它吧,”愛麗絲說,“如果它使我變大,我就能夠著鑰匙了;如果它使我變得更小,我就可以從門縫下面鉆過去,所以無論變大還是變小,我都能到花園去了。怎么變我都不在乎?!?/p>
“Curiouser and curiouser!” cried Alice, “Now Im opening out like the largest telescope that ever was! Good-bye, feet!” (for when she looked down at her feet, they seemed to be almost out of sight, they were getting so far off). “Oh, my poor little feet, I wonder who will put on your shoes and stockings for you now, dears? Im sure I shant be able! I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble myself about you. You must manage the best way you can.
“奇怪啊真奇怪,”愛麗絲喊道,“現(xiàn)在我一定是變得跟最大的望遠(yuǎn)鏡一樣大了。再見了,我的雙腳!”(她俯視自己的雙腳,它們遠(yuǎn)得快看不見了)。“哦,我的可憐的小腳喲!以后誰來給你們穿襪子穿鞋子呢,親愛的,我肯定是不可能了,我離你們太遠(yuǎn)了,沒法再照顧你們了,以后你們還是自己想辦法吧!
“Not like cats!” cried the Mouse, in a shrill (尖銳的), passionate voice. “Would you like cats if you were me?”
“Well, perhaps not,” said Alice in a soothing (撫慰的) tone, “dont be angry about it. And yet I wish I could show you our cat Dinah. I think youd take a fancy to cats if you could only see her. She is such a dear quiet thing,” Alice went on, half to herself, as she swam lazily about in the pool, “and she sits purring so nicely by the fire, licking her paws (爪子) and washing her face—and she is such a nice soft thing to nurse—and shes such a capital one for catching mice—oh, I beg your pardon!” cried Alice again, for this time the Mouse was bristling (毛發(fā)豎立) all over, and she felt certain it must be really offended. “We wont talk about her any more if youd rather not.”
“不喜歡貓!”老鼠激動地尖叫著,“假如你是我的話,你會喜歡貓嗎?”
“可能不會吧,”愛麗絲安慰他說,“別生我的氣??晌疫€是希望能給你看看我的貓——黛娜,只要你一看到她,就會立刻喜歡貓了。她是個多么可愛而又安靜的小東西呀?!睈埯惤z一面懶散地游著,一面自言自語道,“她舒服地臥在火爐邊,發(fā)出咕嚕咕嚕的聲音,還不時地舔舔爪子,洗洗臉,摸起來柔軟得可愛。還有,她抓老鼠的功夫真是棒極了!哎呀,請原諒我!”這時老鼠氣得毛發(fā)豎立。愛麗絲知道自己肯定是冒犯到他了,“要是你不高興的話,咱們就不說她了?!?/p>