Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do; once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, "and what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversation?"
艾丽丝开始厌烦跟姐姐一起坐在岸边无事可做了;有一两次,她瞥了瞥姐姐正在读的书,但是书里既没有插图,也没有对话,艾丽丝想:“一本没有插图和对话的书有什么用呢?”
So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.
因此她心里盘算着(她竭尽所能地认真考虑,因为炎热的天气让她感到非常困倦迷糊),编一个雏菊花环的乐趣是否值得劳烦她爬起来去摘雏菊呢?她正想着,突然,一只长着粉红眼睛的白色兔子贴着她跑了过去。
There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!"(when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually TOOK A WATCH OUT OF ITS WAISTCOAT- POCKET, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge. In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.
那并没有什么特别稀奇的;艾丽丝听到兔子自顾自地说“哎呀!哎呀!我要迟到啦!”时,她也没有感到特别奇怪。(艾丽丝后来回想起来,觉得她当时本应该对此感到很惊奇,可那时一切看起来都那么自然);但当那只兔子竟然从马甲口袋里掏出一块怀表,看了看,然后又匆忙赶路的时候,艾丽丝跳了起来,因为她突然想起来,她从没见过穿着有口袋的马甲的兔子,也没见过从马甲口袋中掏出怀表来的兔子。艾丽丝带着强烈的好奇心跟着那只兔子穿过田野,幸运的是她刚好看到它突然一跃,跳进了树篱下面的一个巨大的兔子洞。紧接着艾丽丝也跟着跳了下去,丝毫没考虑她到底该怎么再出来。
The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well.
这个兔子洞一开始像隧道一样笔直地向前延伸,后来却突然向下一拐,这个弯拐得太陡了,所以艾丽丝还没来得及想到要停下脚步,就掉进了一口非常深的井里。
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then she looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves; here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed; it was labelled "ORANGE MARMALADE", but to her great disappointment it was empty; she did not like to drop the jar for fear of killing somebody, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it.
要么是井特别深,要么就是她自己下落得特别慢,因为在往下掉的过程中,她有充足的时间东张西望,还可以猜一猜接下来会发生什么。起初,她试着往下看,想搞清楚自己正落向什么地方,但是下面太黑了,她什么也看不到;然后她朝井壁看去,注意到上面布满了碗橱和书架;她还看到到处都有地图和图画挂在钉子上。经过一个架子的时候,她从上面拿下一个罐子,上面贴着“橘子果酱”的标签,但令她万分失望的是,罐子是空的。她不想把罐子丢下去,怕砸到什么人,因此她设法把它放进了自己下落时经过的一个橱柜里。
"Well!" thought Alice to herself, "after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they'll all think me at home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!"(Which was very likely true.)Down, down, down. Would the fall NEVER come to an end! "I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?" she said aloud. "I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think—” (for, you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom, and though this was not a VERY good opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over.)“—yes, that's about the right distance—but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I've got to?"(Alice had no idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, but thought they were nice grand words to say.)
“好啊!”艾丽丝自忖道,“这样往下掉了一回以后,再从楼梯上摔下来,我可以完全不当回事了!家里人会认为我十分勇敢!嘿,即便从屋顶上摔下来,我也会只字不提的!”(这倒很可能是真的。)下落,下落,下落。难道要永无止境地下落!“我很好奇,这会我已经往下掉了多少英里了?”艾丽丝大声说道。“我肯定快到临近地球中心的地方了。让我想想:那就是四千英里以下了,我想——”(因为,你知道,艾丽丝在学校的课堂上已经学了些这一类的知识,虽然这并不是炫耀知识的大好时机,因为周围没人听她说话,但是重复一下也算是很好的练习。)“——是的,差不多就是这个距离——但是,我还想知道,我是在什么经纬度上呢?”(艾丽丝不知道经度和纬度是什么意思,但是她觉得这两个词说起来又好听又神气。)
Presently she began again. "I wonder if I shall fall right THROUGH the earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downward! The Antipathies, I think—” (she was rather glad there WAS no one listening, this time, as it didn't sound at all the right word.) “—but I shall have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know. Please, Ma'am, is this New Zealand or Australia?"(and she tried to curtsey as she spoke—fancy CURTSEYING as you're falling through the air! Do you think you could manage it?)"And what an ignorant little girl she'll think me for asking! No, it'll never do to ask; perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere."
没过多久她又开始说话了。“我想知道我会不会直接穿过地球!当我从另一边出来,周围的人全都头朝下走路,那该是多么有趣啊!他们是对称人吧,我想——”(这次她很高兴没人听她说话,因为这个单词听起来好像不太正确。)“——但是,你知道,我必须得问问他们,这个国家的名字是什么。请问,太太,这是新西兰还是澳大利亚?”(她一边说一边试着行了个屈膝礼——想象一下,在空中往下掉的时候行屈膝礼!你认为自己能做到吗?)“如果我这样问的话,她会觉得,这个小姑娘是多么无知啊!不,开口问永远不会起效;或许我会在什么地方看到呢。”
Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began talking again. "Dinah'll miss me very much to-night, I should think!" (Dinah was the cat.)"I hope they'll 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, I'm afraid, but you might catch a bat, and that's very like a mouse, you know. But do cats eat bats, I wonder?"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?" for, you see, as she couldn't answer either question, it didn't much matter which way she put it. She felt that she was dozing off, and had just begun to dream that she was walking hand in hand with Dinah, and saying to her very earnestly, "Now, Dinah, tell me the truth: did you ever eat a bat?" when suddenly, thump! thump! down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over. Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on to her feet in a moment; she looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before her was another long passage, and the White Rabbit was still in sight, hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be lost; away went Alice like the wind, and was just in time to hear it say, as it turned a corner, "Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!"She was close behind it when she turned the corner, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen; she found herself in a long, low hall, which was lit up by a row of lamps hanging from the roof.
下落,下落,下落。没什么别的事可做,因此艾丽丝很快又开始说话了。“黛娜今晚会非常想念我的,我就知道!”(黛娜是一只猫。)“我希望他们喝下午茶时,也记得给她一碟牛奶。”我亲爱的黛娜!我多么希望你跟我一起掉到这儿来呀!空中没有老鼠,这点很遗憾,但是你可能会抓住一只蝙蝠,它非常像老鼠,你知道的。但是我想知道猫吃蝙蝠吗?”这时,艾丽丝开始觉得很困,她迷迷糊糊地继续自言自语:“猫吃蝙蝠吗?猫吃蝙蝠吗?”有时候又问,“蝙蝠吃猫吗?”因为,你瞧,反正她两个问题都答不上来,所以怎么问都不要紧。她感觉自己打起了瞌睡,而且还开始做梦,她梦见自己与黛娜手牵着手走着,然后她非常认真地问黛娜:“现在,黛娜,告诉我真相吧:你吃过蝙蝠吗?”就在这时,突然,砰!砰!她落到了一堆枯枝败叶上,下落旅程就此结束。艾丽丝毫发无伤,立刻跳了起来;她抬头看了看,但是头顶上漆黑一片;在她前面是另一条长长的通道,白兔还在视线以内,沿着通道匆匆往前赶。一刻也不容错过;艾丽丝一阵风似的跑了出去,刚好听到兔子在拐弯处说道:“啊,我的耳朵和胡须,现在太迟了!”她紧跟在兔子后面,但拐了个弯就看不见它了;她发现自己在一个很长很低矮的大厅里,屋顶上悬挂着一排吊灯,把大厅照得亮堂堂的。
There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked; and when Alice had been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every door, she walked sadly down the middle, wondering how she was ever to get out again.
大厅四周都是门,但都锁上了;艾丽丝从一边走到另一边,试过了每一扇门,然后伤心地走到大厅中间,琢磨着怎么才能再出去。
Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table, all made of solid glass; there was nothing on it except a tiny golden key, and Alice's first thought was that it might belong to one of the doors of the hall; but, alas! either the locks were too large, or the key was too small, but at any rate it would not open any of them. However, on the second time round, she came upon a low curtain she had not noticed before, and behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high; she tried the little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted!
突然她看到了一张三条腿的小桌,桌子整个都是无缝玻璃做的;桌子上除了一把很小的金钥匙以外什么都没有,艾丽丝起初想,这可能是大厅哪个门的钥匙;但是,唉!不是锁太大了,就是钥匙太小了,无论如何,就是一扇门都开不了。然而,她在大厅里绕第二圈的时候,发现了先前没注意到的一块很低的门帘,门帘后是一扇大约十五英寸高的小门;她把小金钥匙插进锁里试了试,令她无比高兴的是,正合适!
Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not much larger than a rat-hole; she knelt down and looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw. How she longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander about among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but she could not even get her head though the doorway; "and even if my head would go through," thought poor Alice, "it would be of very little use without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only know how to begin."For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.
艾丽丝开了门,发现门后是一条小通道,这通道比一个老鼠洞大不了多少;她跪下来,顺着通道看过去,发现了一个生平见过的最美丽的花园。她多么渴望离开这个幽暗的大厅,在那些开满明艳花儿的花圃和清凉的喷泉中间徜徉啊,但是那个门她连头都钻不进去;“而且即便我的头钻进去了,”可怜的艾丽丝想,“肩膀过不去的话也毫无用处啊。噢,我多么希望我可以像望远镜那样折叠起来啊!我觉得我能做到,只要我知道如何开始。”因为,你瞧,最近发生了那么多离奇的事情,艾丽丝开始认为没什么事情是真正不可能发生的。
There seemed to be no use in waiting by the little door, so she went back to the table, half hoping she might find another key on it, or at any rate a book of rules for shutting people up like telescopes; this time she found a little bottle on it, ("which certainly was not here before," said Alice,) and round the neck of the bottle was a paper label, with the words "DRINK ME" beautifully printed on it in large letters. It was all very well to say "Drink me," but the wise little Alice was not going to do THAT in a hurry. "No, I'll look first," she said, "and see whether it's marked 'poison' or not"; for she had read several nice little histories about children who had got burnt, and eaten up by wild beasts and other unpleasant things, all because they WOULD not remember the simple rules their friends had taught them, such as, that a red-hot poker will burn you if you hold it too long; and that if you cut your finger VERY deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds; and she had never forgotten that, if you drink much from a bottle marked "poison," it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later. However, this bottle was NOT marked "poison," so Alice ventured to taste it, and finding it very nice, (it had, in fact, a sort of mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast,) she very soon finished it off.
看来在小门旁边干等是无济于事了,因此,她回到桌子前,有点希望自己能在上面找到另一把钥匙,或者至少找到一本教人们怎样像望远镜那样折叠的书;这次她发现桌上放着一只小瓶,(“它之前确实没在桌子上面。”艾丽丝说。)瓶颈上贴着一张纸标签,上面用很漂亮的字体印着两个大字“喝我”。说“喝我”确实很友善,但是聪明的小艾丽丝不会马上这么做。“不,我要先瞅瞅,”她说,“看看上面是不是标有‘毒药’两个字。”因为她已经读过一些有趣的小故事,都是关于孩子们被烫伤,被野兽吃掉以及其他一些不好的事情,所有这些都是因为他们不愿记住朋友教给他们的简单规矩,比如:烧红的火钳握得太久的话会烫坏你的手;如果你用小刀把手指切得太深,手指通常会流血;还有她从未忘记的一点,如果你从标着“毒药”字样的瓶子里喝了很多水,你几乎一定会受到伤害,迟早会。然而,这个瓶子并没有标上“毒药”的标签,因此艾丽丝鼓起勇气尝了一口,发现瓶子里的水很好喝,(实际上,它有一种樱桃馅饼、蛋奶糕、菠萝、烤火鸡、太妃糖和热奶油面包混在一起的味道,)她很快就喝光了一整瓶。
"What a curious feeling!" said Alice;"I must be shutting up like a telescope."
“这是多么奇妙的感觉啊!”艾丽丝说,“我肯定像望远镜一样折叠起来了。”
And so it was indeed; she was now only ten inches high, and her face brightened up at the thought that she was now the right size for going through the little door into that lovely garden. First, however, she waited for a few minutes to see if she was going to shrink any further; she felt a little nervous about this; "for it might end, you know," said Alice to herself, "in my going out altogether, like a candle. I wonder what I should be like then?"And she tried to fancy what the flame of a candle is like after the candle is blown out, for she could not remember ever having seen such a thing.
确实是这样,她现在只有十英寸高了,想到以自己现在的大小,正好能够穿过小门到那个可爱的花园中去,她满脸生辉。不过,首先,她等了几分钟,看看自己会不会继续收缩下去;想到这点,她有点紧张了;“因为我可能会缩没了,你知道,”艾丽丝对自己说,“我整个人都将消失,就像蜡烛一样。我想知道到那时自己会是什么样子?”然后她试图想象,蜡烛熄灭后火焰会是什么样的,因为她完全回想不起自己几时见到过这种情况。
After a while, finding that nothing more happened, she decided on going into the garden at once; but, alas for poor Alice! when she got to the door, she found she had forgotten the little golden key, and when she went back to the table for it, she found she could not possibly reach it; she could see it quite plainly through the glass, and she tried her best to climb up one of the legs of the table, but it was too slippery; and when she had tired herself out with trying, the poor little thing sat down and cried. "Come, there's 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 as to bring tears into her eyes; and once she remembered trying to box her own ears for having cheated herself in a game of croquet she was playing against herself, for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people. "But it's no use now," thought poor Alice, "to pretend to be two people! Why, there's hardly enough of me left to make ONE respectable person!"
过了一会,她发现没再发生什么了,就决定马上进那个花园里去;但是,天啊,可怜的艾丽丝!当她走到门前时,艾丽丝发现自己忘了拿那把小金钥匙,当她返回桌旁去拿的时候,她发现自己根本够不着它了;她透过玻璃可以相当清楚地看到小金钥匙,于是尽力攀着桌腿往上爬,但是桌腿太滑了;这个可怜的小家伙试了又试,弄得自己筋疲力尽,便坐在地上哭了起来。“得了,这样哭也无济于事!”艾丽丝非常严厉地对自己说,“我建议你马上停下来!”通常,她都会给自己很好的建议(虽然很少采纳),有时候她非常严厉地责骂自己,甚至把自己都骂哭了;她记得有一次,自己试图给自己一记耳光,因为这个古怪的孩子很喜欢假扮成两个人,而那次她在跟自己玩槌球游戏的时候欺骗了自己。“但是现在没用了,”可怜的艾丽丝想,“假扮成两个人也没用了!唉,我已经小得没法做一个体面的人了!”
Soon her eye 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. "Well, I'll 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 under the door; so either way I'll get into the garden, and I don't care which happens!"
不久,她的目光落到放在桌子下面的一个小玻璃盒上;她打开盒子,发现里面有一块非常小的蛋糕,上面用葡萄干镶嵌着两个漂亮的字“吃我”。“好吧,我会吃的,”艾丽丝说,“如果它能让我变得更大一些,我就能够得着钥匙了;如果它让我变得更小了,我就可以从门下面爬过去;所以随便怎么样,我都可以进入花园,我不在乎会出现哪一种情况!”
She ate a little bit, and said anxiously to herself, "Which way? Which way?", holding her hand on the top of her head to feel which way it was growing, and she was quite surprised to find that she remained the same size; to be sure, this generally happens when one eats cake, but Alice had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way. So she set to work, and very soon finished off the cake.
她吃了一点,然后焦急地对自己说:“是哪一种情况?是哪一种?”她伸手摸摸头顶,想感觉一下发生了哪种变化,但是她很诧异自己还是先前的大小;无疑,在正常情况下人吃蛋糕不会有什么身高体形上的变化,但是艾丽丝已经习惯了周遭总是发生些离奇的事情,生活若按常理发展,对她来说反而显得极为无趣愚蠢。因此她大吃起来,很快就吃光了那块蛋糕。