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CHAPTER II
The Pool of Tears

第二章

眼泪池塘

"Curiouser and curiouser!" cried Alice (She was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English);"now I'm 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? I'm sure—I—shan't be able! I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble myself about you; you must manage the best way you can; —but I must be kind to them," thought Alice, "or perhaps they won't walk the way I want to go! Let me see: I'll give them a new pair of boots every Christmas."

“越古怪越古怪了!”艾丽丝喊道(她觉得太惊奇了,以至于霎时间竟说不好英语了),“现在,我就像世上最大的望远镜那样伸开!再见了,我的双脚!”(因为她俯视自己的双脚时,竟几乎看不见它们了,它们离得太远了)。“噢,我可怜的小脚,我想知道现在谁来给你们穿上鞋子和长袜呢,我亲爱的?我肯定——我——做不到了!我离你们实在太远了,没法照顾你们;你们必须尽力照顾好自己;——但是我得对它们好点,”艾丽丝想,“否则,它们也许会不按我的意愿走路呢!让我想想:我会每年圣诞节都送它们一双新的长筒靴。”

And she went on planning to herself how she would manage it. "They must go by the carrier," she thought; "and how funny it'll seem, sending presents to one's own feet! And how odd the directions will look!

然后她继续盘算着怎样才能将礼物送给它们。“我得托邮递员送给它们,”艾丽丝想,“那该多么滑稽啊,给自己的双脚邮寄礼物!而收件人地址看起来又是多么古怪啊!

ALICE'S RIGHT FOOT,ESQ. HEARTHRUG, NEAR THE FENDER, (WITH ALICE'S LOVE).

壁炉前挨着壁炉围栏的地毯上艾丽丝的右脚先生 收(附上艾丽丝的爱)

Oh dear, what nonsense I'm talking!"

噢,天哪,我在胡言乱语些什么呀!”

Just then her head struck against the roof of the hall; in fact she was now more than nine feet high, and she at once took up the little golden key and hurried off to the garden door.

就在此时她的头撞上了大厅的屋顶;实际上她现在的身高已经超出九英尺了,她立刻拿起小金钥匙,匆匆向花园的门走去。

Poor Alice! It was as much as she could do, lying down on one side, to look through into the garden with one eye; but to get through was more hopeless than ever; she sat down and began to cry again.

可怜的艾丽丝!她能做的,顶多就是侧身躺下,用一只眼睛朝花园里看;但是想过去却比什么时候都更难了,她坐下来,又开始哭了起来。

"You ought to be ashamed of yourself," said Alice, "a great girl like you," (she might well say this), "to go on crying in this way! Stop this moment, I tell you!"But she went on all the same, shedding gallons of tears, until there was a large pool all round her, about four inches deep and reaching half down the hall.

“你应该对自己感到羞愧,”艾丽丝说,“像你这样的一个大姑娘,”(她或许可以这样说),“还哭成这样!马上停止,我告诉你!”但她还是继续哭着,流了好多加仑的眼泪,直到身边流出了个大池塘,池水大约有四英寸那么深,淹没了半个大厅。

After a time she heard a little pattering of feet in the distance, and she hastily dried her eyes to see what was coming. It was the White Rabbit returning, splendidly dressed, with a pair of white kid gloves in one hand and a large fan in the other; he came trotting along in a great hurry, muttering to himself as he came, "Oh! the Duchess, the Duchess! Oh! won't she be savage if I've kept her waiting!"Alice felt so desperate that she was ready to ask help of any one; so, when the Rabbit came near her, she began, in a low, timid voice, "If you please, sir—”The Rabbit started violently, dropped the white kid gloves and the fan, and skurried away into the darkness as hard as he could go.

过了一会,她听到远处传来轻快的脚步声,她赶紧擦干眼泪,看看是谁来了。原来是那只白兔回来了,他打扮得漂漂亮亮的,一只手里拿着一副白色的小山羊皮手套,另一只手里拿着一把大扇子;他匆匆忙忙地一路疾跑过来,一边跑一边对自己咕哝着:“啊!公爵夫人,公爵夫人!啊!如果我让她久等,她可别发脾气啊!”艾丽丝太绝望了,已经准备向任何人求助;所以,当兔子跑近她时,她胆怯而低声地问:“劳驾,先生——”兔子吓了一大跳,丢下白色山羊皮手套和扇子,然后拼命向暗处跑去。

Alice took up the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very hot, she kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking: "Dear, dear! How queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is, Who in the world am I? Ah, THAT'S the great puzzle!"And she began thinking over all the children she knew that were of the same age as herself, to see if she could have been changed for any of them.

艾丽丝捡起扇子和手套,由于大厅里很热,她就一边不停地扇着扇子,一边继续说着:“哎呀,哎呀!今天的一切都好奇怪啊!昨天的一切都还和往常一样啊。我想知道我是不是在夜里发生什么变化了?让我想想:早上起来的时候我还和昨天一样吗?我觉得当时好像就感觉有些不同了。但是如果我不是我了,下一个问题是,我到底是谁呢?唉,那可是个难解的谜啊!”然后她开始回想她认识的所有与她年龄相仿的孩子,并挨个仔细考虑,想知道自己是不是变成了他们中的哪一个。

"I'm sure I'm not Ada," she said, "for her hair goes in such long ringlets, and mine doesn't go in ringlets at all; and I'm sure I can't be Mabel, for I know all sorts of things, and she, oh! she knows such a very little! Besides, SHE'S she, and I'm I, and—oh dear, how puzzling it all is! I'll try if I know all the things I used to know. Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is—oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate! However, the Multiplication Table doesn't signify; let's try Geography. London is the capital of Paris, and Paris is the capital of Rome, and Rome—no, THAT'S all wrong, I'm certain! I must have been changed for Mabel! I'll try and say ‘@How doth the little—'@” and she crossed her hands on her lap as if she were saying lessons, and began to repeat it, but her voice sounded hoarse and strange, and the words did not come the same as they used to do: —

“我敢确定我不是艾达,”她说,“因为她是长长的卷发,而我的头发根本不卷;我也能确定我不是梅布尔,因为我知道各种各样的事情,而她,哼!她只知道这么一丁点!而且,她是她,我是我——哎呀,一切都太让人糊涂了!我要看看自己是否还知道以前知道的那些东西。让我想想:四乘五等于十二,四乘六等于十三,四乘七等于——哎呀!以这样的速度,我永远到不了二十!可是,乘法表又不怎么要紧;让我们试试地理吧。伦敦是巴黎的首都,巴黎是罗马的首都,而罗马——不,全都错啦,我敢肯定!我肯定变成了梅布尔!我要试着背背《小鳄鱼怎样——》,像平时背课文那样,她把双手交叉起来放在膝盖上,然后开始背诵,但是她的声音听起来嘶哑而陌生,吐字也和平常不一样:

"How doth the little crocodile Improve his shining tail,And pour the waters of the NileOn every golden scale!

“小鳄鱼怎样保养他闪亮的尾巴,用尼罗河水清洗每一片金色的鳞甲!

How cheerfully he seems to grin,How neatly spread his claws,And welcome little fishes in With gently smiling jaws!”

他多么开心地咧嘴笑,多么优美地张开脚爪,欢迎小鱼们游进他温柔微笑的嘴巴!”

"I'm sure those are not the right words," said poor Alice, and her eyes filled with tears again as she went on, "I must be Mabel after all, and I shall have to go and live in that poky little house, and have next to no toys to play with, and oh! ever so many lessons to learn! No, I've made up my mind about it; if I'm Mabel, I'll stay down here! It'll be no use their putting their heads down and saying 'Come up again, dear!'I shall only look up and say 'Who am I then? Tell me that first, and then, if I like being that person, I'll come up; if not, I'll stay down here till I'm somebody else'—but, oh dear!" cried Alice, with a sudden burst of tears, "I do wish they WOULD put their heads down! I am so VERY tired of being all alone here!"

“我敢肯定不是这样背的,”可怜的艾丽丝背着背着,眼里充满了泪水,“我肯定还是变成了梅布尔,我将不得不住在那间破旧的小屋里,还没有玩具玩,啊!还有那么多课程要学!不行,在这一点上我已经下定决心;如果我是梅布尔,我就呆在这下面!即便他们向下伸出头来,说‘上来吧,亲爱的!’也没用。我只会抬起头说:‘那么我是谁呢?先告诉我这个,然后,如果我愿意成为那个人,我就上去;如果不愿意,我就呆在这下面,直到我变成另一个人’——但是,天啊!”艾丽丝喊道,她突然哭了起来:“我真希望他们向下伸出头来!我实在是厌倦了一个人孤零零地呆在这里!”

As she said this she looked down at her hands, and was surprised to see that she had put on one of the Rabbit's little white kid gloves while she was talking. "How CAN I have done that?" she thought. "I must be growing small again."She got up and went to the table to measure herself by it, and found that, as nearly as she could guess, she was now about two feet high, and was going on shrinking rapidly; she soon found out that the cause of this was the fan she was holding, and she dropped it hastily, just in time to avoid shrinking away altogether.

她说这话时,无意中低头看了看自己的双手,很惊讶地发现自己说话时竟把兔子的白色山羊皮小手套戴上了一只。“我怎么能戴得上呢?”她想。“我肯定又变小了。”她站起来走到桌子旁,用桌子比着量了量,与她猜想的很接近,她发现自己现在大约有两英尺高,而且还在迅速缩小;她很快发现是她手里拿的那把扇子在搞鬼,于是她赶紧扔掉扇子,还好扔得及时,不然艾丽丝整个人就缩没了。

"That WAS a narrow escape!" said Alice, a good deal frightened at the sudden change, but very glad to find herself still in existence; "and now for the garden!"and she ran with all speed back to the little door; but, alas! the little door was shut again, and the little golden key was lying on the glass table as before, "and things are worse than ever," thought the poor child, "for I never was so small as this before, never! And I declare it's too bad, that it is!"

“真是狭路逢生啊!”艾丽丝说,这突如其来的变化真把她吓坏了,但是她很高兴自己还在,“现在,该去花园了!”她飞快地跑回小门;但是,唉!小门又关上了,而小金钥匙还是像先前一样躺在玻璃桌上。“情况再糟糕不过了,”可怜的孩子想,“因为我从来没像现在这么小过,从来没有!我宣布这太糟糕了,太糟糕了!

As she said these words her foot slipped, and in another moment, splash! she was up to her chin in salt water. Her first idea was that she had somehow fallen into the sea, "and in that case I can go back by railway," she said to herself. (Alice had been to the seaside once in her life, and had come to the general conclusion, that wherever you go to on the English coast you find a number of bathing machines in the sea, some children digging in the sand with wooden spades, then a row of lodging houses, and behind them a railway station.)However, she soon made out that she was in the pool of tears which she had wept when she was nine feet high.

她正说着这些话,突然脚滑了一下,然后,扑通!咸涩的水已经淹到她的下巴了。她的第一个念头是自己不知怎地掉进了海里。“那样的话,我就可以坐火车回去了。”她自言自语道。(艾丽丝曾去过海边一次,然后得出一个大概的结论,就是无论你去英格兰海滨的哪一段,你都会看到海滩上有很多更衣车,有些孩子在用木铲挖沙子玩,还有一排寄宿房,房子后面会有一个火车站。)然而,她很快明白自己是在一个眼泪池塘里,里面是她九英尺高时流的眼泪。

"I wish I hadn't cried so much!" said Alice, as she swam about, trying to find her way out. "I shall be punished for it now, I suppose, by being drowned in my own tears! That WILL be a queer thing, to be sure! However, everything is queer to-day.”

“真希望我当时哭得没那么厉害!”艾丽丝一边说一边游,尽力寻找着出路。“我猜我要遭报应了,淹死在自己的眼泪里!这真是怪事,真是怪事!可是,今天一切都很古怪。”

Just then she heard something splashing about in the pool a little way off, and she swam nearer to make out what it was; at first she thought it must be a walrus or hippopotamus, but then she remembered how small she was now, and she soon made out that it was only a mouse that had slipped in like herself.

就在这时,她听到池塘不远处有水的泼溅声,她游近了些,想看看是怎么回事;起初,她以为会是只海象或是河马,但是她又想起来自己现在这么小,这应该不大可能,很快她就弄清了那不过是只老鼠,它也像自己一样跌进了水里。

"Would it be of any use, now," thought Alice, "to speak to this mouse? Everything is so out-of-the-way down here, that I should think very likely it can talk; at any rate, there's no harm in trying."So she began: "O Mouse, do you know the way out of this pool? I am very tired of swimming about here, O Mouse!"(Alice thought this must be the right way of speaking to a mouse; she had never done such a thing before, but she remembered having seen in her brother's Latin Grammar , "A mouse—of a mouse—to a mouse—a mouse—O mouse!”)The Mouse looked at her rather inquisitively, and seemed to her to wink with one of its little eyes, but it said nothing.

“现在,和这只老鼠讲话,”艾丽丝想,“会不会有用呢?这下面的一切都是那么离奇,我想它很可能会说话;无论如何,试试也没什么害处。”于是,她开口了:“喂,老鼠,你知道从池塘出去的路吗?我不想在这里游来游去了,喂,老鼠!”(艾丽丝认为这一定是和老鼠说话的正确方式;她以前从来没试过和老鼠说话,但是她记得在哥哥的《拉丁文语法》中有“一只老鼠——一只老鼠的——对一只老鼠——一只老鼠——喂,老鼠!”)那只老鼠好奇地看着她,有一只小眼睛好像还向她眨了眨,但是什么都没说。

"Perhaps it doesn't understand English," thought Alice; "I daresay it's a French mouse, come over with William the Conqueror."(For, with all her knowledge of history, Alice had no very clear notion how long ago anything had happened.)So she began again: "Ou est ma chatte?"which was the first sentence in her French lesson-book. The Mouse gave a sudden leap out of the water, and seemed to quiver all over with fright. "Oh, I beg your pardon!" cried Alice hastily, afraid that she had hurt the poor animal's feelings. "I quite forgot you didn't like cats."

“也许它不懂英语,”艾丽丝想,“我敢说它是一只法国老鼠,是同征服者威廉一起过来的。”(因为,尽管艾丽丝用上她所有的历史知识,还是不太清楚这些事情发生在多久以前。)于是,她又用法语问道:“我的猫在哪里?”这是她法语课本上的第一句话。老鼠突然跃出水面,受了惊吓似的浑身发抖。“噢,请原谅!”艾丽丝赶紧喊道,害怕自己伤害了这只可怜的小动物的感情,“我完全忘了你不喜欢猫。”

"Not like cats!" cried the Mouse, in a shrill, passionate voice. "Would YOU like cats if you were me?"

“不喜欢猫!”老鼠用尖锐而激动的声音喊道,“如果你是我的话,你会喜欢猫吗?”

"Well, perhaps not," said Alice in a soothing tone: "don't be angry about it. And yet I wish I could show you our cat Dinah; I think you'd 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 and washing her face—and she is such a nice soft thing to nurse—and she's such a capital one for catching mice—oh, I beg your pardon!”cried Alice again, for this time the Mouse was bristling all over, and she felt certain it must be really offended. "We won't talk about her any more if you'd rather not."

“唔,也许不会吧,”艾丽丝用一种抚慰的口气说,“别为这个生气了。但我还是希望能让你看看我家的猫黛娜;我觉得,只要你看到她,你就会迷恋上猫的。她是个多么可爱而安静的小东西啊,”艾丽丝一面继续自言自语,一面懒洋洋地在池塘中游来游去,“她坐在火炉边打呼噜的时候多好玩呀,一会舔舔爪子,一会洗洗脸——而且她抱起来又舒服又柔软——还有,她抓起老鼠来可真是好样的——噢,请原谅!”艾丽丝又喊道,因为这一次老鼠浑身汗毛倒竖,她想它肯定是非常生气。“如果你不喜欢的话,我们就不再谈她了。”

"We indeed!" cried the Mouse, who was trembling down to the end of his tail. "As if I would talk on such a subject! Our family always HATED cats: nasty, low, vulgar things! Don't let me hear the name again!"

“还‘我们’呢!”老鼠喊道,连尾巴梢都在发抖。“好像我愿意谈这个话题似的!我们家族素来仇恨猫:可恶、下贱、粗鄙的东西!不要让我再听到这个名字!”

"I won't indeed!" said Alice, in a great hurry to change the subject of conversation. "Are you—are you fond—of—of dogs?”The Mouse did not answer, so Alice went on eagerly: "There is such a nice little dog near our house I should like to show you! A little bright-eyed terrier, you know, with oh, such long curly brown hair! And it'll fetch things when you throw them, and it'll sit up and beg for its dinner, and all sorts of things—I can't remember half of them—and it belongs to a farmer, you know, and he says it's so useful, it's worth a hundred pounds! He says it kills all the rats and—oh dear!"cried Alice in a sorrowful tone, "I'm afraid I've offended it again!"For the Mouse was swimming away from her as hard as it could go, and making quite a commotion in the pool as it went.

“我决不会再提了!”艾丽丝说,并且赶紧转移话题,“你——喜欢——喜欢——狗吗?”老鼠没有回答,于是艾丽丝热切地说了下去:“我家附近有一只特别可爱的小狗,我真想让你看看!它是一只眼睛明亮的小猎狗,你知道的,啊,长着那么长的棕色卷毛!它会把你扔的东西捡回来,会坐起来讨要吃的,还会各种各样的把戏——有一半我都想不起来了——这狗是一个农场主养的,你知道,农场主说它特别顶用,要值一百英镑呐!他说它能除掉所有的老鼠和——哦,天哪!”艾丽丝伤心地喊道,“恐怕我又惹它生气了!”因为老鼠正尽力向远处游去,而且边游边搅得池塘的水剧烈波动。

So she called softly after it, "Mouse dear! Do come back again, and we won't talk about cats or dogs either, if you don't like them!"When the Mouse heard this, it turned round and swam slowly back to her; its face was quite pale (with passion, Alice thought), and it said in a low trembling voice, "Let us get to the shore, and then I'll tell you my history, and you'll understand why it is I hate cats and dogs."

于是艾丽丝跟在它后面柔声叫道:“亲爱的老鼠!请回来吧,如果你不喜欢的话,我们就不再谈论猫或狗了!”老鼠听了这话后转过身来,慢慢地向艾丽丝游了回来;它的脸十分苍白(艾丽丝想肯定是因为它太激动了),它用颤抖而低沉的声音说:“让我们到岸边去吧,然后我会告诉你我的往事,这样你就会明白我为什么仇恨猫和狗了。”

It was high time to go, for the pool was getting quite crowded with the birds and animals that had fallen into it; there were a Duck and a Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet, and several other curious creatures. Alice led the way, and the whole party swam to the shore.

确实该走了,因为池塘正变得拥挤不堪,很多鸟兽都掉了进来:有一只鸭子,一只渡渡鸟,一只小鹦鹉和一只小鹰,还有其他一些稀奇古怪的生物。艾丽丝领着整个队伍向岸边游去。

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