愛麗絲夢遊仙境讀會（三）

英文翻譯先貼出來，稍後再補上說明。

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.

愛麗絲一點也沒摔痛，而且馬上就跳了起來站的好好的。她抬頭看，是黑壓壓的一片；而他的前面是一條長長的通道，而那隻兔子還沒離開她的視線，正急急忙忙的往前跑。這個機會可不能再錯過了啊；愛麗絲拔腿就飛奔追了過去。此時兔子正經過一個轉角，並說著：「噢我的鬍子和我的耳朵都還沒整理呢，都那麼遲了！」可是兔子轉彎的時候愛麗絲還跟在後面呢，結果一過了彎兔子就不見了。她發現自己走在一條又長又低矮的大廳裡，大廳的頂上掛著一長排的燈，把玄關照的好亮。


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.

而大廳的的四周安滿了門，可是每個門都是上鎖的。愛麗絲這裡推推看，那裡拉拉看，可是沒有一個門打的開，於是他愁眉苦臉的走到了大廳中央，想著應該怎麼出去才好。


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 this 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!

忽然她看見一個全用玻璃做成的三隻腳的小桌子，桌上只有一把小小的金色鑰匙。愛麗絲立刻就想到這應該是可以打開這個大廳的其中一個門的鑰匙，可是，怎麼會這樣呢，不然就是門鎖的孔太大，不然就是鑰匙太小了，無論如何就是打不開門。她把大廳的門每一個都試了一遍，就在他想要試第二次的時候，她發現了一個之前沒注意到的小布簾，把布廉拉開，後面正好有個只有15吋高（大約38cm）的小門；她試著用她的小小金鑰匙去開，結果剛剛好！

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.

愛麗絲打開了門，發現又是連接到一條小小的通道，而這個小通道並沒有比老鼠洞大多少。她跪下來啪在這個洞前面並且從這個洞望出去，看到了一個非常可愛的花園。她多麼想從這個爛大廳出去，到那個有清涼的噴水池和美麗的花朵的花園裡去玩，可是那個像老鼠洞一樣的通道連頭都鑽不進去。「就算頭能過去好了，」可憐的愛麗絲心想：「那肩膀過不去也沒用啊。唉，我多希望可以像望遠鏡一樣變小啊。如果我知道該怎麼做的話。」(你看看，這麼多不可思議的事情接踵而來，愛麗絲已經開始認為世界上沒有什麼不可能的事情了。）


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 tied round the neck of the bottle was a paper label, with the words “DRINK ME” beautifully printed on it in large letters.

在這個小門前面待著似乎也沒什麼幫助，所以他又回到了玻璃桌子旁邊，想碰碰運氣會不會再找到另外一把鑰匙，或者一本教導把人像望遠鏡一樣縮小的方法的書。而這次他在桌上發現了一個小瓶子 （「他剛才一定沒有在這裡」愛麗絲說。），瓶口上繫著一張小紙條，上頭用很漂亮的字寫著：「喝我」。

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 stories 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 verydeeply 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.

說「喝我」實在是一件很不錯的事情，可是聰明的愛麗絲並沒有馬上就照著做了。「不對，我要先檢查一下。」他說「我要看看它是不是寫著『毒藥』。」愛麗絲曾經聽過一些很精采的小故事，那是關於小朋友們被火燒了，被野獸吃掉了，以及其他的很不幸的故事，那些都是因為他們沒有記住他們的朋友所教他的一些規定，比方說，燒紅的火鉗握的太久就會把手燙傷，以及，刀子把手指頭切的太深的話就會流血。而且呢，愛麗絲絕對不會忘記一件事：如果你喝了很多上頭寫著「毒藥」的東西，那早晚要升天的。

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, toffy, and hot buttered toast), she very soon finished it off.

不過呢，這個瓶子並沒有寫著「毒藥」，所以愛麗絲就大膽的喝下去了，她還發現這還非常的美味呢。（正確的說呢，它混合著櫻桃餡餅，奶油蛋糕、鳳梨、烤火雞和牛奶糖的味道）很快的愛麗絲就把它全喝光了。

"What a curious feeling!” said Alice. “I must be shutting up like a telescope!”
「好奇怪的感覺啊！」愛麗絲說「我一定會像望遠鏡那樣縮小了！」


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 though 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 looks like after the candle is blown out, for she could not remember ever having seen such a thing.

正如愛麗絲所願：她變得只有10吋高，她的大小剛剛好可以穿過小門然後到那個可愛的花園去，一想到這她就眉飛色舞了起來。不過他先等了幾分鐘，看看自己會不會再縮小下去，因為這樣她緊張了起來「一直下去會變得怎麼樣呢？」愛麗絲自言自語的說「是不是和燒蠟燭一樣的下場？」愛麗絲試著想像蠟燭的火焰熄滅之後還有什麼，可是他想不起來在那之後還會有什麼東西。

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.

過了一會兒，她沒有再發生什麼事了，她立刻就決定要去那個花園。可是愛麗絲可真倒楣！正當她要去開門的時候，才發現他把鑰匙忘在桌上了。就在他想回去拿桌上的鑰匙的時候，她發現她碰不著鑰匙：他可以透過玻璃的桌子清楚的看見鑰匙，然後他奮力的想要從桌腳爬到桌面上，可是桌腳實在是太滑了，她一次又一次的從上面滾下來，可憐的小東西終於筋疲力疾的坐在地上大哭了起來。

“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!”

「起來！這樣不行喔！這樣哭一點也不像妳！」愛麗絲嚴厲的說「我命令妳一分鐘之內不可以哭了！」她常常給自己下命令（雖然她很少照辦），不過有時候罵的太兇，還把自己罵哭了。有一次她跟自己玩槌球比賽的時候作弊，她還打了他自己一個耳光。這個小女孩挺怪的，喜歡一個人扮演兩個人玩。「可是現在不能這樣玩了」可憐的愛麗絲想著「要扮演兩個人？不行，我現在小到連裝一個像樣的人都有困難了！」


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!”

很快的，她又看到在桌子下面有個玻璃小盒子，她把盒子打開，發現裡面有個小蛋糕，上頭用葡萄乾排著「吃我」兩個漂亮的字。「很好，那就吃吧。」愛麗絲說「如果能讓我變大的話，那就可以拿到鑰匙了；如果又讓我變得更小的話，那我也可以從門縫下面鑽過去。只要能夠到那個花園的話，變得怎麼樣都無所謂！」

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 is what 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.

她吃了一小口，就很緊張的自問自答了「是哪一種呢？變大還是變小呢？」她摸著自己的頭，看看是往上長還是往小縮了，卻意外的發現一點也沒有改變。一般來說，人們吃了蛋糕本來就不會有什麼變化的，可是因為愛麗絲太過期待一些稀奇古怪的事情發生，所以正常的事情反而變得無趣又愚蠢了。

So she set to work, and very soon finished off the cake.

所以為了看看到底會怎麼樣，愛麗絲很快的就把蛋糕整個吃完了。