Льюис Кэрролл - Алиса в Стране чудес / Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Алиса в Зазеркалье / Through the Looking-glass, and What Alice Found There

Alice was so surprised that she could not speak for a minute. Then she asked, ‘And can all the flowers talk?’ ‘Yes, as well as you can,’ said the Tiger-lily.

‘We don’t think it’s polite to start first,’ said the Rose, ‘and I was wondering if you would speak! I said to myself, “Her face has got some sense in it, although it’s not very clever!” Still, your colour is good.’

‘I don’t care about the colour,’ the Tiger-lily said. ‘If only her petals curled up a little more!’

Alice didn’t like when someone criticized her, so she began asking questions. ‘Are you frightened that nobody takes care of you? [177] nobody takes care of you – никто не заботиться о вас ’

‘There’s the tree in the middle,’ said the Rose: ‘what else is it good for?’

‘But what can it do, if any danger comes?’ Alice asked.

‘It can bark, [178] bark – слово-омоним: лаять; кора ( зд . игра слов) ’ said the Rose.

‘It says “Bough-wough!” cried a Daisy.

‘Didn’t you know that?’ cried another Daisy, and they all began shouting together.

‘Silence!’ cried the Tiger-lily, waving itself from side to side.

‘ Never mind! [179] Never mind! – Ничего страшного! Не беда! ’ Alice said and whispered to the daisies, ‘ If you don’t hold your tongues, I’ll pick you! [180] If you don’t hold your tongues, I’ll pick you! – Если вы не замолчите, я вас сорву! ’

There was silence for a moment, and several of the pink daisies became white.

‘That’s right!’ said the Tiger-lily. ‘The daisies are worst of all. When one speaks, they all begin together!’

‘How can you talk so well?’ Alice asked. ‘I visited many gardens, but flowers couldn’t talk.’

‘Put your hand down, and feel the ground,’ said the Tiger-lily. ‘Then you’ll know why.’

Alice did so. ‘It’s very hard,’ she said.

‘In most gardens,’ the Tiger-lily said, ‘the flower-beds are too soft… so that the flowers are always asleep.’

This sounded a very good reason, and Alice was quite pleased to know it. ‘I never thought of that before!’ she said.

‘I think that you never think at all,’ the Rose said.

‘Hold your tongue!’ cried the Tiger-lily.

‘Are there any more people in the garden besides me?’ Alice asked, trying not to notice the Rose’s last remark.

‘There’s one other flower in the garden that can move like you,’ said the Rose. ‘I wonder how you do it…’

‘Is she like me?’ Alice asked. She thought: “There’s another little girl in the garden somewhere!”

‘Well, she has the same shape as you,’ the Rose said, ‘but she is red… and her petals are shorter.’

‘Does she ever come here?’

‘I think you will see her soon,’ said the Rose. ‘She has thorns.’

‘Where does she wear the thorns?’ Alice asked with some curiosity.

‘All round her head, of course,’ the Rose replied. ‘I wonder why you haven’t got them. Oh, she’s coming! I hear her footsteps!’

Alice looked round, and saw that it was the Red Queen. ‘She has grown up!’ was her first thought. She had indeed: when Alice first found her in the ashes, she had been only three inches high… and now she was taller than Alice!

‘I think I’ll go and meet her,’ said Alice, although the flowers were interesting too, she decided to have a talk with a real Queen.

‘You can’t do that,’ said the Rose: ‘ You should walk the other way. [181] You should walk the other way. – Тебе следует идти в обратную сторону. ’

“Nonsense”, Alice thought, so she said nothing, and went towards the Red Queen. To her surprise, she lost sight of her [182] to lose sight of someone – потерять кого-либо из виду for a moment, and walked in at the front-door again.

Alice was surprised a lot and tried to walk the opposite direction.

In a minute she was at the hill with the Red Queen.

‘Where do you come from?’ asked the Red Queen. ‘And where are you going? Look up, speak nicely, and don’t twiddle your fingers!’

Alice explained that she had lost her way.

‘I don’t know what you mean by your way,’ said the Queen: ‘all the ways belong to me… but why did you come here at all?’ she added. ‘ Curtsey while you’re thinking what to say, it saves time. [183] Curtsey while you’re thinking what to say, it saves time – Делай реверанс, пока думаешь, что сказать – это экономит время. ’

“I’ll try it when I go home,’ Alice thought to herself. ‘the next time I’m a little late for dinner.”

‘It’s time for you to answer now,’ the Queen said, looking at her watch: ‘open your mouth wider when you speak, and always say “your Majesty”.’

‘I only wanted to see the garden, your Majesty… ’

‘That’s right,’ said the Queen and patted her on the head. Alice didn’t like it at all. ‘Although I have seen gardens, compare with which this would be a wilderness. [184] compare with which this would be a wilderness – по сравнению с которыми этот – просто заросший пустырь ’

Alice didn’t want to argue and went on: ‘… and I thought I’d try and find my way to the top of that hill… ’

‘When you say “hill”,’ the Queen said, ‘I can show you hills, in comparison with which you will call that a valley.’

‘No, it will be nonsense… ’

The Red Queen shook her head, ‘You may call it “nonsense” if you like,’ she said, ‘ but I have heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!’

Alice curtseyed again, because she was afraid that the Queen could be offended. And they walked on in silence and reached the top of the little hill.

For some time Alice stood and said nothing, looking out in all directions over the country. There were tiny little brooks – they ran straight across the country from side to side, and the ground between was divided up into squares by a number of little green hedges.

‘It is just like a large chess-board!’ Alice said at last. ‘It’s a great huge game of chess. Oh, what fun it is! How I wish I were one of them! I would like even to be a Pawn, if only I can join… although, of course, I’d like to be a Queen!’

The Red Queen only smiled, and said, ‘That’s easy. You can be the White Queen’s Pawn, if you like, because Lily is too young to play; and you’re in the Second Square: when you get to the Eighth Square you’ll be a Queen… ’ Just at this moment they began to run.

They were running hand in hand, and the Queen went very fast and she cried to Alice ‘Faster! Faster!’. Alice felt that she could not go faster.

The most curious thing was, that the trees and the other things round them never changed their places at all!

The Queen kept crying [185] kept crying – продолжала кричать ‘Faster! Faster!’.

‘Are we nearly there?’ Alice asked at last.

‘Nearly there!’ the Queen said. ‘Faster!’ And they ran in silence, the wind was whistling in Alice’s ears, and almost blowing her hair off her head.

‘Now! Now!’ cried the Queen. ‘Faster! Faster!’ And they went so fast that they hardly touched the ground with their feet! Suddenly they stopped – Alice was sitting on the ground.