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

The Queen said kindly, ‘You may rest a little now.’

Alice looked round her in great surprise. ‘We have been under this tree the whole time! Nothing changed!’

‘Of course,’ said the Queen.

‘Well, in our country,’ said Alice, ‘you would be somewhere else… if you ran very fast for a long time!’

‘What a slow country!’ said the Queen. ‘Here we have to run in order to stay in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run faster!’

‘I’m pleased to stay here… only I am so hot and thirsty!’ said Alice.

The Queen took a little box out of her pocket. ‘Have a biscuit?’

Alice thought it would not be polite to say ‘No,’ although it wasn’t at all what she wanted. She took and ate it, but it was very dry.

‘ While you’re refreshing yourself, [186] While you’re refreshing yourself – Пока ты утоляешь жажду ’ said the Queen, ‘I will measure the ground.’ And she took a ribbon out of her pocket, and began measuring the ground.

‘Now I will give you your directions… have another biscuit?’

‘No, thank you,’ said Alice, ‘one is enough!’

‘You are not thirsty any more, I hope?’ said the Queen.

Alice did not know what to say, but the Queen did not wait for an answer and went on. ‘You know that a pawn goes two squares in its first move. So you will go very quickly through the Third Square… by train [187] by train – поездом , I think. Well, the Fourth Square belongs to Tweedledum and Tweedledee [188] Tweedledum and Tweedledee – Труляля и Траляля ( персонажи книги ) . The Fifth one is mostly watered. The Sixth Square belongs to Humpty Dumpty [189] Humpty Dumpty – Шалтай-Болтай ( персонаж книги ) . The Seventh Square is a forest… however, one of the Knights will show you the way… and in the Eighth Square we will be Queens together, and have a lot of fun!’ Alice got up and curtseyed, and sat down again.

‘Speak French when you don’t know what to say, turn out your toes as you walk, and remember who you are!’ The Red Queen turned for a moment to say ‘good-bye,’ and then disappeared.

Maybe she vanished into the air [190] to vanish into the air – раствориться в воздухе , or maybe she ran quickly into the forest, Alice couldn’t understand, but she had gone. And Alice began to remember that she was a Pawn, and soon she would make a move.

Of course the first thing to do was to explore the country that Alice was going to travel through. ‘It’s something like learning geography,’ thought Alice. ‘Main rivers… there are none. Main mountains… I’m on the only one, but I don’t think it’s got any name. Main towns… oh, what are those creatures that are making honey down there? They can’t be bees… but nobody can see bees from here, you know… ’ and for some time she stood silent, watching one of them that was flying among the flowers. ‘It looks like a simple bee,’ thought Alice.

But in fact it was an elephant… as Alice soon found out. ‘And how enormous these flowers can be!’ she thought. ‘Something like houses! I think I’ll go down and… or, no… I can’t go without a long branch to brush them away [191] a long branch to brush them away – длинная ветка, чтобы отмахиваться от них … and how funny it’ll be when they ask me at home how I like my walk. I’ll say… “Oh, I liked it very much… Only it was very dusty and hot, and the elephants were flying around!”’

‘Maybe I may visit the elephants later. Besides, I want to get into the Third Square!’

So she ran down the hill and jumped over the first of the six little brooks…

‘Tickets, please!’ said the Guard. In a moment everybody showed their tickets. There were a lot of people, animals and insects in the carriage.

‘Now then! Show your ticket, child!’ the Guard went on, looking angrily at Alice. And many voices all said together (‘like the chorus of a song,’ thought Alice), ‘Don’t keep him waiting, child! Time is worth a thousand pounds a minute! [192] Time is worth a thousand pounds a minute! – Время стоит – тысячу фунтов одна минута! ’

‘I haven’t got a ticket,’ Alice said, ‘there wasn’t a ticket-office [193] ticket-office – касса where I came from.” And again the chorus of voices went on. ‘There wasn’t room for a ticket office where she came from. The land there is worth a thousand pounds an inch!’

‘Don’t make excuses, [194] Don’t make excuses! – Не оправдывайся! ’ said the Guard.

He was looking at her, first through a telescope, then through a microscope, and then through an opera-glass. [195] an opera-glass – бинокль At last he said, ‘You’re travelling the wrong way,’ and went away.

‘A child,’ said the gentleman sitting next to her (he was dressed in white paper),‘should know which way she’s going, even if she doesn’t know her own name!’

A Goat, that was sitting next to the gentleman in white, said in a loud voice, ‘She has to know her way to the ticket-office, even if she doesn’t know her alphabet!’

There was a Beetle who was sitting next to the Goat and he said ‘She has to go back from here as luggage!’

And after that other voices went on, ‘She must go by post…’ ‘She must be sent as a message by the telegraph… ’ and so on.

But the gentleman dressed in white paper whispered in her ear, ‘Never mind what they all say, my dear, but take a return-ticket every time the train stops.”

‘But I didn’t want…’ Alice began. ‘I was in a wood just now, and I wish I could get back there.’

‘You might make a joke on that, said the little voice close to her ear: ‘something about “you would if you could,” you know. I know you are a friend,’ the little voice went on. ‘And you won’t hurt me, although I am an insect.’

‘What kind of insect?’ Alice asked. She wanted to know if it could sting [196] sting – жалить or not, she thought it wouldn’t be polite to ask such questions. But at that moment there was a shrill scream from the engine, [197] a shrill scream from the engine – пронзительный свисток паровоза and everybody jumped up.

The Horse said, ‘It’s only a brook and we have to jump it over.’ Everybody were satisfied with this, although Alice was nervous. ‘However, it’ll take us into the Fourth Square, that’s great!’ she said to herself. In another moment the carriage rose up into the air…

And the next moment she was sitting under a tree… with the Gnat [198] gnat – комар (it was that insect in the train). It was sitting on a branch over her head and fanning her with its wings.

It was an enormous Gnat: ‘about the size of a chicken,’ Alice thought.

‘…then you don’t like all insects? the Gnat asked.

‘I like them when they can talk,’ Alice said. ‘They don’t talk, where I come from.’

‘What kind of insects do you like from where you come from?’ the Gnat asked.

‘I don’t like them at all,’ Alice explained, ‘because I’m afraid of them… at least the large kinds. But I can tell you the names of some of them.”