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

‘But it may rain outside…’

‘It may…,’ said Tweedledee, ‘Contrariwise.’

‘How selfish you are!’ thought Alice, and she was going to say ‘Good-night’ and leave them, when Tweedledum suddenly asked her, ‘Do you see that?’ he pointed with his finger at a small white thing that was lying under the tree.

‘It’s only a rattle, an old rattle… very old and broken.’

‘I knew it!’ cried Tweedledum and he looked at Tweedledee, who tried to hide himself under the umbrella.

‘You shouldn’t be so angry about an old rattle,’ said Alice.

‘But it isn’t old!’ Tweedledum cried. ‘It’s new… I bought it yesterday… my nice new rattle! Do you agree to have a battle?’ Tweedledum asked Tweedledee.

‘Yes,’ he answered: ‘only she must help to dress us.’

So the two brothers went into the wood, and returned in a minute with lots of things… such as bolsters, blankets, hearth-rugs, tablecloths, dish-covers and coal-scuttles. [218] bolsters, blankets, hearth-rugs, tablecloths, dish-covers and coal-scuttles – диванные валики, одеяла, каминные коврики, скатерти, крышки от кастрюль, совки для угля. ‘I hope you can help us with all that,’ Tweedledum said. ‘Everything must be on us.’

Alice started to help them, but they looked so funny in all those things that Alice laughed very loudly: but she turned it into a cough, because she didn’t want to hurt their feelings.

‘Do I look very pale?’ said Tweedledum, he put his helmet on. He called it a helmet, although it was a saucepan.

‘Well… yes… a little’, Alice said.

‘I’m very brave,’ he said: ‘but today I have a headache. [219] I have a headache – У меня болит голова ’

‘And I have a toothache now!’ said Tweedledee. ‘I’m feeling worse than you!’

‘Then don’t fight today!’ said Alice.

‘We must fight, but what’s the time now?’ said Tweedledum.

Tweedledee looked at his watch, and said, ‘Half-past four.’

‘Let’s fight till six, and then have dinner,’ said Tweedledum.

‘Very well,’ the other said, ‘and she can watch us… only don’t come very close,’ he added: ‘I hit everything I can see…’

‘And I hit everything,’ cried Tweedledum, ‘whether I can see it or not!’

Alice laughed. ‘You hit the trees very often, I think,’ she said. ‘But this all about a rattle!’ she added, she hoped to make them ashamed [220] she hoped to make them ashamed – она надеялась пристыдить их that they wanted to fight for such a trifle. [221] for such a trifle – из-за такого пустяка

‘It was a new rattle!’ cried Tweedledum.

‘I wish the monstrous crow would come!’ thought Alice.

‘We must begin. It’s getting dark,’ said Tweedledum.

‘And darker,’ said Tweedledee.

It was getting dark so suddenly that Alice thought it was a thunderstorm.

‘What a thick black cloud it is!’ she said. ‘And how fast it comes!’

‘It’s the crow!’ cried Tweedledum. And the two brothers ran away quickly.

Alice ran into the wood, and stopped under a large tree.

‘It can never get at me here,’ she thought: ‘it’s too large to fly among the trees. It makes a hurricane in the wood… oh, here’s somebody’s scarf!’

She caught the scarf, and looked around, where is the owner? In another moment the White Queen came running through the wood, and Alice went out to meet her with the scarf.

‘I’m very glad I’ve met you here,’ Alice said, she helped the White Queen to put her scarf on again.

The White Queen only looked at her, and kept repeating something in a whisper that sounded like ‘bread-and-butter, bread-and-butter’.

Alice saw that the Queen was very untidy.

‘What has happened to you hair?’ asked Alice.

‘The brush has got entangled in it! [222] The brush has got entangled in it. – Расческа запуталась в них (в волосах). ’ the Queen said. ‘And I lost my comb yesterday.’

Alice did her best [223] did her best – старалась изо всех сил to get the hair into order. ‘You look better now!’ she said. ‘But really you should have a maid!’

‘I’ll take you with pleasure!’ the Queen said. ‘Twopence a week, and jam every other day.’

Alice laughed, as she said, ‘I don’t want to be your maid… and I don’t care for jam.’

‘It’s very good jam,’ said the Queen.

‘Well, I don’t want any today, anyway.’

‘No,’ the Queen said. ‘The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday… but never jam today.’

‘It can be sometimes “jam today”,’ Alice said.

‘No, it can’t,’ said the Queen. ‘It’s jam every other day.’

‘I don’t understand you,’ said Alice.

‘That’s the effect of living backwards, [224] That’s the effect of living backwards. – Вот что значит жить только с оглядкой назад. ’ the Queen said kindly.

‘Living backwards!’ Alice repeated in great surprise. ‘I have never heard about it!’

‘Memory works both ways then.’

‘I think my memory works only one way.’ Alice said. ‘I can’t remember things before they happen.’

‘It’s a bad memory that works only backwards,’ the Queen said.

‘What sort of things do you remember best?’ Alice asked.

‘Oh, things that happened the next week,’ the Queen said. ‘For instance, now there’s the King’s Messenger. [225] the King’s Messenger – Королевский гонец He’s in prison now, he is punished: and the trial won’t begin till next Wednesday: and of course there hasn’t been any crime yet.’

‘Perhaps he will never commit the crime? [226] to commit the crime – совершать преступление ’ said Alice.

‘That would be better, wouldn’t it?’ the Queen said.

Alice felt that it was true. ‘Of course it would be better,’ she said: ‘but he is already in prison and he hasn’t committed the crime yet.’

‘You’re wrong,’ said the Queen: ‘were you ever punished?’

‘Only for faults,’ said Alice. ‘That makes the difference. [227] That makes the difference. – Это совсем другое дело. ’

‘But if you hadn’t done them,’ the Queen said, ‘that would be better; better, and better, and better!’ Her voice went higher with each ‘better,’ till it got to a squeak at last.

The Queen began screaming very loudly, ‘Oh, oh, oh!’ shouted the Queen, shaking her hand. ‘My finger’s bleeding! [228] My finger’s bleeding! – Кровь из пальца идет! Oh, oh, oh, oh!’

‘What’s the matter?’ Alice asked, ‘Have you pricked your finger?’

‘I haven’t pricked it yet,’ the Queen said, ‘but I will soon… oh, oh, oh!’

‘When are you going to do it?’ Alice was puzzled.

‘When I touch my scarf again,’ the poor Queen said: ‘the brooch will prick me. Oh, oh!’ As she said these words the brooch opened.

‘Be careful!’ cried Alice. But it was too late. The Queen had pricked her finger.

‘Now you understand the way things happen here,’ she said to Alice with a smile.