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

The Knight looked very much surprised and a little offended.

‘What makes you say that?’ he asked, as he got back into the saddle.

‘Because people don’t fall off so often, when they’ve had enough practice.’

‘I’ve had a lot of practice,’ the Knight said: ‘a lot of practice! The great art of riding,’ the Knight said in a loud voice, waving his arms as he spoke, ‘is to keep…’ Here the sentence ended suddenly, because the Knight fell on the top of his head exactly in the path where Alice was walking. She was frightened this time, and asked, ‘I hope no bones are broken?’

‘None,’ the Knight said. ‘The great art of riding, as I was saying, is… to keep your balance! Like this… ’

He wanted to show Alice what he meant, and this time he fell on his back, right under the horse’s feet.

‘A lot of practice!’ he went on repeating all the time when Alice was getting him on his feet again. ‘A lot of practice!’

‘It’s just funny!’ cried Alice, she lost all her patience. [263] lost all her patience – потеряла терпение ‘You should ride a wooden horse on wheels!’

‘Fine! I’ll get one,’ the Knight said thoughtfully to himself. ‘One or two… several.’

There was a short silence after this, and then the Knight went on again. ‘I’m great at inventing things. I think you noticed that when you picked me up last time, I was thoughtful. Well, just then I was inventing a new way, how to get over a gate… Would you like to hear it?’

‘Yes, please,’ Alice said politely.

‘I’ll tell you!’ said the Knight. ‘You see, I said to myself, “The only difficulty is with the feet: the head is high already.” Now, first I put my head on the top of the gate… then I stand on my head… then the feet are high, you see… then I’m over!’

‘Yes, I think you’d be over,’ Alice said thoughtfully: ‘but don’t you think it would be very difficult?’

‘I haven’t tried it yet,’ the Knight said: ‘so I can’t tell now… but I’m afraid it would be a little difficult.’

He looked so worried, that Alice decided to change the subject.

‘What a curious helmet you’ve got!’ she said cheerfully. ‘Is that your invention too?’

The Knight looked proudly at his helmet, which hung on the saddle. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘but I’ve invented a better one than that… like a sugar loaf. [264] a sugar loaf – сахарная голова When I wore it, if I fell off the horse, it always touched the ground directly. So I had a very little way to fall, you see… But there was the danger… I could fall into it. And it happened to me once… and the worst of it was, that before I could get out, the other White Knight came and put it on. He thought it was his own helmet.’

Alice tried not to laugh. ‘I’m afraid you had hurt him,’ she said, ‘because you were on the top of his head.’

‘I had to kick him, of course,’ the Knight said, very seriously. ‘And then he took the helmet off again… but it took hours and hours to get me out. I was as fast as… as lightning, you know.’

He raised his hands in some excitement as he said this, rolled out of the saddle, and fell into a hole.

Alice ran up to him, she was afraid that he was really hurt this time. At first she could see only his feet, but then she heard that he kept on talking in his usual tone. ‘It was careless of him to put another man’s helmet on… with the man in it, too.’

‘How can you keep on talking?’ Alice asked, as she helped him to stand.

The Knight looked surprised. ‘My mind goes on working all the same. In fact, when I am downwards, I keep inventing new things. [265] when I am downwards, I keep inventing new things – когда я вниз головой, я продолжаю придумывать новые вещи ’

‘Now the cleverest thing of the sort that I ever did,’ he went on after a pause, ‘was inventing a new pudding.’

‘What was it made of?’ Alice asked.

‘ Blotting paper, [266] Blotting paper – промокашка ’ the Knight answered.

‘It wasn’t very nice, I’m afraid…’

‘Not very nice alone,’ he interrupted: ‘but if it would be mixed with other things… And here I must leave you.’

They had just come to the end of the wood.

Alice was very much puzzled: she was thinking of the pudding.

‘You are sad,’ the Knight said: ‘let me sing you a song!’

‘Is it very long?’ Alice asked, she had heard a lot of poetry that day.

‘It’s long,’ said the Knight, ‘but very, very beautiful. The name of the song is called “ Haddocks Eyes. ”’

‘Oh, that’s the name of the song, is it?’ Alice said.

‘No, you don’t understand,’ the Knight said, ‘That’s what the name is called. The name really is “ The Aged Aged Man. ”’

‘Then I have to say “That’s what the song is called”?’ Alice corrected herself.

‘No, that’s quite another thing! The song is called “ Ways and Means”, but that’s only what it’s called!’

‘Well, what is the song, then?’ said Alice, who was completely puzzled.

‘The song really is “A-sitting On A Gate”, and the tune is my own invention,’ the Knight said.

He stopped his horse and with a weak smile he began singing.

Alice saw a lot of strange things in her journey Through The Looking-Glass, but this was that she always remembered very clearly. After many years she could retold it, as if it had been only yesterday… The blue eyes and kind smile of the Knight… the setting sun that was shining through his hair… the horse was quietly moving about… and the black shadows of the forest behind… And she listened in a half dream to the music of the song.

When the Knight sang the last words of the song, he said. ‘You have to go only a few yards,’ he said, ‘down the hill and over that little brook, and then you’ll be a Queen… But you’ll stay and watch me first, won’t you?’ he added. ‘ It won’t be long [267] It won’t be long. – Это не займет много времени. . You’ll wait and wave your handkerchief when I get to that turn in the road, won’t you? I think it’ll encourage [268] to encourage – ободрять me…’

‘Of course I’ll wait,’ said Alice: ‘and thank you very much that you’ve come with me… and thank you for the song… I liked it very much!’

So they shook hands, and then the Knight rode slowly away into the forest. ‘It won’t take long, I think,’ Alice said to herself, she stood and watched him. ‘There he goes! Right on his head as usual! However, he gets on again very easily…’ The Knight fell off again and again. After the fourth or fifth fall he reached the turn. Alice waved her handkerchief to him. ‘I hope he’ll be alright,’ she said and she ran down the hill.

‘And now it’s time for the last brook, and I’ll be a Queen! How great it sounds!’ She was at the edge of the brook. ‘The Eighth Square at last!’ she cried when she jumped it over. ‘Oh, how glad I am to get here! And what is on my head?’ she asked. Alice put her hands up to something very heavy round her head.

‘But how can it be there?’ she said to herself, and took it off. It was a golden crown.

‘Well, this is great!’ said Alice. ‘I never thought I would be a Queen so soon… and I’ll tell you, your majesty,’ she said to herself, ‘you shouldn’t lie on the grass like that!’