第一章  镜中屋（续）

 

又过了一会儿，爱丽丝就穿过了那玻璃，已经轻轻地跳下来到镜子房间里了。她做的第一件事就是去看壁炉里有没有火，她高兴极了，因为她发现那儿果真生着火，烧得跟她刚才离开的那个火一样旺旺亮的。“那么现在我在这儿可以象在老房间里一样暖和了，”爱丽丝想道：“实际上，还要更暖和些，因为这儿不会有人呵斥我，不许我靠近炉子。啊，等他们看见我到了镜子的这边，又没法够得着我，那该多么好玩哪！”

于是她开始东张西望，发觉凡是从老房间看过来能看到的都很平常，没什么趣儿，可是别的地方就很不一样了。比方说，壁炉旁边墙上挂的那些画似乎都是活的，就是炉台上的那个钟面（你知道的，平常在镜子里你只能看见它的背面）也变成了一个小老头的脸，还看着她嬉笑呢。

“他们这个房间可不象那个房间收给得干净整洁，”爱丽丝暗自思忖道，因为她发觉有几个棋子掉在壁炉的煤灰里了：又过了一会儿，她惊奇地轻轻“啊”了一声，就趴在地上看着它们。那些棋子居然在对对双双地到处行走起来了！

“这两个是红国王和红王后，”爱丽丝说道（声音很轻，因为怕吓着了它们）， “那两个是白国王和白王后坐在炉铲边上——这边是两个城堡胳膊挽着胳膊在散步——我想它们听不见我说话的，”她继续说道，一边又把头凑得更近了，“我相信它们大概也看不见我。我也不知怎的觉得仿佛自己是隐了身形似的——”

这时，爱丽丝听见她背后桌子上有什么东西在叽叽尖叫，她回头一看，正巧看见一个白卒子摔倒了在那儿滚来滚去，乱踢乱蹬：她很惊奇地瞧着它，想知道一会儿还会发生什么事。

“这是我的孩子的声音！”白王后嚷道，一边从白国王身边跑过去，慌忙中竟把白国王撞倒掉在煤灰里了。“我的宝贝儿丽莉呀！我的皇派小猫咪！”她一边说着一边拼命地顺着壁炉栏护边往上爬。

“什么皇派烂宝儿！”白国王嘟囔道，一边揉了揉自己那摔疼了的鼻子。他当然有权对王后发点牢骚啦，因为他摔得从头到脚满是炉灰。

爱丽丝极想自己也能派上点用场，她看见那可伶的小丽莉哭喊得都快急疯了的样子，就急忙把那王后捡起来，放到桌上她那吵囔着的小女儿身旁。

那王后吓得喘着气坐下了：这次半空中的喷气式旅行把她的魂都吓飞了，有那么一两分钟，她只是抱着小丽莉一声不吭地坐着。当她刚能透过一点儿气来，就对呆头呆脑地坐在炉灰里的白国王喊道，“当心火山！”

“什么火山？”白国王问道，一边很担心地抬头瞅着炉火，他仿佛觉得那儿很可能有一座火山似的。

“把我——喷了——起来，”王后喘着气说道，她还是有点透不过气来。“你上来时要小心——要走正道——别给喷了！”

爱丽丝瞧着白国王跌跌撞撞地顺着壁炉栏杆一道一道慢慢往上爬，到后来她就说道，“哎呀！照你这个速度走，你要走几个钟头才能爬到桌子上去呀。我还是来帮你好了，好吗？”可是，那白国王一点也不理会她的问题：显然，他是听不见也看不见她的。

所以爱丽丝就轻轻地把他捡起来，这一次拎他比刚才拎王后要慢许多，生怕再把他也弄得透不过气来：但是，看到他满身的炉灰，她想在把他放到桌子上去之前，还是给他掸一掸。

后来她对别人说，她一辈子也没见过象当时国王做的那副怪相，当他发觉自己被一只看不见的手举在空中，而且还给他掸灰：他简直惊奇得连叫都叫不出声来了，不过他的嘴愈张愈太，眼睛愈睁愈圆，到后来爱丽丝笑得手直发抖，差点儿把国王抖落到地上。

“哦，你别再做这副怪相了，亲爱的，”她大声喊道，完全忘了国王根本听不见她说话。“你让我笑得快要抓不住你了！别把嘴张得那么大呀！瞧，炉灰全都掉进嘴里去啦——好啦，好啦，我想现在你够整洁的了！”她补充道，一边把他的头发理了理，就很小心地把他放在桌子上王后的身边。

那国王立刻就仰面倒下，平躺在那里一动也不动；爱丽丝以为自己闯了祸感到有点儿不安了，连忙在房间里到处找凉水来浇他。然而，她找来找去，只找到了一瓶墨水，当她拿着墨水转回来时，她发现他已经苏醒过来，正在那儿很害怕地跟王后悄声说话——声音低得爱丽丝几乎听不见。

那国王就说道，“我实话对你说吧，爱卿，我连胡子梢都吓凉了！”

对此，王后答道，“你根本没有胡子嘛。”

“那一阵子的恐惧惊吓，”国王继续说道，“我永远永远也忘不了！”

“话虽这么说，”王后答道，“你还是会忘掉的，要是你不在记事本上把它记下来的话。”

爱丽丝饶有兴趣地看着国王从衣袋里掏出一个很大的记事本，就要开始记了。这时，她突然想起一个主意，就从他的后面把住他的笔杆子，替他写字。

那可怜的国王又诧异又难受，他先是一声不响地使劲跟笔杆子对拗；可是爱丽丝比他有劲儿得多，到后来他只好喘着气地说道，“我的天哪！我真该换一支细一点的铅笔。这一支我一点也使唤不了，它写出了各式东西都不是我打算——”

“各式什么东西？”王后说道，一边过来查看那个本子（爱丽丝在那上面写道‘那白马武士从通条上往下滑溜，他的身子很不稳当，’） “可这记的又不是你心中的感觉！”

桌子上靠着爱丽丝那边有一本书，她坐在那儿关注着白国王（她仍有点为国王担心，怕他万一在昏了过去，就拿手里的墨水来往他身上泼），一边就一页一页地翻着那本书，想找一段自己看得懂的——“因为这上面尽是些我看不懂的文字，”她自言自语地说道。

那上面是这样写的：

 

儿卜贾

 

茫茫野，煌煌天，

滔滔浪中河埠瓦；

场战古雨苦风阴，

郊荒满鬼野魂孤。

 

她先还迷惑了好半天，但是后来，她脑子里突然闪出了一个聪明的念头。“哎呀，这原本就是镜子里的书嘛！只要我把它对着镜子一照，那些字自然就又正过来了。”

下面这首诗就是爱丽丝照出来的：

 

贾卜儿

 

天煌煌，野茫茫，

瓦埠河中浪滔滔；

阴风苦雨古战场，

孤魂野鬼满荒郊。

 

“孩子呀，小心那贾卜儿！

他血口吃人利爪伤人！

小心那加布加布鸟儿，

还要防半搭儿起毒心！”

 

他手拿着一把伏波剑：

早就要找死敌蛮克松——

所以他坚守、盾盾树后，

时刻警惕着岿然不动。

 

他站在那里思潮起伏，

那贾卜儿的双目喷火，

穿越土盖林腾云驾雾，

来势汹汹它无恶不作！

 

一、二！一、二！穿刺复穿刺，

伏波剑砍得劈沥咔嚓！

他弃尸于野，奏凯告捷，

手提敌头颅高朗回家。

 

“贾卜儿是你亲手所斩？

孩子呀，回到我的怀抱！

光荣的节日！呼啦！呼勑！”

他直高兴得手舞足蹈。

 

天煌煌，野茫茫，

瓦埠河上浪滔滔；

阴风苦雨古战场，

孤魂野鬼满荒郊。

 

“这好象写得挺美的，”爱丽丝看完后说道，“可是颇难懂！”（你看，她就是对自己都不肯承认说她一点儿也不懂。）“也不知怎么的，它似乎使我头脑里充满了各种各样的想法——只不过说不清到底是些什么想法！然而，反正有个人杀了个什么：这是明摆着的，不管怎么——”

“可是，啊呀！”爱丽丝寻思道，忽然跳了起来，“要是我不赶紧看看这所屋子的其它部分是什么样子的，说不定他们会把我送回到镜子那边去了！我们还是先看看花园吧！”一会儿之后她就出了房门，跑下楼去了——或者严格地说，这不能算跑，而是如同爱丽丝对自己说的那样，是她新想出来的一种又快又方便的下楼方法。她只是用手指尖搭在栏杆扶手上，几乎脚不沾地往下滑飘；接着她又飘过了大厅和走廊，她用这同样的方法滑到了门口，要不是她及时抓住了门框，就会一直飘到门外去了。她在半空中滑翔了许久，都弄得有点晕眩了，后来她感到又能象平常一样走路了，她倒是挺高兴的。

 

 

附录：原文

 

Chapter  Looking-Glass House

 

In another moment Alice was through the glass, and had jumped lightly down into the Looking-glass room. The very first thing she did was to look whether there was a fire in the fireplace, and she was quite pleased to find that there was a real one, blazing away as brightly as the one she had left behind. 'So I shall be as warm here as I was in the old room,' thought Alice: 'warmer, in fact, because there'll be no one here to scold me away from the fire. Oh, what fun it'll be, when they see me through the glass in here, and can't get at me!'

Then she began looking about, and noticed that what could be seen from the old room was quite common and uninteresting, but that all the rest was as different as possible. For instance, the pictures on the wall next the fire seemed to be all alive, and the very clock on the chimney-piece (you know you can only see the back of it in the Looking-glass) had got the face of a little old man, and grinned at her.

'They don't keep this room so tidy as the other,' Alice thought to herself, as she noticed several of the chessmen down in the hearth among the cinders: but in another moment, with a little 'Oh!' of surprise, she was down on her hands and knees watching them. The chessmen were walking about, two and two!

'Here are the Red King and the Red Queen,' Alice said (in a whisper, for fear of frightening them), 'and there are the White King and the White Queen sitting on the edge of the shovel—and here are two castles walking arm in arm—I don't think they can hear me,' she went on, as she put her head closer down, 'and I'm nearly sure they can't see me. I feel somehow as if I were invisible—'

Here something began squeaking on the table behind Alice, and made her turn her head just in time to see one of the White Pawns roll over and begin kicking: she watched it with great curiosity to see what would happen next.

'It is the voice of my child!' the White Queen cried out as she rushed past the King, so violently that she knocked him over among the cinders. 'My precious Lily! My imperial kitten!' and she began scrambling wildly up the side of the fender.

'Imperial fiddlestick!' said the King, rubbing his nose, which had been hurt by the fall. He had a right to be a LITTLE annoyed with the Queen, for he was covered with ashes from head to foot.

Alice was very anxious to be of use, and, as the poor little Lily was nearly screaming herself into a fit, she hastily picked up the Queen and set her on the table by the side of her noisy little daughter.

The Queen gasped, and sat down: the rapid journey through the air had quite taken away her breath and for a minute or two she could do nothing but hug the little Lily in silence. As soon as she had recovered her breath a little, she called out to the White King, who was sitting sulkily among the ashes, 'Mind the volcano!'

'What volcano?' said the King, looking up anxiously into the fire, as if he thought that was the most likely place to find one.

'Blew—me—up,' panted the Queen, who was still a little out of breath. 'Mind you come up—the regular way—don't get blown up!'

Alice watched the White King as he slowly struggled up from bar to bar, till at last she said, 'Why, you'll be hours and hours getting to the table, at that rate. I'd far better help you, hadn't I?' But the King took no notice of the question: it was quite clear that he could neither hear her nor see her.

So Alice picked him up very gently, and lifted him across more slowly than she had lifted the Queen, that she mightn't take his breath away: but, before she put him on the table, she thought she might as well dust him a little, he was so covered with ashes.

She said afterwards that she had never seen in all her life such a face as the King made, when he found himself held in the air by an invisible hand, and being dusted: he was far too much astonished to cry out, but his eyes and his mouth went on getting larger and larger, and rounder and rounder, till her hand shook so with laughing that she nearly let him drop upon the floor.

'Oh! PLEASE don't make such faces, my dear!' she cried out, quite forgetting that the King couldn't hear her. 'You make me laugh so that I can hardly hold you! And don't keep your mouth so wide open! All the ashes will get into it—there, now I think you're tidy enough!' she added, as she smoothed his hair, and set him upon the table near the Queen.

The King immediately fell flat on his back, and lay perfectly still: and Alice was a little alarmed at what she had done, and went round the room to see if she could find any water to throw over him. However, she could find nothing but a bottle of ink, and when she got back with it she found he had recovered, and he and the Queen were talking together in a frightened whisper—so low, that Alice could hardly hear what they said.

The King was saying, 'I assure, you my dear, I turned cold to the very ends of my whiskers!'

To which the Queen replied, 'You haven't got any whiskers.'

'The horror of that moment,' the King went on, 'I shall never, NEVER forget!'

'You will, though,' the Queen said, 'if you don't make a memorandum of it.'

Alice looked on with great interest as the King took an enormous memorandum-book out of his pocket, and began writing. A sudden thought struck her, and she took hold of the end of the pencil, which came some way over his shoulder, and began writing for him.

The poor King looked puzzled and unhappy, and struggled with the pencil for some time without saying anything; but Alice was too strong for him, and at last he panted out, 'My dear! I really MUST get a thinner pencil. I can't manage this one a bit; it writes all manner of things that I don't intend—'

'What manner of things?' said the Queen, looking over the book (in which Alice had put 'THE WHITE KNIGHT IS SLIDING DOWN THE POKER. HE BALANCES VERY BADLY') 'That's not a memorandum of YOUR feelings!'

There was a book lying near Alice on the table, and while she sat watching the White King (for she was still a little anxious about him, and had the ink all ready to throw over him, in case he fainted again), she turned over the leaves, to find some part that she could read, '—for it's all in some language I don't know,' she said to herself.

It was like this.

 

      YKCOWREBBAJ

 

sevot yhtils eht dna,gillirb sawT'

   ebaw eht ni elbmig dna eryg diD

sevogorob eht erew ysmim llA

   ebargtuo shtar emom eht dnA

 

She puzzled over this for some time, but at last a bright thought struck her. 'Why, it's a Looking-glass book, of course! And if I hold it up to a glass, the words will all go the right way again.'

This was the poem that Alice read.

 

      JABBERWOCKY

 

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

   Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

   And the mome raths outgrabe.

 

Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

   The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

   The frumious Bandersnatch!'

 

He took his vorpal sword in hand:

   Long time the manxome foe he sought—

So rested he by the Tumtum tree,

   And stood awhile in thought.

 

And as in uffish thought he stood,

   The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,

   And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through

   The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

He left it dead, and with its head

   He went galumphing back.

 

And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?

Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'

He chortled in his joy.

 

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

   Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

   And the mome raths outgrabe.

 

'It seems very pretty,' she said when she had finished it, 'but it's RATHER hard to understand!' (You see she didn't like to confess, ever to herself, that she couldn't make it out at all.) 'Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas—only I don't exactly know what they are! However, SOMEBODY killed SOMETHING: that's clear, at any rate—'

'But oh!' thought Alice, suddenly jumping up, 'if I don't make haste I shall have to go back through the Looking-glass, before I've seen what the rest of the house is like! Let's have a look at the garden first!' She was out of the room in a moment, and ran down stairs—or, at least, it wasn't exactly running, but a new invention of hers for getting down stairs quickly and easily, as Alice said to herself. She just kept the tips of her fingers on the hand-rail, and floated gently down without even touching the stairs with her feet; then she floated on through the hall, and would have gone straight out at the door in the same way, if she hadn't caught hold of the door-post. She was getting a little giddy with so much floating in the air, and was rather glad to find herself walking again in the natural way.