Lewis Carroll Alice’s Adventures in Wanderland and Trough the Looking-Glass
William Cloves and Sons, Limited. London and Beccles. Great Britain
And ever, as the story drained
The wells of fancy dry,
And faintly strove that weary one
To put the subject by,
“The rest next time-” “It is next time!”
The happy voices cry.
Thus grew the tale of Wonderland:
Thus slowly, one by one,
Its quaint events were hammered out-
And home we steer, a merry crew,
Beneath the setting sun.
And here Alice began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of way, “Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats? ” and sometimes, “Do bats eat cats?” for, you see, as she couldn’t answer either question, it didn’t much matter which way she put it.
“Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only knew how to begin.”
It sounded an excellent plan, no doubt, and very neatly and simply arranged; the only difficulty was, that she had not the smallest idea how to set about it.
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where-” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said de Cat.
“-so long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation.
“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”
“Explain all that,” said the Mock Turtle.
“No, no! The adventures first,” said the Gryphon in an impatient tone: “explanations take such a dreadful time.”
The White Rabbit put on his spectacles.
“Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?” he asked.
“Begin at the beginning,” the King said gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”
Alice went on: “-and I thought I’d try and find my way to the top of that hill-”
“When you say hill,” the Queen interrupted, “I could show hills, in comparison with which you’d call that a valley.”
“No, I shouldn’t,” said Alice, surprised into contradicting her at last: “a hill can’t be a valley, you know. That would be nonsense-”
The Red Queen shook her head. “You may call it nonsense if you like,” she said, “but I’ve heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!”
Alice went on. “It’s a great game of chess that’s being played-all over the world-if this is the world at all, you know. Oh, what fun it is!”
“Well, in our country” said Alice, still panting a little, “you’d generally get to somewhere else-if you ran very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing.”
“A slow sort of country!” said the Queen.
“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”
All this time the Guard was looking at her, first through a telescope, then through a microscope, and then through an opera-glass. At last he said “You are travelling the wrong way,” and shut up the window and went away.
Then a very gentle voice in the distance said “She must be labeled Lass, with care, you know-”
“What kind of insect?” Alice inquired a little anxiously. What she really wanted to know was whether it could sting or not, but she thought this wouldn’t be quite a civil question to ask.
“I can tell you the name of same of them.”
“Of course they answer to their names?” the Gnat remarked carelessly.
“I never knew them do it.”
“What’s the use of their having names,” the Gnat said, “if they won’t answer to them?”
“If she couldn’t remember my name, she’d call me Miss! As the servants do.”
“Well, if she said and didn’t say anything more,” the Gnat remarked, “of course you’d miss your lessons. That’s a joke. I wish you had made it.”
If seven maids with seven mops 205
Swept it for half a year,
Do you suppose,” the Walrus said,
“That they could get it clear?”
“I doubt it,” said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.
“The time has come,” the Walrus said,
“To talk of many things:
Of shoes-and ships-and sealing wax-
Of cabbages-and kings-
And why the sea is boiling hot-
And whether pigs have wings.”
“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall;
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King’s horses and all the King’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty in his place again.”
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean-neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “Which is to be master-that’s all.”
Alice was too much puzzled to say anything.
“Just look along the road, and tell me if you can see either of them.”
“I see nobody on the road,” said Alice.
“I only wish I had such eyes,” the King remarked in a fretful tone. “To be able to see Nobody! And at that distance too! Why, it’s as much as I can do to see real people, by this light!”
So she got up and walked about-rather stiffly just al first, as she was afraid that the crown might come of; bur she comforted herself with the thought that there was nobody to see her, “and if I really an a queen ,” she said as she sat down again, “I shall be able to manage it quite well in time.”
The Red Queen said to Alice: “Always speak the truth-think before you speak-and write it down afterwards.”
“I am sure I didn’t mean-” Alice was beginning, but the Red Queen interrupted.
“That’s just what I complain of! You should have a meant! What do you suppose is the use of a child without any meaning?
“Then you think nothing would remain?” said the Red Queen.
“I think that’s the answer.”
“Wrong, as usual,” said the Red Queen; “the dog’s temper would remain.”
“But I don’t see how–”
“Why, look here!” the Red Queen cried. “The dog would lose his temper, wouldn’t it?”
“Perhaps it would,” Alice replied cautiously. “Then if the dog went away , its temper would remain !” the Queen exclaimed.
“In our country,” Alice remarked, “there’s only one day at a time.” The Red Queen said, “That’s a poor thin way of doing things. Now here, we mostly have days and nights two or three at a time, and sometimes in the winter we take as many as five nights together-for warmth, you know.”
“Are five nights warmer than one night, then” Alice ventured to ask. “Five times as warm, of course.”
William Cloves and Sons, Limited. London and Beccles. Great Britain
And ever, as the story drained
The wells of fancy dry,
And faintly strove that weary one
To put the subject by,
“The rest next time-” “It is next time!”
The happy voices cry.
Thus grew the tale of Wonderland:
Thus slowly, one by one,
Its quaint events were hammered out-
And home we steer, a merry crew,
Beneath the setting sun.
And here Alice began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of way, “Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats? ” and sometimes, “Do bats eat cats?” for, you see, as she couldn’t answer either question, it didn’t much matter which way she put it.
“Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only knew how to begin.”
It sounded an excellent plan, no doubt, and very neatly and simply arranged; the only difficulty was, that she had not the smallest idea how to set about it.
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where-” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said de Cat.
“-so long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation.
“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”
“Explain all that,” said the Mock Turtle.
“No, no! The adventures first,” said the Gryphon in an impatient tone: “explanations take such a dreadful time.”
The White Rabbit put on his spectacles.
“Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?” he asked.
“Begin at the beginning,” the King said gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”
Alice went on: “-and I thought I’d try and find my way to the top of that hill-”
“When you say hill,” the Queen interrupted, “I could show hills, in comparison with which you’d call that a valley.”
“No, I shouldn’t,” said Alice, surprised into contradicting her at last: “a hill can’t be a valley, you know. That would be nonsense-”
The Red Queen shook her head. “You may call it nonsense if you like,” she said, “but I’ve heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!”
Alice went on. “It’s a great game of chess that’s being played-all over the world-if this is the world at all, you know. Oh, what fun it is!”
“Well, in our country” said Alice, still panting a little, “you’d generally get to somewhere else-if you ran very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing.”
“A slow sort of country!” said the Queen.
“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”
All this time the Guard was looking at her, first through a telescope, then through a microscope, and then through an opera-glass. At last he said “You are travelling the wrong way,” and shut up the window and went away.
Then a very gentle voice in the distance said “She must be labeled Lass, with care, you know-”
“What kind of insect?” Alice inquired a little anxiously. What she really wanted to know was whether it could sting or not, but she thought this wouldn’t be quite a civil question to ask.
“I can tell you the name of same of them.”
“Of course they answer to their names?” the Gnat remarked carelessly.
“I never knew them do it.”
“What’s the use of their having names,” the Gnat said, “if they won’t answer to them?”
“If she couldn’t remember my name, she’d call me Miss! As the servants do.”
“Well, if she said and didn’t say anything more,” the Gnat remarked, “of course you’d miss your lessons. That’s a joke. I wish you had made it.”
If seven maids with seven mops 205
Swept it for half a year,
Do you suppose,” the Walrus said,
“That they could get it clear?”
“I doubt it,” said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.
“The time has come,” the Walrus said,
“To talk of many things:
Of shoes-and ships-and sealing wax-
Of cabbages-and kings-
And why the sea is boiling hot-
And whether pigs have wings.”
“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall;
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King’s horses and all the King’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty in his place again.”
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean-neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “Which is to be master-that’s all.”
Alice was too much puzzled to say anything.
“Just look along the road, and tell me if you can see either of them.”
“I see nobody on the road,” said Alice.
“I only wish I had such eyes,” the King remarked in a fretful tone. “To be able to see Nobody! And at that distance too! Why, it’s as much as I can do to see real people, by this light!”
So she got up and walked about-rather stiffly just al first, as she was afraid that the crown might come of; bur she comforted herself with the thought that there was nobody to see her, “and if I really an a queen ,” she said as she sat down again, “I shall be able to manage it quite well in time.”
The Red Queen said to Alice: “Always speak the truth-think before you speak-and write it down afterwards.”
“I am sure I didn’t mean-” Alice was beginning, but the Red Queen interrupted.
“That’s just what I complain of! You should have a meant! What do you suppose is the use of a child without any meaning?
“Then you think nothing would remain?” said the Red Queen.
“I think that’s the answer.”
“Wrong, as usual,” said the Red Queen; “the dog’s temper would remain.”
“But I don’t see how–”
“Why, look here!” the Red Queen cried. “The dog would lose his temper, wouldn’t it?”
“Perhaps it would,” Alice replied cautiously. “Then if the dog went away , its temper would remain !” the Queen exclaimed.
“In our country,” Alice remarked, “there’s only one day at a time.” The Red Queen said, “That’s a poor thin way of doing things. Now here, we mostly have days and nights two or three at a time, and sometimes in the winter we take as many as five nights together-for warmth, you know.”
“Are five nights warmer than one night, then” Alice ventured to ask. “Five times as warm, of course.”
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