Alice in Wonderland. Книга для чтения на английском языке

“I’m sure I’m not Ada,” she said, “for her hair goes in such long ringlets |кольцами|, and mine doesn’t go in ringlets at all; and I’m sure I can’t be Mabel, for I know all sorts of things, and she, oh! she knows such a very little! Besides, she’s she, and I’m I, and – oh dear, how puzzling it all is! I’ll try if I know all the things I used to know. Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is – oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate! However, the Multiplication Table |таблица умножения| doesn’t signify |ничего еще не означает|: let’s try Geography. London is the capital of Paris, and Paris is the capital of Rome, and Rome – no, that’s all wrong, I’m certain! I must have been changed for Mabel! I’ll try and say ‘How doth |дорожит| the little —’” and she crossed her hands on her lap |коленях| as if she were saying lessons, and began to repeat it, but her voice sounded hoarse |хрипло| and strange, and the words did not come the same as they used to do:

“How doth the little crocodile

Improve his shining tail,

And pour the waters of the Nile

On every golden scale!

“How cheerfully he seems to grin,

How neatly spread his claws,

And welcome little fishes in

With gently smiling jaws!”

“I’m sure those are not the right words,” said poor Alice, and her eyes filled with tears again as she went on, “I must be Mabel after all |все-таки|, and I shall have to go and live in that poky |убогом| little house, and have next to no toys |почти без игрушек. Оборот to have next to no/nothing… – почти не иметь чего-либо| to play with, and oh! ever so many lessons to learn! No, I’ve made up my mind |я решила| about it; if I’m Mabel, I’ll stay down here! It’ll be no use their putting their heads down and saying ‘Come up again, dear!’ I shall only look up and say ‘Who am I then? Tell me that first, and then, if I like being that person, I’ll come up: if not, I’ll stay down here till I’m somebody else’ – but, oh dear!” cried Alice, with a sudden burst of tears |потоком слез|, “I do wish they would put their heads down |заглянули бы сюда|! I am so very tired of being all alone here!”

As she said this she looked down at her hands, and was surprised to see that she had put on one of the Rabbit’s little white kid gloves while she was talking. “How can I have done that |Как я так могла сделать|?” she thought. “I must be growing small |уменьшаюсь| again.” She got up and went to the table to measure |измерить| herself by it, and found that, as nearly as she could guess, she was now about two feet high, and was going on shrinking rapidly |продолжала стремительно уменьшаться|: she soon found out |поняла| that the cause of this was the fan she was holding, and she dropped it hastily, just in time to avoid shrinking away altogether.

“That was a narrow escape!” |буквально – это был узкий побег. Лучше – едва спаслась!| said Alice, a good deal frightened |сильно напугана. A good deal – большое количество чего-либо| at the sudden change, but very glad to find herself still in existence |что до сих пор существует|; “and now for the garden!” and she ran with all speed back to the little door: but, alas! the little door was shut again, and the little golden key was lying on the glass table as before, “and things are worse than ever,” thought the poor child, “for I never was so small as this before, never! And I declare it’s too bad, that it is!”

As she said these words her foot slipped |поскользнулась|, and in another moment, splash! she was up to her chin |по подбородок| in salt water. Her first idea was that she had somehow fallen into the sea, “and in that case I can go back by railway |вернусь по железной дороге|,” she said to herself. (Alice had been to the seaside |на море| once in her life, and had come to the general conclusion, that wherever you go to on the English coast you find a number of bathing machines |купальни| in the sea, some children digging in the sand with wooden spades |лопатками|, then a row of lodging houses, and behind them a railway station.) However, she soon made out |поняла| that she was in the pool of tears which she had wept |наревела| when she was nine feet high.

“I wish I hadn’t cried so much!” said Alice, as she swam about, trying to find her way out. “I shall be punished for it now, I suppose, by being drowned |тем, что утону| in my own tears! That will be a queer thing, to be sure! However, everything is queer to-day.”

Just then she heard something splashing about in the pool a little way off |немного в стороне|, and she swam nearer to make out what it was: at first she thought it must be a walrus |морж| or hippopotamus, but then she remembered how small she was now, and she soon made out that it was only a mouse that had slipped in |соскользнула в воду| like herself.

“Would it be of any use, now,” thought Alice, “to speak to this mouse? Everything is so out-of-the-way |необычно| down here, that I should think very likely it can talk: at any rate, there’s no harm in trying |хуже не будет|.” So she began: “O Mouse, do you know the way out of this pool? I am very tired of swimming about here, O Mouse!” (Alice thought this must be the right way of speaking to a mouse: she had never done such a thing before, but she remembered having seen |как видела| in her brother’s Latin Grammar, “A mouse—of a mouse—to a mouse—a mouse—O mouse!”) The Mouse looked at her rather inquisitively |недоуменно|, and seemed to her to wink |как будто подмигнула| with one of its little eyes, but it said nothing.

“Perhaps it doesn’t understand English,” thought Alice; “I daresay |осмелюсь сказать| it’s a French mouse, come over with William the Conqueror.” |Вильгельмом Завоевателем, первым английским правителем| (For, with all her knowledge of history, Alice had no very clear notion |понимания| how long ago anything had happened.) So she began again: “Où est ma chatte?” |Где моя кошка?| which was the first sentence in her French lesson-book. The Mouse gave a sudden leap out |выпрыгнула| of the water, and seemed to quiver all over with fright |вся затрепетала от страха|. “Oh, I beg your pardon!” cried Alice hastily, afraid that she had hurt the poor animal’s feelings. “I quite forgot you didn’t like cats.”

“Not like cats!” cried the Mouse, in a shrill, passionate voice. “Would you like cats if you were me?”

“Well, perhaps not,” said Alice in a soothing tone: “don’t be angry about it. And yet |Но все же| I wish I could show you our cat Dinah: I think you’d take a fancy |полюбили бы| to cats if you could only see her. She is such a dear quiet thing,” Alice went on, half to herself |продолжила задумчиво|, as she swam lazily about in the pool, “and she sits purring so nicely by the fire, licking her paws and washing her face – and she is such a nice soft thing to nurse |поласкать| – and she’s such a capital one for catching mice |как она превосходно ловит мышей| – oh, I beg your pardon!” cried Alice again, for this time the Mouse was bristling all over |вся взъерошилась|, and she felt certain it must be really offended |оскорблена|. “We won’t talk about her any more if you’d rather not.”

“We indeed!” cried the Mouse, who was trembling |дрожала| down to the end of his tail. “As if I would talk |Как будто это я заговорила| on such a subject! Our family always hated cats: nasty, low, vulgar things! Don’t let me hear the name again!”

“I won’t indeed!” said Alice, in a great hurry to change the subject of conversation. “Are you – are you fond – of – of dogs?” The Mouse did not answer, so Alice went on eagerly |нетерпеливо|: “There is such a nice little dog near our house I should like to show you! A little bright-eyed |блестящие| terrier, you know, with oh, such long curly brown hair! And it’ll fetch |ловит| things when you throw them, and it’ll sit up and beg |просит| for its dinner, and all sorts of things – I can’t remember half of them – and it belongs to a farmer, you know, and he says it’s so useful, it’s worth a hundred pounds |фунтов стерлингов|! He says it kills all the rats and – oh dear!” cried Alice in a sorrowful tone, “I’m afraid I’ve offended it again!” For the Mouse was swimming away from her as hard as it could go, and making quite a commotion in the pool as it went |волнение в луже от движения|.

So she called softly after it, “Mouse dear! Do come back again, and we won’t talk about cats or dogs either, if you don’t like them!” When the Mouse heard this, it turned round and swam slowly back to her: its face was quite pale (with passion |от эмоций|, Alice thought), and it said in a low trembling voice, “Let us get to the shore, and then I’ll tell you my history, and you’ll understand why it is I hate cats and dogs.”

It was high time |Было самое время| to go, for the pool was getting quite crowded |перенаселен| with the birds and animals that had fallen into it: there were a Duck and a Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet |птица додо, попугай и орленок|, and several other curious creatures. Alice led the way |поплыла вперед|, and the whole party swam to the shore.

Chapter III. A Caucus-Race |Бег по кругу| and a Long Tale

They were indeed a queer-looking party that assembled on the bank |собрались на берегу| – the birds with draggled feathers |с взъерошенными перьями|, the animals with their fur clinging |прилипшим мехом| close to them, and all dripping wet, cross | промокшим, спутанным|, and uncomfortable.

The first question of course was, how to get dry again: they had a consultation about this, and after a few minutes it seemed quite natural to Alice to find herself talking familiarly |непринужденно общаясь| with them, as if she had known them all her life. Indeed, she had quite a long argument with the Lory |спор с попугаем Лори|, who at last turned sulky |в конце концов надулся|, and would only say, “I am older than you, and must know better;” and this Alice would not allow |буквально – не позволяла. Лучше – не принимала в расчет| without knowing how old it was, and, as the Lory positively |решительно| refused to tell its age, there was no more to be said.

At last the Mouse, who seemed to be a person of authority |авторитетной личностью| among them, called out, “Sit down, all of you, and listen to me! I’ll soon make you dry enough!” They all sat down at once, in a large ring, with the Mouse in the middle. Alice kept her eyes anxiously fixed on it, for she felt sure she would catch a bad cold if she did not get dry |высохнет| very soon.

“Ahem!” |звук откашливания| said the Mouse with an important air, “are you all ready? This is the driest thing I know. Silence all round, if you please! ‘William the Conqueror, whose cause was favoured by the pope, was soon submitted to by the English, who wanted leaders, and had been of late much accustomed to usurpation and conquest |Вильгельм Завоеватель с благословения Папы добился подчинения англичан, которые нуждались в лидерах, и были не понаслышке знакомы с узурпацией и завоеваниями|. Edwin and Morcar, the earls |графы| of Mercia and Northumbria —’”

“Ugh!” said the Lory, with a shiver |с дрожью|.

“I beg your pardon!” said the Mouse, frowning |нахмурившись|, but very politely: “Did you speak?”

“Not I!” said the Lory hastily.

“I thought you did,” said the Mouse. “– I proceed |продолжу|. ‘Edwin and Morcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria, declared for him: and even Stigand, the patriotic archbishop of Canterbury, found it advisable |нашел это благоразумным| —’”

“Found what?” said the Duck.

“Found it,” the Mouse replied rather crossly: “of course you know what ‘it’ means.”

“I know what ‘it’ means well enough, when I find a thing,” said the Duck: “it’s generally a frog or a worm. The question is, what did the archbishop find?”

The Mouse did not notice this question, but hurriedly |спешно| went on, “‘– found it advisable to go with Edgar Atheling to meet William and offer him the crown. William’s conduct |правление| at first was moderate. But the insolence of his Normans |Но наглость его воинов-норманнов| —’ How are you getting on now |Как ты там?|, my dear?” it continued, turning to Alice as it spoke.

“As wet as ever,” |Промокшая как никогда| said Alice in a melancholy tone: “it doesn’t seem to dry me at all.”

“In that case,” said the Dodo solemnly, rising to its feet, “I move that the meeting adjourn, for the immediate adoption of more energetic remedies |Я предлагаю принять резолюцию о немедленном роспуске собрания в свете принятия наличия более важных…| —”

“Speak English!” said the Eaglet. “I don’t know the meaning of half those long words, and, what’s more, I don’t believe you do either |тоже|!” And the Eaglet bent down |наклонил| its head to hide a smile: some of the other birds tittered audibly |захихикали вслух|.

“What I was going to say,” said the Dodo in an offended tone, “was, that the best thing to get us dry would be a Caucus-race.”

“What is a Caucus-race?” said Alice; not that she wanted much to know, but the Dodo had paused as if it thought |как будто он подумал| that somebody ought to speak, and no one else seemed inclined |склонен| to say anything.

“Why,” said the Dodo, “the best way to explain it is to do it.” (And, as you might like to try the thing yourself, some winter day, I will tell you how the Dodo managed it.)

First it marked out a race-course |Во-первых он нарисовал маршрут|, in a sort of |что-то вроде| circle, (“the exact shape doesn’t matter,” it said,) and then all the party were placed along the course |по кругу|, here and there. There was no “One, two, three, and away,” but they began running when they liked, and left off |останавливались| when they liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was over. However, when they had been running half an hour or so, and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called out “The race is over!” and they all crowded round it |собрались вокруг него|, panting |пыхтя|, and asking, “But who has won?”

This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought |буквально – без большого количества мысли. Лучше – без того, чтобы хорошенько подумать|, and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead |приложив палец ко лбу| (the position in which you usually see Shakespeare, in the pictures of him), while the rest waited in silence. At last the Dodo said, “Everybody has won, and all must have prizes.”

“But who is to give the prizes?” quite a chorus of voices asked.

“Why, she, of course,” said the Dodo, pointing to Alice with one finger; and the whole party at once |сразу же| crowded round her, calling out in a confused way |наперебой|, “Prizes! Prizes!”

Alice had no idea what to do, and in despair |в отчаянии| she put her hand in her pocket, and pulled out a box of comfits |конфетами|, (luckily the salt water had not got into it), and handed them round as prizes. There was exactly one a-piece, all round.

“But she must have a prize herself, you know,” said the Mouse.

“Of course,” the Dodo replied very gravely |серьезно|. “What else have you got in your pocket?” he went on, turning to Alice.

“Only a thimble |наперсток|,” said Alice sadly.

“Hand it over here,” |Передай сюда| said the Dodo.

Then they all crowded round her once more, while the Dodo solemnly |торжественно| presented the thimble, saying “We beg your acceptance |Мы просим принять| of this elegant thimble;” and, when it had finished this short speech, they all cheered.

Alice thought the whole thing very absurd, but they all looked so grave that she did not dare to laugh; and, as she could not think of anything to say, she simply bowed |поклонилась|, and took the thimble, looking as solemn as she could.

The next thing was to eat the comfits: this caused some noise and confusion, as the large birds complained that they could not taste theirs, and the small ones choked |поперхнулись| and had to be patted |надо было похлопать| on the back. However, it was over at last, and they sat down again in a ring, and begged the Mouse to tell them something more.

“You promised to tell me your history, you know,” said Alice, “and why it is you hate – C and D |Алиса имеет в виду кошек и собак|,” she added in a whisper, half afraid that it would be offended again.

“Mine is a long and a sad tale |история|!” said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and sighing.

“It is a long tail |хвост. Игра слов a tale и a tail|, certainly,” said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse’s tail; “but why do you call it sad?” And she kept on puzzling |долго удивлялась| about it while the Mouse was speaking, so that her idea of the tale was something like this:

“Fury |здесь – пушистый| said to a

mouse, That he

met in the

house,

‘Let us

both go to

law |поступим по закону|: I will

prosecute |засужу|

you.– Come,

I’ll take no

Denial |Я не приму «нет» за ответ|; We

must have a

trial: For

really this

morning I’ve

nothing

to do.’

Said the

mouse to the

cur |дворняжке|, ‘Such

a trial,

dear sir,

With

no jury |присяжных|

or judge,

would be

wasting

our

breath.’

‘I’ll be

judge, I’ll

be jury,’

Said

cunning |хитрый|

old Fury:

‘I’ll

try the

whole

cause |Я проведу все дело сам|,

and

condemn |приговорю|

you

to

death.’”

“You are not attending |здесь – слушаешь|!” said the Mouse to Alice severely. “What are you thinking of?”

“I beg your pardon,” said Alice very humbly: “you had got to the fifth bend |вы уже дошли до пятого изгиба? Алиса имеет в виду изгибы хвоста, о которых якобы говорит Мышь|, I think?”

“I had not!” cried the Mouse, sharply and very angrily.

“A knot!” |Опять игра слов. I had not – я не дошла – кричит Мышь, а Алиса слышит: “I had a knot” – у меня был узел| said Alice, always ready to make herself useful, and looking anxiously about her. “Oh, do let me help to undo it |распутать его|!”

“I shall do nothing of the sort,” said the Mouse, getting up and walking away. “You insult me by talking such nonsense |оскорбляешь… чепухой|!”

“I didn’t mean it!” pleaded poor Alice. “But you’re so easily offended, you know!”

The Mouse only growled |заворчала| in reply.

“Please come back and finish your story!” Alice called after it; and the others all joined in chorus, “Yes, please do!” but the Mouse only shook its head impatiently, and walked a little quicker.

“What a pity it wouldn’t stay!” sighed the Lory, as soon as it was quite out of sight; and an old Crab took the opportunity of saying to her daughter “Ah, my dear! Let this be a lesson to you never to lose your temper |выходить из себя|!” “Hold your tongue |Придержи язык|, Ma!” said the young Crab, a little snappishly |раздраженно|. “You’re enough to try the patience |испытать терпение| of an oyster!”

“I wish I had our Dinah here, I know I do!” said Alice aloud, addressing nobody in particular. “She’d soon fetch |поймала и притащила| it back!”

“And who is Dinah, if I might venture |если я посмею| to ask the question?” said the Lory.

Alice replied eagerly |с готовностью|, for she was always ready to talk about her pet: “Dinah’s our cat. And she’s such a capital one for catching mice you can’t think! And oh, I wish you could see her after |как она ловит| the birds! Why, she’ll eat a little bird as soon as look at it!”

This speech caused a remarkable sensation among the party. Some of the birds hurried off at once: one old Magpie |сорока| began wrapping itself up |закутываться| very carefully, remarking, “I really must be getting home; the night-air doesn’t suit my throat!” and a Canary