Kitabı oku: «Алиса в Стране чудес / Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Алиса в Зазеркалье / Through the Looking-glass, and What Alice Found There», sayfa 8
“It depends on100 where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“It’s not so important for me where – ” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter101 which way you go,” said the Cat.
“ – until I get SOMEWHERE,” Alice added as an explanation.
“Oh, you’ll surely do that,” said the Cat, “if you walk long enough.102”
“And what people live about here?” asked Alice.
“In THAT direction,” the Cat said, waving its right paw, “lives a Hatter: and in THAT direction,” waving the other paw, “lives a March Hare. Visit the one that you like: they’re both mad.”
“But I don’t want to go to mad people,” Alice answered.
“Oh,” said the Cat: “but we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
“How do you know I’m mad?” inquired Alice.
“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t be here.103 Do you play croquet with the Queen to-day?”
“I would like it very much,” said Alice, “butI haven’t been invited yet.104”
“You’ll see me there,” said the Cat, and vanished.
Suddenly it appeared again.
“By-the-way, what became of the baby?” wondered the Cat. “I forgot to ask.”
“It turned into a pig,” Alice quietly said.
“I thought so,” said the Cat, and vanished again.
Alice waited a little but it did not appear, so she walked in the direction of the March Hare’s house. “I’ve seen hatters before,” she said to herself; “the March Hare will be much more interesting, and perhaps as this is May it won’t be absolutely mad – at least not as mad as it was in March.” As she said this, she looked up, and there was the Cat again, sitting on a tree.
“Did you say pig, or fig?” asked the Cat.
“I said pig,” replied Alice; “and could you please stop appearing and vanishing so suddenly?”
“All right,” answered the Cat; and this time it vanished slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained in the tree for some time.
“Well! I’ve often seen a cat without a grin,” thought Alice; “but a grin without a cat! It’s the most curious thing I ever saw in my life!”
And she walked to the March Hare’s house. She saw it quite soon: the chimneys looked like ears and the roof was covered with fur.
Chapter 7. A Mad Tea-Party
There was a table under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it: aDormouse105 was sitting between them, fast asleep.106
The table was large, butthe three107 were all together at one corner of it: “No room!108 No room!” they cried out when they saw Alice. “There’s a LOT of room!” said Alice indignantly, and she sat down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table.
“Have some wine,” the March Hare said in an encouraging tone.
Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it except tea. “I don’t see any wine,” she remarked.
“There isn’t any,” said the March Hare.
“Then it wasn’t very polite of you109 to offer it,” said Alice angrily.
“It wasn’t very polite of you to sit down without invitation,” said the March Hare.
“I didn’t know it was YOUR table,” said Alice; “it’s laid110 for much more than three.”
The party sat silent for a minute. The Hatter spoke first. “What day of the month is it?” he said, turning to Alice: he had taken his watch out of his pocket, and was looking at it, shaking it, and holding it to his ear.
Alice thought a little, and then said “The fourth.”
“Two days wrong!111” noted the Hatter. “I told you butter couldn’t help!” he added looking angrily at the March Hare.
“It was the BEST butter,” the March Hare replied. He took the watch and looked at it unhappily: then he put it into his cup of tea, and looked at it again: but he could only repeat, “It was the BEST butter.”
“What a funny watch!” Alice remarked. “It tells the day of the month, and doesn’t tell the time!”
“Why should it?112“inquired the Hatter. “Does YOUR watch tell you what year it is?”
“Of course not,” Alice replied readily: “but that’s because it stays the same year for a long time.”
“So does MINE,113” said the Hatter.
“I don’t quite understand you,” Alice said, as politely as she could.
“Well, you know, we quarreled with Time last March – just before HE went mad – ” (pointing at the March Hare,) “ – it was at the great concert given by the Queen of Heartswhere I had to sing.114 I hadn’t finished the first part of the song when the Queen shouted: “He’s murdering the time! Off with his head!115”
