第五章 毛毛蟲的建議

CHAPTER V.Advice from a Caterpillar

The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice.

「Who are you?」 said the Caterpillar.

This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, 「I—I hardly know, sir, just at present—at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.」

What do you mean by that?」 said the Caterpillar sternly. 「Explain yourself!」

「I can’t explain myself, I’m afraid, sir,」 said Alice, 「because I’m not myself, you see.」

「I don’t see,」 said the Caterpillar.

「I’m afraid I can’t put it more clearly,」 Alice replied very politely, 「for I can’t understand it myself to begin with; and being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing.」

「It isn’t,」 said the Caterpillar.

「Well, perhaps you haven’t found it so yet,」 said Alice; 「but when you have to turn into a chrysalis—you will some day, you know—and then after that into a butterfly, I should think you』ll feel it a little queer, won’t you?」

「Not a bit,」 said the Caterpillar.

「Well, perhaps your feelings may be different,」 said Alice; 「all I know is, it would feel very queer to me.」

「You!」 said the Caterpillar contemptuously. 「Who are you?」

毛毛蟲和愛麗絲彼此沉默地注視了好一會兒。最後，毛毛蟲從嘴裡拿出了水煙管，用慢吞吞的、瞌睡似的聲調同她說起了話。

「你是誰？」毛毛蟲問，這可不是鼓勵人談話的開場白，愛麗絲挺不好意思地回答說：「我……眼下很難說，先生……至少今天起床時，我還知道我是誰的，從那時起，可是我就變了好幾回了，」

「你這話是什麼意思？」毛毛蟲嚴厲地說，「你自己解釋一下！」

「我沒法解釋，先生，」愛麗絲說，「因為我已經不是我自己了，你瞧。」

「我瞧不出。」毛毛蟲說。

「我不能解釋得更清楚了，」愛麗絲非常有禮貌地回答，「因為我壓根兒不懂是怎麼開始的，一天裡改變好幾次大小是非常不舒服的。」

「唉，也許你還沒有體會過，」愛麗絲說，「可是當你必須變成一隻蝶蛹的時候——你知道自己總有一天會這樣的——然後再變成一隻蝴蝶、我想你會感到有點奇怪的，是不是，」

「一點也不。」毛毛蟲說。

「哦！可能你的感覺同我不一樣，」愛麗絲說，「可是這些事使我覺得非常奇怪。」

「你！」毛毛蟲輕蔑地說，「你是誰？」

Which brought them back again to the beginning of the conversation. Alice felt a little irritated at the Caterpillar’s making such very short remarks, and she drew herself up and said, very gravely, 「I think, you ought to tell me who you are, first.」

「Why?」 said the Caterpillar.

Here was another puzzling question; and as Alice could not think of any good reason, and as the Caterpillar seemed to be in a very unpleasant state of mind, she turned away.

「Come back!」 the Caterpillar called after her. 「I』ve something important to say!」

This sounded promising, certainly: Alice turned and came back again.

「Keep your temper,」 said the Caterpillar.

「Is that all?」 said Alice, swallowing down her anger as well as she could.

「No,」 said the Caterpillar.

這句話又把他們帶回了談話的開頭，對於毛毛蟲的那些非常簡短的回答，愛麗絲頗有點不高興了，她挺直了身子一本正經地說：「我想還是你先告訴我，你是誰？」

「為什麼？」毛毛蟲說。

這又成了一個難題：愛麗絲想不出任何比較好的理由來回答它，看來，毛毛蟲挺不高興的，因此愛麗絲轉身就走了。

「回來！」毛毛蟲在她身後叫道，「我有幾句重要的話講！」這話聽起來倒是鼓舞人的，於是愛麗絲回來了。

「別發脾氣嘛！」毛毛蟲說，

「就這個話嗎？」愛麗絲忍住了怒氣問。

「不。」毛毛蟲說。

Alice thought she might as well wait, as she had nothing else to do, and perhaps after all it might tell her something worth hearing. For some minutes it puffed away without speaking, but at last it unfolded its arms, took the hookah out of its mouth again, and said, 「So you think you’re changed, do you?」

「I’m afraid I am, sir,」 said Alice; 「I can’t remember things as I used—and I don’t keep the same size for ten minutes together!」

「Can’t remember what things?」 said the Caterpillar.

「Well, I』ve tried to say 「How doth the little busy bee,」 but it all came different!」 Alice replied in a very melancholy voice.

「Repeat, 「You are old, Father William,』」 said the Caterpillar.

Alice folded her hands, and began:—

愛麗絲想反正沒什麼事，不如在這兒等一等，也許最後它會說一點兒值得聽的話的。有好幾分鐘，他只是噴著煙霧不說話。最後它鬆開胳膊，把水煙管從嘴裡拿出來，說：「你認為你已經變了，是嗎？」

「我想是的，先生。」愛麗絲說。「我平時知道的事，現在都忘了，而且連把同樣的身材保持十分鐘都做不到，」

「你忘了些什麼？」毛毛蟲問。

「我試著背《小蜜蜂怎麼幹活》，可是背出來的完全變了樣！」愛麗絲憂鬱地回答。

「那麼背誦《你老了，威廉爸爸》吧！」毛毛蟲說。

愛麗絲把雙手交叉放好，開始背了：

「You are old, Father William,」 the young man said,
「And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head—
Do you think, at your age, it is right?」

「In my youth,」 Father William replied to his son,
「I feared it might injure the brain;
But, now that I’m perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again.」

「You are old,」 said the youth, 「as I mentioned before,
And have grown most uncommonly fat;
Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door—
Pray, what is the reason of that?」

「年輕人說道：『你已經老啦，威廉爸爸，你頭上長滿了白髮。可你老是頭朝下倒立著，像你這把年紀，這合適嗎？』

『當我年輕的時候，』威廉爸爸回答兒子，『我怕這樣會損壞腦子；現在我腦袋已經空啦，所以就這樣玩個不止，』

『你已經老啦，』年輕人說：『像我剛才說的一樣，你已經變得非常肥胖；可是你一個前空翻翻進門來，這是怎麼搞的？請你講講。』

「In my youth,」 said the sage, as he shook his grey locks,
「I kept all my limbs very supple
By the use of this ointment—one shilling the box—
Allow me to sell you a couple?」

「You are old,」 said the youth, 「and your jaws are too weak
For anything tougher than suet;
Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak—
Pray, how did you manage to do it?」

「In my youth,」 said his father, 「I took to the law,
And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength, which it gave to my jaw,
Has lasted the rest of my life.」

『當我年輕的時候，』老哲人搖晃著灰白的捲髮說道，『我總是讓關節保持柔軟靈巧，我用的是這種一先令一盒的油膏，你想要兩盒嗎，請允許我向你推銷，』

『你已經老啦，』年輕人說，『你的下巴應該是，衰弱得只能喝些稀湯，可是你把一隻整鵝，連骨帶嘴全都吃光，請問你怎能這樣，』

『當我年輕的時候，』爸爸說，研究的是法律條文。對於每個案子，都拿來同妻子辯論，因此我練得下巴肌肉發達，這使我受用終身。』

「You are old,」 said the youth, 「one would hardly suppose
That your eye was as steady as ever;
Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose—
What made you so awfully clever?」

「I have answered three questions, and that is enough,」
Said his father; 「don’t give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
Be off, or I』ll kick you down stairs!」

『你已經老啦，』年輕人說，『很難想像，你的眼睛會像從前，一樣閃光。可是你居然能把一條鰻魚，豎在鼻子尖上。請問，你怎會這麼棒，』

「夠啦，』他的爸爸說，『我已經回答了三個問題。你不要太放肆啦，我不會整天聽你胡言亂語。快滾吧，不然我就要，一腳把你踢下樓梯。』」

「That is not said right,」 said the Caterpillar.

「Not quite right, I’m afraid,」 said Alice, timidly; 「some of the words have got altered.」

「It is wrong from beginning to end,」 said the Caterpillar decidedly, and there was silence for some minutes.

The Caterpillar was the first to speak.

「What size do you want to be?」 it asked.

「Oh, I’m not particular as to size,」 Alice hastily replied; 「only one doesn’t like changing so often, you know.」

「I don’t know,」 said the Caterpillar.

Alice said nothing: she had never been so much contradicted in her life before, and she felt that she was losing her temper.

「Are you content now?」 said the Caterpillar.

「Well, I should like to be a little larger, sir, if you wouldn’t mind,」 said Alice: 「three inches is such a wretched height to be.」

「It is a very good height indeed!」 said the Caterpillar angrily, rearing itself upright as it spoke (it was exactly three inches high).

「But I’m not used to it!」 pleaded poor Alice in a piteous tone. And she thought of herself, 「I wish the creatures wouldn’t be so easily offended!」

「You』ll get used to it in time,」 said the Caterpillar; and it put the hookah into its mouth and began smoking again.

「背錯了。」毛毛蟲說。

「我也怕不十分對，」愛麗絲羞怯地說，「有些字已經變了。」

「從頭到尾都錯了，」毛毛蟲乾脆地說。然後他們又沉默了幾分鐘。

毛毛蟲首先開腔了：「你想變成多麼大小呢？」

「唉！多麼大小我倒不在乎。」愛麗絲急忙回答，「可是，一個人總不會喜歡老是變來變去的，這你是知道的。」

「我不知道。」毛毛蟲說。

愛麗絲不說話了，她從來沒有遭到過這麼多的反駁，感到自己要發脾氣了。

「你滿意現在的樣子嗎？」毛毛蟲說，

「哦，如果你不在意的話，先生，我想再大一點，」愛麗絲說，「像這樣三英寸高，太可憐了，」

「這正是一個非常合適的高度。」毛毛蟲生氣地說，它說話時還使勁兒挺直了身子，正好是三英寸高。

「可我不習慣這個高度！」愛麗絲可憐巴巴地說道，同時心裡想：「我希望這傢伙可別發火！」

「不久你就會習慣的！」毛毛蟲說著又把水煙管放進嘴裡抽起來了。

This time Alice waited patiently until it chose to speak again. In a minute or two the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth and yawned once or twice, and shook itself. Then it got down off the mushroom, and crawled away in the grass, merely remarking as it went, 「One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter.」

「One side of what? The other side of what?」 thought Alice to herself.

「Of the mushroom,」 said the Caterpillar, just as if she had asked it aloud; and in another moment it was out of sight.

Alice remained looking thoughtfully at the mushroom for a minute, trying to make out which were the two sides of it; and as it was perfectly round, she found this a very difficult question. However, at last she stretched her arms round it as far as they would go, and broke off a bit of the edge with each hand.

「And now which is which?」 she said to herself, and nibbled a little of the right-hand bit to try the effect: the next moment she felt a violent blow underneath her chin: it had struck her foot!

She was a good deal frightened by this very sudden change, but she felt that there was no time to be lost, as she was shrinking rapidly; so she set to work at once to eat some of the other bit. Her chin was pressed so closely against her foot, that there was hardly room to open her mouth; but she did it at last, and managed to swallow a morsel of the lefthand bit.

這次，愛麗絲耐心地等著它開口，一兩分鐘後，毛毛蟲從嘴裡拿出了水煙管，打了個哈欠，搖了搖身子，然後從蘑菇上下來，向草地爬去，只是在它爬的時候，順口說道：「一邊會使你長高，另一邊會使你變矮，」「什麼東西的一邊，什麼東西的另一邊？」愛麗絲想。

「蘑菇，」毛毛蟲說，就好像愛麗絲在問它似的說完了話，一剎那就不見了。

有那麼一兩分鐘，愛麗絲端詳著那個蘑菇，思討著哪裡是它的兩邊。由於它十公圓，愛麗絲發現這個問題可不容易解決。不管怎樣，最後，她伸開雙管環抱著它，而且儘量往遠伸，然後兩隻手分別掰下了一塊蘑菇邊。

「可現在哪邊是哪邊呢？」她問自己，然後啃了右手那塊試試。驀地覺得下巴被猛烈地碰了一下：原來下巴碰著腳背了。這突然的變化使她戰慄，縮得太快了，再不抓緊時間就完了，於是，她立即去吃另一塊，雖然下巴同腳頂得太緊，幾乎張不開口，但總算把左手的蘑菇啃著了一點。

「Come, my head’s free at last!」 said Alice in a tone of delight, which changed into alarm in another moment, when she found that her shoulders were nowhere to be found: all she could see, when she looked down, was an immense length of neck, which seemed to rise like a stalk out of a sea of green leaves that lay far below her.

「What can all that green stuff be?」 said Alice. 「And where have my shoulders got to? And oh, my poor hands, how is it I can’t see you?」 She was moving them about as she spoke, but no result seemed to follow, except a little shaking among the distant green leaves.

As there seemed to be no chance of getting her hands up to her head, she tried to get her head down to them, and was delighted to find that her neck would bend about easily in any direction, like a serpent. She had just succeeded in curving it down into a graceful zigzag, and was going to dive in among the leaves, which she found to be nothing but the tops of the trees under which she had been wandering, when a sharp hiss made her draw back in a hurry: a large pigeon had flown into her face, and was beating her violently with its wings.

「啊，我的頭自由了！」愛麗絲高興地說，可是轉眼間高興變成了恐懼。這時，她發現找不見自己的肩膀了，她往下看時，只能見到了很長的脖子，這個脖子就像是矗立在綠色海洋中的高樹杆。

「那些綠東西是什麼呢？」愛麗絲說，「我的肩膀呢？哎呀！我的可憐的雙手啊，怎樣才能再見到你們呢？」她說話時揮動著雙手，可是除了遠處的綠樹叢中出現一些顫動外，什麼也沒有了。

看起來，她的手沒法舉到頭上來了，於是，她就試著把頭彎下去湊近手。她高興地發現自己的脖子像蛇一樣，可以隨便地往上下左右扭轉，她把脖子朝下，變成一個「z」字形，準備伸進那些綠色海洋里去，發現這些綠色海洋不是別的，正是剛才曾經在它下面漫遊的樹林的樹梢。就在這對，一種尖利的嘶聲，使得她急忙縮回了頭。一隻大鴿子朝她臉上飛來，並且呼搧著翅膀瘋狂地拍打她。

「Serpent!」 screamed the Pigeon.

「I’m not a serpent!」 said Alice indignantly. 「Let me alone!」

「Serpent, I say again!」 repeated the Pigeon, but in a more subdued tone, and added with a kind of sob, 「I』ve tried every way, and nothing seems to suit them!」

「I haven’t the least idea what you’re talking about,」 said Alice.

「I』ve tried the roots of trees, and I』ve tried banks, and I』ve tried hedges,」 the Pigeon went on, without attending to her; 「but those serpents! There’s no pleasing them!」

Alice was more and more puzzled, but she thought there was no use in saying anything more till the Pigeon had finished.

「As if it wasn’t trouble enough hatching the eggs,」 said the Pigeon; 「but I must be on the look-out for serpents night and day! Why, I haven’t had a wink of sleep these three weeks!」

「I’m very sorry you』ve been annoyed,」 said Alice, who was beginning to see its meaning.

「And just as I』d taken the highest tree in the wood,」 continued the Pigeon, raising its voice to a shriek, 「and just as I was thinking I should be free of them at last, they must needs come wriggling down from the sky! Ugh, Serpent!」

「But I’m not a serpent, I tell you!」 said Alice. 「I’m a—I’m a—」

「Well! What are you?」 said the Pigeon. 「I can see you’re trying to invent something!」

「I—I’m a little girl,」 said Alice, rather doubtfully, as she remembered the number of changes she had gone through that day.

「蛇！」鴿子尖叫著。

「我不是蛇！」愛麗絲生氣地說，「你走開！」

「我再說一遍，蛇！」鴿子重複著，可是已經是用很低的聲音在說話了，然後還嗚咽地加了一句：「我各種方法都試過了，但是沒有一樣能叫它們滿意！」

「你的話我一點幾都不懂！」愛麗絲說，

「我試了樹根，試了河岸，還試了籬笆，」鴿子繼續說著，並不注意她，「可是這些蛇！沒法子讓它們高興！」

愛麗絲越來越奇怪了，但是她知道，鴿子不說完自己的話，是不會讓別人說話的。

「僅僅是孵蛋就夠麻煩的啦，」鴿子說，「我還得日夜守望著蛇，天哪！這三個星期我還沒合過眼呢！」

「我很同情，你被人家擾亂得不得安寧，」愛麗絲開始有點明白它的意思了，

「我剛剛把家搬到樹林裡最高的樹上，」鴿子繼續說，把嗓門提高成了尖聲嘶叫，「我想已經最後擺脫它們了，結果它們還非要彎彎曲曲地從天上下來不可。唉！這些蛇呀！」

「我可不是蛇，我告訴你！」愛麗絲說，「我是一個……我是一個……，

「啊，你是什麼呢？」鴿子說，「我看得出你正想編謊哩！」

「我是一個小姑娘。」愛麗絲拿不準地說，因為她想起了這一天中經歷的那麼多的變化。

「A likely story indeed!」 said the Pigeon in a tone of the deepest contempt. 「I』ve seen a good many little girls in my time, but never one with such a neck as that! No, no! You’re a serpent; and there’s no use denying it. I suppose you』ll be telling me next that you never tasted an egg!」

「I have tasted eggs, certainly,」 said Alice, who was a very truthful child; 「but little girls eat eggs quite as much as serpents do, you know.」

「I don’t believe it,」 said the Pigeon; 「but if they do, why then they’re a kind of serpent, that’s all I can say.」

This was such a new idea to Alice, that she was quite silent for a minute or two, which gave the Pigeon the opportunity of adding, 「You’re looking for eggs, I know that well enough; and what does it matter to me whether you’re a little girl or a serpent?」

「It matters a good deal to me,」 said Alice hastily; 「but I’m not looking for eggs, as it happens; and if I was, I shouldn’t want yours: I don’t like them raw.」

「說得倒挺像那麼回事！」鴿子十分輕蔑地說，「我這輩子看見過許多小姑娘，可從來沒有一個長著像你這樣的長脖子的！沒有，絕對沒有！你是一條蛇，辯解是沒有用的，我知道你還要告訴我，你從來沒有吃過一隻蛋吧！」

「我確實吃過許多的蛋，」愛麗絲說，（她是一個非常誠實的孩子。）「你知道，小姑娘也像蛇那樣，要吃好多蛋的。」

「我不相信，」鴿子說，「假如她們吃蛋的話，我只能說她們也是一種蛇。」

這對於愛麗絲真是個新的概念，她愣了幾分鐘。於是鴿子趁機加了一句：「反正你是在找蛋，因此，你是姑娘還是蛇，對我都一樣。」

「這對我很不一樣，」愛麗絲急忙分辯，「而且老實說，我不是在找蛋，就算我在找蛋，我還不要你的呢？我是不吃生蛋的。」

「Well, be off, then!」 said the Pigeon in a sulky tone, as it settled down again into its nest. Alice crouched down among the trees as well as she could, for her neck kept getting entangled among the branches, and every now and then she had to stop and untwist it. After a while she remembered that she still held the pieces of mushroom in her hands, and she set to work very carefully, nibbling first at one and then at the other, and growing sometimes taller and sometimes shorter, until she had succeeded in bringing herself down to her usual height.

It was so long since she had been anything near the right size, that it felt quite strange at first; but she got used to it in a few minutes, and began talking to herself, as usual. 「Come, there’s half my plan done now! How puzzling all these changes are! I’m never sure what I’m going to be, from one minute to another! However, I』ve got back to my right size: the next thing is, to get into that beautiful garden—how is that to be done, I wonder?」 As she said this, she came suddenly upon an open place, with a little house in it about four feet high. 「Whoever lives there,」 thought Alice, 「it』ll never do to come upon them this size: why, I should frighten them out of their wits!」 So she began nibbling at the righthand bit again, and did not venture to go near the house till she had brought herself down to nine inches high.

「哼，那就滾開！」鴿子生氣地說著，同時又飛下去鑽進它的窩裡了。愛麗絲費勁兒地往樹林裡蹲，因為她的脖子常常會被樹叉掛住，要隨時停下來排解。過了一會，她想起了手裡的兩塊蘑菇，於是她小心地咬咬這塊，又咬咬那塊，因此她一會兒L長高，一會縮小，最後終於使自己成了平常的高度了。

由於她已經不是正常高度了，所以開頭還有點奇怪，不過幾分鐘就習慣了。然後又像平常那樣同自己說話了。「好啊，現在我的計劃完成一半了。這些變化多麼奇怪，我無法知道下一分鐘我會是什麼樣兒。不管怎樣，現在我總算回到自己原來的大小了，下一件事情就是去那個美麗的花園。可是我不知道該怎麼去做呢？」說話間來到了一片開闊地，這裡有一間四英尺高的小房子。「別管是誰住在這裡，」愛麗絲想，「我現在這樣的大小不能進去，鄧會把它們嚇得靈魂出竅的，」她小口小口地咬了一點右手上的蘑菇，一直到自己變成九英寸高，才走向那座小房子。