Crying makes a lot of tears when u r 3 meters tall. Do u imagine that one day u fall down in your tear pool?
To Alice The Never Grown-up
Dear Alice,
You must have never forgotten that sunny, sleepy also boring afternoon you spent with your sister on the bank and how it turned into such an interesting, fantastic and amazing adventure! The dreamy, golden sunshine, the pleasure of panic and the book without pictures and conversations that you got bored with, everything seemed so natural at first until a white rabbit with pink eyes passing by, taking a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket,looking at it and muttering “I shall be too late!” It’s so strange that you became curious and followed it floating down a rabbit-hole without even thinking about how to get out. At that time, you had no idea that there were so many funny things and interesting creatures waiting for you to discover. But It was the beginning of the whole thing, the beginning of your adventure in the wonderland.
Everything seemed so different here. Everything seemed possible here. In wonderland, one can suddenly grow to gigantic size and shrinks to a fraction of her original height in a moment; One can swam in a sea of her own previously shed tears; And all at once, one has the superability of knowing all species of animals’ languages and understanding exactly what they are talking about. There are a bunch of funny characters: there were an ugly baby which changed into a pig, two talking mouse and the Hatter with a never-ending tea party, the Queen of Hearts who always shouted” off with xx’s head!”, a Mock Turtle and finally, the Cheshire-Cat, who can grin and became your friend,if you allow me to say that.
But all these things did not make you so frightened to try to escape, my brave Alice. Instead, you just cried out“ curiouser and curiouser!”and moved on. Your heart must have been filled with excitement. You are not afraid of the unknown world. Maybe it was more attractive than the one you were actually living in. When the Queen shouted”off with her head!” towards you, you even cried out”Who cares for you?”like a little warrior It was such a wonderful adventure!
However, as you woke up underneath a tree back with your sister, the adventure ended. The golden sunshine, the book you got bored with, the pleasure of panic, everything seemed so normal. You knew you had already been back into the dull reality, again. But don’t you upset ,my dear Alice.For even creating an interesting dream like this can be your priviledge. You may not believe it that there exists some people in the world who can’t sleep at night just in fear of their terrifying nightmare. And after all ,there was one important thing that was not changed: you were still that pretty girl with a head full of new, fresh and also funny dreams and ideas. The whole world is fresh and waiting for you to discover its charm.
I once was a little girl just like you,my dear Alice. Maybe that’s why I like you so much. But one day you’ll just have to grow up, like me, face the real world and take all the responsibilities all by your own. Please promise me that however this world is going to treat you, keep your curiosity and optimism. Never be too afraid to be against the authority. Never be too tired to embrace the world with your whole heart. Just remember nothing can stop you as long as you don’t lose your courage yourself. That is my expectation for you and it is also a wish for myself.
I probably should draw an end to this letter now. Although there is still a question left which I often wonder form time to time: what if that amazing world is real? What if that rabbit hole which can take you from the outside world to the wonderland as a magical tunnel truly exists in the real world? Every time I think of that, I feel happy and curious. How about you?
I loved this movie as a kid so going back and reading this book just brings back so many memories. This book is nuthing short of awesome, who doesnt remember as a kid the lovely Alice, or the always funny madhatter, and the evil queen of hearts. I love reading the story of Alice fallign down the rabbit hole and beginning the journey through wonderland discovering many new things including more about herself. I recommend this book to everyone who enjoys this classic tale.
据研究《奇境》翻译有年的赖慈芸教授所言,“赵译《阿丽思》是中国翻译史的名译……最为人津津乐道的,自然是书中那些打油诗和文字游戏,后来的译者在这一点上几乎都无法超越。”赵元任译双关语、暗喻、谐拟(parody)和打油诗,维肖维妙,不是自少喜欢play with words,不会这么得心应手。试看他译的“体面汤”:
Beautiful soup, so rich and green,
Waiting in a hot tureen!
Who for such dainties would not stoop?
体面汤,浓又黄,
盛在锅里不会凉!
说什么山珍海味,哪儿有这样儿香。
赵元任翻译的取向是,尽量口语化和本土化。“Who are you?”他不会译为“你是谁?”他会问:“你这个人是谁啊?”She very soon finished it off,说的是她很快就把汤喝完。但赵元任的译文却把喝汤这回事说得有声有色:“所以一会儿工夫就唏哩呼噜地喝完了。”他翻译求的是dynamic equivalent。民国初年,语体文还在摸索阶段,许多名词,还未定型。我们今天的“童话”,那时叫“仙人传”。若不是刘半农及时在1919年“发明”了“他”、“她”和“它”这类代名词,真不知赵元任翻译《奇境》时如何处理书中角色的身份。
后 来偶尔读到一点评述本书的文章,才知道,本书和它的续集《爱丽丝镜中奇遇》(Through the Looking-Glass)不仅在英国儿童文学史上地位卓著,而且在英国文学史上也是稳稳当当占一席,甚至于对英语本身都有贡献。本书被誉为“荒诞文学”的开山之作,更是“literary nonsense” 的最佳代表作之一。(之所以这么说,当然是因为书中众多的或原创或改编的诗歌/童谣。)
虽 然我至今为之没搞清楚到底什么是literary nonsense,但是就从查到的一点点资料看,这种文体在英语当中非常重要。它是英语世界早期民间文学(传说、诗歌、童谣等)和宗教政治讽喻文学的一种结合体。据说这种问题很搞笑--能看出来这一点大概需要比较好的英语水平才行。最关键的是:The effect of nonsense is often caused by an excess of meaning, rather than a lack of it.
从这一点出发来看,书中那些乍看之下不着四六的情节,其实都有影射的意思再其中。比如那端渡渡鸟带头的围成圈赛跑的情节就是讽刺英国的议会制度;黑桃园丁用红油漆漆白玫瑰则是影射英国历时百年的红白玫瑰之战;而红桃王后冲爱丽丝喊“砍掉她的头”则是沙翁笔下理查三世对黑斯廷斯勋爵大喊“砍掉他的头”的桥段,等等、等等。书中的人物,有一些是引用了英国知名童谣或儿童诗歌中的人物(例如续集中的叮当兄弟Tweedledee & Tweedledum和矮胖子Humpty Dumpty),还有一些是借用了当时的谚语、俗语(例如帽匠The Hatter、三月兔The March Hare、柴郡猫The Cheshire Cat)等。要看出这些不仅需要英语好,还得了解当时英国社会的宗教、历史、文化背景。真是需要好大学问呢!
在这两本看似简单的儿童故事里,作者将许多数学、逻辑学的概念融入其中。相关内容太精彩了,现将一些与前集相关的列在此处,大家自己看吧:
* In chapter 1, "Down the Rabbit-Hole", in the midst of shrinking, Alice waxes philosophic concerning what final size she will end up as, perhaps "going out altogether, like a candle."; this pondering reflects the concept of a limit.
* In chapter 2, "The Pool of Tears", Alice tries to perform multiplication but produces some odd results: "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!" This explores the representation of numbers using different bases and positional numeral systems (4 x 5 = 12 in base 18 notation; 4 x 6 = 13 in base 21 notation. 4 x 7 could be 14 in base 24 notation, following the sequence).
* In chapter 5, "Advice from a Caterpillar", the Pigeon asserts that little girls are some kind of serpent, for both little girls and serpents eat eggs. This general concept of abstraction occurs widely in many fields of science; an example in mathematics of employing this reasoning would be in the substitution of variables.
* In chapter 7, "A Mad Tea-Party", the March Hare, the Mad Hatter, and the Dormouse give several examples in which the semantic value of a sentence A is not the same value of the converse of A (for example, "Why, you might just as well say that 'I see what I eat' is the same thing as 'I eat what I see'!"); in logic and mathematics, this is discussing an inverse relationship.
* Also in chapter 7, Alice ponders what it means when the changing of seats around the circular table places them back at the beginning. This is an observation of addition on a ring of the integers modulo N.
* The Cheshire cat fades until it disappears entirely, leaving only its wide grin, suspended in the air, leading Alice to marvel and note that she has seen a cat without a grin, but never a grin without a cat. Deep abstraction of concepts (non-Euclidean geometry, abstract algebra, the beginnings of mathematical logic...) was taking over mathematics at the time Dodgson was writing. Dodgson's delineation of the relationship between cat and grin can be taken to represent the very concept of mathematics and number itself. For example, instead of considering two or three apples, one may easily consider the concept of 'apple,' upon which the concepts of 'two' and 'three' may seem to depend. However, a far more sophisticated jump is to consider the concepts of 'two' and 'three' by themselves, just like a grin, originally seemingly dependent on the cat, separated conceptually from its physical object.