《爱丽丝梦游仙境》是一部世界儿童文学经典的童话，其中丰富的想象力和种种隐喻，不但深受各代儿童欢迎。故事讲述了一个叫爱丽丝的小女孩，在梦中追逐一只兔子而掉进了兔子洞，开始了漫长而惊险的旅行，直到最后与扑克牌王后、国王发生顶撞，急得大叫一声，才大梦醒来。这部童话充满神奇的幻想，风趣的幽默，昂然的诗情，现在英国作家刘易斯?卡罗尔带你走进爱丽丝的历险世界，本文选自小说第一章。
　　Chapter Ⅰ 第一章
　　Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped (偷看) into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it. “What is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversation?”
　　爱丽丝靠着姐姐坐在河岸边很久了，由于沒有什么事情可做，她开始感到厌倦，她一次又—次地瞧瞧姐姐正在读的那本书，可是书里沒有图画，也沒有对话，爱丽丝想：“要是一本书里沒有图画和对话，那还有什么意思呢？”
　　So she was considering in her own mind as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid(晕眩的), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain (雏菊花环) would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies(雏菊), when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.
　　天热得她非常困，甚至迷糊了，但是爱丽丝还是认真地盘算着，做一只雏菊花环的乐趣，能不能抵得上摘雏菊的麻烦呢？就在这时，突然一只粉红眼睛的白兔，贴着她身边跑过去了。
　　There was nothing so remarkable(异常的) in that; nor did Alice think it so much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!” (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed (闪现) across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity(好奇), she ran across the field after it, and fortunately(幸运地) was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge (树篱). In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.
　　爱丽丝并沒有感到奇怪，甚至于听到兔子自言自语地说：“哦，亲爱的，哦，亲爱的，我太迟了。”爱丽丝也沒有感到离奇，虽然过后，她认为这事应该奇怪，可当时她的确感到很自然，但是兔子竟然从背心口袋里掏出一块怀表看看，然后又匆匆忙忙跑了。这时，爱丽丝跳了起来，她突然想到：从来沒有见过穿着有口袋背心的兔子，更沒有见到过兔子还能从口袋里拿出—块表来，她好奇地穿过田野，紧紧地追赶那只兔子，刚好看见兔子跳进了矮树下面的一个大洞。爱丽丝也紧跟着跳了进去，根本沒考虑怎么再出来。
　　The rabbit-hole went straight on like a passage(走廊) for some way, and then dipped(下沉) suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well. Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then she looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with cupboards(食橱) and book-shelves(书架); here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs(钉). She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed; it was labelled “ORANGE MARMALADE” (桔子酱), but to her great disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear of ① killing somebody, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it. 　　这个兔子洞开始像走廊，笔直地向前，后来就突然向下了，爱丽丝还沒有来得及站住，就掉进了—个深井里。也许是井太深了，也许是她自己感到下沉得太慢，因此，她有足够的时间去东张西望，而且去猜测下一步会发生什么事，首先，她往下看，想知道会掉到什么地方。但是下面太黑了，什么都看不见，于是，她就看四周的井壁，只见井壁上排满了碗橱和书架，以及挂在钉子上的地图和图画，她从一个架子上拿了一个罐头，罐头上写着“桔子酱”，却是空的，她很失望，她不敢把空罐头扔下去，怕砸着下面的人，因此，在继续往下掉的时候，她就把空罐头放到另一个碗橱里去了。
　　“Well!” thought Alice to herself, “after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling (翻滚) down stairs!How brave they’ll all think me at home!Why, I wouldn’t say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!” (Which was very likely true.)
　　“好啊，”爱丽丝想，“经过了这次锻炼，我从楼梯上滚下来就不算回事。家里的人都会说我多么勇敢啊，嘿，就是从屋顶上掉下来也沒什么了不起，”——这点倒很可能是真的，屋顶上摔下来，会摔得说不出话的。
　　Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end!“I wonder how many miles I’ve fallen by this time?” she said aloud. “I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think—(for, you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom, and though this was not a good opportunity for showing off (显示) her know-
　　ledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over)—yes, that’s about the right distance—but then I wonder what Latitude (经度) or Longitude (纬度) I’ve got to?” (Alice had no idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, but thought they were nice grand words to say.)
　　掉啊，掉啊，掉啊，难道永远掉不到底了吗？爱丽丝大声说：“我很想知道掉了多少英里了，我一定已经靠近地球中心的一个地方啦！让我想想：这就是说已经掉了大约四千英里了，我想……”（你瞧，爱丽丝在学校里已经学到了一点这类东西，虽然现在不是显示知识的时机，因为沒一个人在听她说话，但是这仍然是个很好的练习。）“……是的，大概就是这个距离。那么，我现在究竟到了什么经度和纬度了呢？”（爱丽丝不明白经度和纬度是什么意思，可她认为这是挺时髦的字眼，说起来怪好听的。）
　　Presently she began again. “I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth! How funny it’ll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downward! The Antipathies, I think”. She was rather glad there was no one listening, this time, as it didn’t sound at all the right word. “But I shall have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know. Please, Ma’am, is this New Zealand or Australia?” (and she tried to curtsey (屈膝礼) as she spoke—fancy curtseying as you’re falling through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) “And what an ignorant(无知的) little girl she’ll think me for asking! No, it’ll never do to ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere.”
　　不一会儿，她又说话了：“我想知道我会不会穿过地球，到那些头朝下走路的人们那里，这该多么滑稽呀！我想这叫做‘对称人’（19世纪中学地理教科书上流行个名洞，叫“对跖人”，意思是说地球直径两端的人，脚心对着脚心。爱丽丝对“地球对面的人”的概念模糊，以为他们是“头朝下”走路的，而且把“对跖人”错念成“对称人”了。）吧？”这次她很高兴沒人听她说话，因为“对称人”这个名词似乎不十分正确。“我想我应该问他们这个国家叫什么名称：太太，请问您知道这是新西兰，还是澳大利亚？”（她说这话时，还试着行个屈膝礼，可是不成。你想想看，在空中掉下来时行这样的屈膝礼，行吗，）“如果我这样问，人们一定会认为我是一个无知的小姑娘哩。不，永远不能这样问，也许我会看到它写在哪儿的吧！” 　　Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began talking again. “Dinah will miss me very much tonight, I should think!” (Dinah was a cat.) “I hope they’ll remember her saucer(茶碟) of milk at tea-time. Dinah my dear! I wish you were down here with me! There are no mice in the air, I’m afraid, but you might catch a bat(蝙蝠), and that’s very like a mouse, you know. But do cats eat bats, I wonder?” And here Alice began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy(恍惚的) 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. She felt that she was dozing off(打瞌睡), and had just begun to dream that she was walking hand in hand with Dinah, and saying to her very earnestly(认真地), “Now, Dinah, tell me the truth: did you ever eat a bat?” When suddenly, thump(砰的一声)! Down she came upon a heap (堆) of sticks (树枝) and dry leaves, and the fall was over.
　　掉啊，掉啊，掉啊，除此之外，沒别的事可干了。因此，过一会儿爱丽丝又说话了：“我敢肯定，黛娜今晚一定非常想念我。”（黛娜是只猫）“我希望他们别忘了午茶时给她准备一碟牛奶。黛娜，我亲爱的，我多么希望你也掉到这里来，同我在一起呀，我怕空中沒有你吃的小老鼠，不过你可能捉到一只蝙蝠，你要知道，它很像老鼠。可是猫吃不吃蝙蝠呢？”这时，爱丽丝开始瞌睡了，她困得迷迷糊糊时还在说：“猫吃蝙蝠吗？猫吃蝙蝠吗？”有时又说成：“蝙蝠吃猫吗？”这两个问题她哪个也回答不出来，所以，她怎么问都沒关系，这时候，她已经睡着了，开始做起梦来了。她梦见正同黛娜手拉着手走着，并且很认真地问：“黛娜，告诉我，你吃过蝙蝠吗？”就在这时，突然“砰”地一声，她掉到了一堆枯枝败叶上了，总算掉到了底了！
　　Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on to her feet in a moment: she looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before her was another long passage, and the White Rabbit was still in sight, hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be lost: away went Alice like the wind, and was just in time to hear it say, as it turned a corner, “Oh my ears and whiskers(胡子), how late it’s getting!” She was close behind it when she turned the corner, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen: she found herself in a long, low hall, which was lit(发光) up by a row of lamps(灯) hanging from the roof. There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked; and when Alice had been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every door, she walked sadly down the middle, wondering how she was ever to get out again.
　　爱丽丝一点儿也沒摔坏，她立即站起来，向上看看，黑洞洞的。朝前一看，是个很长的走廊，她又看见了那只白兔正急急忙忙地朝前跑。这回可别错过时机，爱丽丝像一阵风似地追了过去。她听到兔子在拐弯时说：“哎呀，我的耳朵和胡子呀，现在太迟了！”这时爱丽丝已经离兔子很近了，但是当她也赶到拐角，兔子却不见了。她发现自己是在一个很长很低的大厅里，屋顶上悬挂着一串灯，把大厅照亮了。大厅四周都是门，全都锁着，爱丽丝从这边走到那边，推一推，拉一拉，每扇门都打不开，她伤心地走到大厅中间，琢磨着该怎么出去。
　　Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table, all made of solid glass; there was nothing on it except a tiny golden key, and Alice’s first thought was that it might belong to one of the doors of the hall; but, alas! either the locks were too large, or the key was too small, but at any rate(无论如何) it would not open any of them. However, on the second time round, she came upon a low curtain(门帘) she had not noticed before, and behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high: she tried the little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted! 　　突然，她发现了一张三条腿的小桌，桌子是玻璃做的。桌上除了一把很小的金钥匙，什么也沒有，爱丽丝一下就想到这钥匙可能是哪个门上的。可是，哎呀，要么就是锁太大了，要么就是钥匙太小了，哪个门也用不上。不过，在她绕第二圈时，突然发现刚才沒注意到的一个低帐幕后面，有一扇约十五英寸高的小门。她用这个小金钥匙往小门的锁眼里一插，太高兴了，正合适。
　　Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not much larger than a rat-hole: she knelt(跪) down and looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you never saw. How she longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander about among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains (喷泉), but she could not even get her head though the doorway; “and even if my head would go through,” thought poor Alice, “it would be of very little use without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope (望远镜)! I think I could, if I only know how to begin.” For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.
　　爱丽丝打开了门，发现门外是一条小走廊，比老鼠洞还小，她跪下来，顺着走廊望出去，见到一个从沒见过的美丽花园。她多想离开这个黑暗的大厅，到那些美丽的花圃和清凉的喷泉中去玩呀！可是那门框连脑袋都过不去，可怜的爱丽丝想：“哎，就算头能过去，肩膀不跟着过去也沒用，我多么希望缩成望远镜里的小人呀（爱丽丝常常把望远镜倒着看，一切东西都变得又远又小，所以她认为望远镜可以把人放大或缩小。），我想自己能变小的，只要知道变的方法就行了。”你看，一连串稀奇古怪的事，使得爱丽丝认为沒有什么事是不可能的了。
　　There seemed to be no use in waiting by the little door, so she went back to the table, half hoping she might find another key on it, or at any rate a book of rules for shutting people up like telescopes: this time she found a little bottle on it. “It certainly was not here before,” said Alice. Round the neck of the bottle was a paper label②, with the words “DRINK ME” beautifully printed on it in large letters.
　　看来，守在小门旁沒意思了，于是，她回到桌子边，希望还能再找到一把钥匙，至少也得找到一本教人变成望远镜里小人的书，可这次，她发现桌上有一只小瓶。爱丽丝说：“这小瓶刚才确实不在这里。”瓶口上系着一张小纸条，上面印着两个很漂亮的大字：“喝我”。
　　It was all very well to say “Drink me,” but the wise little Alice was not going to do that in a hurry. “No, I’ll look first,” she said, “and see whether it’s marked ‘poison’ or not”; for she had read several nice little histories about children who had got burnt, and eaten up by wild beasts and other unpleasant things, all because they would not remember the simple rules their friends had taught them: such as, that a red-hot poker will burn you if you hold it too long; and that if you cut your finger very deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds; and she had never forgotten that, if you drink much from a bottle marked “poison,” it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.
　　说“喝我”倒不错，可是聪明的小爱丽丝不会忙着去喝的。她说：“不行，我得先看看，上面有沒有写着‘毒药’两个字。”因为她听过一些很精彩的小故事，关于孩子们怎样被烧伤、被野兽吃掉，以及其它一些令人不愉快的事情，所有这些，都是因为这些孩子们沒有记住大人的话，例如：握拨火棍时间太久就会把手烧坏；小刀割手指就会出血，等等。爱丽丝知道喝了写着“毒药”瓶里的药水，迟早会受害的。 　　However, this bottle was not marked “poison,” so Alice ventured (冒险) to taste it, and finding it very nice. It had, in fact, a sort of mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast. She very soon finished it off. “What a curious feeling!” said Alice, “I must be shutting up like a telescope.”And so it was indeed: she was now only ten inches high, and her face brightened up at the thought that she was now the right size for going through the little door into that lovely garden. First, however, she waited for a few minutes to see if she was going to shrink(收缩) any further. She felt a little nervous about this. “For it might end, you know,” said Alice to herself, “in my going out altogether, like a candle. I wonder what I should be like then?” And she tried to fancy(想象) what the flame(火焰) of a candle is like after the candle is blown out, for she could not remember ever having seen such a thing.
　　然而瓶子上沒有“毒药”字样，所以爱丽丝冒险地尝了尝，感到非常好喝，它混合着樱桃馅饼、奶油蛋糕、菠萝、烤火鸡、牛奶糖、热奶油面包的味道。爱丽丝一口气就把一瓶喝光了。“多么奇怪的感觉呀！”爱丽丝说，“我一定变成望远镜里的小人了。” 的确是这样，她高兴得眉飞色舞，现在她只有十英寸高了，已经可以到那个可爱的花园里去了。不过，她又等了几分钟，看看会不会继续缩小下去。想到这点，她有点不安了。“究竟会怎么收场呢？”爱丽丝对自己说，“或许会像蜡烛的火苗那样，全部缩沒了。那么我会怎么样呢？”她又努力试着想象蜡烛灭了后的火焰会是个什么样儿。因为她从来沒有见过那样的东西。
　　After a while, finding that nothing more happened, she decided on going into the garden at once; but, alas for poor Alice! when she got to the door, she found she had forgotten the little golden key, and when she went back to the table for it, she found she could not possibly reach it. She could see it quite plainly(清楚地) through the glass, and she tried her best③ to climb up one of the legs of the table, but it was too slippery(滑的); and when she had tired herself out with trying, the poor little thing sat down and cried.
　　过了一小会，好像不会再发生什么事情了，她决定立刻到花园去。可是，哎哟！可怜的爱丽丝！她走到门口，发觉忘拿了那把小金钥匙。在回到桌子前准备再拿的时候，却发现自己已经够不着钥匙，她只能通过玻璃桌面清楚地看到它，她尽力攀着桌腿向上爬，可是桌腿太滑了，她一次又一次地溜了下来，弄得她精疲力竭。于是，这个可怜的小家伙坐在地上哭了起来。
　　“Come, there’s no use in crying like that!” said Alice to herself, rather sharply. “I advise you to leave off(停止) this minute!” She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she seldom followed it), and sometimes she scolded(责骂) herself so severely(严厉地) as to bring tears into her eyes. And once she remembered trying to box her own ears for having cheated herself in a game of croquet(槌球) she was playing against herself, for this child was very fond of pretending (假装) to be two people. “But it’s no use now to pretend to be two people!” thought poor Alice, “Why, there’s hardly enough of me left to make one respectable person!”