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.
張華看出卡洛爾話里有玄機(jī)。在譯文后落了一條長注給我們導(dǎo)讀:“卡洛爾在書中有意無意地灌輸基本的邏輯思考觀念與辯論技巧,以《奇境》的怪異思考方式彰顯推理謬誤,最常出現(xiàn)的是‘思想三律’,依出現(xiàn)順序是‘排中律’、‘矛盾律’和‘同一律’。首先出現(xiàn)的是‘排中律’,也就是思考時不能遺漏中間地帶。例如考慮‘黑’與‘非黑’,才可以涵蓋全部問題。假如只考慮‘黑’與‘白’,便遺漏了灰色地帶。以吃蛋糕的變化作例子,變化方式應(yīng)有變大、變小和不變?nèi)N可能。愛麗絲沒把第三種可能性考慮進(jìn)去,下文‘平時吃塊蛋糕本來就不會有什么變化’說明了這種錯誤?!?br />
趙元任譯《奇境》是“天作之合”的一個理由是譯者的興趣跟作者極為相似。他在1915年9月7日的日記說:“讀卡洛爾傳記,發(fā)現(xiàn)與我極為相似,如數(shù)學(xué)、愛情、邏輯、詭論、內(nèi)向等。”兩人還有一個共同的愛好。用趙元任的話說:“喜歡玩兒字?!?br />
據(jù)研究《奇境》翻譯有年的賴慈蕓教授所言,“趙譯《阿麗思》是中國翻譯史的名譯……最為人津津樂道的,自然是書中那些打油詩和文字游戲,后來的譯者在這一點(diǎn)上幾乎都無法超越?!壁w元任譯雙關(guān)語、暗喻、諧擬(parody)和打油詩,維肖維妙,不是自少喜歡play with words,不會這么得心應(yīng)手。試看他譯的“體面湯”:
Beautiful soup, so rich and green,
Waiting in a hot tureen!
Who for such dainties would not stoop?
體面湯,濃又黃,
盛在鍋里不會涼!
說什么山珍海味,哪兒有這樣兒香。
趙元任翻譯的取向是,盡量口語化和本土化?!癢ho are you?”他不會譯為“你是誰?”他會問:“你這個人是誰???”She very soon finished it off,說的是她很快就把湯喝完。但趙元任的譯文卻把喝湯這回事說得有聲有色:“所以一會兒工夫就唏哩呼嚕地喝完了?!彼g求的是dynamic equivalent。民國初年,語體文還在摸索階段,許多名詞,還未定型。我們今天的“童話”,那時叫“仙人傳”。若不是劉半農(nóng)及時在1919年“發(fā)明”了“他”、“她”和“它”這類代名詞,真不知趙元任翻譯《奇境》時如何處理書中角色的身份。
后 來偶爾讀到一點(diǎn)評述本書的文章,才知道,本書和它的續(xù)集《愛麗絲鏡中奇遇》(Through the Looking-Glass)不僅在英國兒童文學(xué)史上地位卓著,而且在英國文學(xué)史上也是穩(wěn)穩(wěn)當(dāng)當(dāng)占一席,甚至于對英語本身都有貢獻(xiàn)。本書被譽(yù)為“荒誕文學(xué)”的開山之作,更是“l(fā)iterary nonsense” 的最佳代表作之一。(之所以這么說,當(dāng)然是因?yàn)闀斜姸嗟幕蛟瓌?chuàng)或改編的詩歌/童謠。)
雖 然我至今為之沒搞清楚到底什么是literary nonsense,但是就從查到的一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)資料看,這種文體在英語當(dāng)中非常重要。它是英語世界早期民間文學(xué)(傳說、詩歌、童謠等)和宗教政治諷喻文學(xué)的一種結(jié)合體。據(jù)說這種問題很搞笑--能看出來這一點(diǎn)大概需要比較好的英語水平才行。最關(guān)鍵的是:The effect of nonsense is often caused by an excess of meaning, rather than a lack of it.
從這一點(diǎn)出發(fā)來看,書中那些乍看之下不著四六的情節(jié),其實(shí)都有影射的意思再其中。比如那端渡渡鳥帶頭的圍成圈賽跑的情節(jié)就是諷刺英國的議會制度;黑桃園丁用紅油漆漆白玫瑰則是影射英國歷時百年的紅白玫瑰之戰(zhàn);而紅桃王后沖愛麗絲喊“砍掉她的頭”則是沙翁筆下理查三世對黑斯廷斯勛爵大喊“砍掉他的頭”的橋段,等等、等等。書中的人物,有一些是引用了英國知名童謠或兒童詩歌中的人物(例如續(xù)集中的叮當(dāng)兄弟Tweedledee & Tweedledum和矮胖子Humpty Dumpty),還有一些是借用了當(dāng)時的諺語、俗語(例如帽匠The Hatter、三月兔The March Hare、柴郡貓The Cheshire Cat)等。要看出這些不僅需要英語好,還得了解當(dāng)時英國社會的宗教、歷史、文化背景。真是需要好大學(xué)問呢!
在這兩本看似簡單的兒童故事里,作者將許多數(shù)學(xué)、邏輯學(xué)的概念融入其中。相關(guān)內(nèi)容太精彩了,現(xiàn)將一些與前集相關(guān)的列在此處,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.
電影Alice in Wonderland今日就在國內(nèi)上映了,此片在北美是票房冠軍。但還未進(jìn)中國時,一眾影評人就已經(jīng)預(yù)言了它的票房輝煌無法在國內(nèi)繼續(xù)。想想也不奇怪,原本就是給孩子和女生看的電影嘛。最多媽媽跟著去。要是哪個爸爸,或者男朋友被迫跟了去,恐怕事先都要在放映廳里打瞌睡了。