ALICE IN A FOG

“The Duke and Duchess!” said the White Rabbit nervously¹, as it went scurrying² past; “they may be here at any moment, and I haven’t got it yet.”

“Hasn’t got what?” wondered Alice.

“A rhyme for Cornwall,” said the Rabbit, as if in answer to her thought; “borne well, yawn well”—and he pattered away into the distance, dropping in his hurry a folded paper that he had been carrying.

“What have you got there?” asked the Cheshire Cat as Alice picked up the paper and opened it.

“It seems to be a kind of poetry,” said Alice doubtfully; “at least,” she added, “some of the words rhyme and none of them appear to have any particular meaning.”

“What is it about?” asked the Cat.

“Well, some one seems to be coming somewhere from everywhere else, and to get a mixed reception:
... Your Father smiles,
Your Mother weeps.”
{48}

“I’ve heard something like that before,” said the Cat; “it went on, if I remember, ‘Your aunt has the pen of the gardener.’”


THE WHITE RABBIT.

“There’s nothing about that here,” said Alice; “supposing she didn’t weep when the time came?”

“She would if she had to read all that stuff,” said the Cat.{49}

“And then it goes on—
You went as came the swallow.”

“That doesn’t help us unless we know how the swallow came,” observed the Cat. “If he went as the swallow usually travels he would have won the Deutsch Prize.”
“ ...homeward draw
Now it hath winged its way to winters green.”

“There seems to have been some urgent reason for avoiding the swallow,” continued Alice. “Then all sorts of things happened to the Almanac:
Twice a hundred dawns, a hundred noons, a hundred eves.

“You see there were two dawns to every noon and evening—it must have been dreadfully confusing.”

“It would be at first, of course,” agreed the Cat.

“I think it must have been that extra dawn that
Never swallow or wandering sea-bird saw

or else it was the Flag.”

“What flag?”

“Well, the flag that some one found,
Scouring³ the field or furrowing⁴ the sea.”

“Would you mind explaining,” said the Cat, “which was doing the scouring and furrowing?”

“The flag,” said Alice, “or the some one. It is{50}n’t exactly clear, and it doesn’t make sense either way. Anyhow, wherever the flag was it floated o’er the Free.”


“WOULD YOU MIND EXPLAINING?” SAID THE CAT.

{51}

“Come, that tells us something. Whoever it was must have avoided Dartmoor and St. Helena.”
“You, wandering, saw,
Young Commonwealths⁵ you found.”

“There’s a great deal of wandering in the poem,” observed the Cat.

“You sailed from us to them, from them to us,” continued Alice.

“That isn’t new, either. It should go on: ‘You all returned from him to them, though they were mine before.’”

“It doesn’t go on quite like that,” said Alice; “it ends up with a lot of words that I suppose were left over and couldn’t be fitted in anywhere else:
Therefore rejoicing⁶ mightier⁷ hath been made
Imperial⁸ Power.”

“That,” said the Cat, “is the cleverest thing in the whole poem. People see that at the end, and then they read it through to see what on earth it’s about.”

“I’d give sixpence to any one who can explain it,” said Alice.

1 nervously   

adv.神情激动地，不安地

参考例句：

• He bit his lip nervously,trying not to cry.他紧张地咬着唇，努力忍着不哭出来。
• He paced nervously up and down on the platform.他在站台上情绪不安地走来走去。

2 scurrying   

v.急匆匆地走( scurry的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• We could hear the mice scurrying about in the walls. 我们能听见老鼠在墙里乱跑。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• We were scurrying about until the last minute before the party. 聚会开始前我们一直不停地忙忙碌碌。 来自辞典例句

3 scouring   

擦[洗]净，冲刷，洗涤

参考例句：

• The police are scouring the countryside for the escaped prisoners. 警察正在搜索整个乡村以捉拿逃犯。
• This is called the scouring train in wool processing. 这被称为羊毛加工中的洗涤系列。

4 furrowing   

v.犁田，开沟( furrow的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• In spring, farmers are busy furrowing the fields. 春天，农民忙于犁地。 来自辞典例句
• The gasoline's machine is used for mowing, flooding, furrowing, every kind of machine power supply. 我公司为农机产品开发的动力源，该产品主要是用于收、、、等机械。 来自互联网

5 commonwealths   

n.共和国( commonwealth的名词复数 )；联邦；团体；协会

参考例句：

6 rejoicing   

n.欢乐，狂喜

参考例句：

• a time of great rejoicing 尽情欢庆的时光
• The bridge was completed in 1811 amidst much rejoicing. 大桥于1811 年竣工，当时大家欢欣鼓舞。

7 mightier   

adj. 强有力的，强大的，巨大的 adv. 很，极其

参考例句：

• But it ever rises up again, stronger, firmer, mightier. 但是，这种组织总是重新产生，并且一次比一次更强大，更坚固，更有力。 来自英汉非文学 - 共产党宣言
• Do you believe that the pen is mightier than the sword? 你相信笔杆的威力大于武力吗？

8 imperial   

adj.帝王的，至尊的；n.特等品

参考例句：

• They made an objection to the imperial system with resolution.他们坚决反对帝制。
• The Prince Imperial passed away last night.皇太子昨晚去世了。