Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 爱丽丝漫游奇境记中的文字游戏

150年前，英国牛津大学数学教授Charles Lutwidge Dodgson写了《爱丽丝漫游奇境记》。它讲述了一个叫爱丽丝的女孩通过一个兔子洞掉进一个幻想世界的故事，被认为是胡闹文学（literary nonsense，也称无厘头文学）的代表作。作为英国儿童文学的杰出代表，百年来这部作品经久不衰，影响了一代又一代人。

30页的书虫版精炼地展现了原著的大部分故事，然而要玩味教授的文字游戏还得仔细读读原版。本文给大家整理了原版中一些有趣的文字。

一、谐音(homophonic)：
1. 当爱丽丝听到老鼠的“漫长而悲伤的故事（爱丽丝以为是“尾巴”，英语中tale和tail同音）”，她看着他的尾巴。于是，有了以下这个“尾巴”诗。
 
2. “I had NOT!” cried the Mouse, sharply and very angrily.
“A knot!” said Alice, always ready to make herself useful, and looking anxiously about her. “Oh, do let me help to undo it!”
3. The Mock Turtle went on at last, more calmly, though still sobbing a little now and then, “we went to school in the sea. The master was an old Turtle -- we used to call him Tortoise --”
“Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn’t one?” Alice asked.
“We called him Tortoise because he taught us…”【老师就这么被黑成了乌龟…】
…
“I couldn’t afford to learn it.” said the Mock Turtle with a sigh. “I only took the regular course… (They are) Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with,” the Mock Turtle replied:”and then the different branches of Arithmetic -- Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.”
Reeling（摇摆）, Writhing（蠕动）, Ambition（野心）, Distraction（分心）, Uglification（丑化）, Derision（嘲笑）分别指：Reading（阅读）, Writing（写作）, Addition（加）, Subtraction（减）, Multiplication（乘）, Division（除）. 【继续黑学校的课程…】
…
“And how many hours a day did you do lessons?” said Alice, in a hurry to change the subject.
“Ten hours the first day,” said the Mock Turtle:”nine the next, and so on.”
“What a curious plan!” exclaimed Alice.
“That’s the reason they’re called lessons,” the Gryphon remarked:”because they lessen from day to day.”

二、双关(Pun)：
1. Alice did not wish to offend the Dormouse again, so she began very cautiously:”But I don’t understand. Where did they draw the treacle from?”
…
“But they were IN the well,” Alice said to the Dormouse.
“Of course they were”, said the Dormouse;”-- well in.”
in the well: 在“井”里；well in:“非常”在
2. The more there is of mine, the less there is of yours.
mine: 矿藏；我的
3. Boots and shoes under the sea are done with a whiting.
whiting: 鳕鱼；白粉
4. Then the words don’t FIT you.
fit: 发脾气；与你有关

三、头韵(Alliteration)：
1. mousetrap, moon, memory
2. much of a muchness （大同小异）

四、谚语(Proverb)：
原句：Take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves.（积少成多）
书中：Take care of the sense, and the sounds will take care of themselves.

五、俚语(Idiom)、短语(Phrase)：
1. mad as a march hare：“像三月免那么疯狂”
根据人们的观察，在每年三月的繁殖季节，欧洲的兔子们会表现得特别兴奋和疯狂，做出一些让人难以预料的事情。因此有“像三月免那么疯狂”的说法。
2. mad as a hatter：“如帽商般疯狂的人”
这是一个口语化的词。在18世纪和19世纪的英国，汞被用于生产帽子。帽子工人每天接触这些微量金属，导致汞中毒，变成了痴呆症。因此，这个短语被用来指代疯子。
3. grinning like a Cheshire cat：“笑得像只柴郡猫”
爱丽丝第一次遇到这只柴郡猫是在公爵夫人的厨房里，后来是在一棵树上。它来去无影，和爱丽丝的对话也有趣而又深奥。有时，它会提出困扰爱丽丝的哲学观点，但在关键时刻，它也会突然出现在女王的槌球场鼓励爱丽丝。当被判死刑时，我们这只可爱的猫咪又调皮了。它就露了个头（身子藏了起来），挑衅刽子手和红心国王、王后【体都没有完肤啦，你们要如何斩我，嘿嘿】。柴郡猫每次离开的时候，身子部分先走，最后只留大门牙的笑。所以，爱丽丝感慨：“我经常看到不笑的猫，但从没有见过只露大门牙笑的猫”。
 

六、谜语(Riddle)：
Why is a raven like a writing desk?
（答案有很多版本，大家可以随意猜。）



P.S. 2010年，鬼才导演Tim Burton拍了爱丽丝梦游仙境；明年5月，爱丽丝梦游仙境2:镜中奇遇记（作者的另外一部经典）也将上映。