致心中的愛麗絲：「只要走得遠，哪裡都不是問題」

 Alice in Wonderland  愛麗絲夢遊仙境

故事中，柴郡貓(Cheshire cat) 臉上總是掛著神秘微笑，也是故事裡頭的開悟大師。在愛麗絲與柴郡貓的童趣對話中，藉由問路隱射出我們在面臨重大選擇時，常會猶豫擔憂，但最終答案卻意外的簡單，就如同柴俊貓所說：「其實哪個方向都無所謂。」

作者：Lewis Carroll
閱讀時間：7 min

The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice. It looked good-natured, she thought: still it had very long claws and a great many teeth, so she felt that it ought to be treated with respect.

"Cheshire Puss," she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. 'Come, it's pleased so far,' thought Alice, and she went on. "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"

"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.

"I don't much care where--" said Alice.

"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.

"--so long as I get somewhere," Alice added as an explanation.

"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."

Alice felt that this could not be denied, so she tried another question. "What sort of people live about here?"

"In that direction," the Cat said, waving its right paw round, "lives a Hatter: and in that direction," waving the other paw, "lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad."

"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.

"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."

"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.

"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."

Alice didn't think that proved it at all; however, she went on "And how do you know that you're mad?"

"To begin with," said the Cat, "a dog's not mad. You grant that?"

"I suppose so," said Alice.

"Well, then," the Cat went on, "you see, a dog growls when it's angry, and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I’m angry. Therefore, I'm mad."

"I call it purring, not growling," said Alice.

"Call it what you like," said the Cat. "Do you play croquet with the Queen to-day?"

"I should like it very much," said Alice, "but I haven't been invited yet."

"You'll see me there," said the Cat, and vanished.

找出屬於自己的「時間」

茶會中，瘋帽子(the Hatter)與愛麗絲的對話，幽默點出時間的長短與意義對於每個人不盡相同，大家對時間與步調也都有屬於自己的見解，不再是分秒釘死的標準。

The Hatter was the first to break the silence. "What day of the month is it?" he said, turning to Alice: he had taken his watch out of his pocket, and was looking at it uneasily, shaking it every now and then, and holding it to his ear.

Alice considered a little, and then said "The fourth."

"Two days wrong!" sighed the Hatter. "I told you butter wouldn't suit the works!" he added looking angrily at the March Hare.

"It was the best butter," the March Hare meekly replied.

"Yes, but some crumbs must have got in as well," the Hatter grumbled: "you shouldn’t have put it in with the bread-knife."

The March Hare took the watch and looked at it gloomily: then he dipped it into his cup of tea, and looked at it again: but he could think of nothing better to say than his first remark, "It was the best butter, you know."

Alice had been looking over his shoulder with some curiosity. "What a funny watch!" she remarked. "It tells the day of the month, and doesn't tell what o'clock it is!"

"Why should it?" muttered the Hatter. "Does your watch tell you what year it is?"

"Of course not," Alice replied very readily: "but that's because it stays the same year for such a long time together."

"Which is just the case with mine," said the Hatter.

故事後的故事

1862 年 7 月，作者 Carroll 與朋友 Reverend Duckworth 帶著三位女孩到泰晤士河划船。划船一路上大家為了消磨時間， Carroll 便以其中一位小女孩為主角Alice的原型，隨興兜出了一篇幻想冒險故事，百年不衰的經典《愛麗絲夢遊仙境》就這樣誕生了。

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本文收錄於英語島English Island 2019年10月號
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