Аудиокнига на английском языке, сказка Льюиса Кэрролла «Приключения Алисы в Стране чудес». Глава четвертая - In the Queen's Garden.
Через дверь в дереве, Алиса попала в прекрасный сад, полный ярких цветов, где садовники красили белые розы в красный цвет. И тут появились Червонные Король и Королева, окружённые придворными - бубновыми и червонными картами помельче. Королева требовала рубить головы чуть ли не всем подряд, но Алиса не испугалась их, ведь они всего лишь карты, подумала она...
Интерактивный транскрипт с переводом.
The path led Alice into a woods. Alice noticed that there was a door in one of the trees. She pushed it and it opened. Alice walked inside.
The door in the tree led into a beautiful garden, full of bright flowers.
Near the door there was a large rose tree. The roses on the tree were white, but three gardeners were busily painting them red.
"How very curious!" thought Alice. She went nearer in order to watch them. The gardeners didn't look like real gardeners.
In fact, they didn't look much like men at all. They looked like playing cards, except that they had proper heads, arms, and legs. The gardeners seemed to be angry. They were shouting at each other, but when they saw Alice, they dropped their brushes in surprise.
"Why are you painting those roses?" asked Alice.
"Well, Miss," began one of the gardeners, "this rose tree ought to be a red rose tree. But we planted a white one by mistake. If the Queen sees the white roses, she'll cut off our heads. So we're painting them quickly before..."
Before he could finish what he was saying, one of the other gardeners shouted, "The Queen! The Queen!" and the three gardeners threw themselves down on the ground.
Alice looked around. She wanted to see the Queen. First came ten soldiers. Ten courtiers in very fine clothes followed them. Just like the gardeners, they were the shape of playing cards.
Next came the people who were going to have tea with the Queen. Alice couldn't see the Duchess, but she did see the white rabbit.
She thought she saw the cat, too, but he quickly disappeared. Then came the Knave of Hearts. He was carrying the King's crown on a red cushion. At last Alice saw THE KING AND QUEEN OF HEARTS. They looked just like the pictures on the pack of cards Alice had at home.
Alice didn't know what to do, so she stood and waited. When the King and Queen came opposite her, they stopped and looked at her.
"Who is this?" the Queen asked the Knave of Hearts. He just smiled and looked silly.
"What's your name, child?" shouted the Queen.
"My name is Alice, Your Majesty." said Alice very politely.
She told herself, "I mustn't be afraid. They're only playing cards!"
"And who are these?" said the Queen. She pointed at the gardeners. They were still lying on the ground face down.
"How should I know?" said Alice. "It's no business of mine."
The Queen couldn't believe her ears.
"Off with her head!" she shouted. She was so angry that she turned bright red.
"No!" said Alice very loudly and very bravely.
"She's only a child," said the King quietly.
The Queen was silent, but only for a moment. When she noticed the roses, she became very angry again.
"Off with their heads!" she shouted. She was pointing at the three gardeners. They ran behind Alice, and before anyone noticed, she quickly picked them up and put them in a large flower pot. The soldiers wandered about the garden, but they couldn't find the gardeners anywhere.
"Are their heads off?" shouted the Queen.
"Their heads are gone, Your Majesty," replied the soldiers, which was quite true. The soldiers didn't dare say they couldn't find the gardeners.
The Queen looked at Alice again and asked, "Have you seen the Mock Turtle yet?"
"No," said Alice. She didn't know what a Mock Turtle was. She knew that mock turtle soup was called mock turtle because it wasn't really made of turtles but only tasted like it.
"Could I really see a mock turtle?" she wondered.
"The Gryphon will take you," said the Queen. Then she and all the other people went off to tea.
Alice looked around the garden. She seemed to be alone again and didn't know what to expect next. She didn't know what a Gryphon was, so how could she find him and ask him to take her to see the Mock Turtle? She wandered a little along the path. Then she noticed something and stopped. An animal was asleep in the sun near the path. He woke up and looked at Alice.
"So the Queen wants you to meet the Mock Turtle, doesn't she?" he said to Alice.
He rubbed his eyes.
"Come on," he said, "I'll take you."
Alice walked along with the Gryphon and looked at him out of the corner of her eye. She didn't want to seem curious, but she didn't have a chance to see a Gryphon every day. The top half of his body was like a bird, but the bottom half was like a lion.
They walked in silence until they saw the Mock Turtle in the distance. He was sitting on the beach, on the edge of a rock.
"Come on," said the Gryphon again and Alice walked a little faster. She could see the Mock Turtle better now. He was almost like a turtle, but he had a head and a tail like a calf. The Mock Turtle saw them.
"This lady wants to know your history," said the Gryphon.
At once the Mock Turtle looked very sad. Alice felt sorry for him.
"I'll tell you, if I must," said the Mock Turtle. "Sit down and don't speak until I have finished."
Alice and the Gryphon sat down, but for a few minutes nobody spoke.
"He'll never finish if he doesn't start," thought Alice to herself. They all sat in silence. Then at last the Mock Turtle started to speak.
"Once," he said, "I was a real turtle."
A very long silence followed. Then Alice saw that the Mock Turtle was crying. He was probably crying because he was only a mock turtle now, not a real turtle.
Alice was going to get up and say, "Thank you for your interesting story," just to be polite. But she wasn't quite sure whether that was the end of the story or not. She waited a bit longer. Suddenly the Mock Turtle began to speak again.
"When we were little," he said, "we went to school in the sea. Our teacher was an old turtle. We called him Tortoise."
"Why did you call him Tortoise?" asked Alice. "You said he was a turtle, not a tortoise."
"We called him Tortoise because he taught us," said the Mock Turtle angrily. "You really aren't very clever if you don't understand that."
"Why do you ask such simple questions?" asked the Gryphon. They both looked at poor Alice. She felt very silly. At last the Gryphon said to the Mock Turtle, "Get on with it! We haven't got all day."
The Mock Turtle told Alice about his school. Alice listened carefully, but everything he said was rather strange. The subjects he studied weren't quite the same as the things Alice learned at school. She didn't really understand the words he used, but she was afraid to ask questions. She didn't want the Mock Turtle to start crying again. Instead she asked politely, "How many hours a day did you have lessons?"
"Ten hours the first day," answered the Mock Turtle, "nine hours the next day, eight hours the next day..." "How curious!" said Alice.
"That's why they're called lessons," explained the Gryphon. "There are less of them each day."
Alice thought about this new idea.
"What happened on the eleventh day?" she asked.
"It was a holiday, of course," said the Mock Turtle.
"And the twelfth day?" asked Alice. She liked the idea of fewer lessons every day and wanted to know more about it, but the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle thought it was all so simple that they didn't need to explain it any more.
"That's enough about lessons," said the Gryphon. "Let's talk about games now."
"You haven't lived under the sea, have you?" said the Mock Turtle to Alice.
"I haven't," said Alice.
"And you haven't ever met a lobster?"
Alice was going to say, "No, but I've eaten one," but she stopped herself and simply said, "No."
"So you don't know what a Lobster Quadrille is?"
"No, I don't think so," said Alice. "Is it a sort of dance?"
"We'll show you," said the Mock Turtle.
He began to sing a song very slowly and very sadly, while he and the Gryphon danced around Alice.
This is what he sang:
"Will you walk a little faster?"
said a whiting to a snail,
"There's a porpoise close behind us,
and he's treading on my tail.
See how eagerly the lobsters
and the turtles all advance!
They are waiting on the shingle
- will you come and join the dance?
Will you, won't you, will you, won't you,
will you join the dance?
Will you, won't you, will you, won't you,
won't you join the dance?"
"Thank you," said Alice when they sat down again. "That was a most interesting dance."
"I'll sing another song if you like," said the Mock Turtle.
"Sing her 'Turtle Soup'," Said the Gryphon, before Alice could answer.
"Yes, please do," said Alice weakly. She hoped the song wasn't very long.
The Mock Turtle began with tears in his eyes.
"Beau-ootiful Soo-oop!
Beau-ootiful Soo-oop!
Soo-oop of the e-e-evening
Beautiful, beautiful Soup!"
He was about to go on, when they heard a cry in the distance.
"The trial's beginning!"
"Come on," said the Gryphon, and he took Alice's hand.
"What trial is it?" asked Alice.
But the Gryphon only answered, "Come on!" and ran faster. In the distance, Alice could still hear the Mock Turtle's sad song.
"Soo-oop of the e-e-evening.
Beautiful, beautiful Soup!"