6 Humpty Dumpty: 遊戲2
圓蛋
這隻怪獸就是 Jabberwocky (傑伯沃基)
這首詩其實並不艱澀，讀者的煩腦只有一個，就是那些看似是字但又讀不懂其意思的黑體字。
我稱這些歪字為「卡羅字」(Carrollian words)。
這些卡羅字與學習外文的用語沒有什麼分別，不懂的字需要一本字典或一個圓蛋來逐字告訴你是什麼意思。
愛麗絲有她的活字典——圓蛋。
愛麗絲的字典(依字母順序排列)﹕
- Brillig: four o'clock in the afternoon, the time when you begin broiling things for dinner.
- Borogove: a thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round, something like a live mop.
- Gimble: to make holes like a gimlet.
- Gyre: to go round and round like a gyroscope.
- Lithe: active.
- Mimsy: flimsy and miserable.
- Mome: lost.
- Outgrabe: to bellow and whistle with a kind of sneeze in the middle.
- Rath: a sort of green pig.
- Slithy: lithe and slimy.
- Tove: an animal that looks like a badger, a lizard and a corkscrew. It lives on cheese and makes its nest under sundials.
- Wabe: grass plot round a sundial.
使用上述字典的解釋，《傑伯沃基》第一節即可如下翻譯﹕
- 'Twas [four o'clock in the afternoon], and the [active and slimy] toves
- Did [go round and round like a gyroscope] and [make holes like a gimlet] in the [grass plot round a sundial]:
- All [flimsy and miserable] were the borogoves
- And the [lost] [green pigs] [bellowed and whistled with a kind of sneeze in the middle].
為了方便讀者閱讀，卡羅字的解釋用黑體，並加引號，「tove」和「borogove」是卡羅自己想像出來不存的兩種動物。Jabberwocky (傑伯沃基) 也是卡羅自己想像出來的怪獸。
寫這本書時，谷歌翻譯還未完善，今天便方便了漢譯如下：
- 當時是[下午四點]，那些活潑黏糊糊的 tove
- 像[陀螺一樣轉來轉去]，在[日晷周圍的草地上鑽出許多洞]：
- 只有[那些脆弱可憐的] borogove
- 還有那些 [迷路的] [綠豬]，[牠們一邊吼叫，一邊吹著口哨，中間還打了個噴嚏]。
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待續
