Читать книгу Алиса в Стране чудес. Алиса в Зазеркалье / Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Through the Looking Glass - Льюис Кэрролл, Льюїс Керролл, Furniss Harry - Страница 2

All in the golden afternoon

   Full leisurely we glide;

For both our oars, with little skill,

   By little arms are plied,

While little hands make vain pretence

   Our wanderings to guide.

Ah, cruel Three! In such an hour

   Beneath such dreamy weather,

To beg a tale of breath too weak

   To stir the tiniest feather!

Yet what can one poor voice avail

   Against three tongues together?

Imperious Prima flashes forth

   Her edict ‘to begin it’:

In gentler tones Secunda hopes

   ‘There will be nonsense in it!’

While Tertia interrupts the tale

   Not more than once a minute.

Anon, to sudden silence won,

   In fancy they pursue

The dream-child moving through a land

   Of wonders wild and new,

In friendly chat with bird or beast—

   And half believe it true.

And ever, as the story drained

   The wells of fancy dry,

And faintly strove that weary one

   To put the subject by,

‘The rest next time—’ ‘It is next time!’

   The happy voices cry.

Thus grew the tale of Wonderland:

   Thus slowly, one by one,

Its quaint events were hammered out—

   And now the tale is done,

And home we steer, a merry crew,

   Beneath the setting sun.

Alice! A childish story take,

   And with a gentle hand,

Lay it where Childhood’s dreams are twined

   In Memory’s mystic band,

Like pilgrim’s wither’d wreath of flowers

   Plucked in a far off land.