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Through
the Looking-Glass
and what Alice
found there
Kapitel 6:
Humpty Dumpty, Lewis Carroll, Seite 4 ( von 7 )
"Now you talk like a reasonable child," said Humpty Dumpty, looking
very much pleased. "I meant by 'impenetrability' that we've had enough of
that subject, and it would be just as well if you'd mention what you mean to do
next, as I suppose you don't mean to stop here all the rest of your life."
"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a
thoughtful tone.
"When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty,
"I always pay it extra."
"Oh!" said Alice. She was too much puzzled to make any other remark.
"Ah, you should see 'em come round me of a Saturday night," Humpty
Dumpty went on, wagging his head gravely from side to side: "for to get
their wages, you know."
(Alice didn't venture to ask what he paid them with; and so you see I can't
tell you.)
"You seem very clever at explaining words, Sir," said Alice.
"Would you kindly tell me the meaning of the poem called
'Jabberwocky'?"
"Let's hear it," said Humpty Dumpty. "I can explain all the
poems that ever were invented - and a good many that haven't been invented just
yet."
This sounded very hopeful, so Alice repeated the first verse:
"'Twas brillig,
and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe."
"That's enough to begin with," Humpty Dumpty interrupted: "there
are plenty of hard words here. 'Brillig' means four
o'clock in the afternoon - the time when you begin
broiling things
for dinner."
"That'll do very well," said Alice: "and 'slithy'?"
"Well, 'slithy' means
'lithe and slimy.' 'Lithe' is the same as 'active.' You see it's like a
portmanteau - there are two meanings packed up into one word."
"I see it now," Alice remarked thoughtfully: "and what are 'toves'?"
"Well, 'toves' are
something like badgers - they're something like lizards - and they're something
like corkscrews."
"They must be very curious-looking creatures."
"They are that," said Humpty Dumpty: "also they make their nests
under sun-dials - also they live on cheese."
"And what's to 'gyre' and to 'gimble'?"
"To 'gyre'
is to go round and round like a gyroscope. To 'gimble' is to make
holes like a gimblet."
"And 'the
wabe' is the grass-plot round a sun-dial, I suppose?" said Alice,
surprised at her own ingenuity.
"Of course it is. It's called 'wabe,' you know,
because it goes a long way before it, and a long way behind it -"
"And a long way beyond it on each side," Alice added.
"Exactly so. Well then, 'mimsy' is 'flimsy
and miserable' (there's another portmanteau for you). And a 'borogove' is a thin
shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round - something like a
live mop."
"And then 'mome
raths'?" said Alice. "I'm afraid I'm giving you a great deal of
trouble."
"Well, a 'rath' is a sort of
green pig: but 'mome' I'm not
certain about. I think it's short for 'from home' - meaning that they'd lost
their way, you know."
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