THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS AND WHAT ALICE FOUND THERE
Lewis Carrol
A personagem Alice, criada por Lewis Carroll, é uma das mais conhecidas da literatura. Ela é a protagonista de duas grandes obras: Alice no país das maravilhas (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) e Alice através do espelho (Through the Looking-Glass, And What Alice Found There).
Para a apresentação, selecionamos um trecho da conversa de Alice com Humpty Dumpty. O texto está editado (para caber na contação de histórias), mas você pode ler o capítulo inteiro neste link.
ALICE AND HUMPTY DUMPTY – adapted (Lewis Carroll)
However, the egg only got larger and larger, and more and more human: when Alice had come within a few yards of it, she saw that it had eyes and a nose and mouth; and, when she had come close to it, she saw clearly that it was HUMPTY DUMPTY himself. Humpty Dumpty was sitting, with his legs crossed like a Turk, on the top of a high wall — such a narrow one that Alice quite wondered how he could keep his balance.
'What a beautiful belt you've got on!' Alice suddenly remarked. She corrected herself on second thoughts, 'a beautiful cravat, I should have said — no, a belt, I mean — I beg your pardon! If only I knew,' she thought to herself, “which was neck and which was waist”
“It’s not a belt. It’s a cravat, child, and a beautiful one, as you say. It’s a present from the White King and Queen. They gave it me, for an un-birthday present.”
“What is an un-birthday present, Humpty Dumpty?”
“A present given when it isn’t your birthday, of course.”
“I like birthday presents best,” she said at last.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” cried Humpty Dumpty. “How many days are there in a year?”
“Three hundred and sixty-five,” said Alice.
“And how many birthdays have you?”
“One.”
“And if you take one from three hundred and sixty-five what remains?”
“Three hundred and sixty-four, of course.”
“And that shows that there are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents”
“Certainly,” said Alice.
“And only one for birthday presents, you know. There’s glory for you!”
“I don’t know what you mean by "glory",” Alice said.
“Of course you don’t — till I tell you. I meant "there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!"
“But "glory" doesn’t mean "a nice knock-down argument"
“When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is which is to be master — that’s all.”
Alice was too much puzzled to say anything; so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again.
“They’ve a temper, some of them — particularly verbs: they’re the proudest — adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs — however, I can manage the whole lot of them! (…) When I make a word do a lot of work like that, I always pay it extra.”
Alice didn’t venture to ask what he paid them with; and so you see I can’t tell you.
