Jabberwocky

（文学笔记之14）

Jabberwocky在英语中就是“无意义的文字游戏”的意思，这个词是《爱丽丝漫游奇境》的作者刘易斯·卡罗尔（Lewis Carroll, 1932-1892）创造的。他在《镜中世界》（Through the Looking-Glass, 1871）一书中一首写了根本没有意义的诗，这首诗的名字就叫Jabberwocky。

这首诗虽说毫无意义，但是完全符合英诗的格律，被认为是所有英语诗歌的文字游戏中最好的一首。

下面就是这首诗的英语原文，大家可以看看是否能够看懂。

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Jabberwocky

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

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这首诗中有很多词是刘易斯自己发明的，所以要读懂它必须借助后人编写的词汇表，关于这首诗的进一步的信息请参考answer.com。

赵元任先生曾经将此诗译成过中文。说实话，中译本也很难看懂。我把中译附在下面，分辨率不太高，大家凑合着看吧。另外，我还要对译林出版社2001年1月的那个译本（何文安李尚武译，ISBN号7-80567-384-5 / I561.88）表示鄙视，它居然把这首诗删了，一字不提地跳过去了，好像原作里根本没有这首诗一样。