『不思議の国のアリス』

　懐中時計を持ったWhite Rabbitのあとを追って、ウサギ穴に落ちたAliceの最初の願いは、暗いホールのドアの向こうにかいま見た美しい庭に入ることです。この願いのために、Aliceは、これまで経験したことのない、現実には起こりえないことに次から次へと巻き込まれます。『不思議の国のアリス』はこのようなお話しですが、原文で読むといろいろな「ことば遊び」が潜んでいるのです。

　　Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll

Chapter 1 　Down The Rabbit-Hole

　　ALICE was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, and what is the use of a book, thought Alice, without pictures or conversations?

うさぎ　　So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid) whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close to her.
　　There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late! (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waist-coat pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waist-coat pocket or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across thefield after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.

　
　

　日本語のことば遊びに、「しゃれ」があります。たとえば、落語の小噺に次のようなものがあります。
　　「隣が囲いを作ったよ」
　　「へー」
「へー」と塀を掛けたものです。

　英語でも、「しゃれ」（pun）があり、キャロルも『不思議の国のアリス』で大いに楽しんでいます。第３章のしっぽ文のでてくるところでも、しゃれが見られます。異綴同音異義性に注目してさがしてください。「異綴同音異義性」（homophony）とは、綴りは異なるが発音が同じである語関係のことをいいます。

"You promised to tell me your history, you know, "said Alice, "and why it is you hate--C and D, "she added in a whisper, half afraid that It would be offended again.
"Mine is a long and sad tale!" said the Mouse, turning to Alice and sighing.
"It is a long tail, certainly, "said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse's tail; "but why do you call it sad?" And she kept on puzzling about it while the Mouse was speaking, so that her idea of the tale was something like this:---

　

詳しくは、ガイドブックにある、『アリスの英語ー不思議の国のことば学』をご覧ください。