A short direction
To avoid dejection,
By variations
In occupations,
And prolongation
Of relaxation,
And combinations
Of recreations,
And disputation
On the state of the nation
In adaptation
To your station,
By invitations
To friends and relations,
By evitation
Of amputation,
By permutation
In conversation,
And deep reflection
You'll avoid dejection.

Learn well your grammar,
And never stammer,
Write well and neatly,
And sing most sweetly,
Be enterprising,
Love early rising,
Go walk of six miles,
Have ready quick smiles,
With lightsome laughter,
Soft flowing after.
Drink tea, not coffee;
Never eat toffy.
Eat bread with butter.
Once more, don't stutter.

Don't waste your money,
Abstain from honey.
Shut doors behind you,
(Don't slam them, mind you.)
Drink beer, not porter.
Don't enter the water
Till to swim you are able.
Sit close to the table.
Take care of a candle.
Shut a door by the handle,
Don't push with your shoulder
Until you are older.
Lose not a button.
Refuse cold mutton.
Starve your canaries.
Believe in fairies.
If you are able,
Don't have a stable
With any mangers.
Be rude to strangers.


Moral: Behave.

精一杯難しい言葉を使い、韻に拘り、少年チャールスが頑張っています。-tionという言葉が沢山で出来ますが、ラテン語ルーツの言葉で、格好良いと思ったのでしょう。 evitationは辞書にはなく、彼が作ったものです。これが発展して、「不思議の国のアリス」９章ではambition,　distraction,,　uglification,　dersionという造語が出てきます。どもり(stammer, stutter)のことが２度も出てくるのは,表現することよって乗り越そうと意欲を示すものかもしれません。
　訳詩は原詩に近からずといえども、遠からずでしょうか？高橋康也先生の向こうを張ったつもり。
なお、この詩は、The Penguin Book of Victorian Verse ed. George Macbeth 1968に収録されているキャロルの詩３篇のうちの一つです。（０５・３・２８追記）

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