方程式的根

（前天）收到學生來澳探訪的一個電話，（昨天）收到學生一句中秋節的問候，（今天）收到學生一封從葡萄牙寄來的明信片，（明天）會去參加學生的畢業典禮，(後天)也許會去里斯本看望學生，（大後天）也許會收到學生結婚的請柬。在我這個長句方程式裡，將所有的時間設成系數，“學生”是方程式的根。

A Game of Fives

Five little girls, of Five, Four, Three, Two, One:
Rolling on the hearthrug, full of tricks and fun.

Five rosy girls, in years from Ten to Six:
Sitting down to lessons - no more time for tricks.

Five growing girls, from Fifteen to Eleven:
Music, Drawing, Languages, and food enough for seven!

Five winsome girls, from Twenty to Sixteen:
Each young man that calls, I say "Now tell me which you MEAN!"

Five dashing girls, the youngest Twenty-one:
But, if nobody proposes, what is there to be done?

Five showy girls - but Thirty is an age
When girls may be ENGAGING, but they somehow don't ENGAGE.

Five dressy girls, of Thirty-one or more:
So gracious to the shy young men they snubbed so much before!

Five PASSE girls - Their age? Well, never mind!
We jog along together, like the rest of human kind:
But the quondam "careless bachelor" begins to think he knows
The answer to that ancient problem "how the money goes"!

Lewis Carroll