每日英文 November 16, Thursday

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有一些人，世俗是关不住的，因为他们用心在看世界。

Chapter 1

Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent(令人惊叹的) picture in a book, called True Stories from Nature, about the primeval(原始的) forest.

It was a picture of a boa constrictor(大蟒蛇) in the act of(在做...的过程中) swallowing an animal.

Here is a copy of the drawing.

In the book it said: “Boa constrictors(大蟒蛇) swallow their prey(猎物) whole, without chewing it.

After that they are not able to move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion.”

I pondered(思索) deeply, then, over the adventures of the jungle.

And after some work with a colored pencil I succeeded in making my first drawing.

My Drawing Number One. It looked like this:

I showed my masterpiece(杰作) to the grown-ups(成年人), and asked them whether the drawing frightened them.

But they answered: “Frighten? Why should anyone be frightened by a hat?”

My drawing was not a picture of a hat.

It was a picture of a boa constrictor(大蟒蛇) digesting an elephant.

But since the grown-ups(成年人) were not able to understand it, I made another drawing:

I drew the inside of the boa constrictor(大蟒蛇), so that the grown-ups(成年人) could see it clearly.

They always need to have things explained.

My Drawing Number Two looked like this:

The grown-ups(成年人)’ response, this time, was to advise me to lay aside my drawings of boa constrictors(大蟒蛇),

whether from the inside or the outside, and devote myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic and grammar.

That is why, at the age of six, I gave up what might have been a magnificent(伟大的) career as a painter.

I had been disheartened(沮丧的) by the failure of my Drawing Number One and my Drawing Number Two.

Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome(令人厌倦的) for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.

So then I chose another profession, and learned to pilot airplanes.

I have flown a little over all parts of the world; and it is true that geography has been very useful to me.

At a glance I can distinguish China from Arizona(亚利桑那州，地名).

If one gets lost in the night, such knowledge is valuable.

In the course of this life I have had a great many encounters(相遇) with a great many people who have been concerned with matters of consequence.

I have lived a great deal among grown-ups(成年人).

I have seen them intimately(亲密地), close at hand. And that hasn’t much improved my opinion of them.

Whenever I met one of them who seemed to me at all clear-sighted(有见解的), I tried the experiment of showing him my Drawing Number One, which I have always kept.

I would try to find out, so, if this was a person of true understanding.

But, whoever it was, he, or she, would always say:

“That is a hat.”

Then I would never talk to that person about boa constrictors(大蟒蛇) , or primeval(原始的) forests, or stars.

I would bring myself down to his level.

I would talk to him about bridge, and golf, and politics, and neckties.

And the grown-up(成年人) would be greatly pleased to have met such a sensible(通晓事理的) man.

* * *

So I lived my life alone, without anyone that I could really talk to, until I had an accident with my plane in the Desert of Sahara, six years ago.

Something was broken in my engine.

And as I had with me neither a mechanic(机械工) nor any passengers, I set myself to attempt the difficult repairs all alone.

It was a question of life or death for me: I had scarcely(仅仅) enough drinking water to last a week.

The first night, then, I went to sleep on the sand, a thousand miles from any human habitation(居住地).

I was more isolated(孤单的) than a shipwrecked(遭遇海难的) sailor on a raft(木筏) in the middle of the ocean.

Thus you can imagine my amazement, at sunrise, when I was awakened by an odd(奇特的) little voice.

It said:

“If you please—draw me a sheep!”

“What!”

“Draw me a sheep!”

I jumped to my feet, completely thunderstruck(大吃一惊的).

I blinked(眨) my eyes hard.

I looked carefully all around me.

And I saw a most extraordinary small person, who stood there examining me with great seriousness.

Here you may see the best portrait(肖像画) that, later, I was able to make of him.

But my drawing is certainly very much less charming(有魅力的) than its model.

That, however, is not my fault.

The grown-ups(成年人) discouraged me in my painter’s career when I was six years old, and I never learned to draw anything, except boas(大蟒蛇) from the outside and boas(大蟒蛇) from the inside.

Now I stared at this sudden apparition(离奇事物的出现) with my eyes fairly starting out of my head in astonishment.

Remember, I had crashed in the desert a thousand miles from any inhabited(有人居住的) region.

And yet my little man seemed neither to be straying(迷路) uncertainly among the sands, nor to be fainting(晕倒) from fatigue(疲惫), or hunger, or thirst, or fear.

Nothing about him gave any suggestion of a child lost in the middle of the desert, a thousand miles from any human habitation(居住地).

When at last I was able to speak, I said to him:

“But . . . what are you doing here?”

And in answer he repeated, very slowly, as if he were speaking of a matter of great consequence:

“If you please . . . draw me a sheep . . .”

When a mystery is too overpowering(不可抗拒的), one dare not disobey.

Absurd as it might seem to me, a thousand miles from any human habitation(居住地) and in danger of death, I took out of my pocket a sheet of paper and my fountain pen(墨水笔).

But then I remembered how my studies had been concentrated on geography, history, arithmetic, and grammar,

and I told the little chap(小家伙) (a little crossly, too) that I did not know how to draw.

He answered me:

“That doesn’t matter. Draw me a sheep . . .”

But I had never drawn a sheep.

So I drew for him one of the two pictures I had drawn so often.

It was that of the boa constrictor(大蟒蛇) from the outside.

And I was astonished to hear the little fellow greet it with(做出反应),

“No, no, no! I do not want an elephant inside a boa constrictor(大蟒蛇) . A boa constrictor(大蟒蛇) is a very dangerous creature, and an elephant is very cumbersome(笨重的).

Where I live, everything is very small. What I need is a sheep. Draw me a sheep.”

So then I made a drawing.

He looked at it carefully, then he said:

“No. This sheep is already very sickly. Make me another.”

So I made another drawing.

My friend smiled gently and indulgently(宽容地).

“You see yourself,” he said, “that this is not a sheep. This is a ram(公羊). It has horns(犄角).”

So then I did my drawing over once more.

But it was rejected too, just like the others.

“This one is too old. I want a sheep that will live a long time.”

By this time my patience was exhausted(耗尽的), because I was in a hurry to start taking my engine apart. So I tossed off(草草完成) this drawing.

And I threw out(随口说) an explanation with it.

“This is only his box. The sheep you asked for is inside.”

I was very surprised to see a light break over the face of my young judge:

“That is exactly the way I wanted it! Do you think that this sheep will have to have a great deal of grass?”

“Why?”

“Because where I live everything is very small . . .”

“There will surely be enough grass for him,” I said. “It is a very small sheep that I have given you.”

He bent his head over the drawing:

“Not so small that . . . Look! He has gone to sleep . . .”

And that is how I made the acquaintance of the little prince.

转载于:https://my.oschina.net/u/3371586/blog/1574701