小王子 Chapter2

Chapter2

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 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 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. I was more isolated than a shipwrecked sailor on a raft in the middle of the ocean. Thus you can imagine my amazement, at sunrise, when I was awakened by an odd little voice. It said: " If you please - draw me a sheep! "

" what! "

" Draw me a sheep! "

I jumped to my feet, completely thunderstruck. I blinked 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 that, later, I was able to make of him. But my drawing is certainly very much less charming than its model.

That, however, is not my fault.The grown-ups discouraged me in my painter's career when I was six years old, and I never learned to draw anything, except boas from the outside and boas from the inside.

Now I stared at this sudden apparition with my eyes fairly starting out of my head in astonishment. Remember, I had crashed in the  desert a thousand miles from any inhabited region. And yet my little man seemed neither to be straying uncertainly among the sands, nor to be fainting from fatigue, 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. 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, one dare not disobey. Absurd as it might seem to me, a thousand miles from any human habitation and in danger of death， I took out of my pocket a sheet of paper and my fountain-pen. But then I remembered how my studies had been concentrated on geography, history, arithmetic, and grammar, and I told the little chap(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 from the outside. And I was astounded to hear the little fellow greet it with,

" No, no, no! I do not want an elephant inside a boa constrictor. A boa constrictor is a very dangerous creature, and an elephant is very cumbersome. Where I live, everyting 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.

" You see yourself, " he said, " that this is not a sheep. This is a ram. It has horns."

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, because I was in a hurry to start taking my engine apart. So I tossed off this drawing.

And I threw out 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.

第二章

我就这样孤独的生活着，没有一个可以真正交谈的人，直到六年前，我的飞机迫降在撒哈拉沙漠。那次，飞机发动机出了点故障。同机没有机械师也没有乘客，我只好试图独自开始艰难的修理工作。
这对我来说是生与死的事：我的饮用水不够维持一周了。第一晚，我睡在沙漠中，方圆万里，荒无人烟。比起茫茫大海中遭遇海难漂在木筏上的水手，我显得更加孤立无援。所以可想而知，
当第二天太阳升起时，一个轻柔而奇怪的声音将我唤醒，我有多么惊讶。那个声音说：“请你给我画只绵羊吧！”
"什么？"
“给我画只绵羊吧！”
我猛地站起来，好像被雷击中一样。我使劲眨了眨眼睛，仔细环望四周。我看到了一个非常奇怪的小孩，站在旁边正表情严肃的望着我，请看，这就是后来我给他画得最成功的的肖像。
当然，我画得远没有他本人那么英俊可爱。
这不是我的错。六岁那年，大人们就打击了我当画家的锐气，除了敞着肚皮和合着肚皮的蟒蛇，我后来再也没学过画画。
我睁大了双眼，惊讶地盯着这个突然冒出的小家伙。别忘了，我可是在荒无人烟、千里之外的沙漠里。
眼前这个小家伙看起来既不像走失了，也没有流露出办点疲倦、饥饿、口渴后者害怕的神情。他根本不像一个在远离人烟的沙漠中迷路的孩子。等我终于缓过神能镇定地说话时，我问他：
“可是，你在这里做什么？”
他不慌不忙，郑重其事地重复了那句话：
“请你给我画只羊吧”
当神秘过于让人震惊，人们往往会唯命是从。尽管我觉得在这个千里之外、远离人烟又充满危险的地方，这么做实在是很荒唐，但我还是从口袋里掏出了一张纸和一支钢笔。但是，我忽然想起我把
学习精力都放在了地理、历史、数学、语法上，我便告诉这个小家伙（有点生气的）说我不会画画。他回答说：
“这不要紧啊，给我画只绵羊就好”
可是我从来没有画过绵羊。我就把经常画的那两幅画，画了一张给他。是那副合着肚皮的蟒蛇。小家伙看着画，他说的话把我惊呆了：
“不，不，不！我不想要在蟒蛇肚子里的大象。蟒蛇是一种危险的生物，大象又太笨重。在我住的地方，一切都是小小的。我要的是只绵羊。给我画只绵羊吧”
然后我只好给他画了一幅。
他仔细的看了看，说：
“不行，这只绵羊已经病得很重了。请给我重新画一幅。”
我就又画了一幅
我这位朋友轻声笑了起来：
“你自己看，这不是绵羊，这是一只公羊，它长着犄角呢”
于是，我又画了一只。
但是这幅画像前两幅一样，又被他否定了。
“这一只太老了，我想要一只活很长时间的绵羊。”
这一次，我不耐烦了，因为我急着去拆开我的发动机，所以我草草的画了一幅。
并且我向他解释说：
“这只是他的盒子，你要的绵羊在里面呢”
结果我惊讶地发现我的这位小裁判竟微微地笑了，他说：
“这就是我想要的那只绵羊！你觉得这只绵羊会吃很多草吗？”
“为什么这么说？”
“因为在我住的地方一切都是小小的”
“肯定够他吃的，我给你画的这只绵羊很小”
他低下头看着那副画：
“也没有那么小，看！他已经睡着了”
这这样，我认识了小王子。
 

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