【小王子】第一章 Chapter One of The Litt

【小王子】第一章 Chapter One of The Little Prince

Espranza 一个思考问题的问题少年 2016-12-16 12:40

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CHAPTER 1

Once, when I was six years old, I saw a magnificent picture in a book about the jungle,called True Stories from Nature. It showed a boa constrictor swallowing a wild beast.

In the book it said: “boa constrictors swallow their prey whole without chewing. After that, they are not able to move, and they sleep during the six months of the digestion.”

In those days,I thought a lot about jungle adventures, and eventually managed to make my first drawing, using a colored pencil. I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups,and I asked them if my drawing scared them.

They answered,“Why be scared of a hat?”   

My drawing was not a picture of a hat! It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting anelephant. But, since the grown-ups would not able to understand it, I made another drawing. I drew the inside of the boa constrictor, so that the grown-ups could see it clearly. They always need explanations.

The grown-ups advised me to put away my drawings of boa constrictors outside or inside, and apply myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic and grammar. That is why I abandoned,at the age of six, a magnificent career as an artist. I had been discouraged bythe failure of my drawing number one and my drawing number two. Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.

So then I had to choose another career. And I learnt to pilot airplanes. I have flown almost everywhere in the world, and as a matter of fact, geography has been a big help to me. I could tell China from Arizona at first glance, which is very useful if you get lost during the night.

So I have had,in the course of my life, lots of encounters with lots of serious people. I have lots of time with grown-ups. I have seen them at close range, which hasn’t much improved my opinion of them.

Whenever I encountered a grown-up who seemed to me at all enlightened, I would experiment on him with my drawing number one, which I always kept. I wanted to see if he really understood anything, but he would always answer, “That is a hat.” Then, I would never talk to that person about boa constrictors, jungles or stars. I would put myself on his level and talk about bridge, golf, politics and neckties…And my grown-up was glad to know such a reasonable person.

第一章

我六岁的时候，在一本关于丛林的书——《自然中真实的故事》里看到一幅极其震撼的画，上面有一条蟒蛇正在活吞野兽。

书里面说：“蟒蛇生吞整个猎物而不用咀嚼，饱餐之后，他们动弹不得，在消化的六个月里他们就睡觉。”

那些天，我脑子里全是丛林探险的事，最终，我费尽了洪荒之力创造出了人生中第一幅彩色画作。我把自己的杰作拿给大人们看，问他们是否被我的画吓到。

他们回答说：“一顶帽子有什么好怕的？”

我画的才不是帽子呢！我画的是正在消化大象的蟒蛇呀！可是，既然大人们不会懂，我姑且再画一幅。我把蟒蛇肚子里的东西画出来，大人们就可以看清楚了。他们总是需要人解释。

大人们劝我把所有画的蟒蛇（画了肚子的和没有画肚子的）丢在一边，把心思放在学习地理，历史，算数和语法上面。这就是为什么在六岁那年，我放弃了成为艺术家这个崇高的事业。我的一号、二号作品让我伤透了心。大人们永远不会自己学着去理解事物，小孩子们要翻来覆去地给他们解释实在是太累了。

于是，我选择了另一个职业，成为了一名飞行员。我几乎飞遍了世界的每一个角落，地理确实帮了我很大的忙。我可以一下子分辨中国和美国的亚利桑那州，不得不说，如果你晚上迷了路，这确实很有用。

所以在我一生中，遇到过很多正经八百的人。我和成年人打过很多交道，也很近地了解过他们，但是这也并不能转变我对他们的看法。

只要遇上一个在我看来很有见识的成年人，我会拿出自己画的第一幅画试一试他，那幅画我一直带着。我想知道他是不是真的什么都懂，可惜他总会说：“这是一顶帽子。”这样，我再不会和他谈论蟒蛇、丛林和星星，我会将就他，和他谈论些什么桥梁呀，高尔夫呀，政治呀，领带呀、、、、、、当然，他是很愿意认识我这样一个知情达理的人的。图片

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