THE LITTLE PRINCE 小王子
Antoine de Saint-Exupery 安托万·德·圣·埃克苏佩里
CHAPTER 1
I was six years old when I spotted a magnificent picture in a book about an ancient forest. The
picture showed a constrictorboa in the act of swallowing a wild beast. This is what it looked like:
当我还只有六岁的时候，在一本描写原始森林的名叫《真实的故事》的书中，看到了一副精彩的插画，画的是一条蟒蛇正在吞食一只大野兽。页头上就是那副画的摹本
It said in the book:‘A boa constrictor swallows its prey whole, without chewing it. After this, it is
unable to move and sleeps through the next six months–this is needed for digestion.’
这本书中写道：“这些蟒蛇把它们的猎获物不加咀嚼地囫囵吞下，尔后就不能再动弹了；它们就在长长的六个月的睡眠中消化这些食物。
I thought deeply about the experiences of the forest. Then, with care and a coloured pencil, I
succeeded in making my first drawing. Drawing Number One looked like this:
当时，我对丛林中的奇遇想得很多，于是，我也用彩色铅笔画出了我的第一副图画。我的第一号作品。它是这样的：
I showed my fine work to the grown-ups, and asked if the drawing scaredthem.‘Scared? Why,
it is only a hat!’我把我的这副杰作拿给大人看，我问他们我的画是不是叫他们害怕。 他们回答我说：“一顶帽子有什么可怕的？”
But it was not a hat! It was very clearly a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. But the
grown-ups need explanations for everything. So, I madeanother drawing showing the elephant
inside the boa constrictor. Drawing Number Two looked like this:
我画的不是帽子，是一条巨蟒在消化着一头大象。于是我又把巨蟒肚子里的情况画了出来，以便让大人们能够看懂。这些大人总是需要解释。我的第二号作品是这样的：
This time, the grown-ups advised me to put away my representations of the boa constrictor,
be it from the inside or the outside, and instead spend my time learning geography, history,
arithmetic and grammar. That is why at six years of age, I gave up a promising career as an
artist, disappointed by the failure of Drawing Number One and Drawing Number Two. Grown-ups
find it hard to understand anything on their own, and it is tiring for children to always have to
explain things to them. 大人们劝我把这些画着开着肚皮的，或闭上肚皮的蟒蛇的图画放在一边，还是把兴趣放在地理、历史、算术、语法上。就这样，在六岁的那年，我就放弃了当画家这一美好的职业。我的第一号、第二号作品的不成功，使我泄了气。这些大人们，靠他们自己什么也弄不懂，还得老是不断地给他们作解释。这真叫孩子们腻味。
Hence, I chose a different occupation, and learned to fly airplanes. I flew all over the world and
found that geography was very useful to me. I can easily distinguish China from Arizona, and
such knowledge is important if you get lost in the dark.
后来，我只好选择了另外一个职业，我学会了开飞机，世界各地差不多都飞到过。的确，地理学帮了我很大的忙。我一眼就能分辨出中国和亚里桑那。要是夜里迷失了航向，这是很有用的。
Through the years I have encountered many people of importance and spent a great deal of
time among grown-ups. However, knowing them closely hasn’t much improved my opinion of
them. Whenever I felt I met someone sensible, I experimented by showing him or her my
Drawing Number One, which I always carried with me. But, no matter who it was,the answer
would always be,‘It is a hat.’这样，在我的生活中，我跟许多严肃的人有过很多的接触。我在大人们中间生活过很长时间。我仔细地观察过他们，但这并没有使我对他们的看法有多大的改变。 当我遇到一个头脑看来稍微清楚的大人时，我就拿出一直保存着的我那第一号作品来测试测试他。我想知道他是否真的有理解能力。可是，得到的回答总是：“这是顶帽子。”
There would end any talk about boa constrictors, or ancient forests, or the stars. I would lower myself to their level and prattle about bridges, and golf, politics, and neckties. Oh how it pleased
the grown-ups to have met such alogical man.
我就不和他谈巨蟒呀，原始森林呀，或者星星之类的事。我只得迁就他们的水平，和他们谈些桥牌呀，高尔夫球呀，政治呀，领带呀这些。于是大人们就十分高兴能认识我这样一个通情达理的人。
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