Chapter 2

我如此的過著孤單的生活，我沒有一個可以真正
跟他談話的人，一直到六年前，我在撒哈拉沙漠
飛機故障的時候。我的發動機裡有些東西壞了。
而由於我身邊沒有機械師，也沒有乘客，我準備
獨自去嘗試一次困難的修理。這對我是生死問題。
我連足夠喝八天的水都沒有。

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.

頭一天晚上我在離開有人居住的地方一千英里的
沙地上睡覺。我比一位漂流在汪洋大海裡的木筏
上面的遇難者更孤單。當天剛破曉的時候，我被
一種奇異的小聲音叫醒，你可以想像到，這時我
是多麼的驚訝。那聲音說：

「請你......給我畫一隻綿羊！」

「哪！」

「給我畫一隻綿羊！」

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 a
wakened by an odd little voice. It said:

"If you please-- draw me a sheep!"

"What!"

"Draw me a sheep!"

我一下跳了起來，好像被雷打著一樣。我一再的揉了
揉眼睛，仔細的看他，我看的是一位異常奇特的小孩
子，他正一本正經地端詳著我。這裡就是我後來描畫
出了的他肖像中最好的一張。但當然囉，我的畫筆我
的模特兒難看多了。但這不是我的過錯。在我六歲的
時候，我畫家的事業就北大人們弄的掃幸而作罷。而
除了那些看得見與看不見內部的蟒蛇外我沒有學過畫。

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 potrait 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.

那時候我睜大了眼睛驚奇地看著出現在我眼前的這
位小孩。請你不要忘計當時我是在離開人煙一千英
里的路遠的地方。而我的小人兒看來一點也不像是
迷失了路的，他看來一點也不疲倦，一點也不餓，
一點也不渴，一點也不害怕。他看來只像是一位在
離開人煙一千英里路的沙漠中失蹤了的孩子。當我
最後講得出話來的時候，我問他：

「但是......你在這兒幹什麼？」

而他卻非常溫柔地重複著說，好像那是一件很嚴重的事：

「請你......給我畫隻綿羊......」。

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..."

當一件神祕的事情太深刻而感人時，我們不敢不服從。
而同樣荒謬莫解的是，在遠離人煙一千英里的地方，在
死亡的威脅下，我竟從口袋裡掏出了一張紙看一隻筆。
可是那時我首先記起我學過地理、歷史、算術和文法。
我有點不高興地告訴那位小孩說我不懂畫畫。他回答我
說：「這個沒有關係。給我畫隻綿羊。」

由於我從沒有畫過綿羊，我為他重新畫了我會畫的一張
畫當中的一張，那張看不見內部的蟒蛇。而當我聽到他
的回答時我獃住了。這位小人兒說：

「不！不！我不要一隻裝有象的蟒蛇。蟒蛇是很危險的
，而象太大了。我住的地方很小很小。我要一隻綿羊。
給我畫一隻綿羊。」

於是我畫了一張。

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 l
ittle 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, everything is very small.
What I need is a sheep. Draw me a sheep."

So then I made a drawing.

他聚精會神地看了之後說：

「不！這隻早就病得很厲害了。畫一隻別的。」

我又畫。

He looked at it carefully, then he said:

"No. This sheep is already very sickly. Make me another."

So I made another drawing.

「我朋友很可愛地笑著，他放肆地笑著說：

「你看見了....這不是綿羊，這是隻公山羊。牠有兩
隻角......。」

我又重新畫了一張。

My friend smiled gently and indulgenty.

"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.

但是跟剛才一樣，又被拒絕了。

「這隻太老了。我要一隻活得很久的綿羊。」

於是我不耐煩起來，我及著要動手拆開我的發動機。
我亂塗了一陣，塗了這樣
的一張。

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.

我丟給他說：

「這是箱子。你所要的綿羊就在裡面。」

可是我卻驚奇地看到我這位年輕的審判官容光煥發地說；

「這個正式我所要的。你認為應該給這隻綿羊很多草嗎？」

「為什麼？」

「因為我住的地方很小很小。」

「一點點就夠了，真的。我給了你一隻很小很小的綿羊。」

他把頭挨近那張畫。

「不像你所說的那樣小......看！他睡著了......。」

就這樣我認識了小王子。

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.