《小王子》的童話世界

To Leon Werth

Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories from Nature, about the primeval forest. It was a picture of a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal. Here is a copy of the drawing.

6歲時，我被一幅在我看來十分精彩的插畫吸引住了，它是我在翻閱一本描寫有關原始森林的書《真實的故事》中無意看到的。畫的是一條蟒蛇正在吞食一隻大野獸。

In the book it said: "Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewing it. After that they are not able to move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion."

在這幅畫的旁邊有這樣的文字描述：「這些蟒蛇把它們的獵獲物不加咀嚼地囫圇吞下，爾後就不能再動彈了。它們就在長長的六個月的睡眠中消化這些食物。」

I pondered 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.

當時，我對叢林中的奇遇想得很多，於是，我也用彩色鉛筆畫出了我的第一幅圖畫。這幅畫成為了我的第一號作品。

It looked like this:

I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups, and asked them whether the drawing frightened them.

But they answered: "Frighten? Why should any one be frightened by a hat?"

My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant.

我把我的這副傑作拿給大人看，我問他們我的畫是不是叫他們害怕。他們回答我說：「一頂帽子有什麼可怕的？」 我畫的不是帽子，是一條巨蟒在消化著一頭大象。

But since the grown-ups were 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 to have things explained.

於是我又把巨蟒肚子里的情況畫了出來，以便讓大人們能夠看懂。這些大人總是需要解釋。

My Drawing Number Two looked like this:

The grown-ups response, this time, was to advise me to lay aside my drawings of boa constrictors, 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 career as a painter.

哪知大人們依然不感興趣，他們中有些人還勸我放棄畫這些什麼也不是、什麼人也看不懂的東西，把精力放在地理、歷史、算術、語法上。就這樣，在六歲的那年，我就放棄了當畫家這一美好的職業。

I had been disheartened by the 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.

我的第一號、第二號作品的不成功，使我泄了氣。這些大人們，靠他們自己什麼也弄不懂，還得老是不斷地給他們作解釋。這真叫孩子們膩味。

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

在放棄了作畫家的理想後，我把開飛機當作了我的職業，世界各地差不多都飛到過。的確，地理學幫了我很大的忙。我一眼就能分辨出中國和亞里桑那。要是夜裡迷失了航向，這是很有用的。

In the course of this life I have had a great many encounters with a great many people who have been concerned with matters of consequence. I have lived a great deal among grown-ups. I have seen them intimately, close at hand. And that hasn t much improved my opinion of them.

在我後來的生活中，我跟許多有身份、有地位的人有過很多的接觸。我仔細地觀察過他們，但這並沒有使我對他們的看法有多大的改變。

Whenever I met one of them who seemed to me at all clear-sighted, 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, or primeval forests, or stars.

當我遇到一個在我看來還算有知識、頭腦不混亂的大人時，我就拿出一直保存著的我那第一號作品來測試測試他。我想知道他是否真的有理解能力。可是，答案卻總是令我失望：「這只不過是頂帽子。」 我就不和他談巨蟒呀、原始森林呀，或者星星之類的事。

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 would be greatly pleased to have met such a sensible man.

後來，我只得遷就他們的水平，和他們談些橋牌呀、高爾夫球呀、政治呀、領帶呀這些。這樣大人們就十分高興能認識我這樣一個通情達理的人。

（翻譯：李繼宏 )

《小王子》是法國作家安托萬·德·聖·埃克蘇佩里於1942年寫成的著名兒童文學短篇小說。本書的主人公是來自外星球的小王子。書中以一位飛行員作為故事敘述者，講述了小王子從自己星球出發前往地球的過程中，所經歷的各種歷險。作者以小王子的孩子式的眼光，透視出成人的空虛、盲目，愚妄和死板教條，用淺顯天真的語言寫出了人類的孤獨寂寞、沒有根基隨風流浪的命運。

燕大菁華教育是由中美兩國頂級名校校友及專家學者聯合成立的教育機構，我們專註於國際與國內K-12年級基礎教育，包含中學骨幹教師高端培訓模塊、北美名校背景提升模塊、中學生英語考試升學模塊。

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