chapter 2

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.

我就这样孤独地生活着，没有一个能真正谈得来的人，直到六年前我的飞机在撒哈拉沙漠发生了那次意外。我发动机里的某个零件损坏了。当时由于我既没有带机械师也没有任何旅客，于是我打算独自完成这个困难的维修工作。这对我来说是一个生死难题：我随身携带的水只够饮用一个星期。

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!”

第一晚，我就睡在这荒无人烟的沙漠里。我比大海中伏在小木排上的遇难者还要孤独得多。而在第二天拂晓，当一个奇异细小的声音叫醒我时，你们可以想象到我当时是多么吃惊。这小小的声音说道：“请你给我画一只羊，好吗？”

“什么！”

“请给我画一只羊！”

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.

我像是受到雷击一般，一下子就站立起来。我使劲地揉了揉眼睛啊，仔细地看了看周围。看见一个十分奇怪的小家伙严肃地凝眸望着我。你可以看到，这是我给他画出来的最好看的一幅画像。不过，我的画显然要比他本人的模样逊色的多。

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. 

但这不并是我的错。六岁时，大人们让我对画家生涯泄了气，除了画过敞开肚皮和闭着肚皮的蟒蛇外，后来再也没有学过画画。

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?”

现在，我惊讶地瞪大眼睛看着这个突然出现的小家伙。别忘了，我当时失事在远离人烟千里之外的沙漠中。然而，他既不像是在沙漠中迷了路，也没有半点疲乏、饥渴或惧怕的神情。这个小家伙给我的印象是，他丝毫不像是一个迷失在荒无人烟的大漠中孩子。当我终于又能够说出话来时，我对他说道：“但是——你在这儿干什么？”

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 ...”

但他却不慌不忙地像是再说一件非常重要的事情一般，对我重复地说道：“请……给我画一只羊……”

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 ...”

当一种神秘的东西镇住你时，你是不敢违背他的要求的。在这人迹罕至的沙漠上，在面临死亡危险的情况下，尽管这样的举动使我感到十分荒诞，我还是掏出一张纸和一支钢笔。这时我又想起，我只学过地理、历史、算术和语法，就有点不大高兴地对小家伙说，我不会画画。他却回答我说：“那没关系，给我画一只羊吧！”

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.

因为我从来没有画过羊，我就给他画了我经常画的两幅画中的其中一幅。就是那幅闭着肚皮的巨蟒。然后，我就被小家伙的话惊得目瞪口呆，“不，不，不！我不想要大象在蟒蛇的肚子里，巨蟒这东西太危险，大象也很占地方。我住的地方非常小，我需要一只羊。给我画一只羊吧。”所以我就给他画了一幅。

He looked at it carefully, then he said: “No. This sheep is already very sickly. Make me another.” So I made another drawing.

他专心地看着，随后又说：“我不要，这只羊已经病得很重了。给我重新画一只吧。”所以我又画了一幅。

My friend smiled gently and indulgently. "You see yourself," he said, "that this is not a sheep. This is a ram. It has has horns." So then I did my drawing over once more.

我的这位朋友温柔、宽容地笑了。他说道：“你看，这不是小羊，而是一头公羊，还有犄角呢。”于是我又重新画了一张。

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."

但这幅画同前几幅一样，又被拒绝了。“这一只太老了。我想要一只能够活很久的羊。”到了这个时候，我的耐心用完了，因为我急于要检修发动机部件。于是我就草草画了这张画，并且随意给了一个解释。“这是一只箱子，你要的小羊就在里面。”

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.

这时我十分惊奇地看到我的这位小评判员喜笑颜开：“这正是我想要的！你说这只羊需要很多草吗？”

“为什么这么问呢？”

“因为我住的地方所有东西都非常小……”

“我给你画的是一只很小的小羊，地方小也够喂养它的。”

他把脑袋靠近这张画：“它并不像你说的那样小……瞧！它睡着了……”

就这样，我结识了小王子。