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 .
六岁那年，我看到一本描写大自然的书，名叫《大自然实录》，里面有一幅精彩的插画。画的是一条蟒蛇正在吞食一只野兽。这是那副画的临摹：
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 ."
书上说：蟒蛇吞下整只猎物，并不需要咀嚼。然后，它们不在动弹，在长达六个月的睡眠中消化这些食物。
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 . It looked like this :
当时我对丛林冒险想了许久，然后用彩铅画了我生平第一幅画。我的头号作品，它是这样的：
I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups , and asked them whether the drawing frightened them .
我把我的杰作给大人们看，问他们是不是很害怕。
But they answered : " Frighten ? Why should anyone be frightened by a hat ? "
但是他们说：“害怕？为什么要怕一顶帽子？”
My drawing was not a picture of a hat . It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant . But since the grown-up were not able to understand it , I made another drawing : I drew the inside of the boa constrictor , so that the grown-up could see it clearly . They always need to have things explained . My Drawing Number Two looked like this :
我画的不是有一顶帽子，而是一条蟒蛇在消化一只大象，但当时大人们根本不懂，于是我又画了一幅：我把蟒蛇肚子内部画出来，以便大人们能看明白。这些大人们总是需要一些解释。我的二号作品是这样的：
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 instrad to geography , history ,arithmetic , arithmetic and grammar . That is why , at the age of six , I gave up what might have been a magnificent career as a painter . I had been disheartened by the failure of my Drawing Number One and my Drawing Number Two . Grown-ups never understand anything bu themselves , and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining thing to them .
这时，大人们建议我不要再画蟒蛇，不管是有没有剖析过的，应该把精力放在地理、历史、数学和语法上。就这样，我六岁就放弃了伟大的绘画生涯。我1.2号失败的作品让我很沮丧。大人们根本什么都不懂，还要一边又一边的解释给他们听，很烦！
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