作品名：《小王子》（The Little Prince）
原作者：[法]安托万·德·圣·埃克苏佩里（Antoine de Saint-Exupéry）
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.
我的生活向来孑然一身，无人倾述。六年前的一次飞机事故，使我坠落在撒哈拉大沙漠。由于发动机故障，而且当时既无修理工人也没有乘客，所以我只好试着亲自维修，还要面临一个生死攸关的难题：我的水只够七天饮用。
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!"
当天夜里，我只能在这片荒凉的浩荡沙海上度过。我觉得自己比那些只身伏在独木上的海上遇难者还要孤独。因此，当第二天拂晓，一个陌生而又稚嫩的声音将我叫醒时，你们应该能想象得到我那吃惊的表情。那声音说道：
“如果可以，请给我画一只羊好吗？”
“啊？你说什么？”
“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.
我如遭雷击般猛然站起，使劲揉搓双眼，仔细环顾了四周。这时，一个奇怪的小家伙映入眼帘，他正一本正经地站在不远处端详着我。这是我后来给他画的最好的一幅画像，如你所见，我画中的形象比他本人逊色得多。
小王子的画像
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.
但这可不能怪我，在六岁时，由于无人赏识我就结束了画家生涯，除了那两张蟒蛇的外观图和透视图之外，我再没有其他画作。
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?"
我目瞪口呆地盯着眼前这个不速之客。需要注意的是，我可是坠落在渺无人烟的荒漠。眼前的小男孩看起来并不像漫无目的地闲逛，也没有表现出由于饥渴而导致的虚弱和害怕。尽管在这个人迹罕至的地区，他也完全不像一个迷失在荒漠中的孩子。惊愕过后，我终于开口问道：
“那——你在这做什么？”
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…"
他没有正面回答我的问题，而是轻缓而又郑重其事地重复着他的话，“如果可以，请——给我画一只小羊……”
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…"
当遇上一种无法抵挡的神秘事物时，便无人敢与之抗衡。在一个距村庄千里之外的荒凉沙漠，我正处于生死存亡的危险境地，眼前这事实在太过荒谬。不过，我还是情不自禁地从兜里掏出纸笔。转念一想，我似乎将精力都集中在如何学习地理、历史、算数和语法这些方面，于是我便略显刁难状地对这个小家伙直言，我不会作画。他却说：
“没关系，就给我画一只小羊吧。”
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.
我从未画过羊，所以我就重新展示了之前那幅被误认为“帽子”的蟒蛇吞象图。出乎意料的是，这位“小伙伴”的反应十分强烈，他的话更是令我惊得呆若木鸡：
“不！不！不！我才不要蟒蛇，何况它的肚子里还装着一只大象呢！这东西太危险，而且大象非常占地儿。我生活的地方，一切都很小。所以我只需要小羊，请画只绵羊吧？”
我只好重新画一张。
病怏怏的小羊
He looked at it carefully, then he said:
"No. This sheep is already very sickly. Make me another."
So I made another drawing.
他仔细地观察着，接着又说：“不！这只羊看着病怏怏，请重新画一张吧。”
于是我又画了起来。
长着犄角的山羊
My friend smiled gently and indulgently.
"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.
But it was rejected too, just like the others.
"This one is too old. I want a sheep that will live a long time."
这次，我的这位朋友露出天真可爱的笑容，再次礼貌地回绝：“你看，这不是绵羊，明明就是一头公山羊，还长着犄角呢！”
好吧，我又多画了一次，但和前面几幅图一样，没能令他称心如意。
“这只也太老了吧？我想要一只长寿的羊！”
年老的羊
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."
我实在不胜其烦，因为我一心想着拆卸发动机的事情。没办法，我只好草草了事画了下图这个玩意儿，然后连忙解释道：“看这个箱子，你要的羊就在里头。”
装着小羊的箱子
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.
令我百思不得其解的是，这位小评判家居然笑逐颜开地说：
“这不正是我想要的样子吗？你说……这只羊要吃很多青草吗？”
“嗯？为什么问这个呢？”
“因为我住的地方小呀……”
“放心吧！肯定够养着他啦！”我说，“我给你画的羊也很小。”
他歪着脑袋看了又看说道：
“也不用那么小啦……瞧！它正要进入梦乡呢……”
以上便是我结识小王子的经过。
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