Level/难度等级: Level 3 专业, ESL BC, CEFR , B1B2;国内:初中 高中,词汇：771个
mp3/听力:慢速
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.
我孤独地生活着，身边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出了故障。飞机发动机里有个东西损坏了。由于身边既没有机修工，也没有任何乘客，我就试着独自完成这个困难的维修工作。这对我来说是个生死攸关的问题：我随身带的水只够饮用一星期。
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!”
第一天晚上，我就睡在远离人烟的沙漠上。这要比一个大海中伏在小木排上失事的水手还要孤独得多。因此，第二天拂晓我被一个奇怪的小声音惊醒的时候， 你们可以想象我当时是多么吃惊。这小小的声音说道：
“请你给我画一只羊，好吗？”
“什么！”
“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 potrait that, later, I was able to make of him. But my drawing is certainly very much less charming than its model.
我像受了雷击一样一下子跳了起来。我使劲眨了眨眼睛，仔细地看了看周围。我看见一个十分奇怪的小家伙，他站在那里非常严肃地打量着我。这里，你可以看到我后来给他画出来的最好的一副画像。不过我的画当然要比他本人的模样逊色得多。
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.
这不是我的过错。六岁时，大人们使我对我的画家生涯失去了勇气，除了画过开着肚皮和闭着肚皮的蟒蛇，再没画过任何东西。
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?”
我惊奇地睁大眼睛看着这突然出现的小家伙。要知道我当时处在远离人烟千里之外的地方。而这个小家伙看起来既不象迷了路， 也没有半点疲乏、饥渴、惧怕的神情。他一点也不像是一个迷失在远离人烟的沙漠中的孩子。我终于能说话了，便对他说：
“可是，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…”
作为回答，他非常缓慢地重复了一遍，似乎是在说一件非常重要的事情：“
“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…”
当一件神秘的事情太令人费解时，你是不敢违抗的。这在我看来似乎很荒谬，因为我远离人烟，还面临死亡的危险，我从口袋里掏出一张纸和一支笔。这时我想起来我只学过地理、历史、算术和语法，就对这个小家伙（有点愠怒）说我不会画画。他回答我说：
“这没关系，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.”
但我从来没有画过羊。我给他画了我经常画的两幅画中的一幅，那副闭着肚皮的巨蟒。
“不，不！我不要蟒蛇，它肚子里还有一头象。”
我听了他的话，简直目瞪口呆。他接着说：“巨蟒这东西太危险，大象又太笨重。我住的地方，一切都很小，我需要一只羊。给我画一只羊吧。”
So then I made a drawing.
然后我就给他画了一幅。
He looked at it carefully, then he said:
他仔细看看，随后说：
“No. This sheep is already very sickly. Make me another.”
“不，这只羊已经病得很重了。重新画一只。”
So I made another drawing.
我又给他画了一幅。
My friend smiled gently and indulgenty.
我的这位朋友温和而宽容地笑了。
“You see yourself,” he said, “that this is not a sheep. This is a ram. It has horns.”
“你看，“ 他说，”你画的不是小羊，是头公羊，还有犄角呢。”
So then I did my drawing over once more.
然后我又重新画了一张。
But it was rejected too, just like the others.
这副画同前几副一样又被拒绝了。
“This one is too old. I want a sheep that will live a long time.” “这一只太老了。我想要一只能活得长的羊。”
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.
我不耐烦了。因为我急于要检修发动机，于是就草草画了这张画，并且匆匆 地对他说道：
“This is only his box. The sheep you asked for is inside.”
“这是一只箱子，你要的羊就在里面。”
I was very surprised to see a light break over the face of my young judge:
这时我十分惊奇地看到我的这位小评判员喜笑颜开。他说：
“That is exactly the way I wanted it! Do you think that this sheep will have to have a great deal of grass?”
“这正是我想要的，……你说这只羊需要很多草吗？”
“Why?”
“为什么问这个呢？”
“Because where I live everything is very small…”
“因为我那里地方非常小……”
“There will surely be enough grass for him,” I said. “It is a very small sheep that I have given you.”
“我给你画的是一只很小的小羊，地方小也够喂养它的。”
He bent his head over the drawing:
他把脑袋靠近这张画。
“Not so small that– Look! He has gone to sleep…”
“并不象你说的那么小……瞧！它睡着了……”
And that is how I made the acquaintance of the little prince.
就这样，我认识了小王子。