初遇小王子《The Little Prince》(第二章)

1. 原文

[ Chapter 2 ]  the narrator crashes in the desert and makes the acquaintance of the little prince

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.

The first night, then, I went to sleep on the sand, a thousand miles from any human habitation. I was more isolated than a ship wrecked 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!"

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.

That, however, is not my fault. The grownups 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.

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?"

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..."

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..."

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.

sick sheep

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

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." 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."

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.

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2. 疑难词汇

make the acquaintance of：  和...相识；结识

set oneself to do sth：决心做...

attempt：vt. 尝试，努力

habitation： n. 居住，住所

isolated: adj. 孤立的；

wrecked：adj. 失事的（船）

thunderstruck：adj. 惊愕的；吓坏了的

potrait：n. 肖像；描写

apparition：n. 幽灵；幻影；鬼怪

overpowering：adj. 压倒性的；无法抵抗的

disobey：v. 违反；不服从

Absurd：adj. 荒谬的；可笑的

fountain pen：n. 钢笔

stray：vi. 流浪；迷路；偏离

consequence：n. 结果；重要性；推论

chap：n. 小伙子；家伙

astounded：adj. 受惊骇的；被震惊的

cumbersome：adj. 笨重的

exhausted：adj. 疲惫的；耗尽的

toss off：迅速而轻松地表演、写作、消耗等

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3. 内容概要

这一章主要讲了作者与小王子的相遇。作者的飞机出了故障被迫降在方圆几千里都没有人烟的撒哈拉沙漠，在这里遇见了小王子。小王子看到作者第一句话就问：能不能给我画一只羊。可是作者根本不会画画，于是把他6岁时画的那幅蟒蛇生吞大象的画又画了一遍给小王子看。让作者震惊的是，小王子看了一眼便说，不不不，我不要蟒蛇吃大象。蟒蛇太危险，大象太笨重。我住的地方一切都很小。我只想要一只羊。给我画一只羊。

于是作者开始画羊。连画了三幅，小王子都不满意。最后，作者着急去修他的飞机，于是画了一个盒子，说，这是你要的羊，他在这个盒子里。

小王子终于满意了，说，这正是我想要的！

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4. 碎碎念

在撒哈拉沙漠这片神奇的土地上，作者遇见了这个能看懂他6岁画的蟒蛇吞大象的小王子。灵魂之交的第一次见面像多年的老朋友再见面，连寒暄都不需要。

就算换成别的场景，这些对话也都再正常不过。比如夏日炎炎的某个无聊的下午，或是下着绵绵细雨的秋日傍晚，又或是白雪纷纷的深夜围坐在炉火旁的两个一大一小的身影，其中的小个子话特别多：

“你给我画只羊吧”，

“哎呀你不要再画你六岁时候画的画啦”

“蟒蛇真可怕。大象好蠢。”

“咦你真是我肚子里的蛔虫，这就是我心里想的那只羊！”

“这只羊这么小应该吃不了很多草吧...”

“......”

轻轻浅浅的几句就这样点亮了安东尼心里黯然已久的光。

我早就说过啦，撒哈拉沙漠是个神奇的地方！