- 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 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!"
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 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.
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.
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 indulgenty.
"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.
我就这样孤独地生活着，没有一个能真正谈得来的人，一直到六年前在撒哈拉沙漠上发生了那次故障。我的发动机里有个东西损坏了。当时由于我既没有带机械师也没有带旅客，我就试图独自完成这个困难的维修工作。这对我来说是个生与死的问题。我随身带的水只够饮用一星期。
第一天晚上我就睡在这远离人间烟火的大沙漠上。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，当一个奇怪的小声音叫醒我的时候，你们可以想见我当时是多么吃惊。这小小的声音说道：
“请你给我画一只羊，好吗？”
“啊！”
“给我画一只羊…”
我象是受到惊雷轰击一般，一下子就站立起来。我使劲地揉了揉眼睛，仔细地看了看。我看见一个十分奇怪的小家伙严肃地朝我凝眸望着。这是后来我给他画出来的最好的一副画像。可是，我的画当然要比他本人的模样逊色得多。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，后来再没有学过画。
我惊奇地睁大着眼睛看着这突然出现的小家伙。你们不要忘记，我当时处在远离人烟千里之外的地方。而这个小家伙给我的印象是，他既不象迷了路的样子，也没有半点疲乏、饥渴、惧怕的神情。他丝毫不象是一个迷失在旷无人烟的大沙漠中的孩子。当我在惊讶之中终于又能说出话来的时候，对他说道：
“唉，你在这儿干什么？”
可是他却不慌不忙地好象有一件重要的事一般，对我重复地说道：
“请…给我画一只羊…”
当一种神秘的东西把你镇住的时候，你是不敢不听从它的支配的，在这旷无人烟的沙漠上，面临死亡的危险的情况下，尽管这样的举动使我感到十分荒诞，我还是掏出了一张纸和一支钢笔。这时我却又记起，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。他回答我说：
“没有关系，给我画一只羊吧！”
因为我从来没有画过羊，我就给他重画我所仅仅会画的两副画中的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，大象又太占地方。我住的地方非常小，我需要一只羊。给我画一只羊吧。”
我就给他画了。
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。”
我又画了起来。
我的这位朋友天真可爱地笑了，并且客气地拒绝道：“你看，你画的不是小羊，是头公羊，还有犄角呢。”
于是我又重新画了一张。
这副画同前几副一样又被拒绝了。
“这一只太老了。我想要一只能活得长的羊。”
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：
“这是一只箱子，你要的羊就在里面。”
这时我十分惊奇地看到我的这位小评判员喜笑颜开。他说：
“这正是我想要的，…你说这只羊需要很多草吗？”
“为什么问这个呢？”
“因为我那里地方非常小…”
“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。
“并不象你说的那么小…瞧！它睡着了…”
就这样，我认识了小王子。
