小王子第二章（给我画一只羊！）

导读：

    我就这样孤独地生活着，直到六年前在撒哈拉沙漠上发生了那次飞机故障。当情况开始变得槽糕时，我震惊地听到一个小小的声音，这声音来自一个金发的小男孩。他丝毫不象是一个迷失在旷无人烟的大沙 漠中的孩子。他郑重其事地请求我画一只羊，我不知道如何画一只羊，所以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，当小王子认出它是一只蟒蛇时，我感到惊讶。小王子不喜欢吃大象的蟒蛇，他坚持要我画一只羊。我画了好几种羊，都被他否决了，我最后画了一个盒子，给了小王子。他很满意这幅画，说盒子里装的正是他要找的那种羊。我和小王子的故事就是这么开始的。

    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.

★ Desert of Sahara：撒哈拉沙漠。★neither a mechanic nor any passengers：既没有带机械师也没有带旅客。   

    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!"

★on the sand a thousand miles from any human habitation：远离人间烟火的大沙漠上。★shipwrecked：遭遇海难; 船只失事。

     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.

   

     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. 【他丝毫不象是一个迷失在旷无人烟的大沙 漠中的孩子。】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 . . ."

★apparition ：（指人死后的）鬼，鬼魂，幽灵 。★straying ：迷路;偏离。

     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地理 history 历史arithmetic 算术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 . . ."

★ fountain-pen：钢笔 。★chap ：小伙子;(对男子的友好称呼)家伙，伙计。

      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 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.

★ ram：  山羊。

    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.我给他草草画了这幅

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.

经典语录：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.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。