小王子英文版1

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        Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories from Nature,about the primeval forest. It was a picture of a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal. Here is acopy of the drawing.

        In the book it said: "Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewing it. After that they are notable to move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion."

        I pondered deeply, then, over the adventures of the jungle. And after some work with a colored pencil Isucceeded in making my first drawing. My Drawing Number One. It looked something like this:

        I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups, and asked them whether the drawing frightened them.But they answered: "Frighten? Why should any one be frightened by a hat?"

My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. But sincethe grown-ups were not able to understand it, I made another drawing: I drew the inside of a boaconstrictor, so that the grown-ups could see it clearly. They always need to have things explained. MyDrawing Number Two looked like this:

        The grown-ups' response, this time, was to advise me to lay aside my drawings of boa constrictors, whetherfrom the inside or the outside, and devote myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic, and grammar.That is why, at the age of six, I gave up what might have been a magnificent career as a painter. I had beendisheartened by the failure of my Drawing Number One and my Drawing Number Two. Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explainingthings to them.

So then I chose another profession, and learned to pilot airplanes. I have flown a little over all parts of theworld; and it is true that geography has been very useful to me. At a glance I can distinguish China fromArizona. If one gets lost in the night, such knowledge is valuable.

        In the course of this life I have had a great many encounters with a great many people who have beenconcerned with matters of consequence. I have lived a great deal among grown-ups. I have seen themintimately, close at hand. And that hasn't much improved my opinion of them.

       Whenever I met one of them who seemed to me at all clear-sighted, I tried the experiment of showing himmy Drawing Number One, which I have always kept. I would try to find out, so, if this was a person of trueunderstanding. But, whoever it was, he, or she, would always say:

        "That is a hat."

       Then I would never talk to that person about boa constrictors, or primeval forests, or stars. I would bringmyself down to his level. I would talk to him about bridge, and golf, and politics, and neckties. And thegrown-up would be greatly pleased to have met such a sensible man.