讀英文書——《小王子》第二章

01-29

強行填坑，音頻在這裡：

音頻鏈接

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.

於是我一個人生活著，沒有真正可以談心的朋友。直到六年前，我的飛機墜落在撒哈拉沙漠。我身邊既沒有技師也沒有同伴，我必須獨自把飛機修理好。我的飲用水只能撐一周，我面臨著生死抉擇。

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!"

當天晚上，在這遠離人煙的地方，我躺在沙子上睡著了。我像個水手，船沉了之後，孤零零地抓著木筏漂在大海上。所以日出時，有個怪怪的聲音把我叫醒，你也就能想到我有多驚訝了。

「請給我畫只綿羊吧！」

「什麼？」

「給我畫只綿羊吧！」

I jumped to my feet completely thunderstruck. I bl<x>inked 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.

我跳了起來，非常震驚。我用力眨了眨眼，仔細看了看四周。我看到了一位非常小的人，站在那裡仔細打量著我。下面是他的畫像，這是我事後儘力畫出來的。但我的畫作原沒有本人來得有魅力。

That however is not my fault. The grown-ups discouraged me in my painters 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 . . ."

不過這不是我的問題。六歲時大人們勸我放棄做畫家之後，我就再沒畫過什麼東西，除了蟒蛇的外觀和內部。

我出神地盯著這個突然出現的人物。我可是墜在了遠離人煙的沙漠里。可這個小人兒好像既沒有迷路，也沒有因為疲倦，飢餓，口渴或是恐懼而暈頭轉向。我回過神來後，問他：

「可你在這做什麼？」

他的回答，卻是又一次緩慢地重複著那句話，彷彿那句話事關重大：

「請給我畫只綿羊吧。」

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 doesnt matter. Draw me a sheep . . ."

如果神秘的力量氣勢太強大，人就不得不聽從。雖然我覺得有些荒謬，我還是在這遠離人煙的地方，在死亡的邊緣，拿出一張紙和一支鋼筆。可我突然想起，我一直在鑽研地理，歷史，算數和文法。我（有點生氣地）告訴這個小傢伙，我不會畫。他說：

「沒關係，給我畫只綿羊吧。」

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.

So then I made a drawing.

但我從沒畫過綿羊。我給他畫了我最常畫的兩張圖之一。就是蟒蛇的外觀。小傢伙的回應讓我很吃驚：

「不不不，我不想要吃了大象的蟒蛇。蟒蛇非常危險，大象又太大了。我生活的地方什麼都很小。我想要只綿羊，給我畫只綿羊吧。」

於是我畫了幅畫。

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.

他仔細看了看，然後說：

「不，這隻羊病得太厲害了。再畫一張吧」

於是我又畫了一張。

這位小朋友開心地笑了起來。

「你看，」他說，「這不是綿羊，是山羊，還有角的。」

於是我重新畫了一張。

但這張和其他的一樣，他也覺得不好。

「這隻太老了，我想要只活得很久的綿羊。」

我的耐心已經要耗盡了，因為我還急著修引擎。我給他草草畫了這幅：

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.

我還給了他個解釋。

「這只是個盒子，你要的綿羊在裡面。」

我非常驚訝，這位小法官的臉上溢出了一絲微笑：

「我就想要這樣的！你覺得這隻羊會吃很多草嗎？」

「為什麼？」

「我生活的地方什麼都很小…」

「草肯定夠他吃的，」我說。「我給你的這隻羊非常小。」

他低頭看著畫。

「沒那麼小…看！他睡著了…」

我就是這樣認識小王子的。

以上英文選自Katherine Woods版英文譯本，中文為本人翻譯。