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我就这样独自一个人生活着，没有一个能真正谈得来的人，直到六年前我驾驶飞机陷落在撒哈拉沙漠上。飞机引擎坏掉了。由于当时既没有机械师也没有任何乘客和我一起飞行，所以我只好自己独自尝试完成这个困难的维修工作。于我而言，这是一个关乎生死的问题：剩余的饮用水仅仅够我维持八天的时间。
第一天晚上，我就睡在这远离人间烟火的沙漠上，我比大海中浮在小木筏上的遇难水手还要孤独。因此，你们可以想象到，当我在第二天拂晓时被一个奇怪而微小的声音吵醒时是有多么吃惊。这个小小的声音说：“请你给我画一只绵羊，好吗？”
“什么！”
“给我画一只绵羊！”
像是被闪电击中般，我跳着脚站起来，使劲揉了揉眼睛，仔细地循声望去。我看见一个十分奇怪的小家伙正站在那里严肃地打量着我。这是后来我给他画出来的最好的一幅画像。可惜，我的画要比他本人的模样逊色得多。这不是我的过错。六岁时，大人们让我对自己的画家生涯丧失了勇气，除了画过开着肚皮和闭着肚皮的蟒蛇，我后来再没有学过画别的东西。
对于这个突然出现的小家伙，我感到万分惊奇。我记得，当时我坠机的地方是一个远离人烟、千里之外的地方。然而，这个小家伙看起来既不像迷了路，也没有半点疲乏、饥渴、害怕的神情。种种迹象显示，他是一个迷失在空旷无人烟的大沙漠中的孩子。当我终于静下心可以说出话来时，我对他说道：“我说，你在这儿干什么呢？”
他慢慢地好像在讲述一件非常重要的事情一般，对我重复说道：“请……给我画一只绵羊……”
当一种神秘的东西把你镇住的时候，没人敢不服从。在这空旷无人烟的沙漠上，面临死亡的危险的情况下，尽管这看起来非常荒谬，我还是掏出了一张纸和一支钢笔。这时我却又记起，我的学习是怎样集中在地理、历史、计算和语法上的，我对这个小家伙说（也有一点生气）我不知道如何画。他回答我说：“没有关系，给我画一只绵羊吧！”
因为我从来没有画过羊，我就给他画我常常画的那幅闭着肚皮的巨蟒，然后我非常震惊地听到这个小家伙说：“不！不！我不要一个在蟒蛇肚子里的大象。”
“蟒蛇太危险，大象非常笨重。我住的地方，一切都非常小，我需要的是一只绵羊。给我画一只绵羊。”
我就给他画了。
他仔细地看了下，随后又说：“我不要，这只绵羊已经病得很重了。给我重新画一只。”
我又另外画了一只。
我的这位朋友温和放任地笑了。
“你自己看看，”他说，“你画的不是绵羊，是头公羊，还有两个角呢。”
于是我又重新画了一张。
这幅画同前几幅一样又被拒绝了。
“这一只羊太老了。我想要一只长寿的绵羊。”
这次，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，随手扔给他：“这是一只箱子，你要的绵羊就在里面。”
这时，我十分惊讶地看到我的这位小评判员喜笑颜开。
“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？”
“因为我住的地方，一切都非常小……”
“我确定会有足够的草给它。”我说，“我给你的是一只非常小的绵羊。”
他歪着脑袋靠近这张画。
“并不像你说的那么小……瞧！它睡着了……”
就这样，我认识了小王子。
Chapter 2
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.