01.The little prince

When I was only six years old, in a book about a primeval forest called 'True Stories'
I saw a wonderful illustration of a boa constrictor devouring a large beast. On the top of the page was a
A copy of the painting.
The book says: "These pythons swallow their prey whole without chewing it, and then they can't move anymore.
They can no longer move; they digest this food in a long six-month sleep."
At the time, I was thinking a lot about my encounters in the jungle, so I also drew my first drawings with coloured pencils.
drawings. My first number one. It went like this: I showed this masterpiece of mine to the adults and I asked them if my drawing told them to be afraid.
They replied, "What's so scary about a hat?"
What I drew was not a hat, but a python digesting an elephant. So I drew the python's stomach again
situation so that the adults could read it. These adults always need explanations. My number two
The adults advised me to put aside the drawings of the python with its belly open or closed, and to focus on geography, history, arithmetic and grammar. And so, at the age of six, I gave up the wonderful career of being a painter. The lack of success of my number one and number two works discouraged me. The adults, who couldn't understand anything on their own, had to keep explaining things to them. It was really tiresome for the children.
I then had to choose another career and I learned to fly planes and have flown almost all over the world.
I've flown all over the world. Indeed, geography has helped me a lot. I can tell China from Arizona at a glance. If
I could tell China from Arizona at a glance, which was very useful if I lost my way at night.
In this way, I have had a lot of contact with many serious people in my life. I have been among grown-ups
lived for a long time. I have watched them carefully, but this has not made much of a difference to my opinion of them
It didn't change my opinion of them much. When I met an adult who seemed to have a slightly clearer head, I took out my number one piece of work that I had kept to test him. I wanted to know if he really had the ability to understand. But the answer was always, "It's a hat." I don't talk to him about pythons or primeval forests or stars or anything like that. I had to accommodate them by talking to them about bridge, golf, politics, ties and so on. So the adults were very happy to know a reasonable person like me.
译文：
当我还只有六岁的时候，在一本描写原始森林的名叫《真实的故事》的书中，
看到了一副精彩的插画，画的是一条蟒蛇正在吞食一只大野兽。页头上就是那副
画的摹本。
这本书中写道：“这些蟒蛇把它们的猎获物不加咀嚼地囫囵吞下，尔后就不
能再动弹了；它们就在长长的六个月的睡眠中消化这些食物。”
当时，我对丛林中的奇遇想得很多，于是，我也用彩色铅笔画出了我的第一
副图画。我的第一号作品。它是这样的：我把我的这副杰作拿给大人看，我问他们我的画是不是叫他们害怕。
他们回答我说：“一顶帽子有什么可怕的？”
我画的不是帽子，是一条巨蟒在消化着一头大象。于是我又把巨蟒肚子里的
情况画了出来，以便让大人们能够看懂。这些大人总是需要解释。我的第二号作
品是这样的：大人们劝我把这些画着开着肚皮的，或闭上肚皮的蟒蛇的图画放在一边，还是把兴趣放在地理、历史、算术、语法上。就这样，在六岁的那年，我就放弃了当画家这一美好的职业。我的第一号、第二号作品的不成功，使我泄了气。这些大人们，靠他们自己什么也弄不懂，还得老是不断地给他们作解释。这真叫孩子们腻味。
后来，我只好选择了另外一个职业，我学会了开飞机，世界各地差不多都飞
到过。的确，地理学帮了我很大的忙。我一眼就能分辨出中国和亚里桑那。要是
夜里迷失了航向，这是很有用的。
这样，在我的生活中，我跟许多严肃的人有过很多的接触。我在大人们中间
生活过很长时间。我仔细地观察过他们，但这并没有使我对他们的看法有多大的
改变。当我遇到一个头脑看来稍微清楚的大人时，我就拿出一直保存着的我那第一号作品来测试测试他。我想知道他是否真的有理解能力。可是，得到的回答总是：“这是顶帽子。”我就不和他谈巨蟒呀，原始森林呀，或者星星之类的事。我只得迁就他们的水平，和他们谈些桥牌呀，高尔夫球呀，政治呀，领带呀这些。于是大人们就十分高兴能认识我这样一个通情达理的人。