介绍:
To Leon Werth
献给莱昂·韦尔特
I ask children to forgive me for dedicating this book to a grown-up. I have a serious excuse: this grown-up is the best friend I have in the world. I have another excuse: this grown-up can understand everything, even books for children. I have a third excuse: he lives in France where he is hungry and cold. He needs to be comforted. if all these excuses are not enough, then I want to dedicate this book to the child whom this grown-up once was. All grown-ups were children first. (But few of them remember it.) So I correct my dedication:
把本书题词献给一个大人，要恳请小朋友们原谅了。我找的借口倒是郑重其事的：这个大人是我世上最要好的朋友。另一个借口是：这个大人无所不知，哪怕是小朋友的书也能懂。第三个借口是：这个大人住在法国，又冷又饿，他好需要鼓舞的。如果这些借口还不够，那只好把这本书献给这个大人的小时候了。所有的大人都曾经是孩子（只是很少有大人还记得这点）。因此，我就把题词改为：
To Leon Werth
When He Was A Little Boy
献给小男孩时的 莱昂·韦尔特
Chapter I
第一章
Once when I was six years old, I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories, about the primeval forest.
当我还只有六岁的时候，在一本名叫《真实的故事》的关于原始森林的书中，看到了一副精彩的插画。
It was a picture of a boaconstrictor swallowing an animal.
画的是一条蟒蛇正在吞食一只大野兽。
Here is a copy of the drawing.
这就是那副画的摹本。
In the book it said: “Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewing it.
这本书中写道：“这些蟒蛇把它们的猎获物一股脑儿吞下，不咀嚼的。”
Afterward they are no longer able to move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion.
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。
I pondered deeply, then, over the adventures of the jungle.
当时，我对丛林中的奇遇想得很多。
And after some work with a colored pencil I succeeded in making my first drawing.
于是，我也用彩色铅笔画出了我的第一副图画。
My Drawing Number One looked like this:
我的第一号作品是这样的：
I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups, and asked them whether the drawing frightened them.
我把我的这副杰作拿给大人看，问他们我的画是不是叫他们害怕。
They answered: “Why should anyone be frightened by a hat?”
他们回答我说：“一顶帽子有什么可怕的？”
My drawing was not a picture of a hat.
我画的不是帽子。
It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant.
是一条巨蟒在消化着一头大象。
But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it, I made another drawing:
但由于大人们无法理解它，我做了另一个图：
I drew the inside of the boa constrictor, so that the grown-ups could see it clearly.
我把巨蟒肚子内部画了出来，以便大人们能够看懂。
They always need explanations.
大人们总是需要解释的。
My Drawing Number Two looked like this:
我的第二号作品是这样的：
The grown-ups’ response, this time, was to advise me to lay aside my drawings of boa constrictors, outside or inside, and devote myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic and grammar.
大人们劝我把这些画着开着肚皮的或蒙着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。
That is why, at the age of six, I gave up what might have been a magnificent career as a painter.
就这样，在六岁的那年，我就放弃了当画家这一美好的职业。
I had been disheartened by the failure of my Drawing Number One and my Drawing Number Two.
我的第一号和第二号作品都失败了，让我非常泄气。
Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is exhausting for children to have to explain to them over and over again.
这些大人们，靠他们自己什么也弄不懂，还得老是得给他们解释来解释去的，真是把小孩子们给累坏了。
So then I had to choose another profession, and learned to pilot airplanes.
后来，我只好选择了另外一个职业，我学会了开飞机。
I have flown almost everywhere in the world; and, as a matter of fact, geography has been very useful to me.
世界各地我几乎都飞遍了。的确，地理学帮了我很大的忙。
I can distinguish China from Arizona at a glance .
我一眼就能分辨出中国和亚里桑那。
If one gets lost during the night, such knowledge is valuable.
要是夜里迷失了航向，这可是很有用的。
In the course of my life, I have had a great many encounters with a great many people who have been concerned with matters of consequence.
这样，在我的生活中，我跟许多严肃的人有过很多的接触。
I have lived a great deal among grown-ups.
我在大人们中间生活过很长时间。
I have seen them intimately, close at hand. And that hasn’t much improved my opinion of them.
我仔细地观察过他们，但这并没有使我对他们的看法产生多大的改变。
Whenever I met one of them who seemed to me at all clear-sighted,
当我遇到一个头脑看来稍微清楚的大人时，
I tried the experiment of showing him my Drawing Number One, which I have always kept.
我就拿出一直保存着的我那第一号作品来测试他。
I would try to find out if he really understand anything.
我想知道他是否真的有理解能力。
But, whoever it was, he, or she, would always answer, “That is a hat.”
可是，得到的回答总是：“这是顶帽子。”
Then I would never talk to that person about boa constrictors, or primeval forests, or stars.
我就不和他谈巨蟒呀，原始森林呀，或者星星之类的事。
I would bring myself down to his level.
我只得迁就他们的水平。
I would talk to him about bridge, and golf, and politics, and neckties.
和他们谈些桥牌呀，高尔夫球呀，政治呀，领带呀这些。
And the grown-up would be greatly pleased to have met such a sensible man.
于是大人们就十分高兴能认识我这样一个懂事的人。
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