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 isolated¹ than a shipwrecked sailor on a raft in the middle of the ocean. Thus you can imagine my amazement², at sunrise, when I was awakened³ 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 apparition⁴ with my eyes fairly starting out of my head in astonishment⁵. 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 fatigue⁶ 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 drawn⁸ 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 astounded⁹ 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 cumbersome¹⁰. 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 indulgently. "You see yourself," he said, "that this is not a sheep. This is a ram⁷. 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 exhausted¹¹, 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 bent¹² 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.

 

我就这样孤独地生活着，没有一个能真正谈得来的人，一直到六年前在撒哈拉沙漠上发生了那次故障。我的发动机里有个东西损坏了。当时由于我既没有带机械师也没有带旅客，我就试图独自完成这个困难的维修工作。这对我来说是个生与死的问题。我随身带的水只够饮用一星期。

 

第一天晚上我就睡在这远离人间烟火的大沙漠上。我比大海中伏在小木排上的遇难者还要孤独得多。而在第二天拂晓，当一个奇怪的小声音叫醒我的时候，你们可以想见我当时是多么吃惊。这小小的声音说道：

 

“请你给我画一只羊，好吗？”

 

“啊！”

 

“给我画一只羊……”

 

我像是受到惊雷轰击一般，一下子就站立起来。我使劲地揉了揉眼睛，仔细地看了看。我看见一个十分奇怪的小家伙严肃地朝我凝眸望着。这是后来我给他画出来的最好的一副画像。可是，我的画当然要比他本人的模样逊色得多。

 

这不是我的过错。六岁时，大人们使我对我的画家生涯失去了勇气，除了画过开着肚皮和闭着肚皮的蟒蛇，后来再没有学过画。

 

我惊奇地睁大着眼睛看着这突然出现的小家伙。你们不要忘记，我当时处在远离人烟千里之外的地方。而这个小家伙给我的印象是，他既不像迷了路的样子，也没有半点疲乏、饥渴、惧怕的神情。他丝毫不像是一个迷失在旷无人烟的大沙漠中的孩子。当我在惊讶之中终于又能说出话来的时候，对他说道：

 

“唉，你在这儿干什么？”

 

可是他却不慌不忙地好像有一件重要的事一般，对我重复地说道：“请……给我画一只羊……”

 

当一种神秘的东西把你镇住的时候，你是不敢不听从它的支配的，在这旷无人烟的沙漠上，面临死亡的危险的情况下，尽管这样的举动使我感到十分荒诞，我还是掏出了一张纸和一支钢笔。这时我却又记起，我只学过地理、历史、算术和语法，就有点不大高兴地对小家伙说我不会画画。他回答我说：

 

“没有关系，给我画一只羊吧！”

 

因为我从来没有画过羊，我就给他重画我所仅仅会画的两副画中的那副闭着肚皮的巨蟒。

 

“不，不！我不要蟒蛇，它肚子里还有一头象。”我听了他的话，简直目瞪口呆。他接着说：“巨蟒这东西太危险，大象又太占地方。我住的地方非常小，我需要一只羊。给我画一只羊吧。”

 

我就给他画了。

 

他专心地看着，随后又说：

 

“我不要，这只羊已经病得很重了。给我重新画一只。”

 

我又画了起来。

 

我的这位朋友天真可爱地笑了，并且客气地拒绝道：“你看，你画的不是小羊，是头公羊，还有犄角呢。”

 

于是我又重新画了一张。

 

这副画同前几副一样又被拒绝了。

 

“这一只太老了。我想要一只能活得长的羊。”

 

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，并且匆匆地对他说道：

 

“这是一只箱子，你要的羊就在里面。”

 

这时我十分惊奇地看到我的这位小评判员喜笑颜开。他说：

 

“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？”

 

“因为我那里地方非常小……”

 

“我给你画的是一只很小的小羊，地方小也够喂养它的。”

 

他把脑袋靠近这张画。

 

“并不像你说的那么小……瞧！它睡着了……”

 

就这样，我认识了小王子。

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