“并不像你说的那么小……瞧!它睡着了……”
因为我向来没有画过羊,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。”
“蟒蛇太伤害,大象非常粗笨。我住的处所,统统都非常小,我需求的是一只绵羊。给我画一只绵羊。”
“我肯定会有充足的草给它。”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。
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.
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.
He looked at it carefully, then he said: "No. This sheep is already very sickly. Make me another."So I made another drawing.
因而我又重新画了一张。
“这一只羊太老了。我想要一只长命的绵羊。”
“甚么!”
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.
"Draw me a sheep!"