The
Little Prince , first published in 1943, is the most famous work of the French
aristocrat, writer, poet and pioneering aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
The
novella is the 3rd most-translated book in the world and was voted the best
book of the 20th century in France. Translated into more than 280 languages and
dialects, selling nearly two million copies annually with total sales over 150 million
copies worldwide, it has become one of the bestselling books ever published.
Since
its first publication in the United States, the novella has been adapted to
numerous art forms and media, including audio recordings, radio plays, live
stage, film screen, television, ballet, and operatic works.
Lorsque j’avais six ans j’ai vu, une fois, une
magnifique image, dans un livre sur la Forêt Vierge qui s’appelait “Histoires
Vécues”. a représentait un serpent boa qui avalait un fauve. Voilà la copie du
dessin.
On disait dans le livre: “Les serpents boas
avalent leur proie toute entière, sans la mcher. Ensuite ils ne peuvent plus
bouger et ils dorment pendant les six mois de leur digestion.”
J’ai alors beaucoup réfléchi sur les aventures
de la jungle et, à mon tour, j’ai réussi, avec un crayon de couleur, à tracer mon
premier dessin. Mon dessin numéro 1. Il était comme a:
J’ai montré mon chef-d’oeuvre aux grandes
personnes et je leur ai demandé si mon dessin leur faisait peur. Elles m’ont
répondu: “Pourquoi un chapeau ferait-il peur?”
Mon dessin ne représentait pas un chapeau. Il
représentait un serpent boa qui digérait un éléphant. J’ai alors dessiné l’intérieur
du serpent boa, afin que les grandes personnes puissent comprendre. Elles ont
toujours besoin d’explications. Mon dessin numéro 2 était comme a:
Les grandes personnes m’ont conseillé de
laisser de cté les dessins de serpents boas ouverts ou fermés, et de m’intéresser
plutt à la géographie, à l’histoire, au calcul et à la grammaire. C’est ainsi
que j’ai abandonné, à l’ge de six ans, une magnifique carrière de peintre.
J’avais été découragé par l’insuccès de mon dessin numéro 1 et de mon dessin
numéro 2. Les grandes personnes ne comprennent jamais rien toutes seules, et
c’est fatigant, pour les enfants, de toujours et toujours leur donner des
explications.
J’ai donc d choisir un autre métier et j’ai
appris à piloter des avions. J’ai volé un peu partout dans le monde. Et la
géographie, c’est exact, m’a beaucoup servi. Je savais reconnatre, du premier
coup d’oeil, la Chine de l’Arizona. C’est très utile, si l’on s’est égaré
pendant la nuit.
J’ai ainsi eu, au cours de ma vie, des tas de
contacts avec des tas de gens sérieux. J’ai beaucoup vécu chez les grandes personnes.
Je les ai vues de très près. a n’a pas trop amélioré mon opinion.
Quand j’en rencontrais une qui me paraissait
un peu lucide, je faisais l’expérience sur elle de mon dessin numéro 1 que j’ai
toujours conservé. Je voulais savoir si elle était vraiment compréhensive. Mais
toujours elle me répondait: “C’est un chapeau.” Alors je ne lui parlais ni de
serpents boas, ni de forêts vierges, ni d’étoiles. Je me mettais à sa portée.
Je lui parlais de bridge, de golf, de politique et de cravates. Et la grande
personne était bien contente de connatre un homme aussi raisonnable.
英文版
Once when I was six years old I saw a
magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories from Nature, about the
primeval forest. It was a picture of a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing
an animal. Here is a copy of the drawing.
In the book it said: “Boa constrictors swallow
their prey whole, without chewing it. After that they are not able to move, and
they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion.”
I pondered deeply, then, over the adventures
of the jungle. And after some work with a colored pencil I succeeded in making
my first drawing. My Drawing Number One. It looked like this:
I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups, and
asked them whether the drawing frightened them. But they answered: “Frighten?
Why should any one be frightened by a hat?”
My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was
a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. But since the grown-ups
were not able to understand it, I made another drawing: I drew the inside of
the boa constrictor, so that the grown-ups could see it clearly. They always
need to have things explained. My Drawing Number Two looked like this:
The grown-ups’ response, this time, was to
advise me to lay aside my drawings of boa constrictors, whether from the inside
or the outside, and devote myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic and
grammar. That is why, at the age of six, I gave up what might have been a
magnificent career as a painter. I had been disheartened by the failure of my
Drawing Number One and my Drawing Number Two. Grown-ups never understand
anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and
forever explaining things to them.
So then I chose another profession, and
learned to pilot airplanes. I have flown a little over all parts of the world;
and it is true that geography has been very useful to me. At a glance I can
distinguish China from Arizona. If one gets lost in the night, such knowledge
is valuable.
In the course of this life I have had a great
many encounters with a great many people who have been concerned with matters
of consequence. I have lived a great deal among grown-ups. I have seen them
intimately, close at hand. And that hasn’t much improved my opinion of them.
Whenever I met one of them who seemed to me at
all clear-sighted, I tried the experiment of showing him my Drawing Number One,
which I have always kept. I would try to find out, so, if this was a person of
true understanding. But, whoever it was, he, or she, would always say: “That is
a hat.”
Then I would never talk to that person about
boa constrictors, or primeval forests, or stars. I would bring myself down to
his level. I would talk to him about bridge, and golf, and politics, and
neckties. And the grown-up would be greatly pleased to have met such a sensible
man.
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