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。 So I lived my life alone, without anyone that I could really talk to, until I hadan accident with my plane in the Desert of Sahara, six years ago. 我的发动机里有个东西损坏了。 Something was broken in my engine. 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。 And as I had with me neither a mechanic nor any passengers, I set myself to attempt the difficult repairs all alone. 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。 It was a question of life or death for me: I had scarcely enough drinking water to last a week. 第一天晚上我就睡在这远离人间烟火的大沙漠上。 The first night, then, I went to sleep on the sand, a thousand miles from any human habitation. 我比大海中伏在小木排上的遇难者还要孤独得多。 I was more isolated than a shipwrecked sailor on a raft in the middle of the ocean. 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。 Thus you can imagine my amazement, at sunrise,when I was awakened by an odd little voice. 这小小的声音说道：“请你给我画一只羊，好吗？” It said:"If you please– draw me a sheep!” 啊！ What! 给我画一只羊… Draw me a sheep! 我像是受到惊雷轰击一般，一下子就站立起来。 I jumped to my feet, completely thunderstruck. I blinked my eyes hard. 我使劲地揉了揉眼睛，仔细地看了看。 I looked carefully all around me. 我看见一个十分奇怪的小家伙严肃地朝我凝眸望着。 And I saw a most extraordinary small person,who stood there examining me with great seriousness. 这是后来我给他画出来的最好的一副画像。 Here you may see the best portrait that, later, I was able to make of him. 可是，我的画当然要比他本人的模样逊色得多。 But my drawing is certainly very much less charming than its model. 这不是我的过错。 That, however, is not my fault. 六岁时，大人们使我对我的画家生涯失去了勇气， The grown-ups discouraged me in my painter’s career when I was six years old, 除了画过开着肚皮和闭着肚皮的蟒蛇，后来再没有学过画。 and I never learned to draw anything, except boas from the outside and boas from the inside. 我惊奇地睁大着眼睛看着这突然出现的小家伙。 Now I stared at this sudden apparition with my eyes fairly starting out of my head in astonishment.