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Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories from Nature, about the primeval forest.
當我還只有六歲的時候，在一本描寫原始森林的名叫《真實的故事》的書中，看到了一副精彩的插畫，
It was a picture of a boaconstrictor in the act of swallowing an animal.
畫的是一條蟒蛇正在吞食一只大野獸。
Here is a copy of the drawing.
頁頭上就是那副畫的摹本。
In the book it said: “Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewing it.
這本書中寫道：“這些蟒蛇把它們的獵獲物不加咀嚼地囫圇吞下。”
After that they are not able to move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion.
爾后就不能再動彈了；它們就在長長的六個月的睡眠中消化這些食物。
I pondered deeply, then, over the adventures of the jungle.
當時，我對叢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，我也用彩色鉛筆畫出了我的第一副圖畫。
My Drawing Number One.
我的第一號作品。
It looked like this:I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups, and asked them whether the drawing frightened them.
它是這樣的： 我把我的這副杰作拿給大人看，我問他們我的畫是不是叫他們害怕。
But they answered: “Frighten? Why should any one be frightened by a hat?”
他們回答我說：“一頂帽子有什么可怕的？”
My drawing was not a picture of a hat.
我畫的不是帽子，
It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant.
是一條巨蟒在消化著一頭大象。
But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it,I made another drawing:
但由于大人們無法理解它,我做了另一個圖:
I drew the inside of the boa constrictor, so that the grown-ups could see it clearly.
于是我又把巨蟒肚子里的情況畫了出來，以便讓大人們能夠看懂。
They always need to have things explained.
這些大人總是需要解釋。
My Drawing Number Two looked like this:
我的第二號作品是這樣的：
The grown-ups’ response, this time, was to advise me to lay aside my drawings of boa constrictors,
大人們勸我把這些畫著開著肚皮的，或閉上肚皮的蟒蛇的圖畫放在一邊，
whether from the inside or the outside, and devote myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic and grammar.
還是把興趣放在地理、歷史、算術、語法上。
That is why, at the age of six, I gave up what might have been a magnificent career as a painter.
就這樣，在六歲的那年，我就放棄了當畫家這一美好的職業。
