Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories from Nature, about the primeval forest.

当我还只有六岁的时候，在一本描写原始森林的名叫《真实的故事》的书中，看到了一副精彩的插画，

It was a picture of a boaconstrictor in the act of swallowing an animal.

画的是一条蟒蛇正在吞食一只大野兽。

Here is a copy of the drawing.

页头上就是那副画的摹本。

In the book it said: “Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewing it.

这本书中写道：“这些蟒蛇把它们的猎获物不加咀嚼地囫囵吞下。”

After that they are not able to move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion.

尔后就不能再动弹了；它们就在长长的六个月的睡眠中消化这些食物。

I pondered deeply, then, over the adventures of the jungle.

当时，我对丛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，我也用彩色铅笔画出了我的第一副图画。

My Drawing Number One.

我的第一号作品。

It looked like this:I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups, and asked them whether the drawing frightened them.

它是这样的： 我把我的这副杰作拿给大人看，我问他们我的画是不是叫他们害怕。

But they answered: “Frighten? Why should any one be frightened by a hat?”

他们回答我说：“一顶帽子有什么可怕的？”

My drawing was not a picture of a hat.

我画的不是帽子，

It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant.

是一条巨蟒在消化着一头大象。

But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it,I made another drawing:

但由于大人们无法理解它,我做了另一个图:

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况画了出来，以便让大人们能够看懂。

They always need to have things explained.

这些大人总是需要解释。

My Drawing Number Two looked like this:

我的第二号作品是这样的：

The grown-ups’ response, this time, was to advise me to lay aside my drawings of boa constrictors,

大人们劝我把这些画着开着肚皮的，或闭上肚皮的蟒蛇的图画放在一边，

whether from the inside or the outside, and devote myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic and grammar.

还是把兴趣放在地理、历史、算术、语法上。

That is why, at the age of six, I gave up what might have been a magnificent career as a painter.

就这样，在六岁的那年，我就放弃了当画家这一美好的职业。