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?"
Consuelo, 1942. Esposa de Antoine |
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… (From The Little Prince, by Antoine de
Saint-Exupéry)
Vocabulario
Primeval forest: /práimivel/virgin
forest; a very old or mature woodland, uninfluenced by human activity; also
called ancient forest, old growth forest, primary forest
Artículo relacionado
De la web
Character list. Sparknotes.com
The Little Prince,
audiobook. Archive.org
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