第4章

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.

我六岁的时候，有一次在一本描写原始森林，名为《百兽生猛史》的书里，看见过一幅令人惊叹的插图。图上画的是一条蟒蛇在吞噬一头野兽，上图是我对那幅插图的临摹。

书里是这样讲的：“蟒蛇吃掉其猎物时，总是囫囵吞入，无须咬嚼。吞下之后，它们就动弹不了，然后一睡就是六个月，躺在那里静静地消化食物。”

看过后，我对原始森林里百兽争斗的情景思索了好久，接着，就用一支彩色笔，画出我生平的第一张图画，即我的“绘画作品第一号”。下图便是：

我把自己这幅得意之作拿给成年人看，还问他们看后害不害怕。

他们回答我说：“为什么要怕一顶帽子呢？”

我画的当然不是一顶帽子，而是一条刚吞下一头大象的蟒蛇。为了使那些成年人明白，我又画出蟒蛇一侧的剖面图。成年人总需要别人对他们多加解释。以下就是我的“绘画作品第二号”：

到头来，大人们都劝告我，不要再去画蟒蛇整体图、蟒蛇剖面图了，还是好好去学地理、历史、算术和语法吧。就这样，在六岁的时候，我就不得不放弃了当画家的远大理想。我的第一号与第二号绘画作品的失败，使我特别灰心丧气。大人们从来都是自己没有把事情弄明白，而总是要我们小孩解释个没完没了，这真是特别累人的事。

于是，我选择了另一种职业，学会了开飞机。世界各地我都飞过。的确，地理知识对我有很大的帮助，它使我一眼就能识别中国与美国亚利桑那州的不同。万一夜间迷航，这可大有用处。

在实际生活中，我与很多严肃认真的人有过很多很多的接触。我在成年人之中生活了很多年，对他们有近距离的观察。对他们的了解，并没有怎么改变我对他们的上述看法。

每当我遇上一个我觉得还算聪明的成年人的时候，我就拿出我一直保存着的那幅“绘画作品第一号”，做个测试，看对方是否理解那幅画。但是，我每次都得到同样的回答：“这是一顶帽子。”于是，我就不跟他谈蟒蛇了，也不谈原始森林，更不谈星星月亮。我就把自己降到他那个水平，跟他谈桥牌，谈高尔夫球，谈政治，谈领带。在这种情况下，对方总感到很高兴能结识我这么一个通情达理的朋友。