第一章
小时候，那时我还只有6岁，看到一本描写原始森林壮观景象的书，名叫《真实的故事》。书里有一幅很精彩的插画，画的是一条大蟒蛇正在吞食一只动物，下面就是那幅插画的复制品。
这本书上说：“大蟒蛇把它们的猎物不加咀嚼地整个吞下去，之后，就再也不动了，然后通过长达六个月的睡眠来消化掉这些食物。”
我想了很多热带丛林的冒险，几经思索，我拿起彩色铅笔终于成功地完成了我人生中的第一幅绘画。我的第一号作品，它是这样的：
我把这幅杰作拿给大人们看，我问他们我的画是否让他们感到恐惧。
他们回答我说：“一顶帽子有什么害怕的呢？”
但是，我画的不是一顶帽子，画里代表的是一条蟒蛇正在消化着一头大象。为了让这些大人们能够理解，我只好又画了一张画：我把大蟒蛇肚子里的情况画了出来——这些大人们总是需要解释。我的第二号作品是这样的：
这次大人们做出的反应是：他们建议我把这些画着看起来好像敞开肚皮的蟒蛇的图画放在一边，然后把精力放在地理、历史、计算和语法上。这就是为什么，在我六岁时，我放弃了成为一名职业画家的美丽梦想。第一号、第二号作品的不成功，令我十分沮丧。这些大人们自己什么都不懂，还需要孩子们不断地、不断地解释给他们听，这真是令人感到厌烦。
所以从那时起，我选择了另外一个职业，我学会了开飞机。我几乎飞遍了世界的每个角落。的确，地理学对我非常有用。飞过世界各地的我一眼就能分辨出中国和亚利桑那州。要是夜里迷失了航向，这样的知识是很有价值的。
在这样的生活轨道中，我邂逅过许许多多一直在关心重要事情的人。我有足够多的在大人们中间生活的经历。我近距离亲密地观察过他们。这些都没有显著提高我对他们的评价。
每当遇到一个在我看来头脑稍微清楚的大人时，我就拿出随身带着的我那第一号作品来测试他。我想知道他是否真的有理解能力。可是，不管我测试的人是谁，他或者她都会说：“这是顶帽子。”因此，我也就不和他们谈大蟒蛇啊、原始森林啊，或者星星之类的事。我会把自己降低到他们的水平，和他们谈些桥牌啊、高尔夫球啊、政治啊、领带啊这些。于是大人们就十分高兴能认识我这样一个通情达理的人。
Chapter 1
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.
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