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.

当我六岁的时候，曾经在一本关于原始森林的名为《自然界的真实故事》书中看到了一幅极为震撼的画面。画面上是一条巨蟒正在吞噬一只野兽。画的旁边写着张图是那幅画的副本。

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."

书中说到：“巨蟒通常都是将猎物整个吞下，不经咀嚼”。在那之后他们将无法动弹，在接下来的六个月里他们将睡一觉，用以消化肚子里的食物。“”

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.

我沉思许久，丛林历险记。经过自己拿着彩色铅笔的一番涂涂画画之后，我完成了自己的第一幅画。我的作品第一号。

 It looked like this:

它看上去是这样子的：

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?"

我把我的杰作给大人们看，并且问他们是否被这幅作品所折服，惊艳到。

但他们的回答是：惊艳？有谁会被一顶帽子吓到呢？

My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant.

我的画才不是一个帽子。这幅画画的是一条巨蟒正在吞食大象。

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.

但是自从我发现大人们无法理解我的画作后，我又画了另外一幅：我在巨蟒的身体内部进行了补充绘画，这样大人们可以看的清楚一点。他们总是希望事事可以得到一个解释。

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

大人们的回应让我心灰意冷，建议我暂且把画巨蟒的事放在一边。不管是画巨蟒的内部还是开着的肚皮，还不如把自己全身心的投入到地理，历史，算数，语法里。

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

这就是为什么，在我六岁这年，我放弃了自己成为一个画家的伟大理想。