"Please... draw me a sheep..."
Here is an excerpt from my translation. It is from chapter two. The line above was one of the easiest to translate and I love it because I can just imagine the little prince saying it in his little voice. Sections highlighted in red are marked because I am struggling with them and I need to come back and sort through them more thoroughly. Words in parentheses are words that are alternate meanings fro the previous word and I haven't finally decided which to use yet.
So I lived alone, without anyone to truly talk to, until a crash in the Sahara desert six years ago. Something was broken in my motor and as I didn’t have a mechanic with me, nor any passengers, I prepared myself to attempt, on my own, the difficult repair. It was a question of life and death. I had barely enough water to drink for eight days.
The first night I fell asleep in the sand a thousand miles from any inhabited area. I was more isolated than a castaway on a raft in the middle of the ocean. So you imagine my surprise, at daybreak (sunup) when a funny little voice woke me. It said: “Please... draw me a sheep!”
“What!”
“Draw me a sheep...”
I jumped to my feet like I had been struck by lightening. I (thoroughly) rubbed my eyes. I looked hard. And I saw an absolutely extraordinary little fellow who was considering me seriously. There is the best portrait that, later, I succeeded in making of him. But my drawing, of course, is much less charming than the model. It’s not my fault. I was discouraged from my painting career by grown-ups, at the age of six, and I never learned how to draw, except for boas ouvert et fermes.
I was looking at this apparition (specter, ghost) with my eyes round with surprise. Don’t forget that I was located a thousand miles from any inhabited area. Yet my little man did not seem lost, nor dying of exhaustion, nor dying of hunger, nor dying of thirst, nor dying of fear. He had nothing of the appearance of a child lost in the middle of the desert, a thousand miles from any inhabited area. When I was finally able to speak (when I finally succeeded in speaking), I said to him: “But what are you doing here?”
He repeated softly, and very seriously: “Please... draw me a sheep...”
When the mystery is too impressive (overwhelming) one doesn’t dare disobey. As absurd as it seems, a thousand miles from any inhabited area and in danger of dying, I took from my pocket a piece of paper and a fountain pen. But I remembered that I had always studied geography, history, arithmetic, and grammar and I said to the little man (with a little bit of bad humor) that I didn’t know how to draw. He responded:
“It doesn’t matter. Draw me a sheep.”
If anyone would like to view my translation in the works, you can do so here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1E3MGjjG_s6Vfs5C0nW1u4-ToFkOGKeueYPE_JnVfFFg/edit?usp=sharing
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