发信人: nancyni(NN)
整理人: imstella(2001-02-22 00:38:29), 站内信件
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Chapter17
When one wishes to play the wit, he sometimes wanders a little form
the truth. I have not been altogether honest in what I have told you—
about the lamplighters. And I realize that I run the risk of giving a
false idea of our planet to those who do not know it. Men occupy a
very small place upon the Earth. If the two billion inhabitants who
people its surface were all to stand upright and somewhat crowded
together, as they do for some big pubic assembly, they could easily
be put into one public assembly, they could easily be put into one
public square twenty miles long and twenty miles wide. All humanity
could be piled up on a small Pacific islet.
The grown-ups, to be sure, will not believe you when you tell them
that. They imagine that they fill a great deal of space. They fancy
themselves as important as the baobabs. You should advise them, then,
to make their own calculations. They adore figures, and that will
please them. But do not waste your time on this extra task. It is
unnecessary. You have, I know, confidence in me.
When the little prince arrived on the Earth, he was very much
surprised not to see any people. He was beginning to be afraid he had
come to the wrong planet, when a coil of gold, the color of the
moonlight, flashed across the sand.
“Good evening.” Said the little prince courteously.
“Good evening.” Said the snake.
“What planet is this on which I have come down?” asked the little
prince.
“This is the Earth; this is Africa,” the snake answered.
“Ah! Then there are no people on the Earth?”
“This is the desert. There are no people in the desert. The Earth is
large,” said the snake.
The little prince sat down on a stone, and raised his eyes toward the
sky.
“ I wonder,” he said, “whether the stars are set alight in heaven
so that one day each one of us may find his own again ……look at my
planet. It is right there above us. But how far away it is!”
“It is beautiful!” the snake said. “What has brought you here?”
“I have been having some trouble with a flower.” Said the little
prince.
“Ah!” said the snake.
And they were, both silent.
“Where are the men?” the little prince at last took up the
conversation again. “It is a little lonely in the desert ……”
“It is also lonely among men.” The snake said.
The little prince gazed at him for a long time.
“You are a funny animal, “ he said at last, “You are no: thicker
than a finger ……”
“But I am more powerful than the finger of a king.” Said the snake.
The little prince smiled and said:
“You are not very powerful. You haven’t even any feet. You cannot
even travel ……”
“I can carry you farther than any ship could take you,” said the
snake.
He twined himself around the little prince’s ankle, like a golden
bracelet.
“Whomever I touch, I send back to the earth from whence he came,”
the snake spoke again. “but you are innocent and true, and you come
from a star ……”
The little prince made no reply.
“You move me to pity—you are so weak on this Earth made of
granite,” the snake said. “I can help you, some day, if you grow
too homesick for your own planet. I can ……”
“Oh! I understand you very well. “ said the little prince. “But
why do you always speak in riddles?”
“I solve them all.” Said the snake.
And they were both silent.
(to be continued)
----
the fox said to the little prince:
“To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who
is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I
have no need of you. And you , on your part, have no need
of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred
thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall
need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the
world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world ……”
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