小王子当时气得脸色发白。

The little prince was now white with rage.

“几百万年以来花儿都在制造着刺，几百万年以来羊仍然在吃花。要搞清楚为什么花儿费那么大劲给自己制造没有什么用的刺，这难道不是正经事？难道羊和花之间的战争不重要？这难道不比那个大胖子红脸先生的帐目更重要？

“The flowers have been growing thorns for millions of years. For millions of years the sheep have been eating them just the same. And is it not a matter of consequence to try to understand why the flowers go to so much trouble to grow thorns which are never of any use to them? Is the warfare between the sheep and the flowers not important? Is this not of more consequence than a fat red-faced gentleman’s sums?

如果我认识一朵人世间唯一的花，只有我的星球上有它，别的地方都不存在，而一只小羊胡里胡涂就这样把它一下子毁掉了，这难道不重要？”

And if I know — I, myself — one flower which is unique in the world, which grows nowhere but on my planet, but which one little sheep can destroy in a single bite some morning, without even noticing what he is doing — Oh! You think that is not important!”

他的脸气得发红，然后又接着说道：

His face turned from white to red as he continued:

“如果有人爱上了在这亿万颗星星中独一无二的一株花，当他看着这些星星的时候，这就足以使他感到幸福。他可以自言自语地说：‘我的那朵花就在其中的一颗星星上……’，但是如果羊吃掉了这朵花，对他来说，好象所有的星星一下子全都熄灭了一样！这难道也不重要吗？！”

“If some one loves a flower, of which just one single blossom grows in all the millions and millions of stars, it is enough to make him happy just to look at the stars. He can say to himself, ‘Somewhere, my flower is there…’ But if the sheep eats the flower, in one moment all his stars will be darkened… And you think that is not important!”

他无法再说下去了，突然泣不成声。夜幕已经降临。我放下手中的工具。我把锤子、螺钉、饥渴、死亡，全都抛在脑后。在一颗星球上，在一颗行星上，在我的行星上，在地球上有一个小王子需要安慰！我把他抱在怀里。我摇着他，对他说：

He could not say anything more. His words were choked by sobbing. The night had fallen. I had let my tools drop from my hands. Of what moment now was my hammer, my bolt, or thirst, or death? On one star, one planet, my planet, the Earth, there was a little prince to be comforted. I took him in my arms, and rocked him. I said to him:

“你爱的那朵花没有危险……我给你的小羊画一个罩子……我给你的花画一副盔甲……我……”

“The flower that you love is not in danger. I will draw you a muzzle for your sheep. I will draw you a railing to put around your flower. I will — ”

我也不太知道该说些什么。我觉得自己太笨拙。我不知道怎样才能达到他的境界，怎样才能再进入他的境界……唉，泪水的世界是多么神秘啊！

I did not know what to say to him. I felt awkward and blundering. I did not know how I could reach him, where I could overtake him and go on hand in hand with him once more. It is such a secret place, the land of tears.

VIII

VIII

很快我就进一步了解了这朵花儿。在小王子的星球上，过去一直都生长着一些只有一层花瓣的很简单的花。这些花非常小，一点也不占地方，从来也不会去打搅任何人。她们早晨在草丛中开放，晚上就凋谢了。

I soon learned to know this flower better. On the little prince’s planet the flowers had always been very simple. They had only one ring of petals; they took up no room at all; they were a trouble to nobody. One morning they would appear in the grass, and by night they would have faded peacefully away.

不知从哪里来了一颗种子，忽然一天这种子发了芽。小王子特别仔细地监视着这棵与众不同的小苗：这玩艺说不定是一种新的猴面包树。

But one day, from a seed blown from no one knew where, a new flower had come up; and the little prince had watched very closely over this small sprout which was not like any other small sprouts on his planet. It might, you see, have been a new kind of baobab.

但是，这小苗不久就不再长了，而且开始孕育着一个花朵。看到在这棵苗上长出了一个很大很大的花蕾，小王子感觉到从这个花苞中一定会出现一个奇迹。然而这朵花藏在它那绿茵茵的房间中用了很长的时间来打扮自己。

The shrub soon stopped growing, and began to get ready to produce a flower. The little prince, who was present at the first appearance of a huge bud, felt at once that some sort of miraculous apparition must emerge from it. But the flower was not satisfied to complete the preparations for her beauty in the shelter of her green chamber.

她精心选择着她将来的颜色，慢慢腾腾地妆饰着，一片片地搭配着她的花瓣，她不愿象虞美人那样一出世就满脸皱纹。她要让自己带着光艳夺目的丽姿来到世间。是的，她是非常爱俏的。

She chose her colors with the greatest care. She dressed herself slowly. She adjusted her petals one by one. She did not wish to go out into the world all rumpled, like the field poppies. It was only in the full radiance of her beauty that she wished to appear. Oh, yes! She was a coquettish creature!

她用好些好些日子天仙般地梳妆打扮。然后，在一天的早晨，恰好在太阳升起的时候，她开放了。

And her mysterious adornment lasted for days and days. Then one morning, exactly at sunrise, she suddenly showed herself.

她已经精细地做了那么长的准备工作，却打着哈欠说道：

And, after working with all this painstaking precision, she yawned and said:

“我刚刚睡醒，真对不起，瞧我的头发还是乱蓬蓬的……”

“Ah! I am scarcely awake. I beg that you will excuse me. My petals are still all disarranged…”

小王子这时再也控制不住自己的爱慕心情：

But the little prince could not restrain his admiration:

“你是多么美丽啊！”

“Oh! How beautiful you are!”

花儿悠然自得地说：
“是吧，我是与太阳同时出生的……”

“Am I not?” the flower responded, sweetly. “And I was born at the same moment as the sun…”

小王子看出了这花儿不太谦虚，可是她确实丽姿动人。

The little prince could guess easily enough that she was not any too modest — but how moving — and exciting — she was!

她随后又说道：“现在该是吃早点的时候了吧，请你也想着给我准备一点……”

“I think it is time for breakfast,” she added an instant later. “If you would have the kindness to think of my needs…”

小王子很有些不好意思，于是就拿着喷壶，打来了一壶清清的凉水，浇灌着花儿。

And the little prince, completely abashed, went to look for a sprinkling-can of fresh water.

于是，就这样，这朵花儿就以她那有点敏感多疑的虚荣心折磨着小王子。例如，有一天，她向小王子讲起她身上长的四根刺：

So, he tended the flower. So, too, she began very quickly to torment him with her vanity — which was, if the truth be known, a little difficult to deal with. One day, for instance, when she was speaking of her four thorns, she said to the little prince:

“老虎，让它张着爪子来吧！”

“Let the tigers come with their claws!”

小王子顶了她一句：“在我这个星球上没有老虎，而且，老虎是不会吃草的”。

“There are no tigers on my planet,” the little prince objected. “And, anyway, tigers do not eat weeds.”

花儿轻声说道：“我并不是草。”

“I am not a weed,” the flower replied, sweetly.

“真对不起。”

“Please excuse me…”

“我并不怕什么老虎，可我讨厌穿堂风。你没有屏风？”

“I am not at all afraid of tigers,” she went on, “but I have a horror of drafts. I suppose you wouldn’t have a screen for me?”

小王子思忖着：“讨厌穿堂风……这对一株植物来说，真不走运，这朵花儿真不大好伺候……”

“A horror of drafts — that is bad luck, for a plant,” remarked the little prince, and added to himself, “This flower is a very complex creature…”

“晚上您得把我保护好。你这地方太冷。在这里住得不好，我原来住的那个地方……”

“At night I want you to put me under a glass globe. It is very cold where you live. In the place I came from — ”

但她没有说下去。她来的时候是粒种子。她哪里见过什么别的世界。她叫人发现她是在凑一个如此不太高明的谎话，她有点羞怒，咳嗽了两三声。她的这一招是要小王子处于有过失的地位，她说道：

But she interrupted herself at that point. She had come in the form of a seed. She could not have known anything of any other worlds. Embarrassed over having let herself be caught on the verge of such a naïve untruth, she coughed two or three times, in order to put the little prince in the wrong.

“屏风呢？”

“The screen?”

“我这就去拿。可你刚才说的是……”

“I was just going to look for it when you spoke to me…”

于是花儿放开嗓门咳嗽了几声，依然要使小王子后悔自己的过失。

Then she forced her cough a little more so that he should suffer from remorse just the same.

尽管小王子本来诚心诚意地喜欢这朵花，可是，这一来，却使他马上对她产生了怀疑。小王子对一些无关紧要的话看得太认真，结果使自己很苦恼。

So the little prince, in spite of all the good will that was inseparable from his love, had soon come to doubt her. He had taken seriously words which were without importance, and it made him very unhappy.

有一天他告诉我说：“我不该听信她的话，绝不该听信那些花儿的话，看看花，闻闻它就得了。我的那朵花使我的星球芳香四溢，可我不会享受它。关于老虎爪子的事，本应该使我产生同情，却反而使我恼火……”

“I ought not to have listened to her,” he confided to me one day. “One never ought to listen to the flowers. One should simply look at them and breathe their fragrance. Mine perfumed all my planet. But I did not know how to take pleasure in all her grace. This tale of claws, which disturbed me so much, should only have filled my heart with tenderness and pity.”

他还告诉我说：

And he continued his confidences:

“我那时什么也不懂！我应该根据她的行为，而不是根据她的话来判断她。她使我的生活芬芳多彩，我真不该离开她跑出来。我本应该猜出在她那令人爱怜的花招后面所隐藏的温情。花是多么自相矛盾！我当时太年青，还不懂得爱她。”

“The fact is that I did not know how to understand anything! I ought to have judged by deeds and not by words. She cast her fragrance and her radiance over me. I ought never to have run away from her… I ought to have guessed all the affection that lay behind her poor little stratagems. Flowers are so inconsistent! But I was too young to know how to love her …”

IX

IX

我想小王子大概是利用一群候鸟迁徙的机会跑出来的。在他出发的那天早上，他把他的星球收拾得整整齐齐，把它上头的活火山打扫得干干净净。——他有两个活火山，早上热早点很方便。

I believe that for his escape he took advantage of the migration of a flock of wild birds. On the morning of his departure he put his planet in perfect order. He carefully cleaned out his active volcanoes. He possessed two active volcanoes; and they were very convenient for heating his breakfast in the morning.

他还有一座死火山，他也把它打扫干净。他想，说不定它还会活动呢！打扫干净了，它们就可以慢慢地有规律地燃烧，而不会突然爆发。火山爆发就象烟囱里的火焰一样。

He also had one volcano that was extinct. But, as he said, “One never knows!” So he cleaned out the extinct volcano, too. If they are well cleaned out, volcanoes burn slowly and steadily, without any eruptions. Volcanic eruptions are like fires in a chimney.

当然，在我们地球上我们人太小，不能打扫火山，所以火山给我们带来很多很多麻烦。

On our earth we are obviously much too small to clean out our volcanoes. That is why they bring no end of trouble upon us.

小王子还把剩下的最后几颗猴面包树苗全拔了。他有点忧伤。他以为他再也不会回来了。这天，这些家常活使他感到特别亲切。

The little prince also pulled up, with a certain sense of dejection, the last little shoots of the baobabs. He believed that he would never want to return. But on this last morning all these familiar tasks seemed very precious to him.

当他最后一次浇花时，准备把她好好珍藏起来。他发觉自己要哭出来。

And when he watered the flower for the last time, and prepared to place her under the shelter of her glass globe, he realized that he was very close to tears.

“再见了。”他对花儿说道。

 “Goodbye,” he said to the flower.

可是花儿没有回答他。

But she made no answer.

“再见了。”他又说了一遍。

“Goodbye,” he said again.

花儿咳嗽了一阵。但并不是由于感冒。

The flower coughed. But it was not because she had a cold.

她终于对他说道：“我方才真蠢。请你原谅我。希望你能幸福。”

“I have been silly,” she said to him, at last. “I ask your forgiveness. Try to be happy…”

花儿对他毫不抱怨，他感到很惊讶。他举着罩子，不知所措地伫立在那里。他不明白她为什么会这样温柔恬静。

He was surprised by this absence of reproaches. He stood there all bewildered, the glass globe held arrested in mid-air. He did not understand this quiet sweetness.

“的确，我爱你。”花儿对他说道：“但由于我的过错，你一点也没有理会。这丝毫不重要。不过，你也和我一样的蠢。希望你今后能幸福。把罩子放在一边吧，我用不着它了。”

“Of course I love you,” the flower said to him. “It is my fault that you have not known it all the while. That is of no importance. But you — you have been just as foolish as I. Try to be happy… Let the glass globe be. I don’t want it any more.”

“要是风来了怎么办？”

“But the wind — ”

“我的感冒并不那么重……夜晚的凉风对我倒有好处。我是一朵花。”

“My cold is not so bad as all that… The cool night air will do me good. I am a flower.”

“要是有虫子野兽呢？……”

“But the animals — ”

“我要是想认识蝴蝶，经不起两三只尺蠖是不行的。据说这是很美的。不然还有谁来看我呢？你就要到远处去了。至于说大动物，我并不怕，我有爪子。”

“Well, I must endure the presence of two or three caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies. It seems that they are very beautiful. And if not the butterflies — and the caterpillars — who will call upon me? You will be far away… As for the large animals — I am not at all afraid of any of them. I have my claws.”

于是，她天真地显露出她那四根刺，随后又说道：

And, naïvely, she showed her four thorns. Then she added:

“别这么磨蹭了。真烦人！你既然决定离开这儿，那么，快走吧！”

“Don’t linger like this. You have decided to go away. Now go!”

她是怕小王子看见她在哭。她是一朵非常骄傲的花……

For she did not want him to see her crying. She was such a proud flower.

X

X

在附近的宇宙中，还有 325、326、327、328、329、330 等几颗小行星。他就开始访问这几颗星球，想在那里找点事干，并且学习学习。

He found himself in the neighborhood of the asteroids 325, 326, 327, 328, 329, and 330. He began, therefore, by visiting them, in order to add to his knowledge.

第一颗星球上住着一个国王。国王穿着用紫红色和白底黑花的毛皮做成的大礼服，坐在一个很简单却又十分威严的宝座上。

The first of them was inhabited by a king. Clad in royal purple and ermine, he was seated upon a throne which was at the same time both simple and majestic.

当他看见小王子时，喊了起来：
“啊，来了一个臣民。”

“Ah! Here is a subject,” exclaimed the king, when he saw the little prince coming.

小王子思量着：“他从来也没有见过我，怎么会认识我呢？”

And the little prince asked himself:
“How could he recognize me when he had never seen me before?”

他哪里知道，在那些国王的眼里，世界是非常简单的：所有的人都是臣民。

He did not know how the world is simplified for kings. To them, all men are subjects.

国王十分骄傲，因为他终于成了某个人的国王，他对小王子说道：“靠近些，好让我好好看看你。”

“Approach, so that I may see you better,” said the king, who felt consumingly proud of being at last a king over somebody.

小王子看看四周，想找个地方坐下来，可是整个星球被国王华丽的白底黑花皮袍占满了。他只好站在那里，但是因为疲倦了，他打起哈欠来。

The little prince looked everywhere to find a place to sit down; but the entire planet was crammed and obstructed by the king’s magnificent ermine robe. So he remained standing upright, and, since he was tired, he yawned.

君王对他说：“在一个国王面前打哈欠是违反礼节的。我禁止你打哈欠。”

“It is contrary to etiquette to yawn in the presence of a king,” the monarch said to him. “I forbid you to do so.”

小王子羞愧地说道：“我实在忍不住，我长途跋涉来到这里，还没有睡觉呢。”

“I can’t help it. I can’t stop myself,” replied the little prince, thoroughly embarrassed. “I have come on a long journey, and I have had no sleep…”

国王说：“那好吧，我命令你打哈欠。好些年来我没有看见过任何人打哈欠。对我来说，打哈欠倒是新奇的事。来吧，再打个哈欠！这是命令。”

“Ah, then,” the king said. “I order you to yawn. It is years since I have seen anyone yawning. Yawns, to me, are objects of curiosity. Come, now! Yawn again! It is an order.”

“这倒叫我有点紧张……我打不出哈欠来了……”小王子红着脸说。

“That frightens me… I cannot, any more…” murmured the little prince, now completely abashed.

“嗯！嗯！”国王回答道：“那么我……命令你忽而打哈欠，忽而……”

“Hum! Hum!” replied the king. “Then I — I order you sometimes to yawn and sometimes to — ”

他嘟嘟囔囔，显出有点恼怒。

He sputtered a little, and seemed vexed.

因为国王所要求的主要是保持他的威严受到尊敬。他不能容忍不听他的命令。他是一位绝对的君主。可是，他却很善良，他下的命令都是有理智的。

For what the king fundamentally insisted upon was that his authority should be respected. He tolerated no disobedience. He was an absolute monarch. But, because he was a very good man, he made his orders reasonable.

他常常说：“如果我叫一位将军变成一只海鸟，而这位将军不服从我的命令，那么这就不是将军的过错，而是我的过错。”

“If I ordered a general,” he would say, by way of example, “if I ordered a general to change himself into a sea bird, and if the general did not obey me, that would not be the fault of the general. It would be my fault.”

小王子腼腆地试探道：“我可以坐下吗？”

“May I sit down?” came now a timid inquiry from the little prince.

“我命令你坐下。”国王一边回答，一边庄重地把他那白底黑花皮袍大襟挪动了一下。

“I order you to do so,” the king answered him, and majestically gathered in a fold of his ermine mantle.

可是小王子感到很奇怪。这么小的行星，国王他对什么进行统治呢？

But the little prince was wondering… The planet was tiny. Over what could this king really rule?

他对国王说：“陛下……请原谅，我想问您……”

“Sire,” he said to him, “I beg that you will excuse my asking you a question — ”

国王急忙抢着说道：“我命令你问我。”

“I order you to ask me a question,” the king hastened to assure him.

“陛下……你统治什么呢？”

“Sire — over what do you rule?”

国王非常简单明了地说：“我统治一切。”

“Over everything,” said the king, with magnificent simplicity.

“一切？”

“Over everything?”

国王轻轻地用手指着他的行星和其他的行星，以及所有的星星。

The king made a gesture, which took in his planet, the other planets, and all the stars.

小王子说：“统治这一切？”

“Over all that?” asked the little prince.

“统治这一切。”

“Over all that,” the king answered.

原来他不仅是一个绝对的君主，而且是整个宇宙的君主。

For his rule was not only absolute: it was also universal.

“那么，星星都服从您吗？”

“And the stars obey you?”

“那当然！”国王对他说，“它们立即就得服从。我是不允许无纪律的。”

“Certainly they do,” the king said. “They obey instantly. I do not permit insubordination.”

这样的权力使小王子惊叹不已。如果掌握了这样的权力，那么，他一天就不只是看到四十三次日落，而可以看到七十二次，甚至一百次，或是二百次日落，也不必要去挪动椅子了！

Such power was a thing for the little prince to marvel at. If he had been master of such complete authority, he would have been able to watch the sunset, not forty-four times in one day, but seventy-two, or even a hundred, or even two hundred times, without ever having to move his chair.

由于他想起了他那被遗弃的小星球，心里有点难过，他大胆地向国王提出了一个请求：

And because he felt a bit sad as he remembered his little planet which he had forsaken, he plucked up his courage to ask the king a favor:

“我想看日落，请求您……命令太阳落山吧……”

“I should like to see a sunset… Do me that kindness… Order the sun to set…”