《小王子》是一部童话，而更值得一提的是“它是一本给成人看的儿童书籍”，“在他富有诗意的淡淡的哀愁中蕴含着一整套的哲学思想”。这本给成人看的童话包含着象征意义，这些象征看上去既明确又隐晦，因此就格外的美。《小王子》的中译本在市面上有很多中，很容易找到，再此分享英文版(第1章和第2章，共26章）。此外中、英文版可参见：http://www.xiaowangzi.org/或者http://bbs.readnovel.com/htm_data/96/0604/87796.html。希望大家喜欢！
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To Leon Werth
I ask the indulgenceof the children who may read this book for dedicating it to a grown-up.I have a serious reason: he is the best friend I have in the world. Ihave another reason: this grown-up understands everything, even booksabout children. I have a third reason: he lives in France where he ishungry and cold. He needs cheering up. If all these reasons are notenough, I will dedicate the book to the child from whom this grown-upgrew. All grown-ups were once children-- although few of them rememberit. And so I correct my dedication:
To Leon Werth
when he was a little boy
[ Chapter 1 ]
- we are introduced to the narrator, a pilot, and his ideas about grown-ups
Oncewhen I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, calledTrue Stories from Nature, about the primeval forest. It was a pictureof a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal. Here is a copyof the drawing.
In the book it said: "Boa constrictors swallowtheir prey whole, without chewing it. After that they are not able tomove, and they sleep through the six months that they need fordigestion."
I pondered deeply, then, over the adventures ofthe jungle. And after some work with a colored pencil I succeeded inmaking 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?"
Mydrawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boaconstrictor digesting an elephant. But since the grown-ups were notable to understand it, I made another drawing: I drew the inside of theboa constrictor, so that the grown-ups could see it clearly. Theyalways need to have things explained. My Drawing Number Two looked likethis:
Thegrown-ups' response, this time, was to advise me to lay aside mydrawings of boa constrictors, whether from the inside or the outside,and devote myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic andgrammar. That is why, at the age of six, I gave up what might have beena magnificent career as a painter. I had been disheartened by thefailure of my Drawing Number One and my Drawing Number Two. Grown-upsnever understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome forchildren to be always and forever explaining things to them.
Sothen I chose another profession, and learned to pilot airplanes. I haveflown a little over all parts of the world; and it is true thatgeography has been very useful to me. At a glance I can distinguishChina from Arizona. If one gets lost in the night, such knowledge isvaluable.
In the course of this life I have had a great manyencounters with a great many people who have been concerned withmatters of consequence. I have lived a great deal among grown-ups. Ihave seen them intimately, close at hand. And that hasn't much improvedmy opinion of them.
Whenever I met one of them who seemed tome at all clear-sighted, I tried the experiment of showing him myDrawing 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 Iwould never talk to that person about boa constrictors, or primevalforests, or stars. I would bring myself down to his level. I would talkto him about bridge, and golf, and politics, and neckties. And thegrown-up would be greatly pleased to have met such a sensible man.
[ Chapter 2 ]
- the narrator crashes in the desert and makes the acquaintance of the little prince
SoI lived my life alone, without anyone that I could really talk to,until I had an accident with my plane in the Desert of Sahara, sixyears ago. Something was broken in my engine. And as I had with meneither a mechanic nor any passengers, I set myself to attempt thedifficult repairs all alone. It was a question of life or death for me:I had scarcely enough drinking water to last a week.
The firstnight, then, I went to sleep on the sand, a thousand miles from anyhuman habitation. I was more isolated than a shipwrecked sailor on araft in the middle of the ocean. Thus you can imagine my amazement, atsunrise, when I was awakened by an odd little voice. It said:
"If you please-- draw me a sheep!"
"What!"
"Draw me a sheep!"
Ijumped to my feet, completely thunderstruck. I blinked my eyes hard. Ilooked carefully all around me. And I saw a most extraordinary smallperson, who stood there examining me with great seriousness. Here youmay see the best potrait that, later, I was able to make of him. But mydrawing is certainly very much less charming than its model.
That,however, is not my fault. The grown-ups discouraged me in my painter'scareer when I was six years old, and I never learned to draw anything,except boas from the outside and boas from the inside.
Now Istared at this sudden apparition with my eyes fairly starting out of myhead in astonishment. Remember, I had crashed in the desert a thousandmiles from any inhabited region. And yet my little man seemed neitherto be straying uncertainly among the sands, nor to be fainting fromfatigue or hunger or thirst or fear. Nothing about him gave anysuggestion of a child lost in the middle of the desert, a thousandmiles from any human habitation. When at last I was able to speak, Isaid to him:
"But-- what are you doing here?"
And inanswer he repeated, very slowly, as if he were speaking of a matter ofgreat consequence: "If you please-- draw me a sheep..."
When amystery is too overpowering, one dare not disobey. Absurd as it mightseem to me, a thousand miles from any human habitation and in danger ofdeath, I took out of my pocket a sheet of paper and my fountain-pen.But then I remembered how my studies had been concentrated ongeography, history, arithmetic, and grammar, and I told the little chap(a little crossly, too) that I did not know how to draw. He answeredme:
"That doesn't matter. Draw me a sheep..."
But Ihad never drawn a sheep. So I drew for him one of the two pictures Ihad drawn so often. It was that of the boa constrictor from theoutside. And I was astounded to hear the little fellow greet it with,
"No,no, no! I do not want an elephant inside a boa constrictor. A boaconstrictor is a very dangerous creature, and an elephant is verycumbersome. Where I live, everything is very small. What I need is asheep. Draw me a sheep."
So then I made a drawing.
He looked at it carefully, then he said:
"No. This sheep is already very sickly. Make me another."
So I made another drawing.
My friend smiled gently and indulgenty.
"You see yourself," he said, "that this is not a sheep. This is a ram. It has horns."
So then I did my drawing over once more.
But it was rejected too, just like the others.
"This one is too old. I want a sheep that will live a long time."
By this time my patience was exhausted, because I was in a hurry to start taking my engine apart. So I tossed off this drawing.
And I threw out an explanation with it.
"This is only his box. The sheep you asked for is inside."
I was very surprised to see a light break over the face of my young judge:
"That is exactly the way I wanted it! Do you think that this sheep will have to have a great deal of grass?"
"Why?"
"Because where I live everything is very small..."
"There will surely be enough grass for him," I said. "It is a very small sheep that I have given you."
He bent his head over the drawing:
"Not so small that-- Look! He has gone to sleep..."
And that is how I made the acquaintance of the little prince.
