小王子Chapter4-1

小王子chapter 4-1
I had thus learned a second fact of great importance: this was that the planet the little prince came from was scarcely any larger than a house!
But that did not really surprise me much.
I knew very well that in addition to the great planets—such as the Earth, Jupiter, Mars, Venus—to which we have given names, there are also hundreds of others, some of which are so small that one has a hard time seeing them through the telescope.
When an astronomer discovers one of these he does not give it a name, but only a number. He might call it, for example, “Asteroid 325.”
I have serious reason to believe that the planet from which the little prince came is the asteroid known as B-612.

This asteroid has only once been seen through the telescope. That was by a Turkish astronomer, in 1909.
On making his discovery, the astronomer had presented it to the International Astronomical Congress, in a great demonstration. But he was in Turkish costume, and so nobody would believe what he said.

Grown-ups are like that . . .
Fortunately, however, for the reputation of Asteroid B-612, a Turkish dictator made a law that his subjects, under pain of death, should change to European costume.
So in 1920 the astronomer gave his demonstration all over again, dressed with impressive style and elegance. And this time everybody accepted his report.

If I have told you these details about the asteroid, and made a note of its number for you, it is on account of the grown-ups and their ways.
Grown-ups love figures.
When you tell them that you have made a new friend, they never ask you any questions about essential matters. They never say to you, “What does his voice sound like? What games does he love best? Does he collect butterflies?”
Instead, they demand: “How old is he? How many brothers has he? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father make?” Only from these figures do they think they have learned anything about him.
If you were to say to the grown-ups: “I saw a beautiful house made of rosy brick, with geraniums in the windows and doves on the roof,” they would not be able to get any idea of that house at all. You would have to say to them: “I saw a house that cost 4,000 pounds.” Then they would exclaim: “Oh, what a pretty house that is!”
这样我就又知道了另一个重要的事实： 小王子住的星球几乎没有一座房子大！
但这并不真的让我吃惊。我知道得很清楚,除了巨大的行星——如地球、木星、火星、金星——我们给的名字,也有其他数百行星,其中一些太小,很难通过望远镜看到他们。当一个天文学家发现其中一个，他没有给它一个名字,只赋予它一个数字。例如,他可能会称之为“小行星325。”
我有确切的理由相信小王子来自于这颗被称为b - 612的小行星。
这颗小行星仅有一次通过望远镜被观测到。是在1990年由一位土耳其天文学家发现。
他这个发现,在国际天文学大会上被提出，并做了伟大声明。但由于他的一身土耳其装束,导致没有人会相信他所说的话。
大人就是这样…
然而，幸运地是，为了小行星B-612的声明，一个土耳其的独裁者下令，所有土耳其人都必须改穿欧洲服装，否则就会被处以死刑。所以在1920年,天文学家重新又做了一次声明,这次他穿着优雅且引人注目。这一次每个人都接受了他的报告。
如果我告诉你这些关于小行星的细节，并为你记下它的编号，那是因为大人们喜欢这样的方式。成年人喜欢数字。当你告诉他们你已经交了一个新朋友，他们从不问你任何关于基本事件的问题。他们从来不对你说:“他的声音听起来像什么?”他最喜欢什么游戏?他收集蝴蝶吗?相反，他们需求的是:“他多大了?”他有几个兄弟?他的体重是多少?他父亲挣多少钱?“只有从这些数字中，他们才会认为他们已经了解了他。”
如果你对大人们说:“我看到一幢漂亮的房子，是用玫瑰色的砖砌成的，窗户上有天竺葵，屋顶上有鸽子，”他们根本对那所房子毫无感触。你必须对他们说:“我看到一幢价值4000