小王子 The Little Prince 第十六章

So then the seventh planet was Earth.

The Earth is not just anordinary planet! One can count,there, one hundred and eleven kings (including, of course, theAfrican kings), seventhousand geographers, nine hundred thousand businessmen,seven-and-a-half million drunkards, three-hundred-eleven million vain men; inother words, about two billion grown-ups.

To giveyou an idea of the size of the Earth, I will tell you that before the inventionof electricity it was necessary to maintain, over the whole of the sixcontinents, a veritable army of four-hundred-sixty-two thousand, five hundredand eleven lamplighters for the street lamps.

Seen from some distance, that would makea splendid effect. Themovements of this army would be regulatedlike those of the ballet in the opera. First would come the turn of thelamplighters of New Zealand and Australia. Having set their lampsalight, these would go off to sleep. Next, the lamplighters of China and Siberia would enter for their steps inthe dance, and then they too wouldbe waved back into the wings. After that would come the turnof the lamplighters of Russia and the Indies; then those of Africa and Europe; then those of South America; then thoseof North America. And never would theymake a mistake in the order of their entry upon the stage. It would be magnificent.

Only the man who was in charge of the single lamp at theNorth Pole, and his colleaguewho was responsible for the singlelamp at the South Pole-only these two would live free from toil and care: they would be busy twice a year.