小王子 The little prince 第二十一章

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It was then that the fox appeared. “Good morning,” said the fox.

“Good morning,” the little prince responded politely,although when he turned around he saw nothing.

“I am right here,” the voice said, “under the apple

tree.”

“Who are you?”asked the little prince, and added,

“You are very pretty to look at.” “Iam a fox,” the fox said.

“Come and play with me,” proposed the little prince.“I am so unhappy.”

“I can’t playwith you,” the fox said.“I am not tamed.” “Ah! Pleaseexcuse me,” said the littleprince.

But, after somethought, he added:

“What does thatmean-‘tame’?”

“You do not live here,” said the fox. “What is it that youare looking for?”

“I amlooking for people,” said the little prince. “What does that mean-‘tame’?”

“People,” saidthe fox. “Theyhave guns, and they hunt. Itis very disturbing. They also raisechickens. These are theironly interests. Are you lookingfor chickens?”

“No,” said thelittle prince. “I am looking for friends.

What does that mean-‘tame’?”

“It is anact too often neglected,” said the fox. “It means to establish ties.”

“’To establish ties’?”

“Justthat,” said the fox. “To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy whois just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on yourpart, have no need of me. To you, I am nothingmore than a foxlike 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…“

“I ambeginning to understand,” said the little prince. “There is a flower… I thinkthat she has tamed me…”

“It is possible,” said the fox. “On the Earth one sees all sortsof things.”

“Oh, but this is not on the Earth!” said thelittle prince.

The fox seemed perplexed, and very curious. “On another planet?”

“Yes.”

“Are there hunterson that planet?” “No.”

“Ah, that is interesting! Arethere chickens?” “No.”

“Nothing is perfect,” sighed the fox. But the fox came back to her idea.

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“My life is very monotonous,” she said. “Ihunt chickens; people hunt me. All the chickensare just alike,and all people are just alike.And, in consequence, I am a little bored. But if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life.I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Othersteps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, likemusic, out of my burrow. And then look: you see the grain-fields

down yonder? I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use tome. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the colour of gold. Think howwonderful that will be when you havetamed me! The grain, which is alsogolden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen tothe wind in the wheat…”

The fox gazed at the little prince,for a long time.“Please-tame me!” she said.

“I wantto, very much,” the little prince replied. “But I have not much time. I havefriends to discover, and a great many things to understand.”

“One onlyunderstands the things that one tames,” said the fox. “People have no more timeto understand anything. They buy things all readymade at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one canbuy friendship, and so people have no friends any more.If you want a friend, tame me…”

“What must I do, to tame you?” asked the littleprince. “You must be verypatient,” replied the fox. “First you will sit down at a little distance fromme -like that- in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are thesource of misunderstandings. But you will sit a little closer to me, every day…”

The next day the little prince came back.

“It wouldhave been better to come back at the samehour,” said the fox. “If, for example,you came at four o’clock in the afternoon, then at threeo’clock I shall begin to be happy. I shall feelhappier and happieras the hour advances. At fouro’clock, I shallalready be worrying andjumping about. I shallshow you how happy I am! But if you come at just anytime, I shall never know at what hour my heart is to be ready to greet you… One must observe the proper rites…”

“What is a ‘rite’?” asked the little prince.

“Those also are actions too often neglected,” said the fox. “They are what make one day different from other days, one hour from other hours. There isa rite, for example, among my hunters. Every Thursday they dance with the village girls.So Thursday is a wonderful day for me! I can takea walk as far as the vineyards. But if the hunters danced at just any time, everyday would be like every otherday, and I should never have any vacation at all.”

So thelittle prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near-

“Ah,” said the fox, “I shall cry.”

“It isyour own fault,” said the little prince. “I never wished you any sort of harm;but you wanted me to tame you…”

“Yes, that is so,” saidthe fox.

“But now you goingto cry!” said the little prince. “Yes, that is so,” said the fox.

“Then it hasdone you no good at all!”

“It hasdone me good,” said the fox, “because of the colour of the wheat fields.” Andthen she added:

“Go andlook again at the roses. You will understand now that yours is unique in all the world. Then come back tosay goodbye to me, and I will make you a present of a secret.”

The little princewent away, to look again at the roses.

“You are not at all like my rose,” he said.“As yet you are nothing. No one has tamed you,and you have tamed no one. You are likemy fox whenI first knew her.

She was only a fox like a hundred other foxes. But I have made her my friend, and now she is uniquein all

the world.”

And the roseswere

very muchembarrassed.

“You arebeautiful, but you are empty,” he wenton. “One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose lookedjust like you-the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is moreimportant than all the hundreds of youother roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that Ihave put under the glassglobe; because it is shethat I have sheltered behind thescreen; because it is for her thatI have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, oreven sometimes when she said nothing.Because he is my rose.”

And he went back to meet the fox.“Goodbye,” he said.

“Goodbye,” said the fox.“And now hereis my secret, a verysimple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essentialis invisible to the eye.”

“What isessential is invisible to the eye,” the little prince repeated, so that hewould be sure to remember.

“It isthe time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.”

“It isthe time I have wasted for my rose-” said the little prince, so that he wouldbe sure to remember.

“Peoplehave forgotten this truth,” said the fox. “But you must not forget it. Youbecome responsible, forever, forwhat you have tamed. Youare responsible for your rose…”

“I amresponsible for my rose,” the little prince repeated, so that he would be sureto remember.