小王子 The little Prince 第二十四章

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It was now the eighth day sinceI had had my accidentin the desert, and I hadlistened to the story of the merchant as I

was drinking the last drop of my watersupply.

“Ah,” Isaid to the little prince, “these memories of yours are very charming; but Ihave not yet succeeded in repairing my plane; I have nothing more to drink; andI, too, should be very happy if I could walk at my leisure toward a spring offresh water!”

“My friend the fox-” the little prince saidto me.

“My dear little man, this is no longera matter that hasanything to do with the fox!”

“Why not?”

“Because I am about to die of thirst…”

He did not followmy reasoning, and he answered me: “Itis a good thing to have a friend, even if one is about

to die. I, for instance, am very gladto have a fox as a friend…”“He has no way of guessing the danger,” I said to myself. “He has never been either hungry or thirsty. A little

sunshine is all that he needs…”

But helooked at me steadily, and replied to my thought:

“I am thirsty, too. Let us look for a well…”

I made a gestureof weariness. It is absurd to look fora well, at random, in the immensity of the desert. But nevertheless we started walking.

When wehad trudged along for several hours, in silence, the darkness fell, and thestars began to come out. Thirst had made me a little feverish, and I lookedat them as if I were in a dream. The little prince’s last words camereeling back into my memory:

me:

“Then you arethirsty, too?” I demanded.

But he did notreply to my question. He merely said to

“Water may also be good for the heart…”

I did notunderstand this answer, but I said nothing. I

knew verywell that is was impossible to cross-examine him. Hewas tired. He sat down.I sat down beside him. And,

after a little silence, he spoke again:

“The stars are beautiful, because a flowerthat cannot be seen.”

I replied, “Yes, that is so.” And,without saying anything more, I looked acrossthe ridges of sand that were stretched out before us in themoonlight.

“The desert is beautiful,” the little princeadded.

And thatwas true. I have alwaysloved the desert.One sits down on a desertsand dune, seesnothing, hears nothing.

Yetthrough the silence something throbs, and gleams… “What  makes the  desert  beautiful,” said  the  little

prince, “is that somewhere it hides a well…”

I wasastonished by a sudden understandingof that mysterious radiation of the sands. When I was a little boy I lived in an old house, and legend told us that a treasure was buried there. To be sure,no one had ever known how to findit; perhaps no one had ever even looked for it. But it cast anenchantment over that house. My home was hiding a secretin the depths of its heart…

“Yes,” I said to the little prince. “The house, the stars,the desert-what gives them theirbeauty is something that isinvisible!”

“I am glad,” he said, “that you agree with myfox.”

As the little prince dropped off the sleep,I took him in my arms and set out walking once more. I felt deeplymoved, and stirred. It seemed to me that I was carrying a very fragile treasure. It seemed to me, even, that there was nothing

more fragile on all the Earth. In the moonlight I looked at his pale forehead, his closedeyes, his locks of hair that trembledin the wind, and I said to myself: “What I see here is nothingbut a shell. What is most important is invisible…”

As his lips opened slightlywith the suspicionof a half- smile, I said to myself, again: “What moves me so deeply,about this little prince who is sleepinghere, is his loyaltyto a flower-the image of arose that shines through his wholebeing like the flame of a lamp,even when he is asleep…”And I felt him to be more fragile still. I felt the need of protecting him, as if he himself were a flame that mightbe extinguished by a little puff of wind…

And, as I walked on so, I found the well, atdaybreak.