小王子第21章（二）

The fox gazed at the little prince, for a long time.
狐狸久久凝望着小王子。
"Please-- tame me!" he said.
“请你......驯服我吧！”他说。
"I want to, very much," the little prince replied. "But I have not much time. I have friends to discover, and a great many things to understand."
“我是非常愿意的。”小王子说，“可我没有那么多时间。我还要去寻找朋友，还有很多事情要去了解。”
"One only understands the things that one tames," said the fox. "Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me…"
“一个人只能了解他所驯服的东西。”狐狸说，“人们已经没有时间去了解任何事物了，他们只会到商店里购买了些现成的东西，可是哪里都没有能买到友谊的商店，所以人们就交不到朋友，如果你想找到一个朋友，就驯服我吧！”
"What must I do, to tame you?" asked the little prince.
“那我应该做些什么呢？”小王子问。
"You must be very patient," replied the fox. "First you will sit down at a little distance from me-- like that-- in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But yo u will sit a little closer to me, every day…"
“你必须非常有耐心。”狐狸回答说，“开始的时候你要坐的离我稍远一些，就像这样，坐在草地上。我会用眼角的余光看你，你什么都不要说，因为语言是误解产生的根源。但你每天都要坐得离我更近一点......”
The next day the little prince came back.
第二天，小王子又来了。
"It would have been better to come back at the same hour," said the fox. "If, for example, you come at four o'clock in the afternoon, then at three o'clock I shall begin to be happy. I shall feel happier and happier as the hour advances. At four o'clock, I shall already be worrying and jumping about. I shall show you how happy I am! But if you come at just any time, I shall never know at what hour my heart is to be ready to greet you… One must observe the proper rites…"
“你最好每天都在同一时间来。”狐狸说，“例如你在下午四点来，那么从三点起，我就会开始感到快乐。时间越是临近，我就越兴奋，到了四点的时候我就会坐立不安，我会让你看到我有多幸福！但如果你随便什么时候来，我就不知道该在什么时候期待你的到来了......我们必须遵循一定的仪式......”
"What is a rite?" asked the little prince.
“‘仪式’是什么？”小王子问。
"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 is a rite, for example, among my hunters. Every Thursday they dance with the village girls. So Thursday is a wonderful day for me! I can take a walk as far as the vineyards. But if the hunters danced at just any time, every day would be like every other day, and I should never have any vacation at all."
“这也是常常被遗忘的事情。”狐狸说，“仪式使得某天和其他日子不同，某个时刻和其他时刻不同。比如，我的那些猎人们就有一种仪式。每个星期四，他们都会和村子里的姑娘们跳舞。于是，星期四对我来说就是个美妙的日子！我可以一直散步到葡萄园去。但如果猎人们随便什么时候都跳舞，每天又都是一样，我也就没有假日了。”