第十章Chapter 10

The Little Prince: Chapter 10

He found himself in the neighborhood of the asteroids 325, 326, 327, 328, 329, and 330. He began, therefore, by visiting them, in order to add to his knowledge. 

The first of them was inhabited by a king. Clad in royal purple and ermine, he was seated upon a throne which was at the same time both simple and majestic. 
"Ah! Here is a subject," exclaimed the king, when he saw the little prince coming. 
And the little prince asked himself: 
"How could he recognize me when he had never seen me before?" 
He did not know how the world is simplified for kings. To them, all men are subjects. 
"Approach, so that I may see you better," said the king, who felt consumingly proud of being at last a king over somebody. 

The little prince looked everywhere to find a place to sit down; but the entire planet was crammed and obstructed by the king's magnificent ermine robe. So he remained standing upright, and, since he was tired, he yawned. 
"It is contrary to etiquette to yawn in the presence of a king," the monarch said to him. "I forbid you to do so." 
"I can't help it. I can't stop myself," replied the little prince, thoroughly embarrassed. "I have come on a long journey, and I have had no sleep..." 
"Ah, then," the king said. "I order you to yawn. It is years since I have seen anyone yawning. Yawns, to me, are objects of curiosity. Come, now! Yawn again! It is an order." "That frightens me... I cannot, any more..." murmured the little prince, now completely abashed. 
"Hum! Hum!" replied the king. "Then I-- I order you sometimes to yawn and sometimes to--" 
He sputtered a little, and seemed vexed. 
For what the king fundamentally insisted upon was that his authority should be respected. He tolerated no disobedience. He was an absolute monarch. But, because he was a very good man, he made his orders reasonable. 
"If I ordered a general," he would say, by way of example, "if I ordered a general to change himself into a sea bird, and if the general did not obey me, that would not be the fault of the general. It would be my fault." 
"May I sit down?" came now a timid inquiry from the little prince. 
"I order you to do so," the king answered him, and majestically gathered in a fold of his ermine mantle. 
But the little prince was wondering... The planet was tiny. Over what could this king really rule? 
"Sire," he said to him, "I beg that you will excuse my asking you a question--" "I order you to ask me a question," the king hastened to assure him. 
"Sire-- over what do you rule?" 
"Over everything," said the king, with magnificent simplicity. 
"Over everything?" 
The king made a gesture, which took in his planet, the other planets, and all the stars. "Over all that?" asked the little prince. 
"Over all that," the king answered. 

For his rule was not only absolute: it was also universal. 
"And the stars obey you?" 
"Certainly they do," the king said. "They obey instantly. I do not permit insubordination." Such power was a thing for the little prince to marvel at. If he had been master of such complete authority, he would have been able to watch the sunset, not forty-four times in one day, but seventy-two, or even a hundred, or even two hundred times, with out ever having to move his chair. And because he felt a bit sad as he remembered his little planet which he had forsaken, he plucked up his courage to ask the king a favor: 
"I should like to see a sunset... do me that kindness... Order the sun to set..." 
"If I ordered a general to fly from one flower to another like a butterfly, or to write a tragic drama, or to change himself into a sea bird, and if the general did not carry out the order that he had received, which one of us would be in the wrong?" the king demanded. "The general, or myself?" 
"You," said the little prince firmly. 
"Exactly. One much require from each one the duty which each one can perform," the king went on. "Accepted authority rests first of all on reason. If you ordered your people to go and throw themselves into the sea, they would rise up in revolution. I have the right to require obedience because my orders are reasonable." 
"Then my sunset?" the little prince reminded him: for he never forgot a question once he had asked it. 
"You shall have your sunset. I shall command it. But, according to my science of government, I shall wait until conditions are favorable." 
"When will that be?" inquired the little prince. 
"Hum! Hum!" replied the king; and before saying anything else he consulted a bulky almanac. "Hum! Hum! That will be about-- about-- that will be this evening about twenty minutes to eight. And you will see how well I am obeyed." 

The little prince yawned. He was regretting his lost sunset. And then, too, he was already beginning to be a little bored. 
"I have nothing more to do here," he said to the king. "So I shall set out on my way again." 
"Do not go," said the king, who was very proud of having a subject. "Do not go. I will make you a Minister!" 
"Minister of what?" "Minster of-- of Justice!" "But there is nobody here to judge!" 
"We do not know that," the king said to him. "I have not yet made a complete tour of my kingdom. I am very old. There is no room here for a carriage. And it tires me to walk." "Oh, but I have looked already!" said the little prince, turning around to give one more glance to the other side of the planet. On that side, as on this, there was nobody at all... "Then you shall judge yourself," the king answered. "that is the most difficult thing of all. It is much more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself rightly, then you are indeed a man of true wisdom." 
"Yes," said the little prince, "but I can judge myself anywhere. I do not need to live on this planet. 
"Hum! Hum!" said the king. "I have good reason to believe that somewhere on my planet there is an old rat. I hear him at night. You can judge this old rat. From time to time you will condemn him to death. Thus his life will depend on your justice. But you will pardon him on each occasion; for he must be treated thriftily. He is the only one we have." 
"I," replied the little prince, "do not like to condemn anyone to death. And now I think I will go on my way." 
"No," said the king. 
But the little prince, having now completed his preparations for departure, had no wish to grieve the old monarch. 
"If Your Majesty wishes to be promptly obeyed," he said, "he should be able to give me a reasonable order. He should be able, for example, to order me to be gone by the end of one minute. It seems to me that conditions are favorable..." 
As the king made no answer, the little prince hesitated a moment. Then, with a sigh, he took his leave. 
"I made you my Ambassador," the king called out, hastily. 
He had a magnificent air of authority. 
"The grown-ups are very strange," the little prince said to himself, as he continued on his journey.

《小王子》第十章

这颗星球附近，还有325号、326号、327号、328号、329号和330号小行星。于是他开始拜访这些星球，好给自己找点事干，也好增长些见识。

第一颗小行星上住着一个国王。这个国王身穿紫红镶边白鼬皮长袍，端坐在一张简朴而又气派庄严的王座上。
“哈！来了一个臣民，”国王看见小王子，大声叫了起来。
可小王子觉得纳闷：“他以前从没见过我，怎么会认识我呢？”
他不知道，对国王来说，世界是非常简单的。所有的人都是臣民。
“你走近点，让我好好看看你，”国王说，他觉得非常骄傲，因为他终于成了某个人的国王。
小王子朝四下里看看，想找个地方坐下来，可是整个星球都被那袭华丽的白鼬皮长袍占满了。所以他只好站着，不过，由于他累了，就打了个哈欠。
“在国王面前打哈欠，有违宫廷礼仪，”国王对他说，“我禁止你打哈欠。”
“我没忍住，”小王子歉疚地说，“我走了好长的路，一直没睡觉……”
那么，”国王对他说，“我命令你打哈欠。我有好几年没见人打哈欠了。我觉得打哈欠挺好玩。来！再打个哈欠。这是命令。”
“我给吓着了……打不出……”小王子涨红着脸说。
国王回答说。“那么我……我命令你一会儿打哈欠，一会儿……”
他嘟嘟哝哝的，看上去不大高兴。
国王其实是要别人尊重他的权威。他不能容忍别人不服从命令。他是个专制的君主。不过，因为他很善良，他下的命令都是通情达理的。
“要是我命令，”这番话他说得流畅极了，“要是我命令一个将军变成一只海鸟，那个将军不服从，这就不是那个将军的错，这是我的错。”
“我可以坐下吗？”小王子怯生生地问。
“我命令你坐下，”国王回答他说，庄重地挪了挪白鼬皮长袍的下摆。
可是小王子感到很奇怪。这么小的星球，国王能统治什么呢？
“陛下……”他说，“请允许我向您提个……”
“我命令你向我提问题，”国王赶紧抢着说。“陛下……您统治什么呢？”“一切，”国王的回答简单明了。“一切？”
国王小心翼翼地做了个手势，指了指他的行星、其他的行星和所有的星星。
“全归您统治？”小王子问。“全归我统治……”国王回答说。因为他不仅是一国的专制君主，还是宇宙的君主。“那些星星都服从您？”
“当然，”国王回答说，“我一下命令，它们马上就服从。我不能容忍纪律涣散。”
这样的权力使小王子惊叹不已。他如果拥有这样的权力，那么一天就不是看四十三次，而是七十二次，一百次，甚至两百次日落，连椅子都不用挪一挪！由于想起被他遗弃的小星球，他有点难过，所以就壮着胆子向国王提出一个请求：
“我想看一次日落……请您为我……命令太阳下山……”
“要是我命令一个将军像蝴蝶一样从一朵花儿飞到另一朵花儿，或者让他写一部悲剧，或者让他变成一只海鸟，而这个将军拒不执行命令，那是谁，是他还是我的错呢？”
“那是您的错，”小王子肯定地说。
“正是如此。得让每个人去做他能做到的事情，”国王接着说，“权威首先得建立在合理的基础上。如果你命令你的老百姓都去投海，他们就会造反。我之所以有权让人服从，就是因为我的命令都是合情合理的。”
“那么我想看的日落呢？”小王子想起了这件事，他对自己提过的问题是不会忘记的。
“你会看到日落的。我会要它下山的。不过按照我的统治原则，要等到条件成熟的时候。”
“要等到什么时候呢？”小王子问。
国王先翻看一本厚厚的历书，然后回答说，“要等到，大概……大概……要等到今晚大概七点四十分！你会看到它乖乖地服从我的命令的。”
小王子打了个哈欠。看不到日落，让他感到挺遗憾。再说他也已经有点腻烦了：我在这儿没什么事好做了，”他对国王说，“我要走了！”
“别走，”国王回答说，他有了一个臣民，正骄傲着呢。“别走，我任命你当大臣！”
“什么大臣？”“这个……司法大臣！”“可是这儿没有人要审判呀！”
“那可说不定，”国王对他说，“我还没巡视过我的王国。我太老了，我没地方放马车，走路又累得慌。”
“噢！可是我已经看过了，”小王子说着，又朝这颗小行星的另一边瞥了一眼。“那边也没有一个人……”
“那你就审判你自己，”国王回答他说，“这是最难的。审判自己要比审判别人难得多。要是你能审判好自己，你就是个真正的智者。”
“可我，”小王子说，“我在哪儿都可以自己审判自己。我不必留在这儿呀。”
国王说，“我想哪，在我的星球上是有只老耗子。夜里我听见它的声音。你可以审判这只老耗子。你可以不时判它死刑。这样啊，它的生命就取决于你的判决了。不过，这只耗子你得悠着点儿用，每次判决后都得赦免它。因为只有这么一只耗子。”
“可我，”小王子回答说，“我不喜欢判死刑，我想我还得走。”
“不行，”国王说。
整装待发的小王子不想让老国王难过：
“陛下如果想让命令立刻得到服从，那就不妨下一道合情合理的命令。比如说，陛下可以命令我在一分钟内离开此地。我觉得条件已经成熟……”
国王一声不吭，小王子起先有点犹豫，而后叹了口气，就启程了。
“我任命你当我的大使，”这时国王赶紧喊道。他的神态威严极了。“这些大人真奇怪，”小王子在旅途中自言自语地说。