The Little Prince [小王子英语版] - 24

文稿：

It was now the eighth day since I had had my accident in the desert,and I had listened to the story of the merchant as I was drinkingthe last drop of my water supply. 

"Ah," I said to the little prince, "these memories of yours are verycharming; but I have not yet succeeded in repairing my plane; I havenothing more to drink; and I, too, should be very happy if I couldwalk at my leisure toward a spring of fresh water!" 

"My friend the fox--" the little prince said to me. 

"My dear little man, this is no longer a matter that has anything todo with the fox!"

"Why not?"

"Because I am about to die of thirst..."

He did not follow my reasoning, and he answered me:

"It is a good thing to have had a friend, even if one is about todie. I, for instance, am very glad to have had 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 he needs..." 

But he looked at me steadily, and replied to my thought:"I am thirsty, too. Let us look for a well..." I made a gesture of weariness. It is absurd to look for a well, atrandom, in the immensity of the desert. 

But nevertheless we startedwalking. When we had trudged along for several hours, in silence, thedarkness fell, and the stars began to come out. Thirst had made me alittle feverish, and I looked at them as if I were in a dream. Thelittle prince's last words came reeling back into my memory: "Then you are thirsty, too?" I demanded. But he did not reply to my question. 

He merely said to me: "Water may also be good for the heart..." I did not understand this answer, but I said nothing. I knew verywell that it was impossible to cross-examine him. He was tired. He sat down. I sat down beside him. And, after alittle silence, he spoke again: "The stars are beautiful, because of a flower that cannot be seen." I replied, "Yes, that is so." 

And, without saying anything more, Ilooked across the ridges of sand that were stretched out before usin the moonlight. "The desert is beautiful," the little prince added. 

And that was true. I have always loved the desert. One sits down ona desert sand dune, sees nothing, hears nothing. Yet through thesilence something throbs, and gleams... "What makes the desert beautiful," said the little prince, "is thatsomewhere it hides a well..." I was astonished by a sudden understanding of that mysteriousradiation of the sands. 

When I was a little boy I lived in an oldhouse, and legend told us that a treasure was buried there. To besure, no one had ever known how to find it; perhaps no one had evereven looked for it. But it cast an enchantment over that house. Myhome was hiding a secret in the depths of its heart...

"Yes," I said to the little prince. "The house, the stars, thedesert-- what gives them their beauty is something that is invisible!" 

 "I am glad," he said, "that you agree with my fox." As the little prince dropped off to sleep, I took him in my arms andset out walking once more. I felt deeply moved, and stirred. Itseemed to me that I was carrying a very fragile treasure. It seemedto me, even, that there was nothing more fragile on all Earth. 

 Inthe moonlight I looked at his pale forehead, his closed eyes, hislocks of hair that trembled in the wind, and I said to myself: "WhatI see here is nothing but a shell. What is most important isinvisible..." 

 As his lips opened slightly with the suspicious of a half-smile, Isaid to myself, again: "What moves me so deeply, about this littleprince who is sleeping here, is his loyalty to a flower-- the imageof a rose that shines through his whole being like the flame of alamp, even when he is asleep..." 

 And I felt him to be more fragilestill. I felt the need of protecting him, as if he himself were aflame that might be extinguished by a little puff of wind... And, as I walked on so, I found the well, at daybreak.