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

"It is a good thing to have had a friend, even if one is about to die. I, for instance, am very glad to have had a fox as a friend..."

确实如此。我一直很喜欢沙漠。坐在一个沙丘上，什么也看不见、听不见。但是，却有一种说不出的东西在默默地放着光芒……

"The stars are beautiful, because of a flower that cannot be seen."

I did not understand this answer, but I said nothing. I knew very well that it was impossible to cross-examine him.

我回答道：“当然。”而我默默地看着月光下沙漠的褶皱。

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

[ Chapter 24 ] - the narrator and the little prince, thirsty, hunt for a well in the desert

于是，就这样走着，我在黎明时发现了水井。

He was tired. He sat down. I sat down beside him. And, after a little silence, he spoke again:

“他不顾危险。”我自己思量着，“他从来不知道饥渴。只要有点阳光，他就满足了……”

这是我在沙漠上出了事故的第八天。我听着有关这个商人的故事，喝完了我所备用的最后一滴水。

我不懂他的话是什么意思，可我也不做声……我知道不应该去问他。99lib•net

他不理解我的思路，他回答我道：

他看着我，答复着我的思想：

“星星是很美的，因为有一朵人们看不到的花……”

由于看到他稍稍张开的嘴唇露出一丝微笑，我又自言自语地说：“在这个熟睡了的小王子身上，使我非常感动的，是他对他那朵花的忠诚，是在他心中闪烁的那朵玫瑰花的形象。这朵玫瑰花，即使在小王子睡着了的时候，也象一盏灯的火焰一样在他身上闪耀着光辉……”这时，我就感觉到他更加脆弱。应该保护灯焰：一阵风就可能把它吹灭……

"Water may also be good for the heart..."

And that was true. I have always loved the desert. One sits down on a desert sand dune, sees nothing, hears nothing. Yet through the silence something throbs, and gleams...

他却不回答我的问题，只是对我说：

I replied, "Yes, that is so." And, without saying anything more, I looked across the ridges of sand that were stretched out before us in the moonlight.

"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:

“我也渴了……我们去找一口井吧……”

ｈｔtｐ://wｗｗ•９９lｉｂ.neｔ我对小王子说道：“是的，无论是房子，星星，或是沙漠，使它们美丽的东西是看不见的！”

"Then you are thirsty, too?" I demanded.

I was astonished by a sudden understanding of 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 find it; perhaps no one had ever even looked for it. But it cast an enchantment over that house. My home was hiding a secret in the depths of its heart...

“啊！”我对小王子说，“你回忆的这些故事真美。可是，我还没有修好我的飞机。我没有喝的了，假如我能悠哉游哉地走到水泉边去，我一定也会很高兴的！”

As the little prince dropped off to sleep, I took him in my arms and set out walking once more. I felt deeply moved, 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 Earth. In the moonlight I looked at his pale forehead, his closed eyes, his locks of hair that trembled in the 99lib.netwind, and I said to myself: "What I see here is nothing but a shell. What is most important is invisible..."

“我真高兴，你和我的狐狸的看法一样。”小王子说。

“为什么？”

“我的小家伙，现在还说什么狐狸！”

"What makes the desert beautiful," said the little prince, "is that somewhere it hides a well..."

他累了，他坐下来。我在他身旁坐下。沉默了一会，他又说道：

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

"Why not?"

小王子睡觉了，我就把他抱在怀里，又重新上路了。我很激动。就好象抱着一个脆弱的宝贝。就好象在地球上没有比这更脆弱的了。我借着月光看着这惨白的面额，这双紧闭的眼睛，这随风飘动的绺绺头发，这时我对自己说道：“我所看到的仅仅是外表。最重要的是看不见的……”

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

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

"I am thirsty, too. Let us look for a well..."

“因为这就要渴死人了。”

“你也渴吗？”我问他。

“水对心也是有益处的……”

当我们默默地走了好几个小时以后，天黑了下来，星星开始发出光亮。由于渴我有点发烧，我看着这些星星，象是在做梦一样。小王子的话在我的脑海中跳来跳去。

"I am glad," he said, "that you agree with my fox."

“沙漠是美的。”他又说道。

As his lips opened slightly with the suspicious of a half-smile, I said to myself, again: "What moves me so deeply, about this little prince who is sleeping here, is his loyalty to a flower-- the image of a rose that shines through his whole being 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 might be extinguished by a little puff of wind...

我显出厌烦的样子：在茫茫的大沙漠上盲目地去找水井，真荒唐。然而我们还是开始去寻找了。

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 drinking the last drop of my water supply.

“即使快要死了，有过一个朋友也好么！我就为我有过一个狐狸朋友而感到很高兴……”

“使沙漠更加美丽的，就是在某个角落里，藏着一口井……”

小王子对我说：“我的朋友狐狸……”

I made a gesture of weariness. It is absurd to九*九*藏*书*网 look for a well, at random, in the immensity of the desert. But nevertheless we started walking.

我很惊讶，突然明白了为什么沙漠放着光芒。当我还是一个小孩子的时候，我住在一座古老的房子里，而且传说，这个房子里埋藏着一个宝贝。当然，从来没有任何人能发现这个宝贝，可能，甚至也没有人去寻找过。但是，这个宝贝使整个房子着了魔似的。我家的房子在它的心灵深处隐藏着一个秘密……

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

When we had trudged along for several hours, in silence, the darkness fell, and the stars began to come out. Thirst had made me a little feverish, and I looked at them as if I were in a dream. The little princes last words came reeling back into my memory:

But he did not reply to my question. He merely said to me:

XXIV

And, as I walked on so, I found the well, at daybreak.

"The desert is beautiful," the little prince added.