"You understand... it is too far. I cannot carry this body with me. It is too heavy."
"Yes, I know..."
“你怎么不记得了呢?”他说,“绝不是在这儿。”
“这将是多么好玩啊!你将有五亿个铃铛,我将有五亿口水井……”
"It is much farther... it is much more difficult..."
"I shall not leave you," I said.
我继续朝墙走去。我还是看不到,也听不见任何别人。可是小王子又回答道:
“小家伙,你受惊了……”
"In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night... you-- only you-- will have stars that can laugh!"
XXVI
I dropped my eyes, then, to the foot of the wall-- and I leaped into the air. There before me, facing the little prince, was one of those yellow snakes that take just thirty seconds to bring your life to an end. Even as I was digging into my pocked to get out my revolver I made a running step back. But, at the noise I made, the snake let himself flow easily across the sand like the dying spray of a fountain, and, in no apparent hurry, disappeared, with a light metallic sound, among the stones.
"You have good poison? You are sure that it will not make me suffer too long?"
“你的毒液管用吗?你保证不会使我长时间地痛苦吗?”
He made no answer to my question, but he added:
"I have your sheep. And I have the sheeps box. And I have the muzzle..."
这时,他又笑了。
他犹豫了一下,然后站起来。他迈出了一步。而我却动弹不得。
我到达墙边的时候,正好把我的这位小王子接在我的怀抱中。他的脸色雪一样惨白。
“我有你画的羊,羊的箱子和羊的嘴套子……”
“现在你去吧,我要下来了!……”小王子说。
"And at night you will look up at the stars. Where I live everything is so small that I cannot show you where my star is to be found. It is better, like that. My star will just be one of the stars, for you. And so you will love to watch all the stars in the heavens... they will all be your friends. And, besides, I am going to make you a present..."
“你说的是什么?”
"Yes, I know..."
“但是,这就好象剥落的旧树皮一九-九-藏-书-网样。旧树皮,并没有什么可悲的。”
I stopped in my tracks, my heart torn asunder; but still I did not understand.
我也坐了下来,因为我再也站立不住了。他说道:
"But it will be like an old abandoned shell. There is nothing sad about old shells..."
"Ah! You are there..."
"That is my present. Just that. It will be as it was when we drank the water..."
"Ah, little prince, dear little prince! I love to hear that laughter!"
“你不该这样。你会难受的。我会象是死去的样子,但这不会是真的……”
“我很高兴,你找到了你的机器所缺少的东西。你不久就可以回家去了……”
“重要的事,是看不见的……”
I too sat down, because I was not able to stand up any longer.
我还是沉默不语。
我离墙约有二十米远,可我依然什么也没有看见。
"That will be so amusing! You will have five hundred million little bells, and I shall have five hundred million springs of fresh water..."
And he too said nothing more, becuase he was crying...
I was just coming to tell him that my work had been successful, beyond anything that I had dared to hope.
"Now go away," said the little prince. "I want to get down from the wall."
I reached the wall just in time to catch my little man in my arms; his face was white as snow.
"I am glad that you have found what was the matter with your engine," he said. "Now you can go back home--"
他带着忧伤的神情微笑了。
“没错,没错,日子是对的;但地点不是这里……”
"Little man," I said, "tell me that it is only a bad dream-- this affair of the snake, and the meeting-place, and the star..."
"Then you dont remember. This is not the exact spot."
“我不离开你。”
But he did not answer my plea. He said to me, instead: "The thing that is important is the thing that is not seen..九九藏书."
He was afraid, there was no doubt about that. But he laughed lightly.
I had loosened the golden muffler that he always wore. I had moistened his temples, and had given him some water to drink. And now I did not dare ask him any more questions. He looked at me very gravely, and put his arms around my neck. I felt his heart beating like the heart of a dying bird, shot with someones rifle...
"There now-- that is all..."
“就是这些……全都说啦……”
"It is just as it is with the flower. If you love a flower that lives on a star, it is sweet to look at the sky at night. All the stars are a-bloom with flowers..."
He was a little discouraged. But he made one more effort:
I continued my walk toward the wall. At no time did I see or hear anyone. The little prince, however, replied once again:
Once again I felt myself frozen by the sense of something irreparable. And I knew that I could not bear the thought of never hearing that laughter any more. For me, it was like a spring of fresh water in the desert.
他的眼神很严肃,望着遥远的地方。
"Little man," I said, "I want to hear you laugh again."
I said nothing.
他不回答我的问题,却接着说道:
他仍然笑着。随后他变得严肃起来:
Beside the well there was the ruin of an old stone wall. When I came back from my work, the next evening, I saw from some distance away my little price sitting on top of a wall, with his feet dangling. And I heard him say:
"What does this mean?" I demanded. "Why are you talking with snakes?"
“小家伙,这蛇的事,约会的事,还有星星,这全是一场噩梦吧?”
"You know-- my flower... I am responsible for her. And she is so weak! She is so na飗e! She has four thorns, of no use at all, to protect herself against all the world..."
And he laughed again.
“我也一样,今天,要回家去了……”
“当然……”
"Here it is. Let me go on by myself."
大概还有另一个声音在回答他,因为他答着腔说道:
There was nothing but a flash of yellow close to his ankle. He remained motionless for an instant. He did not cry out. He fell as gently as a tree falls. There was not even any sound, because of the sand.
“小家伙,我还想听你笑……”
"Dear little man," I said to him, "you are afraid..."
"All men have the stars," he answered, "but they are not the same things for different people. For some, who are travelers, the stars are guides. For others they are no more than little lights in the sky. For others, who are scholars, they are problems . For my businessman they were wealth. But all these stars are silent. You-- you alone-- will have the stars as no one else has them--"
"Tonight-- you know... do not come," said the little prince.
“到今天夜里,正好是一年了。我的星球将正好处于我去年降落的那个地方的上空……”
Another voice must have answered him, for he replied to it:
“这就好象我并没有给你星星,而是给你一大堆会笑出声来的小铃铛……”
小王子沉默了一会又说:
I realised clearly that something extraordinary was happening. I was holding him close in my arms as if he were a little child; and yet it seemed to me that he was rushing headlong toward an abyss from which I could do nothing to restrain him...
I was only twenty metres from the wall, and I still saw nothing.
"I shall look as if I were suffering. I shall look a little as if I were dying. It is like that. Do not come to 99lib•netsee that. It is not worth the trouble..."
"It is true that they have no more poison for a second bite."
"--Exactly. You will see where my track begins, in the sand. You have nothing to do but wait for me there. I shall be there tonight."
But he was worried.
That night I did not see him set out on his way. He got away from me without making a sound. When I succeeded in catching up with him he was walking along with a quick and resolute step. He said to me merely:
And he took me by the hand. But he was still worrying.
“我对你说这些……这也是因为蛇的缘故。别让它咬了你……蛇是很坏的,它随意咬人……”
"Yes, I know..."
可是他担心起来。
[ Chapter 26 ] - the little prince converses with the snake; the little prince consoles the narrator; the little prince returns to his planet
He still hesitated a little; then he got up. He took one step. I could not move.
然后,他忧伤地说:
"I shall be much more afraid this evening..."
"And when your sorrow is comforted (time soothes all sorrows) you will be content that you have known me. You will always be my friend. You will want to laugh with me. And you will sometimes open your window, so, for that pleasure... and your friends w ill be properly astonished to see you laughing as you look up at the sky! Then you will say to them, Yes, the stars always make me laugh! And they will think you are crazy. It will be a very shabby trick that I shall have played on you..."
"It will be as if, in place of the stars, I had given you a great number of little bells that knew how to laugh..."
I waited a long time. I could see that he was reviving little by little.
I said nothing.
“当然……”
"You know, it will be very nice. I, too, shall look at the stars. All the stars will be wells with a rusty pulley. All the stars will pour out fresh water for me to drink..."
我默默无言。
But a thought came to reassure him:
这时,他似乎有点放心了:
Then, sadly--
And he sat down, because he was afraid. Then he said, again: