听书 | The Little Prince（小王子）- 03
《小王子》是法国作家安托万·德·圣·埃克苏佩里（Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ）于1942年写成的著名儿童文学短篇小说。本书的主人公是来自外星球的小王子。
书中以一位飞行员作为故事叙述者，讲述了小王子从自己星球出发前往地球的过程中，所经历的各种历险。作者以小王子的孩子式的眼光，透视出成人的空虚、盲目，愚妄和死板教条，用浅显天真的语言写出了人类的孤独寂寞、没有根基随风流浪的命运。同时，也表达出作者对金钱关系的批判，对真善美的讴歌。
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry （《小王子》作者）
圣埃克苏佩里（1900-1944），法国作家。他是法国最早的一代飞行员之一。1940年流亡美国，侨居纽约，埋头文学创作。1943年参加盟军在北非的抗战。1944年他在执行第八次飞行侦察任务时失踪。其作品主要描述飞行员生活，代表作有小说《夜航》，散文集《人类的大地》《空军飞行员》，童话《小王子》等。
Peter Ustinov（英）（《小王子》朗读者）
Peter Ustinov（英），生于英国伦敦，著名演员、导演。中国观众最为熟知的角色为《尼罗河惨案》《阳光下的罪恶》等电影里那位穿着白西装形象可爱，绅士又不失幽默的大侦探波洛。
往期目录
朗读 Peter Ustinov【英】 | 译者：周克希
It took me a long time to learn where he came from. The little prince, who asked me so many questions, never seemed to hear the ones I asked him. It was from words dropped by chance that, little by little, everything was revealed to me.
The first time he saw my airplane, for instance (I shall not draw my airplane; that would be much too complicated for me), he asked me:
"What is that object?"
"That is not an object. It flies. It is an airplane. It is my airplane."
And I was proud to have him learn that I could fly.
He cried out, then:
"What! You dropped down from the sky?"
"Yes," I answered, modestly.
"Oh! That is funny!"
And the little prince broke into a lovely peal of laughter, which irritated me very much. I like my misfortunes to be taken seriously.
Then he added:
"So you, too, come from the sky! Which is your planet?"
At that moment I caught a gleam of light in the impenetrable mystery of his presence; and I demanded, abruptly:
"Do you come from another planet?"
But he did not reply. He tossed his head gently, without taking his eyes from my plane:
"It is true that on that you can't have come from very far away..."
And he sank into a reverie, which lasted a long time. Then, taking my sheep out of his pocket, he buried himself in the contemplation of his treasure.
You can imagine how my curiosity was aroused by this half-confidence about the "other planets." I made a great effort, therefore, to find out more on this subject.
"My little man, where do you come from? What is this 'where I live,' of which you speak? Where do you want to take your sheep?"
After a reflective silence he answered:
"The thing that is so good about the box you have given me is that at night he can use it as his house."
"That is so. And if you are good I will give you a string, too, so that you can tie him during the day, and a post to tie him to."
But the little prince seemed shocked by this offer:
"Tie him! What a queer idea!"
"But if you don't tie him," I said, "he will wander off somewhere, and get lost."
My friend broke into another peal of laughter:
"But where do you think he would go?"
"Anywhere. Straight ahead of him."
Then the little prince said, earnestly:
"That doesn't matter. Where I live, everything is so small!"
And, with perhaps a hint of sadness, he added:
"Straight ahead of him, nobody can go very far..."
很久以后，我才弄明白他是从哪儿来的。
这个小王子，对我提了好多问题，而对我的问题总像没听见似的。我是从他偶尔漏出来的那些话里，一点一点知道这一切的。比如，他第一次瞧见我的飞机时（我没画我的飞机，对我来说，这样的画实在太复杂了），就问我：
“这是什么东西？”
“这不是什么东西，它会飞。这是一架飞机，是我的飞机。”
我自豪地讲给他听，我在天上飞。他听了就大声说：
“怎么！你是天上掉下来的？”
“是的，”我谦虚地说。
“喔！真有趣……”
小王子发出一阵清脆的笑声，这下可把我惹恼了。我不喜欢别人拿我的不幸逗趣儿。接着他又说：“这么说，你也是从天上来的！你从哪个星球来？”
我脑子里闪过一个念头，他的降临之谜好像有了线索，我突如其来地发问：“那你是从别的星球来的？”
可是他没有回答。他看着我的飞机，轻轻地点了点头：“是啊，就靠它，你来的地方不会太远……”
说着，他出神地遐想了很久。而后，从袋里拿出我画的绵羊，全神贯注地凝望着这宝贝。
你想想看，这个跟“别的星球”有关，说了一半打住的话头，会让我多么惊讶啊。我竭力想多知道一些：“你从哪儿来，我的小家伙？‘我那儿’是哪儿？你要把我画的绵羊带到哪儿去？”
他若有所思地沉默了一会儿，然后开口对我说：“你给了我这个箱子，这就好了，晚上可以给它当屋子。”
“当然。要是你乖，我还会给你一根绳子，白天可以把它拴住。木桩也有。”
这个提议好像使小王子很不以为然：
“拴住？真是怪念头！”
“可要是你不把它拴住，它就会到处跑，还会跑丢了……”
我的朋友又格格地笑了起来：
你叫它往哪儿跑呀？”
“到处跑。笔直往前……”
这时，小王子一本正经地说：
那也没关系，我那儿就一丁点儿大！”
然后，他又说了一句，语气中仿佛有点儿忧郁：
“就是笔直往前跑，也跑不了多远……”