听书 | The Little Prince（小王子）- 21
《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 was then that the fox appeared.
"Good morning," said the fox.
"Good morning," the little prince responded politely, although when he turned around he saw nothing.
"I am right here," the voice said, "under the apple tree."
"Who are you?" asked the little prince, and added, "You are very pretty to look at."
"I am a fox," said the fox.
"Come and play with me," proposed the little prince. "I am so unhappy."
"I cannot play with you," the fox said. "I am not tamed."
"Ah! Please excuse me," said the little prince.
But, after some thought, he added:
"What does that mean-- 'tame'?"
"You do not live here," said the fox. "What is it that you are looking for?"
"I am looking for men," said the little prince. "What does that mean-- 'tame'?"
"Men," said the fox. "They have guns, and they hunt. It is very disturbing. They also raise chickens. These are their only interests. Are you looking for chickens?"
"No," said the little prince. "I am looking for friends. What does that mean-- 'tame'?"
"It is an act too often neglected," said the fox. It means to establish ties."
"'To establish ties'?"
"Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world..."
"I am beginning to understand," said the little prince. "There is a flower... I think that she has tamed me..."
"It is possible," said the fox. "On the Earth one sees all sorts of things."
"Oh, but this is not on the Earth!" said the little prince.
The fox seemed perplexed, and very curious.
"On another planet?"
"Yes."
"Are there hunters on this planet?"
"No."
"Ah, that is interesting! Are there chickens?"
"No."
"Nothing is perfect," sighed the fox.
But he came back to his idea.
"My life is very monotonous," the fox said. "I hunt chickens; men hunt me. All the chickens are just alike, and all the men are just alike. And, in consequence, I am a little bored. But if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life . I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music, out of my burrow. And then look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? I do not ea t bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the colour of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me bac k the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat..."
The fox gazed at the little prince, for a long time.
"Please-- tame me!" he said.
"I want to, very much," the little prince replied. "But I have not much time. I have friends to discover, and a great many things to understand."
"One only understands the things that one tames," said the fox. "Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me..."
"What must I do, to tame you?" asked the little prince.
"You must be very patient," replied the fox. "First you will sit down at a little distance from me-- like that-- in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But yo u will sit a little closer to me, every day..."
The next day the little prince came back.
"It would have been better to come back at the same hour," said the fox. "If, for example, you come at four o'clock in the afternoon, then at three o'clock I shall begin to be happy. I shall feel happier and happier as the hour advances. At four o'clock, I shall already be worrying and jumping about. I shall show you how happy I am! But if you come at just any time, I shall never know at what hour my heart is to be ready to greet you... One must observe the proper rites..."
"What is a rite?" asked the little prince.
"Those also are actions too often neglected," said the fox. "They are what make one day different from other days, one hour from other hours. There is a rite, for example, among my hunters. Every Thursday they dance with the village girls. So Thursday is a wonderful day for me! I can take a walk as far as the vineyards. But if the hunters danced at just any time, every day would be like every other day, and I should never have any vacation at all."
So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near--
"Ah," said the fox, "I shall cry."
"It is your own fault," said the little prince. "I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you..."
"Yes, that is so," said the fox.
"But now you are going to cry!" said the little prince.
"Yes, that is so," said the fox.
"Then it has done you no good at all!"
"It has done me good," said the fox, "because of the color of the wheat fields." And then he added:
"Go and look again at the roses. You will understand now that yours is unique in all the world. Then come back to say goodbye to me, and I will make you a present of a secret."
The little prince went away, to look again at the roses.
"You are not at all like my rose," he said. "As yet you are nothing. No one has tamed you, and you have tamed no one. You are like my fox when I first knew him. He was only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But I have made him my friend, and now he is unique in all the world."
And the roses were very much embarrassed.
"You are beautiful, but you are empty," he went on. "One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you-- the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose.
And he went back to meet the fox.
"Goodbye," he said.
"Goodbye," said the fox. "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
"What is essential is invisible to the eye," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
"It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important."
"It is the time I have wasted for my rose--" said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember.
"Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose..."
"I am responsible for my rose," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
就在这时狐狸出现了。
“早哇，”狐狸说。
“早，”小王子有礼貌地回答，他转过身来，却什么也没看到。
“我在这儿呢，”那声音说，“在苹果树下面……”
“你是谁？”小王子说，“你很漂亮。”
“我是一只狐狸，”狐狸说。
“来和我一起玩吧，”小王子提议，“我很不快活……”
“我不能和你一起玩，”狐狸说，“还没人驯养过我呢。”
“啊！对不起，”小王子说。
不过，他想了想又说：
“‘驯养’是什么意思？”
“你一定不是这儿的人，”狐狸说，“你来寻找什么呢？”
“我来找人，”小王子说，“‘驯养’是什么意思？”
“人哪，”狐狸说，“他们有枪，还打猎。讨厌极了！他们还养母鸡，这总算有点意思。你也找母鸡吗？”
“不找，”小王子说。“我找朋友。‘驯养’是什么意思？”
“这是一件经常被忽略的事情，”狐狸说，“意思是‘建立感情联系’……”
“建立感情联系？”
“当然，”狐狸说，“现在你对我来说，只不过是个小男孩，跟成千上万别的小男孩毫无两样。我不需要你。你也不需要我。我对你来说，也只不过是只狐狸，跟成千上万别的狐狸毫无两样。但是，你要是驯养了我，我俩就彼此都需要对方了。你对我来说是世界上独一无二的。我对你来说，也是世界上独一无二的……”
“我有点明白了，”小王子说，“有一朵花儿……我想她是驯养了我……”
“有可能，”狐狸说，“这个地球上各色各样的事都有……”
“哦！不是在地球上，”小王子说。
狐狸看上去很惊讶：
“在另一个星球上？”
“对。”
“在那个星球上有没有猎人呢？”
“没有。”
“哈，这很有意思！那么母鸡呢？”
“没有。”
“没有十全十美的事呵，”狐狸叹气说。
不过，狐狸很快又回到刚才的想法上来：
“我的生活很单调。我去捉鸡，人来捉我。母鸡全都长得一个模样，人也全都长得一个模样。所以我有点腻了。不过，要是你驯养我，我的生活就会变得充满阳光。我会辨认出一种和其他所有人都不同的脚步声。听见别的脚步声，我会往地底下钻，而你的脚步声，会像音乐一样，把我召唤到洞外。还有，你看！你看到那边的麦田了吗？我是不吃面包的。麦子对我来说毫无用处。我对麦田无动于衷。可悲就可悲在这儿！而你的头发是金黄色的。所以，一旦你驯养了我，事情就变得很美妙了！金黄色的麦子，会让我想起你。我会喜爱风儿吹拂麦浪的声音……”
狐狸停下来，久久地注视着小王子：
“请你……驯养我吧！”他说。
“我很愿意，”小王子回答说，“可是我时间不多了。我得去找朋友，还得去了解许多东西。”
“只有驯养过的东西，你才会了解它，”狐狸说，“人们也没有时间去了解任何东西。他们总到商店去购买现成的东西。但是不存在出售朋友的商店，所以人们也就不会有朋友。你如果想要有个朋友，就驯养我吧！”
“那么应当做些什么呢？”小王子说。
“应当很有耐心，”狐狸回答说，“你先坐在草地上，离我稍远一些，就像这样。我从眼角里瞅你，而你什么也别说。语言是误解的根源。不过，每天你都可以坐得离我稍稍近一些……”
第二天，小王子又来了。
“最好你能在同一时间来，”狐狸说，“比如说，下午四点钟吧，那么我在三点钟就会开始感到幸福了。时间越来越近，我就越来越幸福。到了四点钟，我会兴奋得坐立不安；幸福原来也很折磨人的！可要是你随便什么时候来，我就没法知道什么时候该准备好我的心情……还是得有个仪式。”
“什么叫仪式？”小王子问。
“这也是一件经常被忽略的事情，”狐狸说，“就是定下一个日子，使它不同于其他的日子，定下一个时间，使它不同于其他的时间。比如说，猎人有一种仪式。每星期四他们都和村里的姑娘跳舞。所以呢，星期四就是个美妙的日子！这一天我总要到葡萄地里去转悠转悠。要是猎人们随时跳舞，每天不就都一模一样，我不也就没有假期了吗？”
就这样，小王子驯养了狐狸。而后，眼看分手的时刻临近了：
“哎！”狐狸说，“……我要哭了。”
“这可是你的不是哟，”小王子说，“我本来没想让你受任何伤害，可你却要我驯养你……”
“可不是，”狐狸说。
“不过你要哭了！”小王子说。
“可不是，”狐狸说。
“结果你什么好处也没得到！”
“我得到了，”狐狸说，“是麦田的颜色给我的。”
他随即又说：
“你再去看看那些玫瑰花吧。你会明白你那朵玫瑰是世界上独一无二的。然后你再回来跟我告别，我要告诉你一个秘密作为临别礼物。”
小王子就去看那些玫瑰。
“你们根本不像我那朵玫瑰，你们还什么都不是呢，”他对她们说，“谁都没驯养过你们，你们也谁都没驯养过。你们就像狐狸以前一样。那时候的他，和成千上万别的狐狸毫无两样。可是我现在和他做了朋友，他在世界上就是独一无二的了。”
玫瑰们都很难为情。
“你们很美，但你们是空虚的，”小王子接着说，“没有人能为你们去死。当然，我那朵玫瑰在一个过路人眼里跟你们也一样。然而对于我来说，单单她这一朵，就比你们全体都重要得多。因为我给浇过水的是她，我给盖过罩子的是她，我给遮过风障的是她，我给除过毛虫的（只把两三条要变成蝴蝶的留下）也是她。我听她抱怨和自诩，有时也和她默默相对。她，是我的玫瑰。”
说完，他又回到狐狸跟前：
“再见了……”他说。
“再见，”狐狸说，“我告诉你那个秘密，它很简单：只有用心才能看见。本质的东西用眼是看不见的。”
“本质的东西用眼是看不见的，”小王子重复了一遍，他要记住这句话。
“正是你为你的玫瑰花费的时光，才使你的玫瑰变得如此重要。”
“正是我为我的玫瑰花费的时光，才使我的玫瑰变得如此重要，”小王子说，他要记住这句话。
“人们已经忘记了这个道理，”狐狸说，“但你不该忘记它。对你驯养过的东西，你永远负有责任。你必须对你的玫瑰负责……”
“我必须对我的玫瑰负责……”小王子重复一遍，他要记住这句话。