Chapter 15 A Geographer
The sixth planet was ten times larger than the last one. It was inhabited by an old gentleman who wrote voluminous books.
“Oh, look! Here is an explorer!” he exclaimed to himself when he saw the little prince coming.
The little prince sat down on the table and panted a little. He had already traveled so much and so far!
“Where do you come from?” the old gentleman said to him.
“What is that big book?” said the little prince. “What are you doing?”
“I am a geographer,” said the old gentleman.
“What is a geographer?” asked the little prince.
“A geographer is a scholar who knows the location of all the seas, rivers, towns, mountains, and deserts.”
但他看到小王子的来到，他大喊道：“看！来了一位探险家！”
小王子有点气喘，坐在桌子上。他已经赶了太久的路了！
老先生对他说：“你从哪里来？”
小王子说：“这本大部头是什么？您在这儿做什么？”
老先生说：“我是一个地理学家。”
小王子问：“地理学家是什么？”
“地理学家是知道所有山河湖海、城镇、沙漠位置的学者。”
“That is very interesting,” said the little prince. “Here at last is a man who has a real profession!” And he cast a look around him at the planet of the geographer. It was the most magnificent and stately planet that he had ever seen.
“Your planet is very beautiful,” he said. “Has it any oceans?”
“I couldn’t tell you,” said the geographer.
“Ah!” The little prince was disappointed. “Has it any mountains?”
“I couldn’t tell you,” said the geographer.
“And towns, and rivers, and deserts?”
“I couldn’t tell you that, either.”
“But you are a geographer!”
小王子说到：“这可真有趣，总算是个真正的职业！”然后他看了看地理学家的周围。他从未看过如此庄严壮丽的星球。
他说道：“你的星球可真美啊，上面有大海吗？”
地理学家说：“我不能告诉你。”
“啊！”小王子有点失望。“上面有山吗？”
地理学家说：“我不能告诉你。”
“那么村庄、河流、沙漠呢？”
“这些我也不能告诉你。”
“你可是个地理学家！”
“Exactly,” the geographer said. “But I am not an explorer. I haven’t a single explorer on my planet. It is not the geographer who goes out to count the towns, the rivers, the mountains, the seas, the oceans, and the deserts. The geographer is much too important to go loafing about. He does not leave his desk. But he receives the explorers in his study. He asks them questions, and he notes down what they recall of their travels. And if the recollections of any one among them seem interesting to him, the geographer orders an inquiry into that explorer’s moral character.”
“Why is that?”
moral character 道德品质
recollection 记忆
order an inquiry into 下令调查
地理学家说：“那当然，但我不是探险家。我的星球一个探险家都没有。地理学家才不自己出门去清点那些村镇、河流、山脉、海洋、沙漠呢。地理学家如此重要怎可孤身犯险呢。他从不离开他的桌子，但他从探险家那获取信息。他问探险家问题，并将答案记录下来。假如其中有些他感兴趣的内容，他将会下令调查探险家的道德品质。”
“为什么？”
“Because intoxicated men see double. Then the geographer would note down two mountains in a place where there was only one.”
“I know some one,” said the little prince, “who would make a bad explorer.”
“That is possible. Then, when the moral character of the explorer is shown to be good, an inquiry is ordered into his discovery.”
“One goes to see it?”
“No. That would be too complicated. But one requires the explorer to furnish proofs. For example, if the discovery in question is that of a large mountain, one requires that large stones be brought back from it.”
The geographer was suddenly stirred to excitement.
“But you — you come from far away! You are an explorer! You shall describe your planet to me!”
be suddenly stirred to excitement突然激动起来
“因为喝醉的人会看重影。”这样地理学家将会把1座山记成2座山。
小王子说：“我知道有人会是这种坏的探险家。”
“这是可能的。当探险家的道德品质显示是好的，人们就会调查他的探索记录。”
“过去实地看么？”
“不，这太复杂了。但我会 要求探险家提供证据。例如，假如他的发现是一座大山的话，我将会要求他带大石头回来。”
地理学家突然兴奋起来：
“你——你从远方来！你是一个探险家！给我说说你的星球！”
And, having opened his big register, the geographer sharpened his pencil. The recitals of explorers are put down first in pencil. One waits until the explorer has furnished proofs, before putting them down in ink.
“Well?” said the geographer expectantly.
“Oh, where I live,” said the little prince, “it is not very interesting. It is all so small. I have three volcanoes. Two volcanoes are active and the other is extinct. But one never knows.”
“One never knows,” said the geographer.
“I have also a flower.”
“We do not record flowers,” said the geographer.
“Why is that? The flower is the most beautiful thing on my planet!”
“We do not record them,” said the geographer, “because they are ephemeral.”
“What does that mean — ‘ephemeral’?”
put down：镇压; 记下; 贬低; 批评; 制止; 放下
地理学家削好了铅笔，打开了他的大册子。他先用铅笔记下探险家的描述。直到探险家提供证据后，他的发现将被钢笔记下。
“好了没？”地理学家期待地说。
小王子说：“我住的地方啊，不太有趣。那里的东西都很小。我有三座火山。2座活火山1座死火山。但是谁知道以后有什么变化呢？”
地理学家说：“谁知道以后有什么变化呢？”
“我还有一朵花。”
地理学家说：“我们不记录花。”
“为什么？花儿可是我的星球上最美丽的东西！”
地理学家说：“我们不记录花儿，因为花期短暂”
“花期短暂是什么意思？”
“Geographies,” said the geographer, “are the books which, of all books, are most concerned with matters of consequence. They never become old-fashioned. It is very rarely that a mountain changes its position. It is very rarely that an ocean empties itself of its waters. We write of eternal things.”
“But extinct volcanoes may come to life again,” the little prince interrupted. “What does that mean– ‘ephemeral’?”
“Whether volcanoes are extinct or alive, it comes to the same thing for us,” said the geographer. “The thing that matters to us is the mountain. It does not change.”
“But what does that mean — ‘ephemeral’?” repeated the little prince, who never in his life had let go of a question, once he had asked it.
“It means, ‘which is in danger of speedy disappearance.'”
“Is my flower in danger of speedy disappearance?”
“Certainly it is.”
“但是死火山是可以复活的。”小王子打断他的话。“花期短暂是什么意思？”
地理学家说：“无论火山是死的或是活的，它对我们说都是一样的。重要的事情是山,山不会变。”
“但花期短暂是什么意思呢？”小王子重复道，他从不放弃一个他问过的问题。
“意思是有快速消失的风险。”
“我的花儿有快速消失的风险？”
“当然。”
“My flower is ephemeral,” the little prince said to himself, “and she has only four thorns to defend herself against the world. And I have left her on my planet, all alone!”
That was his first moment of regret. But he took courage once more.
“What place would you advise me to visit now?” he asked.
“The planet Earth,” replied the geographer. “It has a good reputation.”
And the little prince went away, thinking of his flower.
小王子自责道：“我的花儿花期短暂，她只有四颗荆刺来对抗这个世界，而我的离去让她在星球上孤零零的！”
这是他第一次感到后悔。但是他再次鼓起勇气。
他问到：“你建议我接下来去访问哪里呢？”
地理学家回复到：“地球。有名的地方。”
小王子带着对花儿的思念继续上路。
