Chapter 24 “What is essential is invisible to the eye!”
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.
“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!”
“My friend the fox–” the little prince said to me.
“My dear little man, this is no longer a matter that has anything to do with the fox!”
“Why not?”
“Because I am about to die of thirst…”
这已经是我在沙漠上方失事的第八天了。就在我听完那个商人的故事后我喝下了最后一滴水。
我对小王子说：“啊，你的这些回忆非常美好，但我还没有修好我的飞机；我也没有水喝了。如果我能走向一汪清泉那真是太好了！”
“我的朋友狐狸……”小王子对我说。
“我亲爱的小王子，这不再是狐狸的问题了！”
“为什么？”
“因为我就要渴死了……”
He did not follow my reasoning, and he answered me:
“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…”
“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:
“I am thirsty, too. Let us look for a well…”
even if 即使
他听不懂我说的理由，他回答我：
“有一个朋友是很好的，即使你要死了。例如，我就很开心我有一个狐狸做朋友……”
“他根本不会衡量危险。”我想。“他从没试过又饿又渴的滋味，他有一点阳光就满足了……”
他看着我，似乎看穿了我所想。
“我也很渴。让我们去找一口井吧……”
I made a gesture of weariness. It is absurd to look for a well, at random, in the immensity of the desert. But nevertheless we started walking.
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 prince’s last words came reeling back into my memory:
“Then you are thirsty, too?” I demanded.
But he did not reply to my question. He merely said to me:
“Water may also be good for the heart…”
I did not understand this answer, but I said nothing. I knew very well that it was impossible to cross-examine him.
He was tired. He sat down. I sat down beside him. And, after a little silence, he spoke again:
“The stars are beautiful, because of a flower that cannot be seen.”
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.
“The desert is beautiful,” the little prince added.
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…
“What makes the desert beautiful,” said the little prince, “is that somewhere it hides a well…”
stretch out 延展
Reel back into my memory. 在我记忆里反复出现 Reel 摇晃，一种舞
cross-examine 盘问，反复询问
我做了一个无能为力的姿势。在一望无际的沙漠中找一口井，那不是太荒唐了吗？但尽管这样我们还是动身了。
当我们步履艰难地走了几个小时。在一片寂静中，夜幕降临，星星出来了。饥渴让我有些发烧，我看着星星就好像在做梦。小王子的最后的话也在我脑海里跳动。
“你也很渴吗？”我问到。
但他没有回答我的问题。他很少对我说：
“水可能对心灵有益……”
我不明白这个答案，但我什么都没说。我知道这样做的话就好像在盘问他一样。
他累了，坐在沙漠上。我坐在他旁边。在一小段沉默后，他又说：“星星是多么美啊，因为上面有一朵属于我的花儿。”
我答道：“是的，就是是这样。”，然后，我的目光望向月光下延展的的沙丘
“沙漠真美啊。”小王子说。
的确是这样。我一直都很喜欢沙漠。我们坐下沙丘上，一望无际，神秘静谧。然而，有什么东西在静静的发光……
“什么让沙漠变美了，”小王子说，“那里是不是藏着一口井……”
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…
“Yes,” I said to the little prince. “The house, the stars, the desert — what gives them their beauty is something that is invisible!”
“I am glad,” he said, “that you agree with my fox.”
in the depths of 在…的深处
我吃了一惊，突然明白了沙漠里闪闪发光的秘密是什么了。但我还是小孩的时候我住在一栋老房子里，传说那里埋藏着一件宝物。无可否认，没有人知道如何找到它；或许没人曾经试过去找它。但是这传说使老屋笼罩着一股神秘色彩。房子里埋藏着秘密。
“是的。”我对小王子说。“房子、星星、沙漠。那些我们看不到的有一种朦胧美！”
“我很高兴，”他说，“你同意狐狸的看法。”
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 wind, and I said to myself: “What I see here is nothing but a shell. What is most important is invisible…”
As his lips opened slightly with the suspicion 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…
And, as I walked on so, I found the well, at daybreak.
locks of hair 几缕头发
half-smile 浅浅的微笑
a puff of wind 一股风
a suspicion of 一丝、一点
whole being 浑身、整个人
当小王子睡着之后，我把他抱在怀里再次启程。我被深深地打动了。我感觉我抱着的是一块脆弱的珍宝。我甚至觉得世上没有比他更脆弱的东西了。在月光下我看着他那苍白的额头、他那闭上的眼睛、他那随风舞动的刘海。我对自己说：“我看见的只是一具躯壳，最重要的东西是看不到的……”
他那半张的嘴唇露出浅浅的微笑。我又对自己说：“在这儿熟睡的小王子啊，是什么深深打动了我，是他对花儿的忠诚。玫瑰的影像就像灯火一样照亮了他，即使他是熟睡着得……”我觉得他越来越脆弱了，我很想去保护他，他就像会被一阵风儿吹灭的火苗一样……
我继续前行并找到了那口井，在曙光初现的时候。
