前情提要: 作者開著飛機旅行, 卻因引擎故障, 困在撒哈拉沙漠中. 一天
夜裡.他遇見了小王子, 開始了他們一連串的對話……
VII
“ Dose a sheep eat flowers, too?”
“A sheep eats anything it finds.”
“But some flowers have thorns!”
“Yes, it eats them, too.”
“If that is true, what use are thorns?”
I did not know. At that moment I was very busy. I was fixing my plane.
I was very worried, because the engine was broken very seriously, and I
did not have much water to drink.
“ If that is true, what use are they?”
The little prince never stopped asking questions.
“ The thorns are useless at all. Flowers have thorns just for spite!”
“Oh!”
There was a moment of complete silence. Then the little prince, with a
kind of angry, said:
“I don‟t believe you! Flowers are very weak. They are naïve. They
make themselves the best. They believe their thorns are terrible
weapons……”
I did not answer. I was so busy in thinking…………..
“And you actually believe that the flowers…..”
“Oh, no!” I cried. “No, no, no! I don‟t believe anything. I did not think
much before I answered you. Don‟t you see—I am very busy with this
important thing.”
He stared at me, adv.
“Important thing?”
He looked at me there. I took my hammer in my hand, and my fingers
were black. I was fixing MY PLANE.
“ You talk just like the grown-ups ! You mix everything up
together…you don‟t understand things clearly!”
“ I know a planet where there is a red-faced gentleman. He has never
smelled a flower. He has never looked at a star. He has never loved any one.
He has never done anything in his life. He only adds figures. And all day he
says over and over, just like you: “I am busy with important things!” And
that makes him pride. But he is not a man—he is a mushroom!”
“A what?”
“A mushroom!”
The little prince was now white with rage.
“The flowers have their thorns for millions of years. And for millions of
years the sheep eats them, too. Is it not important to try to understand why
the flowers still grow thorns? Is this not more important than a fat
red-faced gentleman‟s sum? And if I know a special flower, a very special
flower on my planet, and a little sheep can destroy it some morning, and he
even does not know what he is doing—Oh! You think that is not
important!”
His face turned from white to red.
“If some one loves a flower, and the flower grows in all the millions and
millions of stars, it is enough to make him happy just to look at the stars.
He can say to himself: „somewhere, my flower is there…….‟ But if the
sheep eats the flower, in one moment all the stars will become
dark……And you think that is not important!”
He could not say anything more. His words were choked by sobbing.
The night was coming. I put down my hammer, my thirst, my plane.
On one star, one planet, my planet, the Earth, there was a little prince. He
needed some warmth. I took him in my arms, and rocked him. I said to
him:
“Your lovely flower is not in anger. I will draw you a muzzle for your
sheep. I will draw you a railing to put around your flower. I will—“
I did not know what to say to him. I did not know how to reach him. I
did not know how to overtake him and walk hand in hand with him again.
It is such a secret place, the land of tears.
對話 script:
A:“ Dose a sheep eat flowers, too?”
B:“A sheep eats anything it finds.”
A:“But some flowers have thorns!”
A:“Yes, it eats them, too.”
A:“If that is true, what use are thorns?”
A:“ If that is true, what use are they?”
B:“ The thorns are useless at all. Flowers have thorns just for spite!”
A:“Oh!”
A:“I don‟t believe you! Flowers are very weak. They are naïve. They
make themselves the best. They believe their thorns are terrible
weapons……”
B: “Oh, no, no, no! I don‟t believe anything. I did not think much
before I answered you. Don‟t you see—I am very busy with this important
thing.”
A:“Important thing?You talk just like the grown-ups ! You mix
everything up together…you don‟t understand things clearly!”