第三章

“那当然。如果你听话的话，我再给你画一根绳索，白日能够拴住它。再加上一个木桩。”

我的这位朋友又收回清脆的笑声：“你想它能跑到那里去呀？”

“如果你不拴住它，”我说，“它就到处跑，会跑丢的。”

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.

这时，我俄然有点明白他为甚么会在这里，对于他奥秘呈现这个费解的奥妙，我模糊发明了一点线索。因而，我间断了他的发问，迫不及待地问道：“你是从另一个星球上来的吗？”

他深思了一会儿，然后答复我说：“幸亏有你给我的那只箱子，夜晚能够给小羊当屋子用。”

“拴住它？多么奇特的主张啊！”

“是的。”我谦逊地答道。

但是，我的建议看来有点儿使小王子震惊。

He cried out, then: "What! You dropped down from the sky""Yes," I answered, modestly.

我花了好长时候才明白他是从那里来的。小王子问我很多题目，我有很多迷惑，但是，对我提出的题目，小王子仿佛压根儿没有闻声似的。一点一点的，偶尔间他偶然中透露的一些只言片语逐步使我搞清了他的来源。比方，当他第一次瞥见我的飞机时（我就不画出我的飞机了，因为这类丹青对我来讲太庞大），他问我道：“这是个甚么玩意儿呀？”

“哦！这真不成思议。”

“任那边所。它一向往前跑……”

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.

你们能够想见这类关于“别的星球”似是而非的话语使我内心多么猎奇。是以我极力地想晓得此中更多的奥妙。

Chapter 3

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.”

但是他不答复我的题目。他悄悄摇摆着脑袋，眼睛一向盯着我的飞机，接着说道：“乘坐它，你不成能是从很远的处所来的……”

“这不是‘玩意儿’。它能飞。这是飞机，是我的飞机。”

“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”

接着，他或许略带伤感地又弥补了一句：“一向朝前走，也不会走出多远……”

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.

"Oh! That is funny!"

这时，小王子慎重其事地说：

And the little prince broke into a lovely peal of laughter, which irritated me very much. I like my misfortunes to be taken seriously.

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..."

我当时很高傲地奉告他我能飞。他听到后迷惑地大声说：“甚么！你是从天上掉下来的？”

“你是从那里来的，我的小家伙？你说的‘我住的处所’是指甚么？你要把你的小绵羊带到那里去？”

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.

“这没有甚么干系，我那边统统都很小很小。”

此时小王子敬爱地笑了起来。这让我很活力。我不但愿本身严厉的痛苦遭到别人嘲笑。然后，他又说道：“那么，你也是从天上来的了！你是哪个星球上的？”