适合大人读的童话书：《小王子》 第6章

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.

我费了好长时间才弄清楚他是从哪里来的。小王子向我提出了很多问题，可是，对我提出的问题，他好象压根没有听见似的。他无意中吐露的一些话逐渐使我搞清了他的来历。

 

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.

例如，当他第一次瞅见我的飞机时(我就不画出我的飞机了，因为这种图画对我来说太复杂)，他问我道： “这是个啥玩艺?”这不是玩艺儿。它能飞。

 

It is an airplane. It is my airplane. And I was proud to have him learn that I could fly. He cried out, then: “What! You dropped down from the sky?”

这是飞机。是我的飞机。我当时很骄傲地告诉他我能飞。于是他惊奇地说道：“怎么？你是从天上掉下来的？”

 

"Yes," I answered, modestly. Oh! That is funny! And the little prince broke into a lovely peal of laughter, which irritated me very much.

“是的。”我谦逊地答道。啊？这真滑稽。此时小王子发出一阵清脆的笑声。这使我很不高兴。

  

I like my misfortunes to be taken seriously. Then he added: "So you, too, come from the sky! Which is your planet?"

我要求别人严肃地对待我的不幸。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？”

 

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.

即刻，对于他是从哪里来的这个秘密我隐约发现到了一点线索；于是，我就突然问道：“你是从另一个星球上来的吗?”可是他不回答我的问题。

 

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.

他一面看着我的飞机，一面微微地点点头，接着说道：可不是么，乘坐这玩艺儿，你不可能是从很远的地方来的。