适合大人读的童话书：《小王子》 第21章

 

I believe that for his escape he took advantage of the migration of a lock of wild birds. On the morning of his departure he put his planet in perfect order. He carefully cleaned out his active volcanoes.

 

我想小王子大概是利用一群候鸟迁徙的机会跑出来的。在他出发的那天早上，他把他的星球收拾得整整齐齐，把它上头的活火山打扫得干干净净。

 

He possessed two active volcanoes; and they were very convenient for heating his breakfast in the morning. He also had one volcano that was extinct. But, as he said, "One never knows!"

 

他有两个活火山，早上热早点很方便。他还有一座死火山。他想，“说不定它还会活动呢!”

 

So he cleaned out the extinct volcano, too. If they are well cleaned out, volcanoes burn slowly and steadily, without any eruptions.

 

他也把它打扫干净。打扫干净了，它们就可以慢慢地有规律地燃烧，而不会突然爆发。

 

Volcanic eruptions are like fires in a chimney. On our earth we are obviously much too small to clean out our volcanoes. That is why they bring no end of trouble upon us.

 

火山爆发就象烟囱里的火焰一样。当然，在我们地球上我们人太小，不能打扫火山，所以火山给我们带来很多很多麻烦。

 

The little prince also pulled up, with a certain sense of dejection, the last little shoots of the baobabs. He believed that he would never want to return.

 

小王子还把剩下的最后几颗猴面包树苗全拔了。他有点忧伤。他以为他再也不会回来了。

 

But on this last morning all these familiar tasks seemed very precious to him. And when he watered the flower for the last time, and prepared to place her under the shelter of her glass globe, he realised that he was very close to tears.

 

这天，这些家常活使他感到特别亲切。当他最后一次浇花时，准备把她好好珍藏起来。他发觉自己要哭出来。

 

"Goodbye," he said to the flower. But she made no answer.

 

“再见了。”他对花儿说道。可是花儿没有回答他。

 

"Goodbye," he said again.

 

“再见了。”他又说了一遍。