小王子英文版 LittlePrince 8

 

- the little prince visits the lamplighter  

 

The fifth planet was very strange. It was the smallest of all. There was just enough room on it for a street lamp and a lamplighter. The little prince was not able to reach any explanation of the use of a street lamp and a lamplighter, somewhere in the heavens, on a planet which had no people, and not one house. But he said to himself, nevertheless: 

 

"It may well be that this man is absurd. But he is not so absurd as the king, the conceited man, the businessman, and the tippler. For at least his work has some meaning. When he lights his street lamp, it is as if he brought one more star to life, or one flower. When he puts out his lamp, he sends the flower, or the star, to sleep. That is a beautiful occupation. And since it is beautiful, it is truly useful." 

 

When he arrived on the planet he respectfully saluted the lamplighter. 

 

"Good morning. Why have you just put out your lamp?" 

 

"Those are the orders," replied the lamplighter. "Good morning." 

 

"What are the orders?" 

 

"The orders are that I put out my lamp. Good evening." 

 

And he lighted his lamp again. 

 

"But why have you just lighted it again?" 

 

"Those are the orders," replied the lamplighter. 

 

"I do not understand," said the little prince. 

 

"There is nothing to understand," said the lamplighter. "Orders are orders. Good morning." 

 

And he put out his lamp. 

 

Then he mopped his forehead with a handkerchief decorated with red squares. 

 

"I follow a terrible profession. In the old days it was reasonable. I put the lamp out in the morning, and in the evening I lighted it again. I had the rest of the day for relaxation and the rest of the night for sleep." 

 

"And the orders have been changed since that time?" 

 

"The orders have not been changed," said the lamplighter. "That is the tragedy! From year to year the planet has turned more rapidly and the orders have not been changed!" 

 

"Then what?" asked the little prince. 

 

"Then-- the planet now makes a complete turn every minute, and I no longer have a single second for repose. Once every minute I have to light my lamp and put it out!" 

 

"That is very funny! A day lasts only one minute, here where you live!" 

 

"It is not funny at all!" said the lamplighter. "While we have been talking together a month has gone by." 

 

"A month?" 

 

"Yes, a month. Thirty minutes. Thirty days. Good evening." 

 

And he lighted his lamp again. 

 

As the little prince watched him, he felt that he loved this lamplighter who was so faithful to his orders. He remembered the sunsets which he himself had gone to seek, in other days, merely by pulling up his chair; and he wanted to help his friend. 

 

"You know," he said, "I can tell you a way you can rest whenever you want to..." 

 

"I always want to rest," said the lamplighter. 

 

For it is possible for a man to be faithful and lazy at the same time. 

 

The little prince went on with his explanation: 

 

"Your planet is so small that three strides will take you all the way around it. To be always in the sunshine, you need only walk along rather slowly. When you want to rest, you will walk-- and the day will last as long as you like." 

 

"That doesn't do me much good," said the lamplighter. "The one thing I love in life is to sleep." 

 

"Then you're unlucky," said the little prince. 

 

"I am unlucky," said the lamplighter. "Good morning." 

 

And he put out his lamp. 

 

"That man," said the little prince to himself, as he continued farther on his journey, "that man would be scorned by all the others: by the king, by the conceited man, by the tippler, by the businessman. Nevertheless he is the only one of them all who does not seem to me ridiculous. Perhaps that is because he is thinking of something else besides himself." 

 

He breathed a sigh of regret, and said to himself, again: 

 

"That man is the only one of them all whom I could have made my friend. But his planet is indeed too small. There is no room on it for two people..." 

 

What the little prince did not dare confess was that he was sorry most of all to leave this planet, because it was blest every day with 1440 sunsets!

 

[ Chapter 15 ] 

 

- the little prince visits the geographer  

 

The sixth planet was ten times larger than the last one. It was inhabited by an old gentleman who wrote voluminous books. 

 

"Oh, look! Here is an explorer!" he exclaimed to himself when he saw the little prince coming. 

 

The little prince sat down on the table and panted a little. He had already traveled so much and so far! 

 

"Where do you come from?" the old gentleman said to him. 

 

"What is that big book?" said the little prince. "What are you doing?" 

 

"I am a geographer," the old gentleman said to him. 

 

"What is a geographer?" asked the little prince. 

 

"A geographer is a scholar who knows the location of all the seas, rivers, towns, mountains, and deserts." 

 

"That is very interesting," said the little prince. "Here at last is a man who has a real profession!" And he cast a look around him at the planet of the geographer. It was the most magnificent and stately planet that he had ever seen. 

 

"Your planet is very beautiful," he said. "Has it any oceans?" 

 

"I couldn't tell you," said the geographer. 

 

"Ah!" The little prince was disappointed. "Has it any mountains?" 

 

"I couldn't tell you," said the geographer. 

 

"And towns, and rivers, and deserts?" 

 

"I couldn't tell you that, either." 

 

"But you are a geographer!" 

 

"Exactly," the geographer said. "But I am not an explorer. I haven't a single explorer on my planet. It is not the geographer who goes out to count the towns, the rivers, the mountains, the seas, the oceans, and the deserts. The geographer is much too important to go loafing about. He does not leave his desk. But he receives the explorers in his study. He asks them questions, and he notes down what they recall of their travels. And if the recollections of any one among them seem interesting to him, the geographer orders an inquiry into that explorer's moral character." 

 

"Why is that?" 

 

"Because an explorer who told lies would bring disaster on the books of the geographer. So would an explorer who drank too much." 

 

"Why is that?" asked the little prince. 

 

"Because intoxicated men see double. Then the geographer would note down two mountains in a place where there was only one." 

 

"I know some one," said the little prince, "who would make a bad explorer." 

 

"That is possible. Then, when the moral character of the explorer is shown to be good, an inquiry is ordered into his discovery." 

 

"One goes to see it?" 

 

"No. That would be too complicated. But one requires the explorer to furnish proofs. For example, if the discovery in question is that of a large mountain, one requires that large stones be brought back from it." 

 

The geographer was suddenly stirred to excitement. 

 

"But you-- you come from far away! You are an explorer! You shall describe your planet to me!" 

 

And, having opened his big register, the geographer sharpened his pencil. The recitals of explorers are put down first in pencil. One waits until the explorer has furnished proofs, before putting them down in ink. 

 

"Well?" said the geographer expectantly. 

 

"Oh, where I live," said the little prince, "it is not very interesting. It is all so small. I have three volcanoes. Two volcanoes are active and the other is extinct. But one never knows." 

 

"One never knows," said the geographer.