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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.
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. He cried out, then:
“What! You dropped down from the sky?”
“Yes,” I answered, modestly.
“Oh! That is funny!”
And the little prince broke into a lovely peal of laughter, which irritated me very much. I like my misfortunes to be taken seriously. 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 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.
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.
“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?” After a reflective silenc 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.”
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...”
过了好久好久，我才弄明白他是打哪儿来的。
小王子向我提了许多问题，却从不理会我对他提的问题。我从他无意中吐出的片言只语里，逐渐知道了他的来历。
例如，当他第一次看见我的飞机的时候(我不愿画飞机，太复杂了），就问我：
“这是什么玩意儿呀？”
“它不是玩意儿，它会飞。这是飞机，是我的飞机。”
我挺自豪地告诉他我会飞。他嚷起来：
“怎么？你是从天上掉下来的吗？”
“是的。”我并没有吹嘘的意思。
“啊！这就奇了……”
小王子发出清脆悦耳的笑声，他这一笑可惹恼了我。我不喜欢别人对我的不幸打哈哈。然后他又说：
“这么说，你也是从天上下来的！你住在哪一个星球上？”
这句话犹如一道亮光，让我马上瞥见了他突然出现的秘密。我以突袭的方式问他：
“你是从另一个星球来的？”
他不答。他看着我的飞机，轻轻地点头：
“从你乘的这玩意儿来看，你确实不可能来自很远的地方……”
他随即陷入沉思，许久不说话。
你们不难想象，听了他那句无意透露的“其他星球”的话后，我会怎样惊讶吧。我竭力从中探听他的来历：
“我的小人儿，你从哪儿来？你的家在哪儿？你要把你的绵羊牵到哪儿去？”
他默默不答。然后才说：
“你给了我一个箱子，太好了。夜里可以给绵羊做屋子了。”
“是呀，如果你乖，我还要给你一根绳子，白天给你拴羊用。我还要给你一根拴羊的桩。”
我的建议显然惹恼了小王子：
“拴住它？亏你想得出这样的主意！”
“你不拴住它，它会乱跑的呀，会走失的呀。”
我的朋友发出清脆的笑声：
“你以为它会跑到哪儿去呢？”
“到处乱跑呗，朝前跑呗……”
小王子认真地告诉我：
“这倒不成问题，我的家小得很呢！”
他的神色略带忧伤，又说：
“朝前跑，也跑不了多远……”
by chance 偶然地，意外地
reveal vt. 展示；显露
for instance 例如
complicated adj. 复杂的；难处理的
peal n. 持久响亮的声音
irritate vt. 使恼怒
misfortune n. 不幸；厄运
gleam n. 闪光，闪亮
presence n. 存在；到场
abruptly adv. 突然地；唐突地
sink (sank, sunk) vi. 下沉；沉没
sink into 陷入；沉入
reverie n. 冥想
curiosity n. 好奇心；求知欲
arouse vt. 引起；唤醒
reflective adj. 沉思的；深思的
silence n. 沉默
string n. 细绳；线
post n. 桩，杆
shocked adj. 惊愕的，受震惊的
queer adj. 古怪的；不适的
wander vi. 游荡，闲逛
earnestly adv. 认真地，热切地
hint n. 少许；微量