第二十四章[第3页/共5页]

他平静地看着我，明白了我的设法：“我也渴了……我们去找一口井吧……”

It was now the eighth day since I had had my accident in the desert, and I had listened to the story of the merchant as I was drinking the last drop of my water supply.

Chapter 24

He was tired. He sat down. I sat down beside him. And, after a little silence, he spoke again:"The stars are beautiful, because of a flower that cannot be seen."I replied, "Yes, that is so." And, without saying anything more, I looked across the ridges of sand that were stretched out before us in the moonlight.

"My dear little man, this is no longer a matter that has anything to do with the fox!""Why not"

And that was true. I have always loved the desert. One sits down on a desert sand dune, sees nothing, hears nothing. Yet through the silence something throbs, and gleams...

我很惊奇，俄然明白了戈壁的奥秘之光是甚么。当我还是一个小孩子的时候，我住在一座陈腐的屋子里，传闻这个屋子里埋藏着一个宝贝。当然，向来没有任何人能发明这个宝贝，能够，乃至也没有人去寻觅过。但是，这个宝贝使全部屋子增加了某种奥秘。我家的屋子在它的心灵深处埋没着一个奥妙……我对小王子说道：“是的，不管是屋子、星星或是戈壁，因为某种奥秘使它们更斑斓！”

"Yes," I said to the little prince. "The house, the stars, the desert― what gives them their beauty is something that is invisible!""I am glad," he said, "that you agree with my fox."As the little prince dropped off to sleep, I took him in my arms and set out walking once more. I felt deeply moved, and stirred. It seemed to me that I was carrying a very fragile treasure. It seemed to me, even, that there was nothing more fragile on all Earth. In the moonlight I looked at his pale forehead, his closed eyes, his locks of hair that trembled in the wind, and I said to myself: "What I see here is nothing but a shell. What is most important is invisible..."As his lips opened slightly with the suspicious of a half-smile, I said to myself, again: "What moves me so deeply, about this little prince who is sleeping here, is his loyalty to a flower― the image of a rose that shines through his whole being like the flame of a lamp, even when he is asleep..." And I felt him to be more fragile still. I felt the need of protecting him, as if he himself were a flame that might be extinguished by a little puff of wind...