第三章[第3页/共3页]

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.

我花了好长时候才明白他是从那里来的。小王子问我很多题目，我有很多迷惑，但是，对我提出的题目，小王子仿佛压根儿没有闻声似的。一点一点的，偶尔间他偶然中透露的一些只言片语逐步使我搞清了他的来源。比方，当他第一次瞥见我的飞机时（我就不画出我的飞机了，因为这类丹青对我来讲太庞大），他问我道：“这是个甚么玩意儿呀？”

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..."

“如果你不拴住它，”我说，“它就到处跑，会跑丢的。”

这时，我俄然有点明白他为甚么会在这里，对于他奥秘呈现这个费解的奥妙，我模糊发明了一点线索。因而，我间断了他的发问，迫不及待地问道：“你是从另一个星球上来的吗？”