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很快，我对小王子所讲的那种花儿就更为了解了。在小王子的那颗星球上，一直就有一种很朴素的花儿, 她们只有一圈花瓣，也不占什么地方，不妨碍别人。清晨，她们在草丛中开放，到了夜晚就凋谢了。不知是来自何方的种子发芽生长出了这种花。小王子曾经密切注视过她的嫩芽，发现她与众不同。他曾怀疑这也许是猴面包树的一个新变种，但见那小芽很快就不再长高了，而是开始准备开花儿啦。小王子亲眼看到一个饱满的花蕾正含苞待放，预感奇迹将要出现。那花儿却老躲在自己绿色闺房里精心打扮自己。她细心地挑选自己的色彩，从容地穿上彩衣，一瓣一瓣地修饰自己。她不愿意像罂粟花那样皱皱巴巴地舒展， 而只肯光彩夺目地怒放。啊！的的确确，她娇美可爱！ 她那神奇的梳妆打扮是一天天逐渐完成的。终于在一天早晨，当太阳升起的时候，她露出了自己的容貌。经过如此精心修饰之后，她一露面就打了一个哈欠说："啊！我刚刚睡醒……请您原谅……我还没有梳洗打扮呢……” 小王子这时情不自禁，大加赞扬说： "您多么美丽呀！” "是吗，"花儿温柔地答道，"我是跟太阳同时诞生的……” 小王子觉得她不怎么谦虚，但她是多么姿色秀美， 楚楚动人啊！ "我想，现在该是用早餐的时候啦，"紧接着，她就补充一句，"能不能劳驾您给我……” 小王子因为对她照顾不周有些不好意思，于是，就提来一壶清水，给花儿浇灌。 从此，花儿习以为常， 不断以她那有点乖戾任性的撒娇去麻烦小王子，使他不胜其烦。例如，有一天，在谈到她身上长着四根刺时，她对小王子说："老虎会来的呀，它们还有锐利的爪子。” "我这颗星球上没有老虎，"小王子纠正她说，"何况，老虎也不吃草。" "我并不是一棵草呀。"花柔声说。"抱歉，我弄错了…… "，“其实我一点也不怕老虎，我倒是挺讨厌过堂风，您能给我当屏风，替我挡挡风吗？” 最讨厌过堂风……这对一株植物来说，可不是件好办的事。小王子注意到了这点，他想，这株花儿可真难侍候啊…… "夜里，请您拿个罩子把我罩住。您这个地方很冷。我在这里待得不舒服。说到我来的那个地方嘛……” 说到这里，她打住不往下说了。她是通过一粒花子惯常那样生根发芽的方式，土生土长在这颗星球的，其他的星球她压根儿就没有见过。刚才那句谎话讲得实在幼稚可笑，她自己也感到羞愧，但为了骗小王子真相信她弱不禁风，她故意咳嗽了两三声， 又提出要求： "屏风呢？……” "我正准备去找哩，您不是还在跟我说话吗？” 于是，她为了要使小王子最终感到内疚后悔，又起劲地咳嗽个不停。 眼见这种情况，小王子即便对她充满了真挚的爱意与良好的愿望，现在也不信任她了。她过去那些华而不实的好言好语，小王子太认真在意了，结果反弄得自己很痛苦。 "我当时不该听她的话，"有一天，小王子推心置腹地对我说，"永远不要听花儿的花言巧语，观赏她们， 呼吸她们的芬芳，这就行了。我的那朵花儿，的确曾使我那颗星球上飘溢着清香，可是我当时不懂得去享受，反倒是她所讲的老虎爪子的事，令我烦躁不安， 也使得我去迁就她，照顾她。……” 小王子还坦诚告诉我说："那时，我什么都不懂！我应该根据她的行为而不是根据她的言辞去评判她。她使我沉浸在一片芬芳之中，使我心旷神怡。我不该从她身边逃走！我那时应该懂得，在她使性子、耍小手腕儿的背面，其实是对我的一片柔情！但我当时太年轻了，还不懂得如何去爱她。" I soon learned to know this flower better. On the little prince's planet the flowers had always been very simple. They had only one ring of petals; they took up no room at all; they were a trouble to nobody. One morning they would appear in the grass, and by night they would have faded peacefully away. But one day, from a seed blown from no one knew where, a new flower had come up; and the little prince had watched very closely over this small sprout which was not like any other small sprouts on his planet. It might, you see, have been a new kind of baobab. The shrub soon stopped growing, and began to get ready to produce a flower. The little prince, who was present at the first appearance of a huge bud, felt at once that some sort of miraculous apparition must emerge from it. But the flower was not satisfied to complete the preparations for her beauty in the shelter of her green chamber. She chose her colours with the greatest care. She adjusted her petals one by one. She did not wish to go out into the world all rumpled, like the field poppies. It was only in the full radiance of her beauty that she wished to appear. Oh, yes! She was a coquettish creature! And her mysterious adornment lasted for days and days. Then one morning, exactly at sunrise, she suddenly showed herself. And, after working with all this painstaking precision, she yawned and said: "Ah! I am scarcely awake. I beg that you will excuse me. My petals are still all disarranged..." But the little prince could not restrain his admiration: "Oh! How beautiful you are!" "Am I not?" the flower responded, sweetly. "And I was born at the same moment as the sun..." The little prince could guess easily enough that she was not any too modest—but how moving—and exciting—she was! "I think it is time for breakfast," she added an instant later. "If you would have the kindness to think of my needs—" And the little prince, completely abashed, went to look for a sprinkling-can of fresh water. So, he tended the flower. So, too, she began very quickly to torment him with her vanity—which was, if the truth be known, a little difficult to deal with. One day, for instance, when she was speaking of her four thorns, she said to the little prince: "Let the tigers come with their claws!" "There are no tigers on my planet," the little prince objected. "And, anyway, tigers do not eat weeds." "I am not a weed," the flower replied, sweetly. "Please excuse me..." "I am not at all afraid of tigers," she went on, "but I have a horror of drafts. I suppose you wouldn't have a screen for me?" "A horror of drafts— that is bad luck, for a plant," remarked the little prince, and added to himself, "This flower is a very complex creature..." "At night I want you to put me under a glass globe. It is very cold where you live. In the place I came from—" But she interrupted herself at that point. She had come in the form of a seed. She could not have known anything of any other worlds. Embarassed over having let herself be caught on the verge of such a naive untruth, she coughed two or three times, in order to put the little prince in the wrong. "The screen?" "I was just going to look for it when you spoke to me..." The she forced her cough a little more so that he shoud suffer from remorse just the same. So the little prince, in spite of all the good will that was inseparable from his love, had soon come to doubt her. He had taken seriously words which were without importance, and it made him very unhappy. "I ought not to have listened to her," he confided to me one day. "One ever ought to listen to the flowers. One should simply look at them and breathe their fragrance. Mine perfumed all my planet. But I did not know low to take pleasure in all her grace. This tale of claws, which disturbed ne so much, should only have filled my heart with tenderness and pity." And he continued his confidences: "The fact is that I did not know how to understand anything! I ought o have judged by deeds and not by words. She cast her fragrance and her radiance over me. I ought never to have run away from her... I ought to lave guessed all the affection that lay behind her poor little strategems. Flowers are so inconsistent! But I was too young to know how to love her..." |
