【Chapter 24】The Little Prince(小王子)

joker11111

Chapter 24

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.

"Ah," I said to the little prince, "these memories of yours are very charming; but I have not yet succeeded in repairing my plane; I have nothing more to drink; and I, too, should be very happy if I could walk at my leisure toward a spring of fresh water! "

"My friend the fox--" the little prince said to me.

"My dear little man, this is no longer a matter that has anything to do with the fox! "

"Why not? "

"Because I am about to die of thirst . . . "

He did not follow my reasoning, and he answered me:

"It is a good thing to have had a friend, even if one is about to die. I, for instance, am very glad to have had a fox as a friend . . . "

"He has no way of guessing the danger," I said to myself."He has never been either hungry or thirsty.

A little sunshine is all he needs . . . "

But he looked at me steadily, and replied to my thought:

"I am thirsty, too. Let us look for a well . . . "

I made a gesture of weariness. It is absurd to look for a well, at random, in the immensity of the desert. But nevertheless we started walking.

When we had trudged along for several hours, in silence, the darkness fell, and the stars began to come out. Thirst had made me a little feverish, and I looked at them as if I were in a dream. The little prince's last words came reeling back into my memory:

"Then you are thirsty, too? " I demanded.

But he did not reply to my question. He merely said to me:

"Water may also be good for the heart . . . "

I did not understand this answer, but I said nothing. I knew very well that it was impossible to cross-examine him.

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.

"The desert is beautiful," the little prince added.

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 . . .

"What makes the desert beautiful," said the little prince, "is that somewhere it hides a well . . . "

I was astonished by a sudden understanding of that mysterious radiation of the sands. When I was a little boy I lived in an old house, and legend told us that a treasure was buried there. To be sure, no one had ever known how to find it; perhaps no one had ever even looked for it. But it cast an enchantment over that house. My home was hiding a secret in the depths of its heart . . .

"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 suspicion 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 . . .

And, as I walked on so, I found the well, at daybreak.

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这位鱼油，如果喜欢本系列The Little Prince(小王子)帖子，请订阅 专辑☞（传送门）（不喜欢更要订阅 ）

joker11111

今天是我在沙漠的第八天，就在小王子讲商人的故事的时候，我喝掉了最后一滴水。
我对小王子说：“你的这些回忆确实很吸引人，但是我还没有修好飞机，水也没有了，要是我也能在空闲的时候找到一汪清泉就好了。”
“我的狐狸朋友……”小王子继续讲道。
“亲爱的小王子，这跟狐狸没有一点关系！”
“为什么没关系？”
“因为我就要渴死了……”
他没明白我的意思，接着对我说：“就算是要死了，有个朋友也是件好事。就像对我来说，能有一个狐狸朋友是件高兴的事。”
“他完全不明白缺水的危险，他从来没有饿过，也没渴过。他需要的只是一点阳光而已……”我自言自语道。
但是他却盯着我，回答说：“我也会渴，我们去找水吧……”
我做了个消沉的手势，毫无目标地在沙漠中找水实在是荒唐。不过我们还是迈开了脚步。
我们在沉默中迈着沉重的步伐走了几个小时，天色渐暗，星星开始闪烁。缺水让我有些发烧，看着这些星星，我就好像在梦里一样。小王子的最后一句话盘旋在我的脑海中：“你也会渴？”我问道。
可他却没有回答，只是对我说：“水或许对心也有好处……”
我不明白他的意思，但什么都没问。我很清楚反复问他寻找答案是无用的。
他累了，坐了下来，我也坐在他旁边。我们沉默了一小会，他又开始说道：“因为有一朵看不到的花，所以星星很美。”
我回应道：“对，是这样。”望着月光下绵延的沙脊，我没有再说任何话。
“沙漠很美。”小王子补充道。
这倒是真的，我一直都爱着沙漠。在这里，一个人坐在沙丘上，什么都不看，什么都不听，却能从这寂静中感受到某些东西在悸动，在闪烁。
“沙漠之所以美，是因为其中隐藏着泉水。”小王子说。
猛然间，我懂得了沙子所散发出来的神秘感。
当我还是小男孩的时候，我住在一座老房子里，传说那里埋有宝藏。没有人知道宝藏在哪，或许连亲眼见过的人都没有。但是宝藏的传说却让那所房子变得魅力无穷。在我家的最深处，藏着一个秘密……
“是啊，”我对小王子说。“房子，星星，还有沙漠，令他们如此美丽的正是那些看不见的东西！”
“我很高兴，”他说，“你和我的狐狸观点相同。”
小王子慢慢地进入了梦乡，我抱着他再一次启程。我能感觉到他的呼吸，他的颤动。我就好像抱着一件易碎的宝物，我甚至觉得这是全世界最脆弱的东西。在月光中，我望着他那苍白的额头，那紧闭的双眼，还有那随风摇摆的一缕发丝。我对自己说：“我看见的只是一个躯壳，最重要的部分是看不见的……”
他的嘴唇微微张开，好像在微笑。我接着对自己说：“睡梦中的小王子让我为之深深感动的是他对一朵花的忠诚，即便在睡眠中，一想到玫瑰花，就好像一盏明灯照进了全身心……”我感觉他变得更脆弱了，就好像是会被一阵风吹灭的小火焰，我要保护他。
我继续前进，在拂晓之时，我找到了清泉。
几则读后感分享：
这看似是在寻找水源，实则是一趟心灵的旅程，在这个过程中，我们找到了美的源头。

令人感觉温暖的不是冰冷的星空，而是在星空的那方，有让人想起心底便会泛起温暖涟漪的存在。

有些事不是看到了希望才去行动，而且行动了才能看到希望！如果没有小王子，“我”是不是就放弃寻找了呢？