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 impenetrable 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. Then, taking my sheep out of his pocket, he buried himself in the contemplation of his treasure.

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 silence 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…”

我費了好長的時間才搞清楚小王子來自什么地方。他似乎從不聽我的問話，倒是不斷地向我提出種種問題。正是從他時不時說的只言片語中，我得知了有關他的一切。

當他第一次見到我的飛機（這里我不想把我的飛機畫出來，對我來說，畫飛機實在是太難了）的時候，就曾問過我：“這是什么東西呀？”

“這不是一件東西，這是一架飛機，是我的飛機，它會飛?！蔽疫€得意揚揚地告訴他我是開飛機來的。

他一聽，就驚嘆地說：“怎么？你是從天上掉下來的？”

“是的。”我謙虛地承認。

“啊，這可真是有趣呀……”

小王子樂得大笑起來，這使得我很惱火，我期望別人對我飛機出事的遭遇抱同情的態度。

接著他又補充了一句：“這么說，你也是從天上來的！你從哪顆星球來的？”

我立刻感到，這是解開他身世之謎的好機會，可以打聽打聽他是怎么來到我眼前的。于是，我猛然發問：“你是從別的星球上來的吧？”

但他并不回答我的問題，只輕輕地晃動著腦袋，望著我的飛機說：“說真的，光靠這東西，你不可能是從很遠很遠的地方來的……”

接著，他沉浸在自己的幻想之中，足有好一陣子。然后，他從口袋里掏出我給他畫的那只綿羊，觀賞起他的這個寶貝來了。

你們可以想象出，他問話中關于“其他星球”那種模棱兩可的含義，是多么使我感到驚訝?。∫虼?，我要問個明白：

“我的小寶貝，你是從什么地方來的？你的家在哪兒？你要把我的綿羊帶到什么地方去？”

他靜靜地沉思了一小會兒之后，答道：“多好呀，你給我的那只箱子，夜晚就可以給綿羊當房子住。”

“當然啦。你要是乖乖的話，我再給你畫一根繩子，好讓你白天把綿羊拴住。再給你畫一根木樁。”

我的這個建議使得小王子很不高興?！鞍丫d羊拴?。慷嗝椿奶频南敕?！”

“可你要是不拴住它，它會到處亂跑的，它會走丟的呀……”

我的小朋友又咯咯笑了起來?！暗?，你想讓它往哪里跑呢？”

“隨便哪里，一直往前跑……”

小王子一本正經地指出：“沒有關系，我那個地方實在是小得很！”

他似乎略帶憂傷地又說了一句：“它一直往前跑，也跑不了多遠……”