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The Little Prince. Экзюпери Антуан
Читать онлайн.Название The Little Prince
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9780880002837
Автор произведения Экзюпери Антуан
Жанр Зарубежная классика
Издательство Мультимедийное издательство Стрельбицкого
“So you also came down from above! What planet are you from?” he added then.
At that moment I saw the light in the impenetrable darkness of his presence.
“Are you from another planet?” I asked suddenly.
He didn’t answer. He slightly shook his head leaving his eyes on the plane.
“That’s true; it wouldn’t be possible to fly from far away in this.”
And he was lost in thought for a while. Then he took my lamb out of his pocket and carefully examined his treasure.
You can imagine how intrigued I was by his confidence that other planets exist. So I tried really hard to find out as much as possible about this.
“My little man, where are you from? Where is this “where I live” you talk about? Where do you want to take your lamb?”
“The advantage of the box you gave me is that at night he can use it as a house”, he replied after a thoughtful silence.
“That’s right. If you behave I will give you a rope so you could tie him during the day, and a peg to tie the rope to.”
The Little Prince seemed to be taken aback by this offer.
“To tie him up! What a weird idea”
“But if you don’t tie him up he will go somewhere and get lost”, I said.
My friend broke into impetuous laughter.
“Where do you think he will go?”
“Anywhere. Just over the hills and far away.”
Then the Little Prince said very seriously.
“It doesn’t matter. Everything is very small where I live!”
And then he added sadly.
“You just won’t be able to go far away…”
Chapter IV
This way, I learned the second important fact, that the planet the Little Prince came from, is a little bigger than a house! But I wasn’t very surprised. I knew that apart from big planets such as Earth, Jupiter, Mars and Venus that we have named, there are hundreds of others. Some of them are so small they can hardly even be seen with a telescope.
When an astronomer discovers one of them he doesn’t name it but gives it a number. Let’s say, he could name it Asteroid 325.
I have serious grounds to believe that the planet the Little Prince came from is known as asteroid B-612. It was seen by a telescope only once. A Turkish astronomer managed to do it in 1909.
The astronomer presented his discovery at the International astronomic Congress. But he was wearing a Turkish outfit so nobody believed him. Adults are like this…
However, fortunately for the reputation of Asteroid-612, the Turkish dictator passed the law dictating that citizens had to wear European outfits under penalty of death. As a result, the astronomer, dressed with exquisite style and elegance, held another demonstration in 1920. This time everybody took his presentation seriously.
I only described you details about the asteroid and its number with the adults in mind. When you tell them that you found a new friend, they never ask you important questions. “How does his voice sound? What games does he love to play the most? Does he collect butterflies?” Instead, they try to find out. “How old is he? How many brothers does he have? How much does his father earn?”
On the basis of these numbers, they assume they know everything about him.
If you tell adults that you saw a beautiful house made from pink brick with geraniums in the window and pigeons on the roof, they won’t be able to imagine the house.
They need to be told that you were in a house that costs 20000 dollars. Then they will exclaim, “What a wonderful house!”
With the same result, you can tell them, “The evidence that the Little Prince existed is the fact that he was charming, he laughed and looked for a lamb. If someone needs a lamb this means he exists.” And what result do you expect? They will just shrug their shoulders and treat you as a child. But if you tell them that the planet he came from is called Asteroid-612, then you will convince them and they won’t ask you a lot of questions. They are like this. You shouldn’t take their behaviour personally. Children always need to be patient with adults. However, we who understand life don’t care about the numbers.
I would like to begin this story as a fairy-tale. I would say with pleasure,
“Once upon a time there was a Little Prince who lived on a planet that was hardly bigger than him, and he needed a lamb…”
For those who understand life, my story would seem more honest. You know I don’t want anyone to read my story frivolously. I suffered too much to recollect and put everything down. It’s been six years since my friend left me together with his lamb. When I try to describe him here it’s only in order to make sure I will remember him. It’s sad to forget a friend. Not everyone has a friend. If I forget him I will be like adults who are only interested in numbers… Once again, I bought colours and pencils for this reason in particular.
It’s difficult to draw a picture again at my age if I haven’t drawn anything, except boa constrictors inside and boa constrictors outside, from when I was six. I will try my best to make my portraits as close to reality as possible. But I am not sure I will be successful. One picture turns out to be good, and another one is far from realistic. I can also be mistaken how tall the Little Prince is: he is too tall in one picture and too short in another one. I have also some doubts about the colour of his outfit. I tried my best but it can be good here and bad there, however, I hope the final result is good. I can make mistakes in some details that are more important. But it’s not my fault. My friend has never explained anything to me. He possibly thought we were the same. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to see a lamb through a box. I may be an adult a little. I had to grow up.
Chapter V
Every day during our conversations, I found out more about the Little Prince’s planet, how he left it and about his journeys. The information came slowly as it accidentally emerged from his thoughts. That’s how on the third day, I learned about the danger from baobab trees.
This time, I need to thank the lamb again. Unexpectedly, the Little Prince asked me dubiously.
“Is it true that lambs eat small bushes?”
“That is true.”
“Good. I am glad.”
I couldn’t understand why it was important for the lamb to eat small bushes. But the Little Prince added.
“It means they eat baobabs as well, doesn’t it?”
I pointed out that baobabs are not small bushes, they are trees as big as a castle, and even if he takes a herd of elephants they won’t eat a single baobab tree.
My idea about the herd of elephants made the Little Prince laugh.
“We will have to put them on top of one another”, he said.
But he also commented wisely.
“Before becoming so big baobabs were small.”
“That’s absolutely true”, I said. “But why do you need lambs to eat small baobabs?”
He replied immediately.
“What do you mean why!?”
As if he was talking about