It was then that the fox appeared.
“Good morning,” said the fox.
“Good morning,” the little prince responded politely, although when he turned around he saw nothing.
“I am right here,” the voice said, “under the apple tree.”
“Who are you?” asked the little prince, and added, “You are very pretty to look at.”
“I am a fox,” said the fox.
“Come and play with me,” proposed the little prince. “I am so unhappy.”
“I cannot play with you,” the fox said. “I am not tamed1.”
“Ah! Please excuse me,” said the little prince.
But, after some thought, he added:
“What does that mean— 'tame'?”
“You do not live here,” said the fox. “What is it that you are looking for?”
“I am looking for men,” said the little prince. “What does that mean—'tame'?”
“Men,” said the fox. “They have guns, and they hunt. It is very disturbing. They also raise chickens. These are their only interests. Are you looking for chickens?”
“No,” said the little prince. “I am looking for friends. What does that mean— 'tame'?”
“It is an act too often neglected,” said the fox. “It means to establish ties.”
“'To establish ties'?”
“Just that,” said the fox. “To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world...”
“I am beginning to understand,” said the little prince. “There is a flower... I think that she has tamed me...”
“It is possible,” said the fox. “On the Earth one sees all sorts of things.”
“Oh, but this is not on the Earth!” said the little prince.
The fox seemed perplexed2, and very curious.
“On another planet?”
“Yes.”
“Are there hunters on this planet?”
“No.”
“Ah, that is interesting! Are there chickens?”
“No.”
“Nothing is perfect,” sighed the fox.
But he came back to his idea.
“My life is very monotonous3,” the fox said. “I hunt chickens; men hunt me. All the chickens are just alike, and all the men are just alike. And, in consequence, I am a little bored. But if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life. I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music, out of my burrow4. And then look: you see the grain-fields down yonder5? I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the colour of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat...”
The fox gazed at the little prince, for a long time.
“Please—tame me!” he said.
“I want to, very much,” the little prince replied. “But I have not much time. I have friends to discover, and a great many things to understand.”
“One only understands the things that one tames,”said the fox. “Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me...”
“What must I do, to tame you?” asked the little prince.
“You must be very patient,” replied the fox. “First you will sit down at a little distance from me—like that—in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But you will sit a little closer to me, every day...”
The next day the little prince came back.
“It would have been better to come back at the same hour,” said the fox. “If, for example, you come at four o'clock in the afternoon, then at three o'clock I shall begin to be happy. I shall feel happier and happier as the hour advances. At four o'clock, I shall already be worrying and jumping about. I shall show you how happy I am! But if you come at just any time, I shall never know at what hour my heart is to be ready to greet you... One must observe6 the proper rites7...”
“What is a rite?” asked the little prince.
“Those also are actions too often neglected,” said the fox. “They are what make one day different from other days, one hour from other hours. There is a rite, for example, among my hunters. Every Thursday they dance with the village girls. So Thursday is a wonderful day for me! I can take a walk as far as the vineyards. But if the hunters danced at just any time, every day would be like every other day, and I should never have any vacation at all.”
So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure8 drew near—
“Ah,” said the fox, “I shall cry.”
“It is your own fault,” said the little prince. “I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you...”
“Yes, that is so,” said the fox.
“But now you are going to cry!” said the little prince.
“Yes, that is so,” said the fox.
“Then it has done you no good at all!”
“It has done me good,” said the fox, “because of the color of the wheat fields.” And then he added:
“Go and look again at the roses. You will understand now that yours is unique in all the world. Then come back to say goodbye to me, and I will make you a present of a secret.”
The little prince went away, to look again at the roses.
“You are not at all like my rose,” he said. “As yet you are nothing. No one has tamed you, and you have tamed no one. You are like my fox when I first knew him. He was only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But I have made him my friend, and now he is unique in all the world.”
And the roses were very much embarassed9.
“You are beautiful, but you are empty,” he went on. “One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you—the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered10 behind the screen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars11 (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled12, or boasted13, or even sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose.”
And he went back to meet the fox.
“Goodbye,” he said.
“Goodbye,” said the fox. “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
“What is essential is invisible to the eye,” the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
“It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.”
“It is the time I have wasted for my rose—” said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember.
“Men have forgotten this truth,” said the fox. “But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose...”
“I am responsible for my rose,” the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
就在这时，跑来了一只狐狸。
“你好。”狐狸说。
“你好。”小王子很有礼貌地回答道。他转过身来，但什么也没有看到。
“我在这儿，在苹果树下。”那声音说。
“你是谁？”小王子说，“你很漂亮。”
“我是一只狐狸。”狐狸说。
“来和我一起玩吧，”小王子建议道，“我很苦恼。”
“我不能和你一起玩，”狐狸说，“我还没有被驯养呢。”
“啊！真对不起。”小王子说。
思索了一会儿，他又说道：
“什么叫‘驯养’呀？”
“你不是此地人。”狐狸说，“你来寻找什么？”
“我来找人。”小王子说，“什么叫‘驯养‘呢？”
“人，”狐狸说，“他们有枪，他们还打猎，这真让人提心吊胆！他们也养鸡，这就是他们全部的兴趣了。你是来找鸡的吗？”
“不，”小王子说，“我是来找朋友的。什么叫‘驯养’呢？”
“这是经常被忽略的事情，”狐狸说，“它的意思就是‘建立联系’。”
“建立联系？”
“一点不错，”狐狸说。“对我来说，你还只是一个小男孩，就像其他千万个小男孩一样。我不需要你。你也同样用不着我。对你来说，我也不过是一只狐狸，和其他千万只狐狸一样。但是，如果你驯养了我，我们就互相不可缺少了。对我来说，你就是世界上唯一的了；我对你来说，也是世界上唯一的了。”
“我有点明白了。”小王子说，“有一朵花……，我想，她把我驯养了……”
“这是可能的。”狐狸说，“世界上什么样的事都可能看到……”
“啊，这不是在地球上的事。”小王子说。
狐狸感到十分蹊跷和好奇。
“在另一个星球上？”
“是的。”
“在那个星球上有猎人吗？”
“没有。”
“这很有意思。那么，有鸡吗？”
“没有。”
“没有十全十美的事。”狐狸叹息地说道。
可是，狐狸又把话题拉回来：
“我的生活很单调。我捕捉鸡，而人又捕捉我。所有的鸡全都一样，所有的人也全都一样。因此，我感到有些厌烦了。但是，如果你驯养了我，那就像阳光照进了我的生活。我会辨认出一种与众不同的脚步声。其他的脚步声会使我躲到地下去，而你的脚步声就会像音乐一样让我从洞里走出来。再说，你看！你看到那边的麦田没有？我不吃面包，麦子对我来说，一点用也没有。麦田对我也没什么要说的。而这，真使人扫兴。但是，你有着金黄色的头发。想想看，一旦你驯养了我，就会十分美妙。麦子，也是金黄色的，它会使我想起你。而且，我甚至会喜欢那风吹麦浪的声音……”
狐狸沉默不语，久久地看着小王子。
“请你驯养我吧！”他说。
“我很愿意。”小王子回答道，“可我的时间不多了。我还要去寻找朋友，还有许多事物要了解。”
“只有被驯养了的事物，才会被了解。”狐狸说，“人不会再有时间去了解任何东西的。他们总是到商店去购买现成的东西。因为世界上还没有购买友谊的商店，所以人也就没有朋友。如果你想要一个朋友，那就驯养我吧！”
“要驯养你，我应当做些什么呢？”小王子说。
“应当非常耐心。”狐狸回答道，“开始你就这样坐在草丛中，坐得离我稍微远些。我用眼角瞅着你，你什么也不要说。话语是误会的根源。但是，你每天要坐得靠我更近些……”
第二天，小王子又来了。
“最好还是在原来的那个时间来。”狐狸说道，“比如说，你下午四点钟来，那么从三点钟起，我就开始感到幸福。时间越临近，我就越感到幸福。到了四点钟的时候，我就会坐立不安；我会让你看到我有多幸福。但是，如果你随便什么时候来，我就不知道在什么时候该准备好我的心情……应当有一定的仪式。”
“仪式是什么？”小王子问道。
“这也是一种常被人忽视的行为。”狐狸说，“它就是使某一天与其他日子不同，使某一时刻与其他时刻不同的事情。比如说，我的那些猎人就有一种仪式。他们每星期四都和村子里的姑娘们跳舞。于是，星期四就是一个美好的日子！我可以一直散步到葡萄园去。如果猎人们什么时候都跳舞，天天就都一样了，那么我也就没有假日了。”
就这样，小王子驯养了狐狸。小王子离开的时刻快要来到时——
“啊！”狐狸说，“我一定会哭的。”
“这是你的过错，”小王子说，“我本来并不想给你任何痛苦，可你却要我驯养你……”
“说得没错。”狐狸说。
“可你就要哭了！”小王子说。
“当然罗。”狐狸说。
“那么这对你没什么好处。”
“由于麦子颜色的缘故，我还是得到了好处。”狐狸说。然后，他又接着说。
“再去看看那些玫瑰花吧。你一定会明白，你的那朵是世界上独一无二的玫瑰。然后你回来和我告别，我会赠送给你一个秘密作礼物。”
于是小王子又去看那些玫瑰。
“你们一点也不像我的那朵玫瑰，你们还什么都不是呢！”小王子对她们说。“没有人驯养过你们，你们也没有驯养过任何人。你们就像我刚认识狐狸时那样，它那时和千万只其它狐狸一样，只是一只狐狸。但是，我现在已经把它当成了我的朋友，于是它现在就是世界上独一无二的了。”
这时，那些玫瑰花显得十分难堪。
“你们很美，但你们是空虚的。”小王子仍然在对她们说，“没有人能为你们去死。当然罗，我的那朵玫瑰花，一个普通的过路人会以为她和你们一样。可是，她却比你们全体更重要，因为她是我浇灌的；因为她是我放在花罩中的；因为她是我用屏风保护起来的；因为她身上的毛虫（除了为变成蝴蝶而留下两三只外）是我消灭的。因为我倾听过她的怨艾和自诩，甚至有时我聆听她的沉默。因为她是我的玫瑰。”
他又回到了狐狸身边。
“再见了，”小王子说道。
“再见，”狐狸说，“喏，这就是我的秘密。很简单：只有用心才能看得清。实质性的东西，用眼睛是看不见的。”
“实质性的东西，用眼睛是看不见的。”小王子重复着这句话，以便能把它记在心间。
“正因为你为你的玫瑰花费了时间，这才使你的玫瑰变得如此重要。”
“正因为我为我的玫瑰花费了时间……”小王子又重复着，以便自己记住这些。
“人们已经忘记了这个道理，”狐狸说，“可是，你不应该忘记它。你现在要对你驯养过的一切负责到底。你要对你的玫瑰负责……
“我要对我的玫瑰负责……”小王子又重复着，以便确保自己能牢记。
1. tame [teim] v． 驯养，驯服
2． perplex v． 使困惑；使费解
3． monotonous adj． 单调的；一成不变的
4． burrow n． 地洞；藏身处
5． yonder adv． 在那边，在远处
6． observe v． 遵守，奉行
7． rite [rait] n． 仪式
8． departure n． 启程，出发
9． embarrassed adj． 尴尬的
10． shelter v． 掩蔽，庇护
11． caterpillar n． 毛虫
12． grumble v． 发牢骚
13． boast v． 夸口；吹嘘