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!"
当时是我发生飞机事故的第八天，而小王子讲完这个关于商人的故事之后，我所备用的饮用水正好一滴也不剩。
“啊，”我告诉小王子说，“你的所见所闻确实令人心驰神往，可惜我还没搞定我的飞机故障。不幸的是，现在没有任何东西能够止渴，假如我也可以悠哉游哉地往清泉走去，我肯定会忍不住手舞足蹈起来。”
困境
"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…"
“我的那位狐狸朋友……”小王子和我说道。
“我亲爱的小伙伴，眼前的问题和狐狸没有半毛钱关系！”
“为什么没有？”
“因为我口渴难耐，可能过不了多久就会死去……”
小王子根本不理解我的意思，还继续回答道：
“纵然一个人即将死去，如果能多结交一个朋友，不也是一件幸事吗？你看，我就十分庆幸能和狐狸成为朋友……”
“他竟然对危险毫无概念，”我不禁在喃喃自语道，“也对饥渴的感觉一无所知吧。只要一丁点阳光就足以令他心满意足……”
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.
他凝视着我，许久之后才顺着我的思路说道：
“我也觉得口渴了。咱们去寻找一下哪里有水井吧……”
我已经疲惫不堪，况且漫无目的地寻找水井，还是在这个无边无际的沙漠里，折未免也太过于荒谬。尽管如此，最后我们还是出发去寻找了。
在我们拖着沉重的步伐，沉默地前行几个小时之后，夜幕逐渐降临，天空中也开始闪烁着星光。严重缺水的我略微有些发烧，看着繁星点点，仿佛置身于梦境之中。我脑海里闪过小王子之前说的话，便问他说：
“你也口渴了吗？”
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."
他没有直接回答我的问题，而是轻声对我说道：
“喝水似乎对心灵也大有裨益……”
我并不懂他说这话的意图，便不再作声。我十分清楚，自己不可能对他进行盘问。
他走累了，直接就坐下休息，我也在他身边坐下。沉默了一段时间之后，他重新开口说道：
“夜里星星真的好美，那里生长着一朵不为人所见的花儿……”
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…"
“是啊，确实如此。”我回应之后便不再说话，而是安静地看着月光下那不断向远处延伸的沙脊。
“沙漠也很美。”小王子补充道。
这话倒是不假，一直以来我都钟情于沙漠。当深处沙漠中，坐在一个沙丘上，四周空无一物，万籁俱静。然而在这寂静无声中，却又像存在着某种希望，悄然生长，焕发光芒……
“我想沙漠之所以美丽……”小王子说道，“正因某个地方，藏着一口水井……”
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."
我一时之间呆落木鸡，随后又恍然大悟，原来沙漠的迷人之处正在于此。当我还是一个小男孩的时候，居住在一座古老的房子里，而且传说在某个角落里埋藏着珍宝。当然，没人知晓如何搜寻宝藏，或许压根就没人寻找过。不过，这却给整个屋子蒙上了一层神秘的面纱，一个不为人知的秘密还深藏在老房子的心灵深处……
“对！就是这样！”我对小王子说道，“无论是房子，星辰，或是沙漠，令其精美绝伦之处，皆仅见于无形之间。”
“我真开心！”小王子说，“你的想法和我的狐狸朋友不谋而合呢！”
寻井
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…"
小王子进入梦乡之后，我便将他抱在怀里，重新上路寻找水井。我的内心激动不已，就好像抱着一个易碎的宝贝，甚至感觉这个宝贝就是世界上最易碎的珍品一样。借着皎洁的月光，我注视着他那白皙的额头，禁闭的双眼，还有那一绺随风飘动的头发。我暗自想到：
“我能看到的不过是事物的表象。最是珍贵之物，终不为我所见。”
As his lips opened slightly with the suspicious 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.
小王子的嘴角稍微一咧，似乎浮现出一丝笑颜。我又开始自言自语道：“看着熟睡的小王子，想到他对那朵花儿的忠诚，我不禁为之动容。哪怕他早已进入梦乡，花儿依然犹如一盏明灯闪耀着火焰，使他的整个生命熠熠生辉。”此时此刻，我更觉小王子的脆弱不堪。我情不自禁地想要保护他，就仿佛将他视为火苗一般，只要一阵微风吹过就能将他熄灭……
此后，我便一路前行，终于在破晓时分，发现了水井。
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