He found himself in the neighborhood of the asteroids 325, 326, 327, 328, 329, and 330. He began, therefore, by visiting them, in order to add to his knowledge.
The first of them was inhabited by a king. Clad in royal purple and ermine, he was seated upon a throne which was at the same time both simple and majestic.
小王子发现自己的周边还存在着几颗小行星，它们的编号分别是325、326、327、328、329和330。于是他开始拜访这些星球，以便增广见闻，开拓眼界。
第一颗行星上住着一位国王，身着紫红鼬皮君王袍，端坐古朴庄严安乐椅。
国王
"Ah! Here is a subject," exclaimed the king, when he saw the little prince coming.
And the little prince asked himself:
"How could he recognize me when he had never seen me before?"
He did not know how the world is simplified for kings. To them, all men are subjects.
"Approach, so that I may see you better," said the king, who felt consumingly proud of being at last a king over somebody.
“啊！臣民朝见。”当国王望见小王子的时候，不由自主地喊出声来。
小王子茫然自问道：
“他与我未曾谋面，又怎么会认得我呢？”
他哪里会知道，在国王的眼里世界一向简单纯粹，无非就是“四海之内，皆是王臣”。
“走近一点，让我好好看看你！”国王洋洋自得，窃喜自己终于拥有属民。
The little prince looked everywhere to find a place to sit down; but the entire planet was crammed and obstructed by the king's magnificent ermine robe. So he remained standing upright, and, since he was tired, he yawned.
"It is contrary to etiquette to yawn in the presence of a king," the monarch said to him. "I forbid you to do so."
"I can't help it. I can't stop myself," replied the little prince, thoroughly embarrassed. "I have come on a long journey, and I have had no sleep…"
"Ah, then," the king said. "I order you to yawn. It is years since I have seen anyone yawning. Yawns, to me, are objects of curiosity. Come, now! Yawn again! It is an order."
小王子环顾四周，想找个地方坐下来休息一下，可是国王那华丽的长袍竟然铺满了整个星球。他只好就那样继续站着，由于旅途劳顿，他不禁打起哈欠来。
“在君主面前打哈欠是一种藐视权威的行为。”那位君王这样对他说道，“我禁止你再打哈欠。”
“我身不由己才这样！我实在控制不住自己！”小王子一脸羞愧地回答道。“我长途跋涉才抵达这里，途中都没有合眼睡觉呢！”
“啊，这样啊！”国王又说道，“那我命令你打哈欠。我已经好多年没见过其他人打哈欠了。对我来说，打哈欠倒是一件稀罕的事情。来吧，再打一个哈欠看看，这是王命。”
国王
"That frightens me… I cannot, any more…" murmured the little prince, now completely abashed.
"Hum! Hum!" replied the king. "Then I-- I order you sometimes to yawn and sometimes to--"
He sputtered a little, and seemed vexed.
For what the king fundamentally insisted upon was that his authority should be respected. He tolerated no disobedience. He was an absolute monarch. But, because he was a very good man, he made his orders reasonable.
“这样让我惶恐不安……现在打不出哈欠来……”小王子咕哝地说道，羞愧不已。
“嗯！嗯！”国王回应他说，“那么……那么我下令，让你时而哈欠一下，时而……”
他开始结结巴巴地嘟囔起来，显得有些恼火。
这只是因为国王打心底想要别人尊重他的权威。他是一位独断专行的国王，决不容许任何忤逆。可是，他又心地善良，想尽量让自己的命令显得合情合理。
"If I ordered a general," he would say, by way of example, "if I ordered a general to change himself into a sea bird, and if the general did not obey me, that would not be the fault of the general. It would be my fault."
"May I sit down?" came now a timid inquiry from the little prince.
"I order you to do so," the king answered him, and majestically gathered in a fold of his ermine mantle.
“假如我是在命令一位将军的话……”国王试着举例说服自己，“倘若命令一位将军将自己变成一只海鸟，而这位将军又不愿奉命而行，这时错便不在将军，而在我。”
“我能坐下来吗？”小王子怯生生地小声询问道。
“我命令你坐下！”国王一边回答他，一边优雅地将自己那件鼬皮大长袍往上提了提。
But the little prince was wondering… The planet was tiny. Over what could this king really rule?
"Sire," he said to him, "I beg that you will excuse my asking you a question--"
"I order you to ask me a question," the king hastened to assure him.
"Sire-- over what do you rule?"
"Over everything," said the king, with magnificent simplicity.
"Over everything?"
小王子还是迷惑不解……这颗行星不过弹丸大小，国王到底在统治什么呢？
“陛下，”他对国王说道，“请您见谅，我心中有个疑问……”
“我命令你问我。”国王赶忙抢话。
“陛下……您在统治什么呢？”
“统治一切！”国王直截了当地回答，一脸严肃。
“统治一切？”
The king made a gesture, which took in his planet, the other planets, and all the stars.
"Over all that?" asked the little prince.
"Over all that," the king answered.
For his rule was not only absolute: it was also universal.
"And the stars obey you?"
"Certainly they do," the king said. "They obey instantly. I do not permit insubordination."
国王开始用动作示意，将手指了指他的星球，又抬起指向其他星球，以及浩瀚的星河。
“统治所有的一切？”小王子说。
“统治所有的一切！”国王回答。
原来他的统治不仅限于这颗星球，还囊括了整个宇宙。
“所以，星辰都听你的话咯？”
“那是自然！”国王说道，“它们必须唯命是从，我可不允许任何人违抗命令。”
Such power was a thing for the little prince to marvel at. If he had been master of such complete authority, he would have been able to watch the sunset, not forty-four times in one day, but seventy-two, or even a hundred, or even two hundred times, with out ever having to move his chair. And because he felt a bit sad as he remembered his little planet which he had forsaken, he plucked up his courage to ask the king a favor:
"I should like to see a sunset… do me that kindness… Order the sun to set…"
如此绝对的权利让小王子叹为观止！如果他可以掌握这样至高无上的权利，那一天就不仅仅可以看到四十四次日落，而是可以看到七十二次、一百次，或是两百次！他甚至不用挪动椅子就能办到一切！当他想到那颗被自己遗弃的小星球时，突然觉得很伤感万分，他鼓起勇气像国王提出一个请求：
“我想要看日落……请您大发慈悲……命令太阳下山去吧！”
"If I ordered a general to fly from one flower to another like a butterfly, or to write a tragic drama, or to change himself into a sea bird, and if the general did not carry out the order that he had received, which one of us would be in the wrong?" the king demanded. "The general, or myself?"
"You," said the little prince firmly.
“如果我命令一位将军要像蝴蝶那样翩翩起舞，穿梭花丛，或是命令他写下一段悲剧，亦或者让他化身为一只海鸟，而这位将军接到命令后不愿执行，那我们两个是谁对谁错呢？”国王耐心盘查。“将军？还是我自己呢？”
“当然是您的问题！”小王子斩钉截铁地答道。
国王
"Exactly. One much require from each one the duty which each one can perform," the king went on. "Accepted authority rests first of all on reason. If you ordered your people to go and throw themselves into the sea, they would rise up in revolution. I have the right to require obedience because my orders are reasonable."
“没错。要对一个人提出要求，必须是他力所能及的事情，这样才算合情合理。”国王继续说道，“权威首先需要理性的支撑。如果你命令臣民们去投海，他们就会奋起反抗闹革命。我之所以有权利去要求他人服从，就是因为我的命令合情合理。”
"Then my sunset?" the little prince reminded him: for he never forgot a question once he had asked it.
"You shall have your sunset. I shall command it. But, according to my science of government, I shall wait until conditions are favorable."
"When will that be?" inquired the little prince.
"Hum! Hum!" replied the king; and before saying anything else he consulted a bulky almanac. "Hum! Hum! That will be about-- about-- that will be this evening about twenty minutes to eight. And you will see how well I am obeyed."
“那我提到的日落呢？”小王子提醒道，一旦他提出一个问题，就一定要追问到底。
“你肯定可以见着日落。我会根据所统治的科学经验，等待时机成熟的时候，下达关于日落的命令。”
“那是什么时候呢？”小王子询问。
“嗯……嗯……”国王沉吟了一下，在回答问题之前翻阅起了一本厚重的历法书，随后才答道，“嗯！嗯！日落的时间应该是……大约是在……今晚七点四十分左右。到时候你就会看到我如何命令太阳下山了！”
The little prince yawned. He was regretting his lost sunset. And then, too, he was already beginning to be a little bored.
"I have nothing more to do here," he said to the king. "So I shall set out on my way again."
"Do not go," said the king, who was very proud of having a subject. "Do not go. I will make you a Minister!
"Minister of what?"
"Minster of-- of Justice!"
"But there is nobody here to judge!"
小王子又打了一下哈欠。他因为没能看到日落而感到遗憾，而且开始觉得有些兴味索然。
“我已经没有呆在这里的理由啦。”他告诉国王，“我要再次出发踏上旅程了。”
“别走！”国王赶忙挽留，他正沉浸在拥有臣民的喜悦当中，“别走！我将任命你为大臣！”
“什么样的大臣呢？”
“嗯……司法大臣！”
“可是这儿没有人可以让我审判呀！”
"We do not know that," the king said to him. "I have not yet made a complete tour of my kingdom. I am very old. There is no room here for a carriage. And it tires me to walk."
"Oh, but I have looked already!" said the little prince, turning around to give one more glance to the other side of the planet. On that side, as on this, there was nobody at all…
“这个我也不清楚。”国王跟他说，“我已经上了年纪，这里又没有放置马车的空间，而且我走一小段路就觉得疲惫，因此还没有完整地巡视过我的王国呢。”
“噢！可我已经替你看过了。”小王子一边说着，一边扭头朝星球的另一头望去，那里同样空无一人，连个影子都没瞅着……
"Then you shall judge yourself," the king answered. "that is the most difficult thing of all. It is much more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself rightly, then you are indeed a man of true wisdom."
"Yes," said the little prince, "but I can judge myself anywhere. I do not need to live on this planet.
“那你就审判你自己吧！”国王回答，“审判自己可是天底下最难的事情了，比审判别人要难得多。如果你能正确地审判自己，那就是一个真正绝顶聪明的人。”
“是啊。”小王子接着说,“可是我在任何地方都能审视自己，根本没必要住在这个星球上。”
"Hum! Hum!" said the king. "I have good reason to believe that somewhere on my planet there is an old rat. I hear him at night. You can judge this old rat. From time to time you will condemn him to death. Thus his life will depend on your justice. But you will pardon him on each occasion; for he must be treated thriftily. He is the only one we have."
"I," replied the little prince, "do not like to condemn anyone to death. And now I think I will go on my way."
"No," said the king.
“嗯……嗯……”国王又说道，“我想到一个绝佳的对象，在我的星球上有一只老耗子，一到晚上我就能听到它的动静，你去审判这只老耗子吧。它的生命掌握在你的手中，你可以时不时地判处他死刑。不过最好在每次行刑的时候赦免它，毕竟我们就只有一只耗子，要省着点用。”
“我……”小王子答道，“我不喜欢判任何人死刑。我看我现在还是离开会比较好。”
“不！”国王说。
But the little prince, having now completed his preparations for departure, had no wish to grieve the old monarch.
"If Your Majesty wishes to be promptly obeyed," he said, "he should be able to give me a reasonable order. He should be able, for example, to order me to be gone by the end of one minute. It seems to me that conditions are favorable…"
但是小王子现在去意已决，准备好出发之后，不想让这位老国王感到伤心。
“国王陛下，如果您想要我毫不迟疑地听从。”他说，“那就给我下达一个合情合理的命令吧。比如说，您可以命令我再一分钟之内离开这里。这似乎对我而言，更具备施行的条件。”
As the king made no answer, the little prince hesitated a moment. Then, with a sigh, he took his leave.
"I made you my Ambassador," the king called out, hastily.
He had a magnificent air of authority.
"The grown-ups are very strange," the little prince said to himself, as he continued on his journey.
小王子见国王没有应答，起初还有些犹豫不决，最后随着一声叹息，他还是选择了离开。
“我任命你作为我的大使！”国王匆忙地大声嚷道，依然保持着一副威严庄重的样子。
“大人们实在太奇怪了！”小王子在路上自言自语，继续着他的旅程。
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