The stars are beautiful because of a flower that cannot be seen

Русские Блоги

The Little Prince-11/29

The Little Prince-11/29

The Little Prince-11/29

The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the color 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.

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 shine through his whole being like the flame of a lamp, even when he is asleep…

The stars are beautiful, because of a flower that cannot be seen.

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 eyes.

Only the children know what they are looking for. They waste their time over a rag doll and it becomes very important to them; and if anybody takes it away from them, they cry…

The men where you live, raise five thousand roses in the same garden – and they do not find in it what they are looking for. And yet what they are looking for could be found in one single rose, or in a little water. But eyes are blind. One must look with the heart…

And when your sorrow is comforted time soothes all sorrows you will be content that you have known me. You will always be my friend. You will want to laugh with me. And you will sometimes open your window, so, for that pleasure… And your friends will be properly astonished to see you laughing as you look up at the sky! Then you will say to them, “Yes, the stars always make me laugh!”

Русские Блоги

The Little Prince-11/30

The Little Prince-11/30

The Little Prince-11/30

Today, I have a meeting in our department.

I sincerely hope that all of my department members can do better and improve their own abilities.

All men have the stars, but they are not the same things for different people. For some, who are travelers, the stars are guides. For others they are no more than little lights in the sky. For others, who are scholars, they are problems. For my businessman they were wealth. But all these stars are silent. You – you alone – will have the stars as no one else has them…

In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night… You – only you – will have stars that can laugh…

If someone loves a flower, of which just one single blossom grows in all the millions and millions of stars, it is enough to make him happy just to look at the stars. He can say to himself, “Somewhere, my flower is there…” But if the sheep eats the flower, in one moment all his stars will be darkened… And you think that is not important!

The stars are beautiful， because of a flower that cannot be seen。

My flower is ephemeral， and she has only four thorns to defend herself against the world。 And I have left on my planet， all alone!

The people have no imagination。 They repeat whatever one says to them… On my planet I had a flower; She always was the first to speak…

It is your own fault， I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you…… but now you are going to cry! Then it has done you no good at all!

Men have not more time to understand anything。 They buy things already made at the shops。 But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship， and so men have no friends any more

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 shine through his whole being like the flame of a lamp， even when he is asleep…

The stars are beautiful because of a flower that cannot be seen

«They are lucky,» the switchman said.

«Good morning,» said the little prince.

«Good morning,» said the merchant.

This was a merchant who sold pills that had been invented to quench thirst. You need only swallow one pill a week, and you would feel no need of anything to drink.

«Why are you selling those?» asked the little prince.

«Because they save a tremendous amount of time,» said the merchant. «Computations have been made by experts. With these pills, you save fifty-three minutes in every week.»

«And what do I do with those fifty-three minutes?»

«Anything you like. «

«As for me,» said the little prince to himself, «if I had fifty-three minutes to spend as I liked, I should walk at my leisure toward a spring of fresh water.»

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!»

«My dear little man, this is no longer a matter that has anything to do with the fox!»

«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. «

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.

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.»

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. «

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.

«I am glad,» he said, «that you agree with my fox.»

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. «

And, as I walked on so, I found the well, at daybreak.

«Men,» said the little prince, «set out on their way in express trains, but they do not know what they are looking for. Then they rush about, and get excited, and turn round and round. «

«It is not worth the trouble. «

The well that we had come to was not like the wells of the Sahara. The wells of the Sahara are mere holes dug in the sand. This one was like a well in a village. But there was no village here, and I thought I must be dreaming.

«It is strange,» I said to the little prince. «Everything is ready for use: the pulley, the bucket, the rope. » He laughed, touched the rope, and set the pulley to working. And the pulley moaned, like an old weathervane which the wind has long since forgotten.

«Do you hear?» said the little prince. «We have wakened the well, and it is singing. «

I did not want him to tire himself with the rope.

«Leave it to me,» I said. «It is too heavy for you.»

«I am thirsty for this water,» said the little prince. «Give me some of it to drink. «

And I understood what he had been looking for.

I raised the bucket to his lips. He drank, his eyes closed. It was as sweet as some special festival treat. This water was indeed a different thing from ordinary nourishment. Its sweetness was born of the walk under the stars, the song of the pulley, the effort of my arms. It was good for the heart, like a present. When I was a little boy, the lights of the Christmas tree, the music of the Midnight Mass, the tenderness of smiling faces, used to make up, so, the radiance of the gifts I received.

«They do not find it,» I replied.

«And yet what they are looking for could be found in one single rose, or in a little water.»

«Yes, that is true,» I said.

And the little prince added:

«But the eyes are blind. One must look with the heart. «

I had drunk the water. I breathed easily. At sunrise the sand is the color of honey. And that honey color was making me happy, too. What brought me, then, this sense of grief?

«You must keep your promise,» said the little prince, softly, as he sat down beside me once more.

I had been so proud of my baobabs!

And he laughed again.

«You are not fair, little prince,» I said. «I don’t know how to draw anything except boa constrictors from the outside and boa constrictors from the inside.»

«Oh, that will be all right,» he said, «children understand.»

So then I made a
pencil sketch of a muzzle. And as I gave it to him my heart was torn.

«You have plans that I do not know about,» I said.

Then, after a silence, he went on:

«I came down very near here.»

The little prince flushed again.

And I added, with some hesitancy:

«Perhaps it was because of the anniversary?»

But he interrupted me.

«Now you must work. You must return to your engine. I will be waiting for you here. Come back tomorrow evening. «

But I was not reassured. I remembered the fox. One runs the risk of weeping a little, if one lets himself be tamed.

Beside the well there was the ruin of an old stone wall. When I came back from my work, the next evening, I saw from some distance away my little price sitting on top of a wall, with his feet dangling. And I heard him say: «Then you don’t remember. This is not the exact spot.»

Another voice must have answered him, for he replied to it: «Yes, yes! It is the right day, but this is not the place.»

I was only twenty meters from the wall, and I still saw nothing.

After a silence the little prince spoke again:

«You have good poison? You are sure that it will not make me suffer too long?»

I stopped in my tracks, my heart torn asunder; but still I did not understand.

«Now go away,» said the little prince. «I want to get down from the wall.»

I reached the wall just in time to catch my little man in my arms; his face was white as snow.

«What does this mean?» I demanded. «Why are you talking with snakes?»

I had loosened the golden muffler that he always wore. I had moistened his temples, and had given him some water to drink. And now I did not dare ask him any more questions. He looked at me very gravely, and put his arms around my neck. I felt his heart beating like the heart of a dying bird, shot with someone’s rifle.

«How do you know about that?»

I was just coming to tell him that my work had been successful, beyond anything that I had dared to hope.

He made no answer to my question, but he added:

«I, too, am going back home today. «

«It is much farther. It is much more difficult. «

I realized clearly that something extraordinary was happening. I was holding him close in my arms as if he were a little child; and yet it seemed to me that he was rushing headlong toward an abyss from which I could do nothing to restrain him. His look was very serious, like some one lost far away.

«I have your sheep. And I have the sheep’s box. And I have the muzzle. «

And he gave me a sad smile.

I waited a long time. I could see that he was reviving little by little.

«Dear little man,» I said to him, «you are afraid. «

He was afraid, there was no doubt about that. But he laughed lightly.

«I shall be much more afraid this evening. «

Once again I felt myself frozen by the sense of something irreparable. And I knew that I could not bear the thought of never hearing that laughter any more. For me, it was like a spring of fresh water in the desert.

«Little man,» I said, «I want to hear you laugh again.»

But he said to me:

«Tonight, it will be a year. My star, then, can be found right above the place where I came to the Earth, a year ago. «

But he did not answer my plea. He said to me, instead:

«The thing that is important is the thing that is not seen. «

«It is just as it is with the flower. If you love a flower that lives on a star, it is sweet to look at the sky at night. All the stars are a-bloom with flowers. «

«And at night you will look up at the stars. Where I live everything is so small that I cannot show you where my star is to be found. It is better, like that. My star will just be one of the stars, for you. And so you will love to watch all the stars in the heavens. they will all be your friends. And, besides, I am going to make you a present. «

He laughed again.

«Ah, little prince, dear little prince! I love to hear that laughter!»

«That is my present. Just that. It will be as it was when we drank the water. «

«What are you trying to say?»

«What are you trying to say?»

And he laughed again.

«And when your sorrow is comforted (time soothes all sorrows) you will be content that you have known me. You will always be my friend. You will want to laugh with me. And you will sometimes open your window, so, for that pleasure. And your friends will be properly astonished to see you laughing as you look up at the sky! Then you will say to them, ‘Yes, the stars always make me laugh!’ And they will think you are crazy. It will be a very shabby trick that I shall have played on you. «

And he laughed again.

«It will be as if, in place of the stars, I had given you a great number of little bells that knew how to laugh. «

And he laughed again. Then he quickly became serious:

«I shall not leave you,» I said.

«I shall look as if I were suffering. I shall look a little as if I were dying. It is like that. Do not come to see that. It is not worth the trouble. «

«I shall not leave you.» But he was worried.

«I shall not leave you.»

> But a thought came to reassure him:

«It is true that they have no more poison for a second bite.»

That night I did not see him set out on his way. He got away from me without making a sound. When I succeeded in catching up with him he was walking along with a quick and resolute step. He said to me merely: «Ah! You are there. «

And he took me by the hand. But he was still worrying.

«It was wrong of you to come. You will suffer. I shall look as if I were dead; and that will not be true. «

«You understand. it is too far. I cannot carry this body with me. It is too heavy.»

«But it will be like an old abandoned shell. There is nothing sad about old shells. «

He was a little discouraged. But he made one more effort: «You know, it will be very nice. I, too, shall look at the stars. All the stars will be wells with a rusty pulley. All the stars will pour out fresh water for me to drink. «

«That will be so amusing! You will have five hundred million little bells, and I shall have five hundred million springs of fresh water. «

And he too said nothing more, because he was crying.

«Here it is. Let me go on by myself.»

I too sat down, because I was not able to stand up any longer.

He still hesitated a little; then he got up. He took one step. I could not move.

There was nothing but a flash of yellow close to his ankle. He remained motionless for an instant. He did not cry out. He fell as gently as a tree falls. There was not even any sound, because of the sand.

And now six years have already gone by. I have never yet told this story. The companions who met me on my return were well content to see me alive. I was sad, but I told them: «I am tired.»

Translation of «that cannot be seen» in Russian

которую нельзя увидеть
kotoruyu nel’zya uvidet’

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которые нельзя увидеть
kotorye nel’zya uvidet’

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которые невозможно увидеть
kotorye nevozmozhno uvidet’

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которые не видны
kotorye ne vidny

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что невозможно увидеть
chto nevozmozhno uvidet’

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которое невозможно увидеть
kotoroye nevozmozhno uvidet’

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который нельзя увидеть
kotory nel’zya uvidet’

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что нельзя увидеть
chto nel’zya uvidet’

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который невозможно увидеть
kotory nevozmozhno uvidet’

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которая не может быть замечена
kotoraya ne mozhet byt’ zamechena

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что не видны
chto ne vidny

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которые не могут быть замечены
kotorye ne mogut byt’ zamecheny

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которые невозможно заметить
kotorye nevozmozhno zametit’

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которую невозможно увидеть
kotoruyu nevozmozhno uvidet’

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которая не видна
kotoraya ne vidna