介绍:
有一本书，
每年有200多万人会买来读；
在法国被评选为20世纪最优秀的书；
被《英国卫报》评选为生命中不可缺少的一百本书之一；
被翻译成250多种语言，
是迄今为止全球所有图书中翻译次数第四多的书；
有100多种中文译本；
豆瓣评分9.2,
却也让孩子们爱不释手。
它就是世界上最美的故事——
《小王子》The Little Prince，法语书名Le Petit Prince.
圣·埃克苏佩和世界上最美的故事
“
它是一个奇迹。世上只有极少数作品，如此精美又如此质朴，如此深刻又如此平易近人，从内容到形式都几近于完美，却不落丝毫斧凿痕迹，宛若一块浑然天成的美玉。
周国平在为81版经典中译本所做的序中写到。创作这个世间最美故事的是法国作家圣·埃克苏佩。很难想象如此温柔、善良和安静的故事是写于二战的硝烟之中。1940年，法国战败，在法国文学界已经名声鹊起的圣·埃克苏佩为躲避战火，和妻子逃到美国。异乡的孤独和纷乱的世界让圣·埃克苏佩不得不在故事中找到慰藉。《小王子》就是他在流亡美国时所作。
虽然善良的圣·埃克苏佩没有让我们看到一丝战争的影子，但他的故事却透着深深的孤独。故事里的人，无论是飞行员，还是小王子，都是一个孤独的星球。但孤独的他们却对这个世界格外温柔以待，哪怕是忧伤都是如此美丽。
一个人翻开这样一本书，怎么会不被它吸引和感动？
献词 Dedication
To Leon Werth 献给列翁.维尔特
I ask the indulgence of the children who may read this book for dedicating it to a grownup.
我请孩子们原谅我把这本书献给了一个大人。
I have a serious reason: he is the best friend I have in the world.
我有一个很重要的理由。这个大人是我在世界上最好的朋友。
I have another reason: this grownup understands everything, even books about children.
我还有另一个理由，这个大人他什么都能懂，甚至给孩子们写的书他也能懂。
I have a third reason: he lives in France where he is hungry and cold. He needs cheering up.
我的第三个理由是，这个大人住在法国他在那里挨饿受冻。他很需要安慰。
If all these reasons are not enough, I will dedicate the book to the child from whom this grownup grew.
如果这些理由还不够的话，那么我愿意把这本书献给儿童时代的这个大人。
All grownups were once children, although few of them remember it.
所有的大人都曾经是个孩子，可惜只有很少的一些大人记得这一点。
And so I correct my dedication:
因此我就把献词改为：
To Leon Werth
when he was a little boy
献给还是小男孩时的
列翁.维尔特
Chapter One We are introduced to the narrator, a pilot, and his ideas about grownups
第一章 认识故事的叙述者——飞行员，和他对大人的看法
Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories from Nature, about the primeval forest.
当我还只有六岁的时候，在一本描写原始森林的名叫《真实的故事》的书中看到了一副精彩的插画。
It was a picture of a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal.
画的是一条蟒蛇正在吞食一只大野兽。
Here is a copy of the drawing.
这就是那副画的摹本。
In the book it said: "Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewing it. After that they are not able to move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion."
这本书中写道，“这些蟒蛇把它们的猎获物不加咀嚼地囫囵吞下，尔后就不能再动弹了；它们就在长长的六个月的睡眠中消化这些食物。”
I pondered deeply, then, over the adventures of the jungle.
当时，我对丛林中的奇遇想得很多。
And after some work with a colored pencil I succeeded in making my first drawing. My Drawing Number One.
于是，我也用彩色铅笔画出了我的第一副图画。我的第一号作品。
It looked like this:
它是这样的：
I showed my masterpiece to the grownups, and asked them whether the drawing frightened them.
我把我的这副杰作拿给大人看，我问他们我的画是不是叫他们害怕。
But they answered: "Frighten? Why should any one be frightened by a hat?"
他们回答我说，“一顶帽子有什么可怕的？”
My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant.
我画的不是帽子，是一条巨蟒在消化着一头大象。
But since the grownups were not able to understand it, I made another drawing: I drew the inside of the boa constrictor, so that the grownups could see it clearly.
但是，因为大人们看不懂它，于是，我又把巨蟒肚子里的情况画了出来，以便让大人们能够看懂。
They always need to have things explained.
这些大人总是需要解释。
My Drawing Number Two looked like this:
我的第二号作品是这样的：
The grownups‘ response, this time, was to advise me to lay aside my drawings of boa constrictors, whether from the inside or the outside,
大人们劝我把这些画着开着肚皮的，或闭上肚皮的蟒蛇的图画放在一边，
and devote myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic and grammar.
还是把兴趣放在地理、历史、算术、语法上。
That is why, at the age of six, I gave up what might have been a magnificent career as a painter.
就这样，在六岁的那年，我就放弃了当画家这一美好的职业。
I had been disheartened by the failure of my Drawing Number One and my Drawing Number Two.
我的第一号、第二号作品的不成功，使我泄了气。
Grownups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.
这些大人们靠他们自己什么也弄不懂，还得老是不断地给他们作解释。这真叫孩子们腻味。
So then I chose another profession, and learned to pilot airplanes.
后来，我只好选择了另外一个职业。我学会了开飞机。
I have flown a little over all parts of the world; and it is true that geography has been very useful to me.
世界各地差不多都飞到过。的确，地理学帮了我很大的忙。
At a glance I can distinguish China from Arizona. If one gets lost in the night, such knowledge is valuable.
我一眼就能分辨出中国和亚里桑。那要是夜里迷失了航向，这是很有用的。
In the course of this life I have had a great many encounters with a great many people who have been concerned with matters of consequence.
这样，在我的生活中，我跟许多人都有过很多的接触，他们都忙着重要的事情。
I have lived a great deal among grownups. I have seen them intimately, close at hand.
我在大人们中间生活过很长时间，我仔细地观察过他们，
And that hasn‘t much improved my opinion of them.
但这并没有使我对他们的看法有多大的改变。
Whenever I met one of them who seemed to me at all clearsighted, I tried the experiment of showing him my Drawing Number One, which I have always kept.
当我遇到一个头脑看来稍微清楚的大人时，我就拿出一直保存着的我那第一号作品来测试测试。
I would try to find out, so, if this was a person of true understanding.
他我想知道他是否真的有理解能力。
But, whoever it was, he, or she, would always say:"That is a hat."
可是，我得到的回答总是，“这是顶帽子。”
Then I would never talk to that person about boa constrictors, or primeval forests, or stars.
我就不和他谈巨蟒呀，原始森林呀，或者星星之类的事。
I would bring myself down to his level.
我只得迁就他们的水平，
I would talk to him about bridge, and golf, and politics, and neckties.
和他们谈些桥牌呀，高尔夫球呀，政治呀，领带呀这些。
And the grownup would be greatly pleased to have met such a sensible man.
于是，大人们会十分高兴能认识我这样一个通情达理的人。
今天就先认识一下这个长不大的飞行员吧。
明天我们再来看飞行员和小王子的相遇。
大家还在听
