Chapter 4
如果我给你们讲关于小行星B-612的这些细节，并且奉告你们它的编号，这是因为这些大人和他们行动体例的原因。大人们喜好数字。当你对他们说你交了一个新朋友时，他们向来不向你提出本色性的题目。他们向来不讲：“他说话声音像甚么？他最爱好甚么样的游戏？他是否汇集胡蝶标本？”相反，他们会问你：“他多大年纪呀？弟兄几个呀？体重多少磅呀？他父亲挣多少钱呀？”只要从这些数字信息，他们才感觉他们体味了他。如果你对大人们说：“我看到一幢用玫瑰色的砖盖成的标致的屋子，窗台上摆着天竺葵，屋顶上另有鸽子……”他们没法对这个屋子有任何感受。如果你如许对他们说：“我瞥见了一幢代价十万法郎的屋子。”那么他们就惊叫道：“多么标致的屋子啊！”
I had thus learned a second fact of great importance: this was that the planet the little prince came from was scarcely any larger than a house!
But certainly, for us who understand life, figures are a matter of indifference. I should have liked to begin this story in the fashion of the fairy-tales. I should have like to say: "Once upon a time there was a little prince who lived on a planet that was scarcely any bigger than himself, and who had need of a sheep..."To those who understand life, that would have given a much greater air of truth to my story.
就像如许，如果你对他们说：“小王子存在的证据就是他非常标致，他笑着，想要一只羊。如果有人想要一只绵羊，那就是他存在的证明。”如许奉告他们的成果是甚么呢？他们必然会耸耸肩膀，不觉得然，把你当作小孩子对待。但是，如果你对他们说“小王子来自的星球就是小行星B-612”，那么他们就非常佩服，就不会提出一大堆题目来和你胶葛。
In certain more important details I shall make mistakes, also. But that is something that will not be my fault. My friend never explained anything to me. He thought, perhaps, that I was like himself. But I, alas, do not know how to see sheep through t he walls of boxes. Perhaps I am a little like the grown-ups. I have had to grow old.