我可不但愿人们漫不经心肠读我的书。在报告这些旧事时，我已接受了太多哀痛。我的朋友带着他的小绵羊已经拜别六年了。我之以是在这里极力把他描述出来，就是为了不要健忘他。健忘一个朋友，这太叫人哀痛了。并不是统统的人都有过一个朋友。再说，如果我健忘他，我也能够变成那些大人那样，只对数字感兴趣。
It is for that purpose, again, that I have bought a box of paints and some pencils. It is hard to take up drawing again at my age, when I have never made any pictures except those of the boa constrictor from the outside and the boa constrictor from the inside, since I was six. I shall certainly try to make my portraits as true to life as possible. But I am not at all sure of success. One drawing goes along all right, and another has no resemblance to its subject. I make some errors, too, in the littl e prince’s height: in one place he is too tall and in another too short. And I feel some doubts about the color of his costume. So I fumble along as best I can, now good, now bad, and I hope generally fair-to-middling.
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！”