The Little Prince《小王子》

愛、生活、人生系列

The Little Prince《小王子》
安托萬·德·聖-修伯里 (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry，1900年6月29日－1944年7月31日)，法國作家、飛行員，生於里昂，以著作《小王子》聞名。1944年披甲對抗納粹德軍，於7月31日執行飛行任務時失蹤，後獲得「法蘭西烈士」稱號。2004年4月，失蹤近60年的聖-修伯里飛機殘骸，在法國南部馬賽附近的海域被尋獲。在他逝世50週年時，法國將他與小王子的形象，印在50法國法郎的鈔票上，位於其家鄉的里昂聖-修伯里機場，也以其命名。安托萬·德·聖-修伯里出生於貴族家庭，在五個孩子中排行老三，有三個姐妹，和一個金髮小弟法蘭索瓦（François）。父親，讓·德·聖-修伯里 (Jean de Saint-Exupéry，1863-1904) 是伯爵，1904 年死於中風，此時聖-修伯里還未滿四歲。母親，Marie de Fonscolombe 獨自撫養五個孩子。聖-修伯里最親近的知己，是他的弟弟法蘭索瓦，卻在 15 歲時患上風濕熱，不幸死於心包炎。那是 1917 年夏天，他們都在瑞士弗里堡的 Marianist 教會學校上學。聖-修伯里在弟弟離世前一直照顧他，並在《小王子》的結尾寫到：「他的腳踝處閃過一道金光。他似乎呆了一下，也沒有喊叫，像一棵樹一樣倒下了。因為地上是沙子，他甚至沒有發出一點聲音。」聖-修伯里在 17 歲，就成了家裡唯一的男性。受到弟弟離世和第一次世界大戰的影響，聖-修伯里開始創作諷刺普魯士士兵的漫畫，並開始寫詩。1918年他結識作家路易絲·德·維爾莫蘭（Louise de Vilmorin），開始寫愛情詩。1921年，聖-修伯里成為一名騎兵，開始軍旅生涯。他在斯特拉斯堡附近的Neuhof服役，並接受飛行員培訓。1926年，聖-修伯里在服兵役時，成為郵政飛行員，往返於土魯斯和塞內加爾。1929年，他遷往南美洲 。1932年，他的事業進入一個困難時期，輾轉於越南（1934年）、莫斯科（1935年）和西班牙（1936年）。這段經歷，為他提供許多寫作靈感，體現在《人類的大地》中。1939年，他離開法國，來到紐約，希望和美國軍隊一起抵抗納粹對法國的侵略。1935年12月30日，凌晨 02:45，在飛行19小時44分鐘後，聖-修伯里和他的機械師 André Prévot，在撒哈拉沙漠中墜機。兩個人都倖存下來。當時他們正試圖打破巴黎到西貢的最短飛行時間記錄，爭奪150,000 法郎的獎金。墜機地點可能在 Wadi Natrun 山谷附近，靠近尼羅河三角洲。兩人雖然逃過墜機，卻面臨嚴重的脫水。他們只帶一幅簡陋的地圖、一些水果和只夠兩人喝一天的飲用水。兩人都出現幻覺，迷失在巨大的沙丘之間。最終，第四天，一個騎著駱駝的貝都因人，發現他們，用當地治療脫水的辦法，拯救他們的生命。這段瀕臨死亡的經歷，體現在《人類的大地》和《小王子》中。1940年，聖-修伯里來到美國紐約，希望能讓美國加入反對納粹的戰爭。他在美國期間，完成《戰爭飛行員》，廣受好評。1942年，聖-修伯里在紐約寫出《小王子》。1943年，《小王子》在美國以英語和法語出版。1944年7月31日，聖-修伯里駕駛一架序列號42-68223的F-5B偵查機 (P-38閃電式戰鬥機的偵查機型)，由科西嘉島起飛，前往法國南部偵查時失蹤，年44歲。
The Little Prince《小王子》 is a novella (短篇小說) written and illustrated by French aristocrat, writer, and military pilot, Antoine de Saint-Exupery. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943. The story follows a young prince who visits various planets, including Earth, and addresses themes of loneliness, friendship, love, and loss. Despite its style as a children’s book, The Little Prince makes observations about life, adults, and human nature.
The narrator begins with a discussion on the nature of grown-ups and their inability to perceive “important things.” The narrator becomes an aircraft pilot, and one day, his plane crashes in the Sahara desert, far from civilization. The narrator has an eight-day supply of water and must fix his plane. Here, he is greeted unexpectedly by a young boy nicknamed “the little prince.” The prince has golden hair, a lovable laugh, and will repeat questions until they are answered. The prince asks the narrator to draw a sheep. The narrator first shows him the picture of the elephant inside the snake, which, to the narrator’s surprise, the prince interprets correctly. After three failed attempts at drawing a sheep, the frustrated narrator draws a simple crate (箱), claiming the sheep is inside. The prince exclaims that this is exactly the drawing he wants. Over the course of eight days in the desert, while the narrator attempts to repair his plane, the prince recounts his life story. He begins describing his tiny home planet: a house-sized asteroid (小行星) known as “B 612” on Earth. The asteroid’s most prominent features are three minuscule (微小的) volcanoes (two active, and one extinct) and a variety of plants. The prince describes his earlier days cleaning the volcanoes and weeding unwanted seeds and sprigs (小枝) that infest his planet’s soil. If the baobabs (猴麵包樹) are not rooted out the moment they are recognized, their roots can have a catastrophic effect on the tiny planet. Therefore, the prince wants a sheep to eat the undesirable plants. The prince tells of his love for a vain and silly rose that began growing on the asteroid’s surface some time ago. The rose is given to pretension (假裝), exaggerating ailments to gain attention and have the prince care for her. The prince nourished the rose and tended to her, making a screen and glass globe to protect her from the cold and wind, watering her, and keeping the caterpillars off. Although the prince fell in love with the rose, he also knew that she was taking advantage of him, and he resolved to leave the planet to explore the rest of the universe. Upon their goodbye, the rose apologizes for failing to show that she loved him. She wishes him well, saying she will protect herself. The prince laments that he did not understand how to love his rose while he was with her and should have listened to her kind actions, rather than her vain words.
The prince has since visited six other planets, each of which was inhabited by a single, irrational, narrow-minded adult, and they include:
1. A king with no subjects, who only issues orders that will be followed, such as commanding the sun to set at sunset.
2. A conceited (自負的) man who only wants the praise which comes from admiration, and being the most admirable person on his planet.
3. A drunkard who drinks to forget the shame of drinking.
4. A businessman who is blind to the beauty of the stars and instead endlessly counts them in order to own them all.
5. A lamplighter on a planet wastes his life blindly following orders to extinguish and relight the lamppost every 30 seconds.
6. An elderly geographer who has never been anywhere, or seen any of the things he records, providing a caricature of specialization in the contemporary world.
It is the geographer who tells the prince that his rose is an ephemeral (短暫的) being, and recommends that the prince visit the planet Earth next. The visit to Earth begins with a deeply pessimistic appraisal (評價) of humanity. On Earth, there were 111 kings, 7,000 geographers, 900,000 businessmen, 7,500,000 tipplers (酒鬼), 311,000,000 conceited men and 2,000,000,000 grown-ups. Since the prince landed in a desert, he believed that Earth was uninhabited. He then met a yellow snake that claimed to have the power to return him to his home. The prince next met a desert flower, who told him that she had only seen a handful of men in this part of the world. After climbing the highest mountain, the prince hoped to see the whole of Earth, thus finding the people; however, he saw only the enormous, desolate landscape. The prince encountered a whole row of rosebushes, and thought that his own rose was unique. He began to feel that he was not a great prince at all, as his planet contained only three tiny volcanoes and a flower that he now thought of as common. He laid down on the grass and wept, until a fox came along. The fox desired to be tamed, and taught the prince how to tame him. From the fox, the prince learns that his rose was indeed unique and special because she was the object of the prince’s love and time; he had “tamed” her, and now she was more precious than all of the roses he had seen in the garden. Upon their sad departing, the fox imparts a secret: important things can only be seen with the heart, not the eyes.
The prince finally met people on Earth. A railway switchman (扳道員) told him how passengers constantly rushed from one place to another aboard trains, never satisfied with where they were and not knowing what they were after; only the children among them ever bothered to look out the windows. Back in the present moment, it is the eighth day after the narrator’s plane crash, and the narrator and the prince are dying of thirst. The prince has become visibly morose (憂鬱的) and saddened over his recollections, and longs to return home to see his flower. The prince, finally, finds a well, saving them. The narrator later knows that the prince talking to the snake, discussing his return home and his desire to meet his rose again. The prince bids an emotional farewell to the narrator, and states that if it looks as though he has died, it is only because his body was too heavy to take with him to his planet. The prince consoles the narrator that he only needs to look at the stars as if all the stars are laughing. The prince then walks away from the narrator, and allows the snake to bite him, soundlessly falling down. The next morning, the narrator is unable to find the prince’s body. He finally manages to repair his plane and leave the desert. It is left up to the reader to determine if the prince returned home or died. The story ends with a drawing of the landscape where the prince and the narrator met, and where the snake took the prince’s corporeal life.
The story of The Little Prince is recalled by the pilot-narrator, in memory of his small friend, “the prince.” The Little Prince features a lot of fantastical, unrealistic elements, and is based on the imagination of children, rather than the strict realism of adults. In the novella, the fox tells the prince that his rose is unique and special, as she is the only one he loves. “One sees clearly only with the heart.” The fearsome, grasping baobab trees are meant to represent Nazism attempting to destroy the planet. The little prince’s reassurance to the pilot that his body is only an empty shell, “Don’t worry. I’m all right. I can’t help it. It’s my body.” In The Little Prince “I should have judged her by her acts and not by her words,” says the prince about the rose, “she wrapped herself around me and enlightened me. I should never have fled. I should have guessed at the tenderness behind her poor ruses (詭計).” Some have seen the prince as a Christ figure. This child is sin-free, and believes in a life after death, subsequently, returning to his personal heaven.

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