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The Little Prince |Language: zh-cn Genres: Arts, Performing Arts Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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The Little Prince-Chapter 14 | 小王子-第14章
Episode 15
Sunday, 19 April, 2026
The Little Prince — Chapter 14The fifth planet was very strange. It was the smallest of all. There was just enough room on it for a street lamp and a lamplighter. The little prince was not able to reach any explanation of the use of a street lamp and a lamplighter, somewhere in the heavens, on a planet which had no people, and not one house. But he said to himself, nevertheless: "It may well be that this man is absurd. But he is not so absurd as the king, the conceited man, the businessman, and the tippler. For at least his work has some meaning. When he lights his street lamp, it is as if he brought one more star to life, or one flower. When he puts out his lamp, he sends the flower, or the star, to sleep. That is a beautiful occupation. And since it is beautiful, it is truly useful."When he arrived on the planet he respectfully saluted the lamplighter."Good morning. Why have you just put out your lamp?""Those are the orders," replied the lamplighter. "Good morning.""What are the orders?""The orders are that I put out my lamp. Good evening."And he lighted his lamp again."But why have you just lighted it again?""Those are the orders," replied the lamplighter."I do not understand," said the little prince."There is nothing to understand," said the lamplighter. "Orders are orders. Good morning."And he put out his lamp again.Then he mopped his forehead with a handkerchief decorated with red squares."I suffer a good deal with my profession. Once it was reasonable. I put out the lamp in the morning, and lighted it again in the evening. I had the rest of the day for resting, and the rest of the night for sleeping.""And then the orders changed?""The orders did not change," said the lamplighter. "That is the tragedy! The planet has been going faster and faster every year, but the orders have remained the same!""Then what happens now?" asked the little prince."Now that it revolves once a minute, I have not a single second of rest. I must light the lamp and put it out once every minute!""It is very funny! Your days last only one minute long!""It is not funny at all," said the lamplighter. "We have been talking for a month already.""A month?""Yes. Thirty minutes. Thirty days. Good evening."And he lighted his lamp again.The little prince looked at him, and he loved this lamplighter who was so faithful to his orders. He remembered the sunsets which he himself had gone to seek, in other days, merely by pulling up his chair; and he wanted to help his friend."You know," he said, "I can tell you a way you can rest whenever you want to...""I always want to rest," said the lamplighter.For it is possible for a man to be faithful and lazy at the same time.The little prince went on with his explanation:"Your planet is so small that three strides will take you all the way around it. To be always in the sunshine, you need only walk along rather slowly. When you want to rest, you will walk—and the day will last as long as you like.""What good does that do me?" said the lamplighter. "The one thing I want in life is to sleep.""Then you are out of luck," said the little prince."I am," said the lamplighter. "Good morning."And he put out his lamp."Now that man," said the little prince to himself, as he continued on his journey, "that man would be despised by all the others, by the king, the conceited man, the businessman, and the tippler. Yet he is the only one who does not seem ridiculous to me. Perhaps it is because he thinks of something other than himself."He heaved a sigh of regret, and said to himself again:"That man is the only one I might have made my friend. But his planet is indeed too small. There is no room for two..."What the little prince did not dare confess was that he was sorry most of all to leave this planet, because it was blessed with one thousand four hundred and forty sunsets every twenty-four hours!
