译《小王子》：第八章 玫瑰花儿

I soon learned to know this flower better. On the little prince's planet the flowers had always been very simple. They had only one ring of petals; they took up no room at all; they were a trouble to nobody. One morning they would appear in the grass, and by night they would have faded peacefully away. But one day, from a seed blown from no one knew where, a new flower had come up; and the little prince had watched very closely over this small sprout which was not like any other small sprouts on his planet. It might, you see, have been a new kind of baobab.

不久之后，我就对那朵花的事情有了进一步的了解。原来，在小王子的星球上，生长出来的花总是十分简单，它们只有单层花瓣，并且小巧玲珑，不占地方，从来不会给人造成麻烦。而且花儿早晨在草丛中盛开，到了晚上就会在静谧中凋谢。某一天，不知从哪儿飘来一粒种子，于是一个全新的花种开始生长开来。小王子近前去仔细观察这棵与众不同的小芽苗：这说不定是一种全新的猴面包树吧！

小行星

The shrub soon stopped growing, and began to get ready to produce a flower. The little prince, who was present at the first appearance of a huge bud, felt at once that some sort of miraculous apparition must emerge from it. But the flower was not satisfied to complete the preparations for her beauty in the shelter of her green chamber. She chose her colors with the greatest care. She adjusted her petals one by one. She did not wish to go out into the world all rumpled, like the field poppies. It was only in the full radiance of her beauty that she wished to appear. Oh, yes! She was a coquettish creature! And her mysterious adornment lasted for days and days.

那株灌木一样的小苗不久之后便停止了生长，并且开始孕育出一个花朵。小王子看着长在花苗顶部的巨大花蕾，感觉到某种不可思议的景象即将出现。然而那朵花就好像对自己的美貌不甚满意一样，始终躲在花萼形成的绿色房间里梳妆打扮着。她一丝不苟地挑选着装的颜色，调整搭配着每一个花瓣。她希望能带着一种独一无二的光彩绽放，才不想跟那些野生罂粟花一个样，蓬头垢面地来到世间。嗯，对！这是一个想要独领风骚的角色。所以，她之后每天都在神秘兮兮地打扮着自己。

Then one morning, exactly at sunrise, she suddenly showed herself.

And, after working with all this painstaking precision, she yawned and said:

"Ah! I am scarcely awake. I beg that you will excuse me. My petals are still all disarranged…"

But the little prince could not restrain his admiration:

"Oh! How beautiful you are!"

"Am I not?" the flower responded, sweetly. "And I was born at the same moment as the sun…"

直到某个早晨，恰巧是在太阳初升的时候，花儿绽放了。

在经历过那样漫长的精心装扮工作之后，她一边打着哈欠，一边说道：

“呀！我才刚睡醒。希望你不要太介意，我的花瓣还这样乱七八糟呢。”

“哇！你真漂亮！”小王子再也抑制不住自己的爱慕之情。

“是吧！”花儿俏皮可爱地回应道：“我可是迎着太阳出生的呢！”

玫瑰花儿

The little prince could guess easily enough that she was not any too modest-- but how moving-- and exciting-- she was!

"I think it is time for breakfast," she added an instant later. "If you would have the kindness to think of my needs--"

And the little prince, completely abashed, went to look for a sprinkling-can of fresh water. So, he tended the flower.

小王子很快就发现这朵花儿傲气十足，可是又那样美丽动人！

“我想，现在该是早餐时间了吧？”过了一会，她继续说道：“如果可以，请你也顾虑一下我的感受！”

小王子一时之间有些愧疚，急忙去找了一个喷洒壶装满清水，开始照料起花儿。

给花浇水

So, too, she began very quickly to torment him with her vanity-- which was, if the truth be known, a little difficult to deal with. One day, for instance, when she was speaking of her four thorns, she said to the little prince:

"Let the tigers come with their claws!"

"There are no tigers on my planet," the little prince objected. "And, anyway, tigers do not eat weeds."

"I am not a weed," the flower replied, sweetly.

"Please excuse me…"

"I am not at all afraid of tigers," she went on, "but I have a horror of drafts. I suppose you wouldn't have a screen for me?"

"A horror of drafts-- that is bad luck, for a plant," remarked the little prince, and added to himself, "This flower is a very complex creature…"

就这样，她在虚荣心驱使下不断地折腾着小王子，大家都知道，虚荣心有时候真的有些让人左右为难。例如，有一天，她在谈起身上的四根刺的时候，对小王子喊道：

“来吧！让老虎们尽情地张牙舞爪吧！”

“我的星球上并没有老虎，”小王子反驳道：“再说，老虎也不吃草。”

“可我不是草！”花儿低声细语地说道。

“真抱歉！”

“我就想说我一点都不惧怕老虎。”她接着说道：“不过我倒是对疾风深恶痛绝，不知你是否能用屏风帮我遮挡一下呢？”

“讨厌疾风？对植物而言，怕风可不是什么好事！”小王子思忖半晌，又呢喃自语道“这花真是一个难伺候的主儿。”

老虎侵袭

"At night I want you to put me under a glass globe. It is very cold where you live. In the place I came from--"

But she interrupted herself at that point. She had come in the form of a seed. She could not have known anything of any other worlds. Embarrassed over having let herself be caught on the verge of such a naive untruth, she coughed two or three times, in order to put the little prince in the wrong.

"The screen?" 

"I was just going to look for it when you spoke to me…"

Then she forced her cough a little more so that he should suffer from remorse just the same.

So the little prince, in spite of all the good will that was inseparable from his love, had soon come to doubt her. He had taken seriously words which were without importance, and it made him very unhappy.

“到了晚上，我希望你能用玻璃圆罩将我保护起来。你这地方实在太冷了，我原来住的地方……”

花儿的话戛然而止，她来的时候不过是一粒种子，哪里会知道外面的世界多精彩。她觉着有些不好意思，毕竟自己即将编造出来的谎话实在太过拙劣，她只好佯装咳嗽了几下，试图想让小王子感到愧疚。

“屏风呢？”

“我正打算去取，只是你刚好又和我说起话来……”

于是花儿又故意咳嗽起来，想让小王子意识到自己的过失。

尽管小王子确实是真心诚意地爱这朵花儿，但难免也会对她的话有所怀疑。他对一些无关紧要的言语太过于较真，结果反倒使自己变得闷闷不乐了。

玻璃圆罩

"I ought not to have listened to her," he confided to me one day. "One never ought to listen to the flowers. One should simply look at them and breathe their fragrance. Mine perfumed all my planet. But I did not know how to take pleasure in all her grace. This tale of claws, which disturbed me so much, should only have filled my heart with tenderness and pity."

And he continued his confidences:

"The fact is that I did not know how to understand anything! I ought to have judged by deeds and not by words. She cast her fragrance and her radiance over me. I ought never to have run away from her… I ought to have guessed all the affection that lay behind her poor little stratagems. Flowers are so inconsistent! But I was too young to know how to love her…"

“我就不应该听信她的话，”有一天小王子对我袒露心事，“再怎样都不该和花儿的话较真。人们只需要单纯地欣赏他们的美丽，轻嗅他们的芬芳就足够了。我的花儿让整个星球弥漫着芳香，可我却不懂得享受她的恩赐。关于老虎爪子这件事，我当时恼怒不已，而实际上我本应该对此示以同情与安慰。”

他继续分享着他的秘密：

“一切都是因为我太过懵懂，我应该将她的行为作为评判的标准，而不是关注她的言语。她让我的星球芳香四溢，让我的生活精彩多姿，我怎么可以弃她而去呢……我早就应该感受到她耍小聪明的背后饱含着温情。真是一朵自相矛盾的花儿呀！只怪我当时太过年轻，完全不懂如果去爱她……”