TheLittlePrince小王子第十五章

"But you are a geographer!"
"Exactly," the geographer said. "But I am not an explorer. I haven't a single explorer on my planet. It is not the geographer who goes out to count the towns, the rivers, the mountains, the seas, the oceans, and the deserts. The geographer is much too important to go loafing about. He does not leave his desk. But he receives the explorers in his study. He asks them questions, and he notes down what they recall of their travels. And if the recollections of any one among them seem interesting to him, the geographer orders an inquiry into that explorer's moral character."

"What does that mean-- 'ephemeral'?(短暂的)"
"Geographies," said the geographer, "are the books which, of all books, are most concerned with matters of consequence. They never become old-fashioned. It is very rarely that a mountain changes its position. It is very rarely that an ocean empties itself of its waters. We write of eternal(永恒的)) things."

"My flower is ephemeral," the little prince said to himself, "and she has only four thorns to defend herself against the world. And I have left her on my planet, all alone!"
That was his first moment of regret. But he took courage once more.

第六个星球，
一个地理学家，
他的世界比点灯人大，
比前面几个人的都大，
他记录其他学者关于地理的描述，
但是对于自己的星球自己的世界却是一无所知。
不关心有生命的东西，
而一昧的记录他所谓的永恒，
却不知道永恒只是相对的。

他说山是永恒的，
海洋是永恒的。
可斗转星移，
山可以夷为平地，
海水可以干枯。

对于小王子来说，
花是永恒的，
不管是否活着，
都在他心里。
死火山也有一天会活起来。

因为懂得，
所以慈悲。

TheLittlePrince小王子第十五章