"The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

[soulshocked]

---

Chapter 1

Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories from Nature, about the primeval forest. It was a picture of a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal. Here is a copy of the drawing.




In the book it said: "Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewing it. After that they are not able to move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion."

I pondered deeply, then, over the adventures of the jungle. And after some work with a colored pencil I succeeded in making my first drawing. My Drawing Number One. It looked something like this:


I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups, and asked them whether the drawing frightened them.

But they answered: "Frighten? Why should any one be frightened by a hat?"

My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it, I made another drawing: I drew the inside of a boa constrictor, so that the grown-ups could see it clearly. They always need to have things explained. My Drawing Number Two looked like this:


The grown-ups' response, this time, was to advise me to lay aside my drawings of boa constrictors, whether from the inside or the outside, and devote myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic, and grammar. That is why, at the age of six, I gave up what might have been a magnificent career as a painter. I had been disheartened by the failure of my Drawing Number One and my Drawing Number Two. Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.

So then I chose another profession, and learned to pilot airplanes. I have flown a little over all parts of the world; and it is true that geography has been very useful to me. At a glance I can distinguish China from Arizona. If one gets lost in the night, such knowledge is valuable.

In the course of this life I have had a great many encounters with a great many people who have been concerned with matters of consequence. I have lived a great deal among grown-ups. I have seen them intimately, close at hand. And that hasn't much improved my opinion of them.

Whenever I met one of them who seemed to me at all clear-sighted, I tried the experiment of showing him my Drawing Number One, which I have always kept. I would try to find out, so, if this was a person of true understanding. But, whoever it was, he, or she, would always say:

"That is a hat."

Then I would never talk to that person about boa constrictors, or primeval forests, or stars. I would bring myself down to his level. I would talk to him about bridge, and golf, and politics, and neckties. And the grown-up would be greatly pleased to have met such a sensible man


Y'all can read the whole story with illustrations at http://www.angelfire.com/hi/littleprince/
http://littleprince.8m.com/

[thisbe.ara]

tame- to love


The little prince has tamed the fox.

When you tame someone, you will understand the uniqueness of the one you tamed.
Just like when the prince saw the bed of roses, he told them:
"You are not at all like my rose. As yet you are nothing. No one has tamed you, and you have tamed no one. You are like my fox when I first knew him. He was only a fox like a hundred thousand foxes. But I have made him my friend, and now he unique in all the world. You are beautiful but you are empty. One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you- the rose that belongs to me..But in herself alone, she is more important than all the hundreds of your other roses; because it she that i have watered; because it is she that i have put under the glass globe; because it is she that i have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that i have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we have saved to become butterflies); because it is she that i have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or even sometimes when se said nothing. Because she is my rose".


waaaaaaaa.. can i be that rose??

[soulshocked]

nice jed! luv that part too.



The possible meaning of 43 sunsets


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Â* Â* Original French text of 43 sunsets was changed in first English translation by Katherine Woods to 44 sunsets. Many argued that she did this in honor of Exupery, he was 44 when he died. But did she forget to honor something else, something Exupery wanted to be lesson in history for all of us. For unknown reason same mistake repeated in many foreign translation (have they even bother to read the original text) and new 2000 English translation of Richard Howard.



May 10, 1940 - Nazis invade France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; Winston Churchill becomes British Prime Minister.

June 22, 1940 - France signs an armistice with the Nazis.



It took 43 sunsets to conquer the home of Exupery by Nazi forces in early 1940. That is why Little Prince (Exupery) was so said on the day of the forty-third sunset. It was the last sunset of the free France. Exupery died during the WWII and never saw his country free again. After writing the book Exupery returned to Europe to fight.Â*

Chapter VI
Oh, Little Prince! Bit by bit I came to understand the secrets of your sad little life...

"I am always thinking that I am at home!" Just so. Everybody knows that when it is noon in the United States the sun is setting over France. If you could fly to France in one minute, you could go straight into the sunset, right from noon. Unfortunately, France is too far away for that...

"One day," you said to me, "I saw the sunset forty-three times!"

And a little later you added:

"You know-- one loves the sunset, when one is so sad..."

"Were you so sad, then?" I asked, "on the day of the forty-three sunsets?"

But the little prince made no reply.

Note: fourty-four was changed into original Franch forty-three in this text.

[thisbe.ara]

wow.. now i know why. now that's something. thanks, soulshocked.

[thisbe.ara]

He was tired. He sat down. I sat down beside him. ANd, after a little silence, he spoke again:

"The stars are beautiful because of a flower that cannot be seen".

I replied, "Yes, that is so". And without, saying anything more, I looked across the ridges of sand that were stretched out before us in the moonlight.

"The desert is beautiful", the little prince added.

ANd that was true. I have always loved the desert. One sits down on a desert sand dune, sees nothing, hears nothing. Yet through the silence something throbs and gleams...

"What makes the desert beautiful", said the little prince. "is that somewhere, it hides a well..."

What gives them their beauty is something that is invisible.

* so striking jud, as in.. I think this signifies that it is inside each person which makes him/her beautiful.. something which cannot be seen"...

[soulshocked]

He was tired. He sat down. I sat down beside him. ANd, after a little silence, he spoke again:

"The stars are beautiful because of a flower that cannot be seen".

I replied, "Yes, that is so". And without, saying anything more, I looked across the ridges of sand that were stretched out before us in the moonlight.

"The desert is beautiful", the little prince added.

ANd that was true. I have always loved the desert. One sits down on a desert sand dune, sees nothing, hears nothing. Yet through the silence something throbs and gleams...

"What makes the desert beautiful", said the little prince. "is that somewhere, it hides a well..."

What gives them their beauty is something that is invisible.

* so striking jud, as in.. I think this signifies that it is inside each person which makes him/her beautiful.. something which cannot be seen"...

sakto jed! i tried to put myself in that situation.. i think i can't think of a hidden well when i'm so exhausted, tired, and thirsty.. and in a dessert.. and to think it's beautiful.. now that's something
@thisbe.ara. your welcome.. kita ra duha cge post dinhi.. hehe. ge lng. may unta matakdan cla sad noh. hehe.

[kUrSh]

hala. ganahan unta ko mupost but i can't remember any lines from the book, though. basta. i loved it. i cried when the fox said something to him about the rose. huhu.

[thisbe.ara]

soulshocked, sige lang matakdan ra lagi na sila..

@kursh: i think the prince said something to the fox about the roses. scroll up. nice jud ni cya kursh, i suggest a re-read.. hehe.. sige lang gurl coz il be posting some lines here...

[trickyboy]

At first I really thought na dali ra nako ni mahuman nga book, but it took me like 4 hours para mahuman nako ang story .... AND REALLY IT'S A GOOD READ!!!

[soulshocked]

pede ninyou re-read online and little prince...

http://www.angelfire.com/hi/littleprince/

i think there are more significant stories behind the stories itself.. like the sunsets.. there was something related to it.. i duno about the roses, or the fox, the man, the planets.. kadtong king, lamplighter.. etc. i think they have deeper meaning... untwa kaha noh? hehe. :mrgreen: