The little prince (The Little Prince)

When I was 6 years old, I made my first drawing.

It was a boa constrictor digesting an Elephant.

I showed it to the grown-ups

and asked them if the drawing frightened them and they said

Why would any one be frightened of a hat?

Then I made second drawing.

Drawing the boa constrictor from the inside.

So that the grown-ups could easily see it.

They always needed to have things explained to them.

After seeing my two drawings,

They suggested that I busy myself

with matters of consequence.

That ended my drawing career.

And so I became a pilot and lived my life alone.

Without anyone I could really talk to.

Until my plane had an engine trouble in the desert

a thousand miles from any human habitation.

Imagine my surprise when I heard...

If you please... Draw me a sheep!

I jumped to my feet, thunderstruck.

But... What are you doing here?

If you please... Draw me a sheep!

I told the chap, a little crossly, too...

That I did not know how to draw.

Oh, that doesn't matter. Draw me a sheep.

So I drew one of the two pictures

I had drawn so often.

No! no! I do not want an elephant inside a boa constrictor.

Draw me a sheep.

No, this sheep is sickly. Make me another.

So I made another drawing.

You see yourself, this is a ram. It has horns.

By this time my patience was exhausted.

So I tossed off this drawing.

This is only his box. The sheep you asked for is inside.

That is exactly the way I wanted it!

Do you think that this sheep will have to have a great deal of grass?

Where I live everything is very small.

Look! He has gone to sleep.

And that is how I made the acquaintance of

The Little Prince

It took me a long time to learn where he came from.

It was from words dropped by chance that, little by little,

everything was revealed to me.

It is true, isn't it, that sheep eat little bushes?

Yes, that is true.

Then it follows that they also eat baobabs?

There were some terrible seeds on the planet of the little prince.

And these were the seeds of the baobab.

It spreads over the entire planet.

It bores clear through with its roots.

And if the planet is too small

and the baobabs are too many...

they split it in pieces.

It is a question of discipline.

You must see to it that you pull up all the baobabs...

at the very first moment

when they can be distinguished from the...

At that moment I was very busy trying to unscrew a bolt that

had got stuck in my engine.

A sheep... If it eats little bushes, does it eat flowers, too?

A sheep eats anything it finds in its reach.

Even flowers that have thorns?

Yes.

Then the thorns, what use are they?

I was very much worried...

And I had so little drinking-water left that I had to fear the worst.

The thorns, what use are they?

The little prince never let go a question, once he asked it.

The thorns are of no use at all. Flowers have thorns just for spite!

Oh! I don't believe you!

Flowers are weak creatures.

They reassure themselves as best they can.

They believe that their thorns are terrible weapons...

Don't you see... That I am very busy with matters of consequence!

Matters of consequence!

You talk just like grown-ups!

The flowers have been growing thorns for millions of years.

For millions of years the sheep have been eating them just the same.

And is it not a matter of consequence to try to understand why

the flowers go to so much trouble to grow thorns

which are never of any use to them?

And if I know. I, myself. One flower which is unique in the world,

which grows nowhere but on my planet,

but which one little sheep can destroy in a single bite some morning,

without even noticing what he is doing

Oh! You think that is not important!

I took him in my arms.

And rocked him.

The flower that you love is not in danger.

I will draw you a muzzle for your sheep.

I will draw you a railing to put around your flower.

I did not know what to say to him.

I felt awkward and blundering.

It is such a secret place, the land of tears.

I soon learned to know this flower better.

On the little prince's planet the flowers had always been very simple.

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.

It might, you see, have been a new kind of baobab.

But the shrub soon stopped growing,

and began to get ready to produce a flower.

She chose her colours with the greatest of care.

She adjusted her petals one by one.

And then one morning, exactly at sunrise...

she showed herself.

Ah! I beg that you will excuse me. My petals are still all disarranged...

Oh! How beautiful you are!

And I was born at the same moment as the sun.

One day, when she was speaking of her thorns,

she said to the little prince:

Let the tigers come with their claws!

There are no tigers on my planet.

I am not at all afraid of tigers,

but I have a horror of drafts.

I suppose you wouldn't have a screen for me?

This flower is a very complex creature...

At night I want you to put me under a glass globe.

It is very cold where you live.

In the place I come from my...

she was embarassed over having let herself

be caught on the verge of untruth.

She could not have known anything of any other worlds.

She had come in the form of a seed.

The screen?

The little prince came to doubt her.

That made him very unhappy.

He decided to leave her

I was too young to know how to love her...

She perfumed all my planet.

But I did not know how to take pleasure in all her grace.

I ought to leave judge by her deeds...

not by her words.

On the morning of his departure,

he put his planet in perfect order.

He believed that he would never want to return.

Let the glass globe be.

I don't want it any more.

After all!

- I am a flower. - But the animals...

I have my thorns.

Don't linger like this. You've decided to go away.

Now go!

She did not want him to see her crying.

She was such a proud flower.

And so, he left...

Taking advantage of the migration of a flock of wild birds.

He found himself near a planet inhabited by a king.

Pardon me, Sire...

May I pay you a visit?

I order you to do so.

May I ask you a question?

I order you to ask me a question.

Over what do you rule?

Over everything!

I do not permit insubordination

I should like to see a sunset...

Do me that kindness...

Order the sun to set...

I should command it to

That's about to... About to...

Twenty minutes to eight this evening

And you will see how well I am obeyed.

I see. I'm afraid I can not wait.

Do not go!

If Your Majesty wishes to be promptly obeyed...

He should order me to be gone by the end of one minute.

I made you my ambassador!

He had a magnificent air of authority.

The grown-ups are very strange.

The second planet was inhabited by a conceited man.

Do you really admire me?

Admire? You?

Yes. Am I not the handsomest, best-dressed,

richest and most intelligent man on this planet.

you are. The only man on your planet!

Do me this kindness. Admire me just the same.

The grown-ups are certainly very odd.

The third planet belonged to a businessman.

Good morning.

3 and 2 make 5. 5 and 7 make 12. 12 and 3 make 15. Good morning.

15 and 7 make 22. 22 and 6 make 28. 28 away 5 make 23. That makes

five-hundred-one-million, six-hundred-twenty-two-thousand, seven-hundred-thirty-three.

Five hundred million what?

Stars.

What do you do with five-hundred million stars?

Nothing, nothing, I own them.

How is it possible for one to own the stars?

I was the first person to think of it.

Is that all that is necessary?

Certainly. When you discover an island belongs to nobody, it's yours.

When you get an idea before anybody else, you take out a patent on it. It's yours.

So I own the stars, because nobody else before me ever thought of owning them.

I myself own a flower which I water every day. -Oh,boy.

I own three volcanoes, which I clean out every week. -Yeah, I bet.

It is of some use to my volcanoes and to my flower, that I own them.

But you are of no use to the stars...

And he went on his way.

The grown-ups are certainly altogether extraordinary.