le petit prince

short cuts of the chapters

introduction dedicated to my best friend leon werth, who understands everything and was once a child himself. he lives in france, he is hungry and cold. he needs cheering up.

chapter 01

as a 6-years old child he saw in " true stories from nature " about the primeval forest a boa constrictor swallowing an animal (rat/mouse).

drawing number 1: asking the grown-ups if they were frightened, but they weren't because they thought is was a hat: "that's a hat".

drawing number 2: a x-ray of number one, revealing an elephant within a boa constrictor.

they advise me to stop drawing and learn geography, history, arithmetic and grammar.
he learned to pilot airplanes.

chapter 02

day 1. crash in the sahara (6 years ago).
day 2. draw me a sheep. (the sudden appearance of the little prince,

who was on his way to the place, where he landed (almost one year ago).

when a mystery is too overpowering, one dare not disobey.

sheep 1 is already very sickly.
sheep 2 that's not a sheep, it has horns.
sheep 3 is to old.

this is only his box, the sheep you asked for is inside. has it to eat a great deal of grass? because my planet is very small.

chapter 03

so you come from the sky, where is your planet? on that you can't have come from far (with that plane).

the box you gave me can serve as a house in the night.
i will give you a string too, to tie the sheep during the day. where i live everything is so small. straight ahead of him? nobody can go very far (hint maybe for his sadness?).

chapter 04

asteroid 324? in the neighbourhood of asteroid 325-330. probably the same as the asteroid b-612, discovered by a turkish astronomer in 1909 but rejected on the congress because he was in turkish costume. in 1920 accepted accepted because he was in european costume than.

questions about essential matters.

to forget a friend is sad, not everyone has a friend. i have bought a box of paints and some pencils.

chapter 05

is it true that sheep eat little bushes? then it follows they eat also baobabs? boababs are trees big as castles and that even if he took a whole herd of elephants, the herd will not eat a single baobab.

the little prince made a wise comment:

before they grow so big, the baobabs start out by being little.

chapter 06

day 4. i am very fond of sunsets. once he saw 44 sunsets. sun cheers up someone. you know one loves the sunset when one is so sad.

chapter 07

day 5. if a sheep eat little bushes, does it eat flowers too? even flowers that has thorns? what use they are then?

flowers have thorns just for spite.

i don't believe you, flowers are weak creatures, they are naive. they believe that their thorns are terrible weapons.

matters of consequences?
i know a planet where was a certain red-faced gentleman (businessman). he only add up, never saw…............he is a mushroom.

the flower 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 sheep.

it is such a secret place the land of tears.

chapter 08

the flowers had been always simple. they only had one ring of petals. they were a trouble for nobody.

one day from a seed blown - no one knew were - a new flower had come up (maybe a new kind of a baobab).

a coquettish beautiful vain and demanding rose with 4 thorns:
let the tigers come with their claws. i have a horror for drafts. put me under a glass globe in the night, because….......than she lied (from the planet i come….......) a naïve untruth. she had come in the form of a seed, she could not know anything of any other worlds and the little prince had soon come to doubt her.

the fact is that i did not know how to understand anything:
i ought to have judged by deeds and not by words. flowers are so inconsistent. but i was too young to know how to love her.

chapter 09

for his escape he took advantage of the migration of a flock of wild birds.

there were 2 active volcanoes (heating his breakfast) and 1 extinct volcano (he used as a footstool). he cleaned them up and also the last shoots of the baobabs. he watered his flower for the last time and prepared to place her under the shelter of the glass globe

and said goodbye.

i have been silly, i ask your forgiveness. try to be happy. let the glass globe be. i must endure 2 or 3 caterpillars, if i wish to become acquainted with the butterflies. i am not afraid i have my claws.

don't linger like this, you have decided to go, now go. she was such a proud flower.

chapter 10

the 1° planet asteroid 325: the king,
proud of being at last a king over somebody. to them all men are subjects. the entire planet was crammed/obstructed by the magnificent ermine robe.

the "reasonable" demands of the king.

for what the king fundamentally insisted upon was that his authority should be respected.

if you succeeded to judge yourself rightly, then you are indeed a man of true wisdom.

the king rules over anything, the planets/stars, the sunsets. i make you my minister of justice.

somewhere there is a rat, you will judge him, condemn him to death and you will pardon him,
because he is the only subject

chapter 11

the 2° planet asteroid 326: the vain conceited man.
clap your hands. conceited people never hear anything but praise. do you admire me as the hand- somest, best-dressed, richest and most intelligent man on this planet? but you are the only man on your small planet!

chapter 12

the 3° planet asteroid 327: the drunkard (tippler).
a collection of half empty/full bottles. i am drinking, so i may forget that i am ashamed of drinking.

(comment: i am drinking, so i may forget how much i already drunk)

chapter 13

the 4° planet asteroid 328: the businessman,
counting the stars (that little glittering things, maybe ducats?). 22 years ago i was disturbed by some giddy goose who felt from sky, i made 4 mistakes in my addition. 11 years ago i was disturbed by an attack of rheumatism and now by you. i own the stars (kings do not own, the reign over).
i own them because i was the first who think on it.

chapter 14

the 5° planet asteroid 329: the lamplighter.
when he lights his streetlamp, it is if he brought one more star to life or one flower. a beautiful occupation, it is truly useful. why? because orders are orders. a day last only one minute. the little prince felt that he loves this lamplighter, who was so faithful to his orders. i can tell you a way you can rest whenever you want to: your planet is so small that 3 strides will take you all the way around it. to be always in the sunshine you need only to walk along rather slowly. the one thing i love in live is to sleep. then you are unlucky. the little prince regret, there is no room for two people and also that there were every day 1440 sunsets.

chapter 15

the 6° planet asteroid 330: the geographer
330 was ten times larger than the last one (329) and inhabitated by an old gentleman who wrote voluminous books. the geographer is a scolar who knows the location of all the seas, rivers, towns, mountains, and deserts. he collects information from an explorer and than investigates the explorer's character.

we do not record flowers, because they are ephemeral.
his first moment of regret and i left her on my planet all alone. what place you advise me to visit now? the planet earth (the 7° planet), it has a good reputation.

chapter 16

so then the 7° planet was the earth.
earth is not just an ordinary planet.

111 kings, 7000 geographers, 900.000 businessmen, 7.500.000 tipplers, 311.000.000 conceited man and ± 2.000.000.000 grown-ups.

before the invention of the electricity

462.511 lamplighters were needed for the street lamps in nz/au, china/siberia, russia/india, africa/ europe, s/n america. only the lamplighters in the n/s pole would be busy twice a year.

chapter 17

men occupies a very small place upon the earth.
standing upright on a square of 20² miles and could be piled up on a small pacific islet.

the grown-ups will not believe you,
they imagine that they fill a great deal of space. they fancy themselves as important as the baobabs.

arrival in the desert,
where a coil of gold, the colour of the moonlight flashes across the sand: he meets a snake. this is desert there are no people in the desert. the earth is large. what has brought you here? i have been having trouble with a flower. you are not thicker than a finger. i am more powerful than the finger of a king. you are not very powerful. you even haven't feet. you cannot even travel. i can carry you farther than any ship could take you. whomever i touch i send back to the earth from whence he came. but you are innocent and true and you come from a star. you move me to pitty, you are so weak on this earth. i can help you someday, if you grow to homesick for your own planet. but why do you speak always in riddles? i solve them all said the snake.

chapter 18

the little prince crossed the desert and met with only one flower.

it was a flower with three petals,
a flower of no account at all. where are the men? the flower had once seen a caravan passing. i think there were 6 or 7 caravans in her existence. the wind blows them away, they don't have roots and that makes their life very difficult.

chapter 19

the little prince climbed a high mountain

the only mountains he ever had know were the 3 volcanoes, which came up to his knees. he used the extinct volcano as a footstool and the other two to warm his breakfest but he saw nothing save peaks of rocks that were sharpened like needles.

the echo was interpreted by the little prince
as simple people, that repeated only his words. on my planet i had a flower, she always was the first to speak.

chapter 20

the little prince came at last on a road
and all roads lead to the abodes of men. he was standing before a garden all a-bloom with roses,

they all looked like his flower.
he was overcome with sadness, because his flower had told him that she was the only one of her kind in all the universe.

she would be very annoyed,
would cough most dreadfully and she would pretend that she was dying, to avoid being laughed at.
and i should be obliged to pretend that i was nursing her back to life for if i did not do that, to humble myself also, she would really allow herself to die.

he lays in the grass and cried.

chapter 21

it was then that the fox appeared.
i am right here under the apple tree. i am a fox, come and play with me, i am so unhappy.

i can not play with you, i am not tamed.
it is an act too often neglected. it means to establish ties. if you tame me then we shall need each other. to me you will be unique in all the world, to you i shall be unique in all the world. i am beginning to understand. there is a flower i think that she has tamed me. my life is very monotonous said the fox, please tame me, if you want a friend. words are the source of misunderstandings. rites are important.

and now here is my secret,
a very simple secret:

1. it is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
2. the time you have wasted for your rose, that makes your rose so important.
3. but you must not forget it, you become responsible forever for what you have tamed. you are responsible for your rose.

chapter 22

the railway switchman.
i sort out travellers in bundles of thousand. i send of the trains that carries them, now to the right, now to the left. they are always in a big hurry. but they don't know what are they looking for. only the children know what they're looking for.

chapter 23

the merchant (salesclerk),
selling thirst quenching pills. one pill a week will save a tremendous amount of time. with this pills you save 53 minutes every week. if i had 53 minutes to spend as i liked, i should walk at my leisure toward a spring of fresh water.

chapter 24

day 8. the pilot runs out of water.
they walk together to look for the water.

water maybe also good for the heart.

the stars are beautiful because of a flower that cannot be seen. what makes the desert beautiful
because is that somewhere it hides a well. what give them their beauty is something that is invisible.

he took the sleeping prince in his arms
and he told himself what i see here is nothing than an empty shell. what is most important is invisible.

what moves me so deeply is his loyalty to a flower, the imagine of a rose that shines through his whole being like the flame of a lamp. he found the well at daybreak.

chapter 25

men set out their ways in express trains,
but they do not know what they are looking for. it is not worth the trouble. strange, everything of the "village-well" is ready for use and it is singing, because we woke it. i am thirsty for this water.
the sweetness of water revives the heart.

men raises 5000 roses in the same garden
but the eyes are blind. one must look with the heart.

you must keep your promises
to draw a the muzzle for my sheep. i am responsible for this flower.

you have plans that i do not know about.
my descent to the earth, tomorrow will be its anniversary. so it was not by chance that i met you one week ago, you were on your way back to the place were you landed.

and the pilot got sad.

now you must return to your engine. i will waiting for you here, come back tomorrow evening.

chapter 26

beside the well there was a ruin of an old stone wall.

the little prince was talking to the snake:
it is the right day, but this is not the place. you have good poison? you are sure that it makes me suffer too long? now go away, i want to get down from the wall.

the pilot catches the little man in his arms.
i am glad you found what was the matter with your engine. now, you can go back home, i, too, am going back home today. tonight it will be a year….. my star then can be found right above the place where i came to the earth.

the thing that is important is the thing not seen.

it is just like my flower. if you love a flower that lives on a star, it is sweet to look at the sky at night. all the stars are a-bloom with flowers. and at night you will look up at the stars, my star will just be one of the stars, for you. and so you will love to watch all the stars in the heavens, they will all be your friends.

and besides i am going to make you a present.
my laughter will be as it was when we drank the water. all men have stars but they are silent. you alone will have stars as no one else has them.

in one of the stars i shall be living.
in one of them i shall be laughing and so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night: you, only you will have stars that can laugh it will be as if - in place of the stars -
i had given you a great number of bells that knew how to laugh.

tonight, you know, do not come,
it is not worth the trouble. i tell you this because of the snake, he must not bite you too.

ah! there you are.
it was wrong of you to come, you will suffer. i will look as if i am dead and that will not be true. you know my flower, i am responsible for her. than the snake bites.

chapter 27

and now six years have already gone by.
i was sad and also comforted a bit because i didn't find his body at daybreak. at night i love to listen to the stars. it is like 5 hundred million little bells.

when i draw the muzzle,
i forgot to add the leather strap to it, he never have been able to fasten it on his sheep, so i wonder: has the sheep eaten his flower? has the little prince shut his flower under her glass globe at night?

but then the little bells are changed to tears.
look up at the sky and ask yourself yes or no? has the sheep eaten the flower? and you will see how everything changes.

no grown-up will ever understand that

this is a matter of big importance