- the little prince visits the king

he found himself in the neighborhood of the asteroids 325, 326, 327, 328, 329, and 330. he began, therefore, by visiting them, in order to add to his knowledge.

the first of them was inhabited by a king. clad in royal purple and ermine, he was seated upon a throne which was at the same time both simple and majestic.

"ah! here is a subject," exclaimed the king, when he saw the little prince coming.

and the little prince asked himself:

"how could he recognize me when he had never seen me before?"

he did not know how the world is simplified for kings. to them, all men are subjects.

"approach, so that i may see you better," said the king, who felt consumingly proud of being at last a king over somebody.

the little prince looked everywhere to find a place to sit down; but the entire planet was crammed and obstructed by the king's magnificent ermine robe. so he remained standing upright, and, since he was tired, he yawned.

"it is contrary to etiquette to yawn in the presence of a king," the monarch said to him. "i forbid you to do so."

"i can't help it. i can't stop myself," replied the little prince, thoroughly embarrassed. "i have come on a long journey, and i have had no sleep..."

"ah, then," the king said. "i order you to yawn. it is years since i have seen anyone yawning. yawns, to me, are objects of curiosity. come, now! yawn again! it is an order."

"that frightens me... i cannot, any more..." murmured the little prince, now completely abashed.

"hum! hum!" replied the king. "then i-- i order you sometimes to yawn and sometimes to--"

he sputtered a little, and seemed vexed.

for what the king fundamentally insisted upon was that his authority should be respected. he tolerated no disobedience. he was an absolute monarch. but, because he was a very good man, he made his orders reasonable.

"if i ordered a general," he would say, by way of example, "if i ordered a general to change himself into a sea bird, and if the general did not obey me, that would not be the fault of the general. it would be my fault."

"may i sit down?" came now a timid inquiry from the little prince.

"i order you to do so," the king answered him, and majestically gathered in a fold of his ermine mantle.

but the little prince was wondering... the planet was tiny. over what could this king really rule?

"sire," he said to him, "i beg that you will excuse my asking you a question--"

"i order you to ask me a question," the king hastened to assure him.

"sire-- over what do you rule?"

"over everything," said the king, with magnificent simplicity.

"over everything?"

the king made a gesture, which took in his planet, the other planets, and all the stars.

"over all that?" asked the little prince.

"over all that," the king answered.

for his rule was not only absolute: it was also universal.

"and the stars obey you?"

"certainly they do," the king said. "they obey instantly. i do not permit insubordination."

such power was a thing for the little prince to marvel at. if he had been master of such complete authority, he would have been able to watch the sunset, not forty-four times in one day, but seventy-two, or even a hundred, or even two hundred times, with out ever having to move his chair. and because he felt a bit sad as he remembered his little planet which he had forsaken, he plucked up his courage to ask the king a favor:

"i should like to see a sunset... do me that kindness... order the sun to set..."

"if i ordered a general to fly from one flower to another like a butterfly, or to write a tragic drama, or to change himself into a sea bird, and if the general did not carry out the order that he had received, which one of us would be in the wrong?" the king demanded. "the general, or myself?"

"you," said the little prince firmly.

"exactly. one much require from each one the duty which each one can perform," the king went on. "accepted authority rests first of all on reason. if you ordered your people to go and throw themselves into the sea, they would rise up in revolution. i have the right to require obedience because my orders are reasonable."

"then my sunset?" the little prince reminded him: for he never forgot a question once he had asked it.

"you shall have your sunset. i shall command it. but, according to my science of government, i shall wait until conditions are favorable."

"when will that be?" inquired the little prince.

"hum! hum!" replied the king; and before saying anything else he consulted a bulky almanac. "hum! hum! that will be about-- about-- that will be this evening about twenty minutes to eight. and you will see how well i am obeyed."

the little prince yawned. he was regretting his lost sunset. and then, too, he was already beginning to be a little bored.

"i have nothing more to do here," he said to the king. "so i shall set out on my way again."

"do not go," said the king, who was very proud of having a subject. "do not go. i will make you a minister!"

"minister of what?"

"minster of-- of justice!"

"but there is nobody here to judge!"

"we do not know that," the king said to him. "i have not yet made a complete tour of my kingdom. i am very old. there is no room here for a carriage. and it tires me to walk."

"oh, but i have looked already!" said the little prince, turning around to give one more glance to the other side of the planet. on that side, as on this, there was nobody at all...

"then you shall judge yourself," the king answered. "that is the most difficult thing of all. it is much more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others. if you succeed in judging yourself rightly, then you are indeed a man of true wisdom."

"yes," said the little prince, "but i can judge myself anywhere. i do not need to live on this planet.

"hum! hum!" said the king. "i have good reason to believe that somewhere on my planet there is an old rat. i hear him at night. you can judge this old rat. from time to time you will condemn him to death. thus his life will depend on your justice. but you will pardon him on each occasion; for he must be treated thriftily. he is the only one we have."

"i," replied the little prince, "do not like to condemn anyone to death. and now i think i will go on my way."

"no," said the king.

but the little prince, having now completed his preparations for departure, had no wish to grieve the old monarch.

"if your majesty wishes to be promptly obeyed," he said, "he should be able to give me a reasonable order. he should be able, for example, to order me to be gone by the end of one minute. it seems to me that conditions are favorable..."

as the king made no answer, the little prince hesitated a moment. then, with a sigh, he took his leave.

"i made you my ambassador," the king called out, hastily.

he had a magnificent air of authority.

"the grown-ups are very strange," the little prince said to himself, as he continued on his journey.

在附近的宇宙中，还有 325、326、327、328、329、330 等几颗小行星。他就开始访问这几颗星球，想在那里找点事干，并且学习学习。

第一颗星球上住着一个国王。国王穿着用紫红色和白底黑花的毛皮做成的大礼服，坐在一个很简单却又十分威严的宝座上。

当他看见小王子时，喊了起来：

“啊，来了一个臣民。”

小王子思量着：“他从来也没有见过我，怎么会认识我呢？”

他哪里知道，在那些国王的眼里，世界是非常简单的：所有的人都是臣民。

国王十分骄傲，因为他终于成了某个人的国王，他对小王子说道：“靠近些，好让我好好看看你。”

小王子看看四周，想找个地方坐下来，可是整个星球被国王华丽的白底黑花皮袍占满了。他只好站在那里，但是因为疲倦了，他打起哈欠来。

君王对他说：“在一个国王面前打哈欠是违反礼节的。我禁止你打哈欠。”

小王子羞愧地说道：“我实在忍不住，我长途跋涉来到这里，还没有睡觉呢。”

国王说：“那好吧，我命令你打哈欠。好些年来我没有看见过任何人打哈欠。对我来说，打哈欠倒是新奇的事。来吧，再打个哈欠！这是命令。”

“这倒叫我有点紧张…我打不出哈欠来了…”小王子红着脸说。

“嗯！嗯！”国王回答道：“那么我…命令你忽而打哈欠，忽而…”

他嘟嘟囔囔，显出有点恼怒。

因为国王所要求的主要是保持他的威严受到尊敬。他不能容忍不听他的命令。他是一位绝对的君主。可是，他却很善良，他下的命令都是有理智的。

他常常说：“如果我叫一位将军变成一只海鸟，而这位将军不服从我的命令，那么这就不是将军的过错，而是我的过错。”

小王子腼腆地试探道：“我可以坐下吗？”

“我命令你坐下。”国王一边回答，一边庄重地把他那白底黑花皮袍大襟挪动了一下。

可是小王子感到很奇怪。这么小的行星，国王他对什么进行统治呢？

他对国王说：“陛下…请原谅，我想问您…”

国王急忙抢着说道：“我命令你问我。”

“陛下…你统治什么呢？”

国王非常简单明了地说：“我统治一切。”

“一切？”

国王轻轻地用手指着他的行星和其他的行星，以及所有的星星。

小王子说：“统治这一切？”

“统治这一切。”

原来他不仅是一个绝对的君主，而且是整个宇宙的君主。

“那么，星星都服从您吗？”

“那当然！”国王对他说，“它们立即就得服从。我是不允许无纪律的。”

这样的权力使小王子惊叹不已。如果掌握了这样的权力，那么，他一天就不只是看到四十三次日落，而可以看到七十二次，甚至一百次，或是二百次日落，也不必要去挪动椅子了！由于他想起了他那被遗弃的小星球，心里有点难过，他大胆地向国王提出了一个请求：

“我想看日落，请求您…命令太阳落山吧…”

国王说道：“如果我命令一个将军象一只蝴蝶那样从这朵花飞到那朵花，或者命令他写作一个悲剧剧本或者变一只海鸟，而如果这位将军接到命令不执行的话，那么，是他不对还是我不对呢？”

“那当然是您的不对。”小王子肯定地回答。

“一点也不错，”国王接着说，“向每个人提出的要求应该是他们所能做到的。权威首先应该建立在理性的基础上。如果命令你的老百姓去投海，他们非起来革命不可。我的命令是合理的，所以我有权要别人服从。”

“那么我提出的日落呢？”小王子一旦提出一个问题，他是不会忘记这个问题的。

“日落么，你会看到的。我一定要太阳落山，不过按照我的统治科学，我得等到条件成熟的时候。”

小王子问道：“这要等到什么时候呢？”

国王在回答之前，首先翻阅了一本厚厚的日历，嘴里慢慢说道：“嗯！嗯！日落大约…大约…在今晚七时四十分的时候！你将看到我的命令一定会被服从的。”

小王子又打起哈欠来了。他遗憾没有看到日落。他有点厌烦了，他对国王说：“我没有必要再呆在这儿了。我要走了。”

这位因为刚刚有了一个臣民而十分骄傲自得的国王说道：

“别走，别走。我任命你当大臣。”

“什么大臣”

“嗯……司法大臣！”

“可是，这儿没有一个要审判的人。”

“很难说呀，”国王说道。“我很老了，我这地方又小，没有放銮驾的地方，另外，一走路我就累。因此我还没有巡视过我的王国呢！”

“噢！可是我已经看过了。”小王子说道，并探身朝星球的那一侧看了看。那边也没有一个人…

“那么你就审判你自己呀！”国王回答他说。“这可是最难的了。审判自己比审判别人要难得多啊！你要是能审判好自己，你就是一个真正有才智的人。”

“我吗，随便在什么地方我都可以审度自己。我没有必要留在这里。”

国王又说：“嗯…嗯…我想，在我的星球上有一只老耗子。夜里，我听见它的声音。你可以审判它，不时地判处它死刑。因此它的生命取决于你的判决。可是，你要有节制地使用这只耗子，每次判刑后都要赦免它，因为只有这一只耗子。”

“可是我不愿判死刑，我想我还是应该走。”小王子回答道。

“不行。”国王说。

但是小王子，准备完毕之后，不想使老君主难过，说道：如果国王陛下想要不折不扣地得到服从，你可以给我下一个合理的命令。比如说，你可以命令我，一分钟之内必须离开。我认为这个条件是成熟的…”

国王什么也没有回答。起初，小王子有些犹疑不决，随后叹了口气，就离开了…

“我派你当我的大使。”国王匆忙地喊道。

国王显出非常有权威的样子。

小王子在旅途中自言自语地说：“这些大人真奇怪。”