- the little prince encounters a merchant

"good morning," said the little prince.

"good morning," said the merchant.

this was a merchant who sold pills that had been invented to quench thirst. you need only swallow one pill a week, and you would feel no need of anything to drink.

"why are you selling those?" asked the little prince.

"because they save a tremendous amount of time," said the merchant. "computations have been made by experts. with these pills, you save fifty-three minutes in every week."

"and what do i do with those fifty-three minutes?"

"anything you like..."

"as for me," said the little prince to himself, "if i had fifty-three minutes to spend as i liked, i should walk at my leisure toward a spring of fresh water."

“你好。”小王子说。

“你好。”商人说道。

这是一位贩卖能够止渴的精制药丸的商人。每周吞服一丸就不会感觉口渴。

“你为什么卖这玩艺儿？”小王子说。

“这就大大地节约了时间。”商人说，“专家们计算过，这样，每周可以节约五十三分钟。”

“那么，用这五十三分钟做什么用？”

“随便怎么用都行。…”

小王子自言自语地说：“我如果有五十三分钟可支配，我就悠哉游哉地向水泉走去…”