第五章
每天我都了解到一些关于小王子的星球、他的出走和旅行等事情。这些都是偶然和他交谈中不经意慢慢得到的。就这样，在遇到小王子的第三天，我就了解到关于猴面包树的危险。
这一次，我还要再次感谢那只绵羊，因为小王子好像是非常担心地问我道：“绵羊吃矮小的灌木，这是真的吗？”
“是的，是真的。”
“啊，我真高兴。”
我不明白绵羊吃矮小灌木这件事为什么如此重要。可小王子又补充说道：“那么，它们也吃猴面包树吗？”
我对小王子指出说，猴面包树可不是什么小灌木，而是像城堡那么大的大树，即便是带回一群大象，也啃不了一棵猴面包树。
一群大象这种想法使小王子大笑起来：“那可得把这些大象叠起来才行。”
然后，他又给出了一个非常聪敏的评论：“猴面包树在长大之前，开始也是小小的。”
“不错。”我说，“可是为什么你想叫你的羊去吃小猴面包树呢？”
他立刻回答我道：“哦，行了，行了。”似乎这是不言而喻的，我自己却被迫要费很大的脑力来解决这个问题。
的确，正如我之前了解到的，在小王子居住的星球上，也和别的星球一样，存在着好的植物和坏的植物，因此，也就存在来自好的植物的好的种子，和来自坏的植物的坏的种子。但是，我们是看不见种子的。
它们安静地沉睡在泥土中，直到其中的一粒忽然想要苏醒过来……于是它就伸展开身子，先是害羞地朝着太阳长出一棵秀丽可爱的小嫩苗。如果是小萝卜或是玫瑰的嫩苗，就任由它去恣意地生长。如果是一棵坏苗，一旦被辨认出来，就应该马上把它拔掉。
因为在小王子的星球上，有些非常可怕的种子……就是猴面包树的种子，这种种子多得成灾，它们会入侵整个星球的土地。而一棵猴面包树苗，假如你拔得太迟，就再也无法把它清除掉。它会盘踞整个星球。它会长出很多树根。如果星球很小，而猴面包树很多，它就把整个星球搞得支离破碎。
“这是个规矩问题。”小王子后来向我解释道，“每天早上洗漱完毕以后，必须非常仔细地给星球做清洁和打扮。你必须规定自己按时去拔掉猴面包树苗。这种树苗小的时候与玫瑰苗长得差不多，一旦你把它们认出来，就要把它拔掉。这是一件非常乏味的工作，但也很容易。”
有一天，小王子劝我不妨画一幅漂亮的图画，好让地球上的孩子们对于猴面包树的危害有一个深刻的印象。“如果他们出外旅行的时候，”他对我说，“你的画对他们是很有用的。有时候，人们把自己的工作延迟到以后去做，并没有什么危害，但要遇到拔猴面包树苗这种事，拖延就非造成大灾难不可。我了解到一个星球，上面住着一个懒惰的家伙，他忽视了三棵小猴面包树苗……”
于是，根据小王子的描述，我把这个有三棵猴面包树的星球画了下来。我非常不情愿以道德楷模自居，可是猴面包树的危险大家都不大了解，对迷失在小行星上的人来说，危险性非常之大，因此这一回，我贸然打破了我的这种不喜欢教训人的惯例，我简单直白地说：“孩子们，要当心那些猴面包树呀！”像我一样很长时间以来都避开了这个危险的朋友们，甚至都不知道这种危险的存在。因此为了他们，我花了很大的工夫画了这幅画。通过这种方式让大家学到的这节课，所有过程中的麻烦都值得了。你们也许要问，为什么这本书中别的画都没有这幅猴面包树的画那么壮观并且印象深刻呢？回答很简单：别的画我也曾经试图画得好些，却没成功。而当我画猴面包树时，有一种急切的心情在驱动着我。
Chapter 5
As each day passed I would learn, in our talk, something about the little prince’s planet, his departure from it, his journey. The information would come very slowly, as it might chance to fall from his thoughts. It was in this way that I heard, on the third day, about the catastrophe of the baobabs.
This time, once more, I had the sheep to thank for it. For the little prince asked me abruptly— as if seized by a grave doubt— "It is true, isn’t it, that sheep eat little bushes""Yes, that is true."
"Ah! I am glad!"
I did not understand why it was so important that sheep should eat little bushes. But the little prince added:"Then it follows that they also eat baobabs"I pointed out to the little prince that baobabs were not little bushes, but, on the contrary, trees as big as castles; and that even if he took a whole herd of elephants away with him, the herd would not eat up one single baobab.
The idea of the herd of elephants made the little prince laugh.
"We would have to put them one on top of the other," he said.
But he made a wise comment:
"Before they grow so big, the baobabs start out by being little.""That is strictly correct," I said. "But why do you want the sheep to eat the little baobabs"He answered me at once, "Oh, come, come!", as if he were speaking of something that was self-evident. And I was obliged to make a great mental effort to solve this problem, without any assistance.
Indeed, as I learned, there were on the planet where the little prince lived— as on all planets— good plants and bad plants. In consequence, there were good seeds from good plants, and bad seeds from bad plants. But seeds are invisible.
They sleep deep in the heart of the earth’s darkness, until some one among them is seized with the desire to awaken. Then this little seed will stretch itself and begin— timidly at first— to push a charming little sprig inoffensively upward toward the sun.
If it is only a sprout of radish or the sprig of a rose-bush, one would let it grow wherever it might wish. But when it is a bad plant, one must destroy it as soon as possible, the very first instant that one recognizes it.
Now there were some terrible seeds on the planet that was the home of the little prince; and these were the seeds of the baobab. The soil of that planet was infested with them.
A baobab is something you will never, never be able to get rid of if you attend to it too late. It spreads over the entire planet. It bores clear through it 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," the little prince said to me later on. "When you’ve finished your own toilet in the morning, then it is time to attend to the toilet of your planet, just so, with the greatest care. You must see to it that you pull up regularly all the baobabs, at the very first moment when they can be distinguished from the rosebushes which they resemble so closely in their earliest youth. It is very tedious work," the little prince added, "but very easy."And one day he said to me: "You ought to make a beautiful drawing, so that the children where you live can see exactly how all this is. That would be very useful to them if they were to travel some day. Sometimes," he added, "there is no harm in putting off a piece of work until another day.
But when it is a matter of baobabs, that always means a catastrophe. I knew a planet that was inhabited by a lazy man. He neglected three little bushes..."So, as the little prince described it to me, I have made a drawing of that planet. I do not much like to take the tone of a moralist. But the danger of the baobabs is so little understood, and such considerable risks would be run by anyone who might get lost on an asteroid, that for once I am breaking through my reserve. "Children," I say plainly, "watch out for the baobabs!"My friends, like myself, have been skirting this danger for a long time, without ever knowing it; and so it is for them that I have worked so hard over this drawing. The lesson which I pass on by this means is worth all the trouble it has cost me.
Perhaps you will ask me, "Why are there no other drawing in this book as magnificent and impressive as this drawing of the baobabs"The reply is simple. I have tried. But with the others I have not been successful. When I made the drawing of the baobabs I was carried beyond myself by the inspiring force of urgent necessity.
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