「啊！一個殿下。」國王看見小王子時叫道。
小王子自問道：「他怎麼認識我，他從來沒見過我呀！」
他不曉得這個世界對國王來說，是很簡單的。所有的人都是他的殿下。
這個以當國王為傲的國王說：「靠近點，讓我把你看清楚點。」
小王子四下張望找尋可以坐下的地方，但整個行星都被國王那件華麗的貂皮長袍給塞滿了。
國王對他說：「在國王面前打呵欠是不禮貌的，我不允許你這麼做。」
「我沒有辦法克制，我經歷了漫長的旅途，沒有睡覺…」小王子尷尬地說。
國王說：「那麼，我命令你打呵欠。我好幾年沒看人家打呵欠了，對我來說打哈欠是新奇的事。來啊！現在打呵欠，這是命令。」
「這樣讓我很難為情...我沒辦法打呵欠了...」小王子不好意思地喃喃說。
「哼！哼！」國王說：「那我...我命令你有時打一下呵欠，有時...」他氣急敗壞，顯得有些腦火。
因為國王基本的堅持就是他的權威要被尊敬，他是一個專制的君主，不能忍受任何不服從，不過他是個好人，所以他的命令是合理的。
他常舉例說：「假如我命令一個人變成一隻海鳥，那位人不從，那不是他的錯而是我的錯。」
「我可以坐下嗎？」小王子羞怯的問。
「我命令你坐下。」國王回答他，並威風凜凜地拉攏那件貂皮長袍。
可是小王子不明白，這個星球這麼小，這個國王能統治些什麼呢？他說：「陛下...可以懇請您原諒，讓我問您一個問題嗎？」
「我命令你問我問題。」國王急忙的說。
「陛下...你統治什麼呢？」
「一切。」國王既裝嚴又簡潔地回答。
「一切？」小王子說。
國王用手比著他的行星、其他的行星和所有的星球。
「這一切？」小王子說。
「這一切...」國王回答。
因為他的統治不僅是絕對專制的，同時也是整個宇宙通用的。
「那些星球服從你嗎？」
「當然囉！」國王回答他：「他們不敢怠慢，我不能忍受不服從。」
這樣大的權力讓小王子感到驚嘆。如果他擁有這樣的權力，他就可以在一天裡看四十四次、或七十二次、甚至是一百次或兩百次落日，而且不用挪動椅子..小王子感到有點難過，因為他想起被他遺棄的星球，於是他鼓起勇氣向國王懇求一件事。小王子說：「我很想看落日...可以讓我如願以償...讓太陽下山...」
「假如我命令一位人像蝴蝶一樣從這朵花飛到另一朵花，或寫一齣悲劇，或變成一隻海鳥，假如那個人收到命令但不服從的話，哪錯的是他還是我？」
「這是你的錯。」小王子肯定的說。
「正是如此！」國王回答：「我們不該要求別人做不到的事，權威應建立在道理之上。如果你命令你的人民去跳海，他們就會造反，我有要求別人服從的權力，因為我的命令是合理的。」
「那麼我的落日呢？」小王子提醒國王。
「你將會有你的落日，我會命令他。但是根據我統轄的科學，要等到時機成熟時。」
「什麼時候呢？」小王子問道。
「哼！哼！」國王首先查了查那本很厚的日曆之後答說：「哼！哼！關於這個...關於...在今天晚上大約七點四十分的時候！你就能看到這個命令被服從。」
小王子打了呵欠。他惋惜自己失去的落日，然後也開始覺得有點不耐煩。
他對國王說：「我在不能在這裡做什麼，我要繼續上路了。」
「不要走。」國王說。一個為擁有部長而驕傲的國王說：「不要走，我可以任命你做部長！」
「什麼部長？」
「部......司法部長！」
「但是這裡沒有人可以審判呀！」
國王說：「誰曉得。我還沒有巡視過我的王國呢。我太老了，這裡沒有馬車，而步行又太疲累。」
「哦！但我已經看過了。」小王子一邊說著，一邊對行星的另一頭多望了一眼。「那邊跟這邊一樣，一個人也沒有...」
國王回答他說：「那你可以審判你自己。這是所有事情當中最困難的，審判自己比審判別人要還困難得多，假如你能成功的審判自己，那麼你就是真正有智慧的人。」
小王子說：「是的，但我我可以在任何地方審判我自己，我不需要住在這個星球。」
「哼！哼！」國王說：「在我的星球上的某個地方有一隻年老的老鼠。我在晚上聽過牠的聲音，你可以審判這隻老鼠，隨時可以判他死刑，這樣牠的生命就操縱在你的審判上。但是你得每次赦免牠，因為我們只有一隻老鼠而已。」
「我，」小王子回答：「我不喜歡譴責任何人至死，而且現在我覺得我該繼續上路了。」
「不！」國王說。
可是小王子已經準備好要啟程了，他無意讓國王傷心，於是他說：「假如陛下要我立刻服從的話，陛下可以給我一個合理的命令。比方說，陛下可以命令我在一分鐘之內離開...」
國王沒有回答，小王子猶豫了一會兒，然後嘆了一口氣，走了。
「我任命你做我的大使。」國王趕忙大聲地叫道，同時也擺出威風凜凜的樣子。
「大人們很奇怪。」小王子一邊繼續他的旅程，一邊喃喃自語說道。
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, without 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 must 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 make 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.
註：《小王子》是法國童話，法文原書名為Le Petit Prince，作者是聖艾修伯里，1943年在紐約出版，被譯成超過 180種語言，銷售量超過8千萬冊，還有拍成電影和動畫片、改編成話劇和音樂劇演出。
圖片出處：http://www.odaha.com
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