如果火山定時清理的話，就會緩慢、穩定地燃燒，而不會噴發，火山的爆發跟煙囪的噴發是一樣的道理。但在地球上，我們顯得太小了，因此沒法去清理那些火山，這也就是為什麼火山帶給我們無止盡的麻煩。
小王子有點沮喪地拔掉一些猢猻樹的幼苗，他認為自己不會再回到這裡了，所以在這星球的最後一個早上，這些熟悉的工作對他來說是很珍貴的，當他最後一次給那朵花澆了水並準備幫她罩在玻璃罩下時，他幾乎忍不住要哭了。
「再見！」他對花說。
但是花沒有回答他。
「再見！」他又說了一次。
那朵花咳起嗽來，但卻不是因為她著了涼。最後她終於對小王子說：「我一向太傻了，請你原諒我，快樂起來吧！」
小王子很驚訝，花竟沒有責備他。他拿著玻璃罩的手停在空中不知所措，他不了解這種平靜的溫柔。
花對小王子說：「是的，我愛你。你一直都不曉得，那是我的錯，不過現在不重要了，可是你也和我一樣傻，試著快樂起來吧...把這個玻璃罩拿開，我不需要它了。」
「但是風...」
「我其實不那麼怕風...夜裡的冷空氣對我是有益的，我是一朵花。」
「但要是動物來了呢...」
「假如我要跟蝴蝶交朋友，我得忍受兩三隻毛毛蟲存在，他們看起來很漂亮。除了蝴蝶或是毛毛蟲之外，誰會來呢？你就要離開了。至於那些大點的動物，我一點也不怕。我有我的刺。」
然後她天真地展示她的四根刺又說：「不要這樣猶豫不決，你已經決定要走，現在就走吧！」
她不想要小王子看到她哭。她是如此驕傲的花...。
I believe that for his escape he took advantage of the migration of a flock of wild birds. On the morning of his departure he put his planet in perfect order. He carefully cleaned out his active volcanoes. He possessed two active volcanoes; and they were very convenient for heating his breakfast in the morning. He also had one volcano that was extinct. But, as he said, "One never knows!" So he cleaned out the extinct volcano, too. If they are well cleaned out, volcanoes burn slowly and steadily, without any eruptions. Volcanic eruptions are like fires in a chimney.
On our earth we are obviously much too small to clean out our volcanoes. That is why they bring no end of trouble upon us.
The little prince also pulled up, with a certain sense of dejection, the last little shoots of the baobabs. He believed that he would never want to return. But on this last morning all these familiar tasks seemed very precious to him. And when he watered the flower for the last time, and prepared to place her under the shelter of her glass globe, he realized that he was very close to tears.
"Goodbye," he said to the flower.
But she made no answer.
"Goodbye," he said again.
The flower coughed. But it was not because she had a cold.
"I have been silly," she said to him, at last. "I ask your forgiveness. Try to be happy . . ."
He was surprised by this absence of reproaches. He stood there all bewildered, the glass globe held arrested in mid-air. He did not understand this quiet sweetness.
"Of course I love you," the flower said to him. "It is my fault that you have not known it all the while. That is of no importance. But you--you have been just as foolish as I. Try to be happy . . . Let the glass globe be. I don't want it any more."
"But the wind--"
"My cold is not so bad as all that . . . The cool night air will do me good. I am a flower."
"But the animals--"
"Well, I must endure the presence of two or three caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies. It seems that they are very beautiful. And if not the butterflies--and the caterpillars--who will call upon me? You will be far away . . . As for the large animals--I am not at all afraid of any of them. I have my claws."
And, naďvely, she showed her four thorns. Then she added:
"Don't linger like this. You have decided to go away. Now go!"
For she did not want him to see her crying. She was such a proud flower.
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。
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