Chapter 15

The sixth planet was ten times larger than the last one. It was inhabited by an old gentleman who wrote voluminous books.

“Oh, look! Here is an explorer!” he exclaimed to himself when he saw the little prince coming.

The little prince sat down on the table and panted a little. He had already traveled so much and so far!

“Where do you come from?” the old gentleman said to him.

“What is that big book?” said the little prince. “What are you doing?”

“I am a geographer,” the old gentleman said to him.

“What is a geographer?” asked the little prince.

“A geographer is a scholar who knows the location of all the seas, rivers, towns, mountains, and deserts.”

“That is very interesting,” said the little prince. “Here at last is a man who has a real profession!” And he cast a look around him at the planet of the geographer. It was the most magnificent and stately planet that he had ever seen.

“Your planet is very beautiful,” he said. “Has it any oceans?”

“I couldn’t tell you,” said the geographer.

“Ah!” The little prince was disappointed. “Has it any mountains?”

“I couldn’t tell you,” said the geographer.

“And towns, and rivers, and deserts?”

“I couldn’t tell you that, either.”

“But you are a geographer!”

“Exactly,” the geographer said. “But I am not an explorer. I haven’t a single explorer on my planet. It is not the geographer who goes out to count the towns, the rivers, the mountains, the seas, the oceans, and the deserts. The geographer is much too important to go loafing about. He does not leave his desk. But he receives the explorers in his study. He asks them questions, and he notes down what they recall of their travels. And if the recollections of any one among them seem interesting to him, the geographer orders an inquiry into that explorer’s moral character.”

“Why is that?”

“Because an explorer who told lies would bring disaster on the books of the geographer. So would an explorer who drank too much.”

“Why is that?” asked the little prince.

“Because intoxicated men see double. Then the geographer would note down two mountains in a place where there was only one.”

“I know some one,” said the little prince, “who would make a bad explorer.”

“That is possible. Then, when the moral character of the explorer is shown to be good, an inquiry is ordered into his discovery.”

“One goes to see it?”

“No. That would be too complicated. But one requires the explorer to furnish proofs. For example, if the discovery in question is that of a large mountain, one requires that large stones be brought back from it.”

The geographer was suddenly stirred to excitement.

“But you−− you come from far away! You are an explorer! You shall describe your planet to me!”

And, having opened his big register, the geographer sharpened his pencil. The recitals of explorers are put down first in pencil. One waits until the explorer has furnished proofs, before putting them down in ink.

“Well?” said the geographer expectantly.

“Oh, where I live,” said the little prince, “it is not very interesting. It is all so small. I have three volcanoes. Two volcanoes are active and the other is extinct. But one never knows.”

“One never knows,” said the geographer.

“I have also a flower.”

“We do not record flowers,” said the geographer.

“Why is that? The flower is the most beautiful thing on my planet!”

“We do not record them,” said the geographer, “because they are ephemeral.”

“What does that mean−− ‘ephemeral’?”

“Geographies,” said the geographer, “are the books which, of all books, are most concerned with matters of consequence. They never become old−fashioned. It is very rarely that a mountain changes its position. It is very rarely that an ocean empties itself of its waters. We write of eternal things.”

“But extinct volcanoes may come to life again,” the little prince interrupted.

“What does that mean−− ‘ephemeral’?”

“Whether volcanoes are extinct or alive, it comes to the same thing for us,” said the geographer. “The thing that matters to us is the mountain. It does not change.”

“But what does that mean−− ‘ephemeral’?” repeated the little prince, who never in his life had let go of a question, once he had asked it.

“It means, ‘which is in danger of speedy disappearance.’”

“Is my flower in danger of speedy disappearance?”

“Certainly it is.”

“My flower is ephemeral,” the little prince said to himself, “and she has only four thorns to defend herself against the world. And I have left her on my planet, all alone!”

That was his first moment of regret. But he took courage once more.

“What place would you advise me to visit now?” he asked.

“The planet Earth,” replied the geographer. “It has a good reputation.”

And the little prince went away, thinking of his flower.

Appendix

小王子来到的第 6 个星球，比上一个星球大 10 倍。这个星球上住着一位老绅士。

老绅士在写一本巨大而厚重的书。

老绅士欢迎小王子的到来，解释说，他是一个地理学家，他的书上记录着世界上所有星球的情况。

小王子问，你的星球上有海洋吗？

老绅士说不知道。

河流？大山？植物？动物？

老绅士通通不知道。

老绅士说，他是地理学家，不是冒险者，不在乎星球上有些什么，也没有时间去数这个星球上有多少大山、有多少河流。

当老绅士遇到冒险者或者旅行者，老绅士就会询问他们经过的星球的情况。为了验证真假，老绅士还会让他们拿出证明来看。同样的，小王子也是旅行者，老绅士一视同仁的问小王子星球的情况。

小王子说，他的星球上有 3 座火山，2 座活火山，1 座死火山。他的星球上还有 1 朵花。

老绅士说，他对火山的情况感兴趣，对花没兴趣，因为花是短暂的。

小王子没有明白，花是短暂的吗，死火山也有可能变成活火山。

老绅士说，不管火山是死是活，它都是山。山川和河流的变化是缓慢的，花的变化很快，可能很快就会消失

花很快就会消失？

小王子自言自语道，我的花是短暂的！它只有四根刺来保护自己，而且可能很快就会消失，我却离开了我的星球，把它独单地留在了那里。小王子感到了愧疚。

小王子又鼓起勇气，问老绅士，有什么地方你建议我去参观吗？

地球有很好的声誉，你可以去那里。

然后小王子带着对花的思念，离开了星球。