英中英52_this is a matter of so much importance_林_乐明无念

[ Chapter 27 ] - the narrator'safterthoughts And now six years have already gone by...I have never yet told this story. The companions who met me on my returnwere well content to see me alive. I was sad, but I told them: "I amtired."Now my sorrow is comforted a little. That is to say-- not entirely. But Iknow that he did go back to his planet, because I did not find his body atdaybreak. It was not such a heavy body... and at night I love to listen to thestars. It is like five hundred million little bells...But there is one extraordinary thing... when I drew the muzzle for thelittle prince, I forgot to add the leather strap to it. He will never have beenable to fasten it on his sheep. So now I keep wondering: what is happening onhis planet? Perhaps the sheep has eaten the flower...At one time I say to myself: "Surely not! The little prince shuts hisflower under her glass globe every night, and he watches over his sheep verycarefully..." Then I am happy. And there is sweetness in the laughter of allthe stars.But at another time I say to myself: "At some moment or other one isabsent-minded, and that is enough! On some one evening he forgot the glassglobe, or the sheep got out, without making any noise, in the night..."And then the little bells are changed to tears...Here, then, is a great mystery. For you who also love the little prince,and for me, nothing in the universe can be the same if somewhere, we do notknow where, a sheep that we never saw has-- yes or no?-- eaten a rose...Look up at the sky. Ask yourselves: is it yes or no? Has the sheep eatenthe flower? And you will see how everything changes...Andno grown-up will ever understand that this is a matter of so much importance!