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.
因为在小王子的星球上,有些非常可骇的种子……就是猴面包树的种子,这类种子多得成灾,它们会入侵全部星球的地盘。而一棵猴面包树苗,假定你拔得太迟,就再也没法把它断根掉。它会占有全部星球。它会长出很多树根。如果星球很小,而猴面包树很多,它就把全部星球搞得支离破裂。
我对小王子指出说,猴面包树可不是甚么小灌木,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。
这一次,我还要再次感激那只绵羊,因为小王子仿佛是非常担忧地问我道:“绵羊吃矮小的灌木,这是真的吗?”
然后,他又给出了一个非常聪敏的批评:“猴面包树在长大之前,开端也是小小的。”
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.