It is six years after my meeting with the little prince. When I think about him, I am sad. But I write about the little prince, because I don’t want to forget him. It is sad when you forget a friend. Not everybody has a friend.
This is the reason why I have paper and colours in my hands now. It is difficult to draw for me when I am old. But I want to do it.
I want to make my pictures very good. But I am not sure if I can do it. One picture is OK, but another picture is not very good. I make some mistakes in the size too. Here the little prince is very big. Here he is very small. Maybe the colour of his clothes is not correct. But I try to draw as well as possible.
But sometimes when my picture is not perfect, it is not my mistake. It is the little prince’s mistake. He never explains things to me. Maybe he thinks that I am like him. But unfortunately, I don’t see the sheep in the box.
Every day, new information about the little prince’s planet comes. I also know more and more about his journey to the Earth. The information comes very slowly. The information comes during moments when the little prince thinks about his past.
For example, on the third day, the little prince speaks about a problem with the baobabs. Baobabs are big trees. The conversation about baobabs starts when the little prince asks me a question about the sheep.
“Is it true that sheep eat little trees?”
“Yes. It is true.”
“It is good.”
I don’t understand why it is so important that sheep eat little trees. But the little prince says, “So they also eat baobabs?”
I tell the little prince that baobabs aren’t little trees, “The baobabs are big trees. The baobabs are very big. They are like houses. And, for example, if you put nine big elephants on your planet, these elephants can’t eat one baobab. The baobabs are so big.”
The idea of nine elephants is funny for the little prince. And he laughs, “On my planet, elephants must stand on elephants.”
But then he says something clever, “When the baobabs are young, they are very small.”
“It is true,” I say. “But why is it important that your sheep eats the little baobabs?”
He says, “It is simple. Think about it. It is not very difficult.”
So I start to think about the problems with baobabs. Soon, I have the answer.
meeting – встреча
forget – забывать
reason – причина
sure – уверенный
mistake – ошибка
size – размер
correct – правильный
perfect – идеальный
explain – объяснять
unfortunately – к сожалению
also – также
journey – путешествие
during – во время
past – прошлое
for example – например
third – третий
difficult – сложный
I think that on the little prince’s planet, there are good plants and bad plants. It is normal for all planets. And of course, there are also good seeds of good plants and bad seeds of bad plants. But we can’t see seeds. They are in the ground. But one day, every seed wakes up. Then the seed starts to grow. The seed grows slowly to the sun.
When the plant is very small, you don’t know if the plant is some vegetable or a rose. And you can let the plant grow. But when you see that it is a bad plant, it is important to destroy the plant fast.
It is true that there are bad seeds on the planet of the little prince. They are the seeds of baobabs. The ground of the planet is full of them. If you see a baobab too late, you can’t destroy it. Then the baobab grows over the whole planet. And if the planet is too small, two or three baobabs can destroy the planet.
“It is a question of discipline,” the little prince tells me.
“When I wash my face in the morning and when I put on my clothes, then it is time to clean my planet. It is necessary to pull the baobabs when I see them. Sometimes it isn’t easy because they are similar to roses when they are very young. It is a very boring job, but very easy.”
And one day he says to me, “You can draw a beautiful picture. The picture can show this situation to children. This information can help children when they travel around the universe.
In life, it is sometimes OK to do your work later. But when you do your work with baobabs later, it is always a big problem. I know a planet with a lazy man. Now he has a big problem. He has three big baobabs on his planet. He is not happy.”
And, when the little prince speaks about the planet, I make a picture of this planet.
People know only a little about the problem with baobabs. And it is possible that one day when you are lost on an asteroid, you can have this problem too. I believe that it is important to know that baobabs can be very dangerous for a small planet.
I work so hard on this picture because I want to tell children about the problem which they don’t know.
I also make the picture very big. It is big because the problem with baobabs can be very big.
plant – растение
of course – конечно
seed – семя
wake up – просыпаться
grow – расти
vegetable – овощ
important – важный
destroy – разрушить
full – полный
too – слишком
discipline – дисциплина
put on – надевать
necessary – необходимо
pull – вытаскивать, тянуть
similar – похожий
boring – скучный
travel – путешествовать
universe – Вселенная
later – позже
lazy – ленивый
possible – возможный
dangerous – опасный
hard – усердно, усиленно