Friday, October 15, 2010

Voice of the Heart

People need to listen to their hearts which can hardly be heard except when they are alone and stay still and calm.  Strictly speaking, it’s not solitary time. It is time spent with the universe, with the ultimate, with the Mother Nature – in a word, with God.  I believe that God is living in our hearts and talking to us all the time. The question is not whether He speaks to us; the question is instead whether we listen.



Christians say that when people get closer to God, they get closer to each other. In other words, when people get closer to their own hearts, they get closer to each other; when people can enjoy solitary time better, they can enjoy companion better; when people know how to take care of their own souls, they know better how to take care of each other’s souls.



Amazingly, people can actually enjoy solitary time together. Each of you may be reading a book, or sitting on the lawn and staring at the sky. You are together, and you don’t have any verbal communications, but after a while, you look at each other, and it seems that you just had a deep and satisfying communication.  The best communication is not by words. It is by souls.  It is a communion.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

What Do Recycling Symbols on Plastics Mean?

经常有人问某种容器能不能泡茶,或者用微波炉加热。如果是玻璃或者陶瓷容器,泡茶加热当然没问题。可如果是塑料容器呢?
其实,瓶装饮料和矿泉水塑料瓶底部,或者其他塑料制品的底部常有如下所示的“循环”标志。这些数字是通知我们制成饮料瓶的化学物品,从而我们也可以知道是否能用这些容器放心地加热。

1 聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇脂



2 高密度聚乙烯




3 聚氯乙烯



4 低密度聚乙烯
5 聚丙烯



6 聚苯乙烯



7 其它所有未列出的树脂和混合料


示例:
“1”代表PET (聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯)
一般的矿泉水、碳酸饮料和功能饮料瓶都用这一材质。其耐热至70℃易变型长时间重复使用可能会释放出有害物质。高温天气尽量不要把矿泉水长期寄存在露天或车里,也不要直接把开水冲进矿泉水歧骘。

“2”代表HDPE (高密度聚乙烯)


常见白铯药瓶、清洁用品、沐浴产品,不要循环使用。

“3”代表PVC (聚氯乙烯)

常见雨衣、建材、塑料膜、塑料盒等。可塑性优良,价钱廉价。只能耐热81℃,高温时容易有不好的物质产生,很少被用于食品苞装。

“4”代表LDPE (低密度聚乙烯)

目前市场上的保鲜膜、塑料膜等多用这种材质,但它耐热性不强,建议大家在将食物放入微波炉加热前,取下苞裹着的保鲜膜。


“5”代表PP (聚丙烯)
微波炉餐盒采纳这种材质制成,耐130℃高温,透明度差,这是可以放进微波炉的塑料盒,在小心清洁河重复使用。

“6” 代表PS (聚苯乙烯)


有些餐盒盒体以5号PP制造,但盒盖却以6号PS(聚苯乙烯)制造,PS透明度好,但不耐高温,所以不能与盒体一并放进微波炉。

“7” 其它所有未列出的树脂和混合料

总结:如果在塑料容器上看到数字“5”或者“PP”,放心的加热吧。如果是其他标志,小心了,加热后可能产生有毒物质...

English References:

What Do Recycling Symbols on Plastics Mean?

Sometimes it seems like modern America is one colossal plastic palace. The versatile material is in our cars, toys, packaging, clothing, home goods, food utensils, medical devices and so much more. It is also littering our streets, clogging our waterways and choking marine life. Many plastics can be readily recycled, but how do consumers make sense of all the different types and rules?

Number 1 Plastics
PET or PETE (polyethylene terephthalate)
Found in: Soft drink, water and beer bottles; mouthwash bottles; peanut butter containers; salad dressing and vegetable oil containers; ovenable food trays.
Recycling: Picked up through most curbside recycling programs.
Recycled into: Polar fleece, fiber, tote bags, furniture, carpet, paneling, straps, (occasionally) new containers
PET plastic is the most common for single-use bottled beverages, because it is inexpensive, lightweight and easy to recycle. It poses low risk of leaching breakdown products. Recycling rates remain relatively low (around 20%), though the material is in high demand by remanufacturers.

Number 2 Plastics 
HDPE (high density polyethylene)
Found in: Milk jugs, juice bottles; bleach, detergent and household cleaner bottles; shampoo bottles; some trash and shopping bags; motor oil bottles; butter and yogurt tubs; cereal box liners
Recycling: Picked up through most curbside recycling programs, although some allow only those containers with necks.
Recycled into: Laundry detergent bottles, oil bottles, pens, recycling containers, floor tile, drainage pipe, lumber, benches, doghouses, picnic tables, fencing
HDPE is a versatile plastic with many uses, especially for packaging. It carries low risk of leaching and is readily recyclable into many goods.


Number 3 Plastics
V (Vinyl) or PVC
Found in: Window cleaner and detergent bottles, shampoo bottles, cooking oil bottles, clear food packaging, wire jacketing, medical equipment, siding, windows, piping
Recycling: Rarely recycled; accepted by some plastic lumber makers.
Recycled into: Decks, paneling, mudflaps, roadway gutters, flooring, cables, speed bumps, mats
PVC is tough and weathers well, so it is commonly used for piping, siding and similar applications. PVC contains chlorine, so its manufacture can release highly dangerous dioxins. If you must cook with PVC, don't let the plastic touch food. Also never burn PVC, because it releases toxins.


Number 4 Plastics 
LDPE (low density polyethylene)
Found in: Squeezable bottles; bread, frozen food, dry cleaning and shopping bags; tote bags; clothing; furniture; carpet
Recycling: LDPE is not often recycled through curbside programs, but some communities will accept it. Plastic shopping bags can be returned to many stores for recycling.
Recycled into: Trash can liners and cans, compost bins, shipping envelopes, paneling, lumber, landscaping ties, floor tile
LDPE is a flexible plastic with many applications. Historically it has not been accepted through most American curbside recycling programs, but more and more communities are starting to accept it.


Number 5 Plastics 
PP (polypropylene)
Found in: Some yogurt containers, syrup bottles, ketchup bottles, caps, straws, medicine bottles
Recycling: Number 5 plastics can be recycled through some curbside programs.
Recycled into: Signal lights, battery cables, brooms, brushes, auto battery cases, ice scrapers, landscape borders, bicycle racks, rakes, bins, pallets, trays
Polypropylene has a high melting point, and so is often chosen for containers that must accept hot liquid. It is gradually becoming more accepted by recyclers.



Number 6 Plastics
PS (polystyrene)
Found in: Disposable plates and cups, meat trays, egg cartons, carry-out containers, aspirin bottles, compact disc cases
Recycling: Number 6 plastics can be recycled through some curbside programs.
Recycled into: Insulation, light switch plates, egg cartons, vents, rulers, foam packing, carry-out containers
Polystyrene can be made into rigid or foam products -- in the latter case it is popularly known as the trademark Styrofoam. Evidence suggests polystyrene can leach potential toxins into foods. The material was long on environmentalists' hit lists for dispersing widely across the landscape, and for being notoriously difficult to recycle. Most places still don't accept it, though it is gradually gaining traction.


Number 7 Plastics
Miscellaneous
Found in: Three- and five-gallon water bottles, 'bullet-proof' materials, sunglasses, DVDs, iPod and computer cases, signs and displays, certain food containers, nylon
Recycling: Number 7 plastics have traditionally not been recycled, though some curbside programs now take them.
Recycled into: Plastic lumber, custom-made products
A wide variety of plastic resins that don't fit into the previous categories are lumped into number 7. A few are even made from plants (polyactide) and are compostable. Polycarbonate is number 7, and is the hard plastic that has parents worried these days, after studies have shown it can leach potential hormone disruptors.

Friday, October 8, 2010

『转』生活在此岸,天堂在彼岸

    中庸属于生活,但它无法抵达彼岸,而生命中动人心魄的美,多在彼岸。
人应该同时拥有此岸与彼岸。
     只有彼岸,一个人就难以得到救赎,就只剩下疯狂,心就像会飞的陀螺,越转越高,最后就只有进入真实的天堂——无数的艺术家、文学家乃至普通的传奇的人最后选择了自杀。
     只有此岸,人生就只剩下活着。在拥有彼岸的人看来,这样的人生乏味至极可有可无,生如同死,活过如同没有。
     单纯、执著、投入式的疯狂……属于彼岸;
     中庸、向大家看齐、不冒尖……属于此岸。
     它们是两个世界,两套规则。
     生命的悖论是,最好要同时拥有此岸与彼岸。
     此岸让你脚踩大地,就像大树拥抱土地母亲;彼岸则让你直入苍穹,看到此岸不可能看到的美与善。
      守在此岸最简单,放弃就是,放弃梦想,放弃个性,放弃单纯……以此为代价融入到一个看似实在,实际无比缥缈的现实世界里。人群就是自我,自我就是大众,随波逐流,认可大家都认可的,追求大家都追求的,一切变得非常简单。
      进入彼岸也不难,坚持就是,坚持梦想,坚持个性,坚持单纯……最终进入一个痛苦的孤独世界,但你却站在苍穹中看到了美,看到了此岸无法抵达也不可能想象出来的世界。
     简单地守在此岸,最后会得出一个答案:人生的真谛在于平凡。
     简单地进入彼岸,最后会懂得这一句话:只有偏执狂才能生存。
     但前者实际上是一种自欺,后者则会让你进入一种无可救药的孤独,需要救赎。
      怎样才能得到救赎?
     是关系,是执著的你跳出偏执狂的、自我中心的茧,爱这个世界,爱你身边的人,爱所有的人,和他们——哪怕是那些守在此岸的人——建立平等和谐的关系。
     当然,最重要的救赎是,找到爱你的人。找到同样的,进入彼岸并坚持在彼岸的人。你们可能会是知己,可能会是恋人,但一定会是同志。你们相互索取,又相互不吝啬地给予……
     如果找到了这些关系,进入彼岸的人就得到了救赎,他虽然也拥有了此岸,但这个此岸与没有抵达过彼岸的人的此岸是完全不同的。
       顺便说下成熟。
    彼岸的成熟是人性的、心灵的成熟;
    此岸的成熟就是掌握规则,掌握活着的规则,尤其是那些真正发挥作用的潜规则。

Thursday, September 30, 2010

“All I could think about was her. Was she thinking about me?”

Finally got a chance to watch Moulin Rouge.  Touching story, wonderful music, and a powerful theme: the greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and to be loved in return.
The whole movie centers around love. But what is love? How can you really tell whether you are in love or not? When can you confidently claim that you love someone?
Satine – The Courtesan
Satine told Christian that she was in love with him after he sang the song for her. But was she truly in love? We can hardly know. Probably Satine herself didn’t even know. As she said, she was a courtesan. She was paid to make men believe what they want to believe. For her, love was no more than a word, a word that she should say in appropriate time. Her job determined that she could not have her own feeling. She could only do what she was supposed to do.
In this sense, Christian actually gave her a new life, causing her to ponder upon what love is, what life is about, and to respect her own feeling.
Christian – Born to Love
“Above all things I believe in love. Love is life oxygen. Love lifts us up where we belong. All you need is love.”
It seems that love is the meaning of Christian’s life. He believes in love, and it is obvious that Christian hopelessly fell in love with Satine after the meeting in the elephant. On that night, he was trying focus on writing, but he could not focus.
“All I can think about is her. Is she thinking about me?”
Without knowing it, he’d fallen in love. When love knocks your door, it’s hard for you to resist.
Falling in Love
People always ask for signs of falling in love. Maybe this is one sign: you just cannot get her out of your mind, and every thought is a thought of her.  You become a guesser of his mind: What is he thinking? Is he thinking about me?
For some untold reason, you sense that the other person has similar thoughts and feeling. Most of the time, you are so sure that you two are meant for each other, that her desire for you is as strong as yours for her. But sometimes, you are so uncertain. The back-and-forth thought keeps haunting in your mind, and you are like picking up petals of a flower and iterating “she loves me; she loves me not”.
This ambivalent feeling is torturing. But surprisingly, you enjoy its torture, and you cannot resist it. You get addicted to it.
Soul Mate
In The Symposium, Plato mentioned that in primal times, people had doubled bodies, who were half man and half woman. These original people were very powerful, so powerful that it causes Zeus’ concerns.  So Zeus cripples them by chopping them in half, separating the two bodies. Ever since that time, people run around looking for their other half because they are really trying to recover their primal state of wholeness.
I like this story.  Similar to Buddhist philosophy of karma, the story adds some romance to our life. It "romantically" explains why people often feel incomplete and have this deep desire to find “the other half”.  This searching process is so long and tedious that we start to become frustrated, and as a coping mechanism, we force ourselves to get used to this incompleteness.
Until one day, the other half suddenly appears in your life……The presence of the other half reminds you again that you are incomplete. You two may appear to be quite different: different personalities, different lifestyle, and different hobbies. But you don’t know why, you just fall into each other. Maybe the only thing you can say is “I love not because who you are, but because who I am when I’m with you.”  You fall in love not because he is handsome or she smart, but only because you feel complete when you are with her – you actually complete each other: you are two bodies in one soul.
Both of you long for the reunion to make each other complete again; but it is not easy for either of you to take the first step. Both of you case too much about the other half, which is the last thing you want to lose.
This is where the ambivalent feeling happens. It doesn’t happen for everyone you hang out with; It doesn’t happen for everyone you think is cute; It happens only for the one that attracts on the level of souls. Because you can feel in your heart that the other is the one you have been searching, and you are so sure. But we the mortal can never predict what will happen and what are the consequences of our actions, and this uncertainty give rise to doubts in heart. You are so sure and at the same time, you are so uncertain. And you start playing “he loves me; he loves me not” game again and again. Actually, the two of you feel the same ambivalence, and you share the same unsettling feelings.
The adventure
Now here is the dilemma: you can freely flirt with the ones you only feel cute, but you can hardly express your feelings to the one that attracts you on the level of souls. You can hardly do anything other than to bury your feelings.
Maybe God designed us that way: even when we meet our other half, even when we feel the attraction of the souls, we still cannot know it for sure in our mind. It was an easy job for Adam to claim Eve as “bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh” – Eve was the only woman! But for us, it needs a little bit faith.
It is indeed an adventure for us.
Three People in Your Life
“The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.”
It is said that you will meet three people in your life: the one who you love, the one who loves you and the one you spend your life with.
It is a blessing that these three people are one in your life. That’s why in the film it claims that the greatest thing it not only to love, but still need to be loved in return.
But for most people, the three people are different. Maybe that’s the biggest prank that life gives us. Most of the times, however, it is us who let love slip away.
Have You Fallen in Love
You don’t care for being the center of attraction. You don’t care for turning the heads of everyone in the room. But you do want to turn someone’s head. And you do want to be special to someone.
You care too much about her that you want to show your best. But the every thought of showing your best causes you to be nervous and acting awkward. You try our best to hide the awkwardness and maybe you are so good at covering it that no one else can even notice. But in your heart, you know that you are uneasy; and you are uneasy because of her. But at the same time, you feel excited and even feel completed by her. When you are in her presence, you feel satisfied.
So have you fallen in love?
While reading this passage, if someone keeps popping into your mind, then there is no doubt that you have. Go for it, although you don’t know where it goes. It is an adventure that is worth taking.

The stupidest moment in your life may be when you fall in love. But it is better to be acting stupid than never fall in love. You might end up doing a lot of stupid things, but you are a lot closer to finding your love than those masters of dating, who can see through other people, consider them as expendable and know how to manipulate them. For your love, you are willing to be acting stupid.
“We love because it is the only true adventure.”

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Someone's explanation of the Movie Inception

     Every single moment of Inception is a dream. I think that in a couple of years this will become the accepted reading of the film, and differing interpretations will have to be skillfully argued to be even remotely considered. The film makes this clear, and it never holds back the truth from audiences. Some find this idea to be narratively repugnant, since they think that a movie where everything is a dream is a movie without stakes, a movie where the audience is wasting their time.

Except that this is exactly what Nolan is arguing against. The film is a metaphor for the way that Nolan as a director works, and what he's ultimately saying is that the catharsis found in a dream is as real as the catharsis found in a movie is as real as the catharsis found in life. Inception is about making movies, and cinema is the shared dream that truly interests the director.

I believe that Inception is a dream to the point where even the dream-sharing stuff is a dream. Dom Cobb isn't an extractor. He can't go into other people's dreams. He isn't on the run from the Cobol Corporation. At one point he tells himself this, through the voice of Mal, who is a projection of his own subconscious. She asks him how real he thinks his world is, where he's being chased across the globe by faceless corporate goons.

She asks him that in a scene that we all know is a dream, but Inception lets us in on this elsewhere. Michael Caine's character implores Cobb to return to reality, to wake up. During the chase in Mombasa, Cobb tries to escape down an alleyway, and the two buildings between which he's running begin closing in on him - a classic anxiety dream moment. When he finally pulls himself free he finds Ken Watanabe's character waiting for him, against all logic. Except dream logic.

Much is made in the film about totems, items unique to dreamers that can be used to tell when someone is actually awake or asleep. Cobb's totem is a top, which spins endlessly when he's asleep, and the fact that the top stops spinning at many points in the film is claimed by some to be evidence that Cobb is awake during those scenes. The problem here is that the top wasn't always Cobb's totem - he got it from his wife, who killed herself because she believed that they were still living in a dream. There's more than a slim chance that she's right - note that when Cobb remembers her suicide she is, bizarrely, sitting on a ledge opposite the room they rented. You could do the logical gymnastics required to claim that Mal simply rented another room across the alleyway, but the more realistic notion here is that it's a dream, with the gap between the two lovers being a metaphorical one made literal. When Mal jumps she leaves behind the top, and if she was right about the world being a dream, the fact that it spins or doesn't spin is meaningless. It's a dream construct anyway. There's no way to use the top as a proof of reality.
Watching the film with this eye you can see the dream logic unfolding. As is said in the movie, dreams seem real in the moment and it's only when you've woken up that things seem strange. The film's 'reality' sequences are filled with moments that, on retrospect, seem strange or unlikely or unexplained. Even the basics of the dream sharing technology is unbelievably vague, and I don't think that's just because Nolan wants to keep things streamlined. It's because Cobb's unconscious mind is filling it in as he goes along.

There's more, but I would have to watch the film again with a notebook to get all the evidence (all of it in plain sight). The end seems without a doubt to be a dream - from the dreamy way the film is shot and edited once Cobb wakes up on the plane all the way through to him coming home to find his two kids in the exact position and in the exact same clothes that he kept remembering them, it doesn't matter if the top falls, Cobb is dreaming.

That Cobb is dreaming and still finds his catharsis (that he can now look at the face of his kids) is the point. It's important to realize that Inception is a not very thinly-veiled autobiographical look at how Nolan works. In a recent red carpet interview, Leonardo DiCaprio - who was important in helping Nolan get the script to the final stages - compares the movie not to The Matrix or some other mind**** movie but Fellini's 8 1/2. This is probably the second most telling thing DiCaprio said during the publicity tour for the film, with the first being that he based Cobb on Nolan. 8 1/2 is totally autobiographical for Fellini, and it's all about an Italian director trying to overcome his block and make a movie (a science fiction movie, even). It's a film about filmmaking, and so is Inception.

The heist team quite neatly maps to major players in a film production. Cobb is the director while Arthur, the guy who does the research and who sets up the places to sleep, is the producer. Ariadne, the dream architect, is the screenwriter - she creates the world that will be entered. Eames is the actor (this is so obvious that the character sits at an old fashioned mirrored vanity, the type which stage actors would use). Yusuf is the technical guy; remember, the Oscar come from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and it requires a good number of technically minded people to get a movie off the ground. Nolan himself more or less explains this in the latest issue of Film Comment, saying 'There are a lot of striking similarities [between what the team does and the putting on of a major Hollywood movie]. When for instance the team is out on the street they've created, surveying it, that's really identical with what we do on tech scouts before we shoot.'

That leaves two key figures. Saito is the money guy, the big corporate suit who fancies himself a part of the game. And Fischer, the mark, is the audience. Cobb, as a director, takes Fischer through an engaging, stimulating and exciting journey, one that leads him to an understanding about himself. Cobb is the big time movie director (or rather the best version of that - certainly not a Michael Bay) who brings the action, who brings the spectacle, but who also brings the meaning and the humanity and the emotion.

The movies-as-dreams aspect is part of why Inception keeps the dreams so grounded. In the film it's explained that playing with the dream too much alerts the dreamer to the falseness around him; this is just another version of the suspension of disbelief upon which all films hinge. As soon as the audience is pulled out of the movie by some element - an implausible scene, a ludicrous line, a poor performance - it's possible that the cinematic dream spell is broken completely, and they're lost.

As a great director, Cobb is also a great artist, which means that even when he's creating a dream about snowmobile chases, he's bringing something of himself into it. That's Mal. It's the auterist impulse, the need to bring your own interests, obsessions and issues into a movie. It's what the best directors do. It's very telling that Nolan sees this as kind of a problem; I suspect another filmmaker might have cast Mal as the special element that makes Cobb so successful.

Inception is such a big deal because it's what great movies strive to do. You walk out of a great film changed, with new ideas planted in your head, with your neural networks subtly rewired by what you've just seen. On a meta level Inception itself does this, with audiences leaving the theater buzzing about the way it made them feel and perceive. New ideas, new thoughts, new points of view are more lasting a souvenir of a great movie than a ticket stub.

It's possible to view Fischer, the mark, as not the audience but just as the character that is being put through the movie that is the dream. To be honest, I haven't quite solidified my thought on Fischer's place in the allegorical web, but what's important is that the breakthrough that Fischer has in the ski fortress is real. Despite the fact that his father is not there, despite the fact that the pinwheel was never by his father's bedside, the emotions that Fischer experiences are 100 percent genuine. It doesn't matter that the movie you're watching isn't a real story, that it's just highly paid people putting on a show - when a movie moves you, it truly moves you. The tears you cry during Up are totally real, even if absolutely nothing that you see on screen has ever existed in the physical world.

For Cobb there's a deeper meaning to it all. While Cobb doesn't have daddy issues (that we know of), he, like Fischer, is dealing with a loss. He's trying to come to grips with the death of his wife*; Fischer's journey reflects Cobb's while not being a complete point for point reflection. That's important for Nolan, who is making films that have personal components - that talk about things that obviously interest or concern him - but that aren't actually about him. Other filmmakers (Fellini) may make movies that are thinly veiled autobiography, but that's not what Nolan or Cobb are doing. The movies (or dreams) they're putting together reflect what they're going through but aren't easily mapped on to them. Talking to Film Comment, Nolan says he has never been to psychoanalysis. 'I think I use filmmaking for that purpose. I have a passionate relationship to what I do.'

In a lot of ways Inception is a bookend to last summer's Inglorious Basterds. In that film Quentin Tarantino celebrated the ways that cinema could change the world, while in Inception Nolan is examining the ways that cinema, the ultimate shared dream, can change an individual. The entire film is a dream, within the confines of the movie itself, but in a more meta sense it's Nolan's dream. He's dreaming Cobb, and finding his own moments of revelation and resolution, just as Cobb is dreaming Fischer and finding his own catharsis and change.

The whole film being a dream isn't a cop out or a waste of time, but an ultimate expression of the film's themes and meaning. It's all fake. But it's all very, very real. And that's something every single movie lover understands implicitly and completely.

* it's really worth noting that if you accept that the whole movie is a dream that Mal may not be dead. She could have just left Cobb. The mourning that he is experiencing deep inside his mind is no less real if she's alive or dead - he has still lost her.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Excerpts From The Little Prince



You know — one loves the sunset, when one is so sad…
你知道的—当一个人情绪低落的时候,他会格外喜欢看日落……
If someone loves a flower, of which just one single blossom grows in all the millions and millions of stars, it is enough to make him happy just to look at the stars. He can say to himself, "Somewhere, my flower is there…" But if the sheep eats the flower, in one moment all his stars will be darkened… And you think that is not important!
倘若一个人对一朵花情有独钟,而那花在浩瀚的星河中,是独一无二的,那么,他只要仰望繁星点点,就心满意足了。他会喃喃自语:“我的花就在星河的某个角落……”可是,这花一旦被羊吃掉了,一瞬间,所有星星都将随之黯淡无光……那你也认为这不重要吗?


Flowers are so inconsistent! But I was too young to know how to love her…
花总是表里不一,而我太年轻了,不知道该怎样爱护她……
For she did not want him to see her crying. She was such a proud flower…
她其实是不愿意让小王子看到自己哭泣。她曾经是多么高傲的一朵花……
My flower is ephemeral, and she has only four thorns to defend herself against the world. And I have left on my planet, all alone!
我的花生命是短暂的,她只有四根刺可以保护自己,抵御世界,我却将她独自留在我的星球上了!
His flower had told him that she was only one of her kind in all universe. And here were five thousand of them, all alike, in one single garden!
他的花朵曾经告诉他,自己是宇宙间仅有的一种花;可是仅仅在这座花园里,就有五千朵和她一模一样的花!
I thought that I was rich, with a flower that was unique in all the world; and all I had was a common rose. A common rose…
我总以为自己很富有,拥有一朵世上独一无二的花;实际上,我所拥有的不过是一朵普通的玫瑰而已。一朵普通的玫瑰花……



To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world.
对我而言,你只是一个小男孩,和其他成千上万的小男孩没有什么不同。我不需要你。你也不需要我。对你而言,我也和其它成千上万的狐狸并没有差别。但是,假如你驯服了我,我们就彼此需要了。对我而言,你就是举世无双的;对你而言,我也是独一无二的……
The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the color of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat.
麦田和我毫不相干,真令人沮丧。不过,你有金黄色的头发。想想看,如果你驯服了我,那该有多好啊!小麦也是金黄色的,那会使我想起你。我会喜欢听麦田里的风声……
It is your own fault, I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you... but now you are going to cry! Then it has done you no good at all!
这是你的错,我根本无意伤害你,可是你却愿意让我驯服你……可是你现在却想哭!那驯服根本对你毫无好处!
It has done me good, because of the color of the wheat fields. Go and look again at the roses. You will understand now that yours is unique in all the world.
驯服对我是有好处的——因为麦田的颜色。再回头看那些玫瑰花吧!到时你就明白你的玫瑰花仍是举世无双的一朵花。
And now here is my secret, a very simple secret. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eyes.
这是我的一个秘密,再简单不过的秘密:一个人只有用心去看,才能看到真实。事情的真相只用眼睛是看不见的。
It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.
你在你的玫瑰花身上耗费的时间使得你的玫瑰花变得如此重要。
Men have forgotten this truth. But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose…
人们早已忘记了这个道理。可是你不应将它遗忘。你必须永远对自己所驯服的东西负责。你要对你的玫瑰花负责。
Only the children know what they are looking for. They waste their time over a rag doll and it becomes very important to them; and if anybody takes it away from them, they cry…
只有小孩子知道自己在找什么。他们把时间花费在布洋娃娃身上。因此对他们而言,洋娃娃就变得很重要。一旦有人将娃娃拿走,他们就会号啕大哭……
As for me, if I had fifty-three minutes to spend as I liked, I should walk at my leisure toward a spring of fresh water.
如果是我,要是我有五十三分钟可以自由运用,那我会悠哉游哉向一道清泉走去。
The stars are beautiful, because of a flower that cannot be seen.
星星真美,因为有一朵看不见的花。
What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well…
沙漠之所以美丽,是因为在它的某个角落隐藏着一口井……
The house, the stars, the desert – what gives them their beauty is something that is invisible!
古屋、星星和沙漠——赋予它们美丽的是某种看不见的东西……
What moves me so deeply, about this little prince who is sleeping here, is his loyalty to a flower – the image of a rose that shine through his whole being like the flame of a lamp, even when he is asleep…


这个熟睡的小王子最叫我感动的地方是,他对一朵玫瑰的感情——甚至他睡着了,那朵玫瑰花的影子,仍像灯光一样照亮他的生命……
The men where you live, raise five thousand roses in the same garden – and they do not find in it what they are looking for. And yet what they are looking for could be found in one single rose, or in a little water. But eyes are blind. One must look with the heart…
你所居住的星球上的人们,在同一座花园培育了五千朵玫瑰——却无法从中找到他们所要寻找的东西。但是,他们所寻找的,其实是可以从一朵玫瑰花或一滴水中找到的。然而眼睛往往是盲从的。人还是必须用心去看……
All men have the stars, but they are not the same things for different people. For some, who are travelers, the stars are guides. For others they are no more than little lights in the sky. For others, who are scholars, they are problems. For my businessman they were wealth. But all these stars are silent. You – you alone – will have the stars as no one else has them…
每一个人都有自己的星星,但其中的含意却因人而异。对旅人而言,星星是向导;对其他人而言,它们只不过是天际中闪闪发光的小东西而已;对学者而言,星星则是一门待解的难题;对我那位商人来说,它们就是财富。不过,星星本身是沉默的。你——只有你——了解这些星星与众不同的含义……
In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night… You – only you – will have stars that can laugh…
我就在繁星中的一颗上生活。我会站在其中的一颗星星上微笑。当你在夜间仰望天际时,就仿佛每一颗星星都在笑……你——只有你——才能拥有会笑的星星……
And when your sorrow is comforted time soothes all sorrows you will be content that you have known me. You will always be my friend. You will want to laugh with me. And you will sometimes open your window, so, for that pleasure… And your friends will be properly astonished to see you laughing as you look up at the sky! Then you will say to them, "Yes, the stars always make me laugh!"
当你不再感到伤心的时候(时间会冲淡一切伤痛),你就会因认识我而感到心满意足。你是我永远的朋友。将会和我一起欢笑。为了欢乐,你会经常打开窗子……当你的朋友看到你因仰望天空而大笑时,一定会感到莫名其妙!到时候,你可以对他们说:“是的,星星总让我开心而笑!”
And no grown-ups will ever understand that this is a matter of so much importance!
但是,大人们永远也不会了解这件事有多么重要!