Gábris János

The Return of the Little Prince  

Instead of a Foreword...

Translated by: Petri Péter

     Any one who continues a world-famous piece of art faces a major challenge – whether it is the processing or a continuation of that work. The Little Prince, the everlasting work of Saint-Exupéry, is one of these huge challenges. Especially because anything done with The Little Prince must address both adults and children: one has to find the frequency which the original author was tuned to when writing his book.

      I had to go through many tribulations in a different desert so I can create my own „airplane” so I can go higher again... Perhaps it was during this challenging period that I got closer and closer to the point where the golden-haired boy from the sky also appeared to me. I want to use this long “letter” to inform Antoine De Saint-Exupéry about the boy’s second visit, so he is no longer sad – there, flying high in the sky...

Illustrated by: Óvári F. Rita

Part of the Story               

    It had been a year that he had left his planet, where he left the rose and the three volcanos. On that seventh planet, he encountered many strange things, and also found a few friends. He very often remembered the fox, who he had tamed, the pilot – who was repairing his airplane in the desert...

On Planet B 612, where he was living, nothing changed – only his flower was so sad that she escaped from him.

When, on hearing his steps again, he raised his head, she opened its petals and said, as if nothing had happened:

- Give me something to drink...

The little prince was moved deeply by the fact that the rose did not reproach him for leaving her alone 

for so long. He felt that the rose still needed him and his care. He leaned over the flower, stroked its petals and leaves and began to cry. The small teardrops rolled down his cheeks and fell on the deep red petals of the rose.

- Thank you – said the rose in a husky voice. There is no clearer spring from which you could water me...

Sniffling, the little prince stood up and smiled at the flower through his tears, which stretched itself in the light and perfumed the tiny planet, the size of a house, with a miraculous fragrance. The little prince pulled the drawing made by the pilot out of his pocket. The sheep was crouching in the box, which had holes on its sides, and there was a muzzle beside the box.

The rose became excited by seeing the paper and looked at the little prince enquiringly.

- What did you bring?

    - A box, and the sheep in it.

     - Sheep? It will eat flowers...- said the plant in horror. – Even if I grow thorns against it, they will not protect my petals and leaves.

     The little prince leaned over the flower again and showed her the drawing of the muzzle.

     - Don’t worry, we will put this on its head, which will make it harmless to you. Only leaves of grass and unnecessary baobab tree shoots, which must be removed, can get through the openings of the muzzle. At nights, when I remove the muzzle from it and it may stroll about freely, you will be protected by your glass globe...

   The flower slowly clamed down, and looked at the muzzle in the drawing carefully. Suddenly, she burst into sarcastic laughter.

  - You really are stupid. How will you put the muzzle on the sheep if the leather strap is missing?

     This made the little prince very sad. He has a box with hole on its sides, and his sheep in it. But he cannot release it even if he has a muzzle if he cannot fasten the muzzle to the head of the greedy little creature. And he cannot keep the rose under the globe all day because of his sheep...

     The flower saw that the little prince was grieved by something and was thinking how she could comfort him. But as nothing clever came to its mind, she just said:

    - How was your journey? Tell me...!

     The little prince got his stool, on which he usually gazed at the sunset, dropped on it and thought over the details of his journey. He then began.

- On the first planet, I met a king who reigned over everything but had no subjects and was giving reasonable orders...

He then went through the details of his encounter with the conceited man who recognised one of his admirers and the tippler who was ashamed of his drinking. On the fourth planet, he accidentally met the businessman who wanted to own even the stars and was always making calculations. He then told about the always busy lamplighter, whose planet had one thousand, four hundred and forty sunsets every day. Then came the geographer, who recorded the little prince’s planet in his book, including the three volcanos, but did not care about the rose at all.

- Why didn’t he also record me in his book? – asked the disdainful flower. And what does ephemeral mean?

- That it will sooner or later disappear and not exist any longer – said the little prince sadly, and thought about what his planet would be like without the fragrance of the proud flower, which had four thorns.

- If that is true, said the rose, all the flowers in the world are unnecessary. They cast their fragrance and open their petals to make the lawn more beautiful just in vain...

 The little prince contemplated about the words of the rose, then, after a long silence, said:

 - To me, you will always remain the most important rose in the world, because I devoted so much time to you. I watered you, looked after you, sheltered you behind the screen. But all this does not matter. All roses will remind me of you. Because no matter how ephemeral you are, you will continue to live in me, I will always smell your fragrance, I will see the dewdrops of the dawn glitter on your petals... Then he embraced the flower and began to cry again.

21.           

     The stray dog was running in the front, in the streets of the deserted suburb. The little prince could hardly keep up with it. At the edge of a housing estate, the dog slowed down, then stopped at the entrance of a block and leaned against the door on its hind legs. The door slowly opened. It was the second time that the little boy had been to a multi-storey house, where the floors above one another were connected by stairs. The dog walked upstairs slowly and, finally, stopped at a door. It was silent, and the little prince also thought it better not to speak. The dog nodded towards the door with its head and jumped against it with its side. Then, as if done with its business, ran down the stairs.

After a short while, the door opened, and a little blonde girl of about ten years was standing before the little prince.

- Hi! Is it me that you are looking for?

- Draw me a leather strap – said the little boy.

The little girl looked at him at a loss, then looked around. Seeing that there was no danger around, she beckoned the little prince to follow her. In the safety of the apartment, she said.

- I thought it was about the lost... She stopped in the middle of the sentence and stroked her golden hair. – Well, how can I help you?

- Please draw a leather strap for the muzzle! Otherwise, I cannot let my sheep out of the box. If I did, it would graze my rose, which I would then have to keep under a globe at nights...

- So, is it that important to you?

      - This is why I came to the Earth...

      - To the Earth? – asked the little girl, then carefully measured the little prince with her eyes, and clammed up.

      The little prince took the pilot’s drawing out of his pocket. It showed a box with holes and a muzzle beside it.

     - Is this where you have your sheep? It is time it was let out – and, with that, she took another sheet of paper and began to draw quickly. The little boy was just staring as the wavy lines on the vast white background suddenly came together into a cloud, to which a smaller one joined. In a few minutes, the sheep was ready. The little prince gazed at the drawing for a long time, then smiled.

       - That is exactly how I imagined it to be like! Not sick, not old, not a ram...

      The little girl then began to draw a new muzzle. The lines began to take the shape of something that mostly resembled an elongated cobweb. Then the wide leather strap, which comprised two parts, was put on its open end. The clip was on one side and there were many holes on the other.

     - I drew so many holes so that you can set the muzzle on the sheep’s head. So the strap isn’t too tight or doesn’t fall off its neck...

    - I am sorry – said the little boy suddenly. I forgot something. I also have a spider, which would need some bug so it does not eat my butterflies, which are very important to my flower...

    - Does a spider need bugs? – the little girl raised her eyebrows. Spiders like flies – she said, and took a thick book off the shelf from among the many others. She searched in it for a long time, then stopped at a page.

    - Look... she showed the pictures to the little prince. – These are the flies, choose one of them. The little prince looked at the pictures of insects for a long time, then pointed to one of them.

    - This one, which is green behind its head and has black and yellow stripes on its back, will do. It matches the grass and also matches the spider...

    - It is a hoverfly – the little girl read. Good choice. This fly will also help your rose, kill its tiny pests, and will surely also be good for your spider as it will not tear its web. And her hand began to move over the paper quickly. After a short while, she handed over another finished drawing to the little prince. 

    - These will be very good, thank you for all your efforts – the little boy said gratefully, and looked around more thoroughly after pocketing the four drawings. There were many other pieces of art lying around in the room in a mess. One showed three figures and a strangely shaped tree. He lifted it up and looked at it for a long time...

     - This drawing is nice, but it looks sad to me. As if someone were missing from it... Is this you here? – he pointed to the person standing on one side of the picture.

     - Yes, that’s me... That in the middle is my mom and the one on the other side is my sister. This is our Christmas...

- Christmas? – the little boy asked in amazement.

     - How silly you are, you don’t even know what Christmas is – the little girl giggled. Then she continued: - The celebration of love, when we decorate the pine tree and give each other some present... 

      - I don’t understand – said the little prince. Why is there a need for any present if love is the most beautiful decoration, and that must be put not on the tree but on our heart? Then it is always Christmas on my planet, because I love my rose, my sheep, my spider, the volcanos and the butterflies are important to me. I love each of them for some reason...

The little girl thought for a long time about what she had heard and nodded sadly. – You may be right. It must be good to live in a place where you may love everyone and get the same in return...

      - When I first visited here, I didn’t know anyone. Then I made friends with the pilot, the fox, the snake. Now I first met the scorpion. I found true friends again in the beggar, the writer, the stray dog, and now... Don’t you have a friend? – he asked the little girl abruptly.

      - No – she replied, and her face became stern. – You know, others can’t stand meeting someone who knows more and wants more than they do. If they need me, they tolerate me – otherwise, they exclude me. It is really hard to find a real friend, who accepts me the way I am... with all my faults and values...

    - I have met many strange grownups – said the little prince. – Among them, the ones are rare who can see with their heart and see what is essential behind the face. Who can take delight in what is beautiful, without any interest, and can share everything they have with who is important to them... There were a few such people. However, I don’t know the names of any of them. Only the dog asked me to name it – but I like its previous name so much that I didn’t have the heart to change it.

- What was the dog’s name? – the little girl asked, excited.

- Hobbly – answered the little boy, - he escaped from its previous masters because he was afraid that the mother and the two daughters would not have enough money left for food because he was also there...

      - Hobbly... – repeated the little girl in a whisper, and burst into tears. Then she asked, sobbing:  - Was it that dog who led you here, who knocked at the door? It was, wasn’t it? Where is he? 

- Yes, it was with the dog that I came here – answered the little prince with a sinking heart. It ran away after it had knocked at the door. 

As he was staring at the blonde little girl, whose eyes were in tears, he realised that there was nothing more important in the world than comforting her. Because the dog was as important to her as the rose was to him...

- I will find and bring Hobbly back to you. It can’t be too far – he said and stroked the little girl’s hair. She stopped sipping, and her tear-soaked face was brightened by her hopeful smile.

- Can you really help?

The little prince nodded, then said.

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