My Thailand Diary

Feed on: Posts; Comments

A book I read…

Feb 2nd, 2006 by Lillian

A friend of mine gave me a book called ‘Der kleine Prinz’ written by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. The copy I got was published in 1950. Its an old book and most of the pages are a little yellow. Beautiful.
What a lovely story! Its a children’s book writen for adults.
A little prince arrives on planet earth and meets a little boy who is lost in the desert. I’ll copy a very small part of the story which I really like.
”Die grossen Leute haben eine Vorliebe für Zahlen. Wenn ihr ihnen von einem neuen Freund erzählt, befragen sie euch nie über das Wesentliche. Sie fragen euch nie: Wie ist der Klang seiner Stimm? Welche Spiele liebt er am meisten? Sammelt er Schmetterlinge? Sie Fragen euch: Wie alt ist er? Wie viele Brüder hat er? Wieviel wiegt er? Wieviel verdient sein Vater? Dann erst glaluben sie,ihn zu kennen.”
(Big people love numbers. When you tell them about a new friend, they never ask about the essential thing. They never ask, what does his voice sound like? What does he like playing the most? Does he collect butterflies? They ask you: how old is he? How many brothers does he have? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father earn? And then they think they know him.)

I hope we ‘big people’ never lose the ability to see the more important things !!
If you want more info about the book.. go here

Posted in Everyday Life in Thailand | 9 Comments

9 Responses to “A book I read…”

on 02 Feb 2006 at 7:24 am1saeng

i love that book too! lol
the little prince who laughs, who has golden hair and who refuses to answer questions..
on 02 Feb 2006 at 1:14 pm2anna

hallo lillian!
hast du gewusst, dass es “der kleine prinz” seit kurzem auch auf berndeutsch gibt? Es heisst “dr chly prinz” und wurde von lorenz pauli übersetzt.
on 02 Feb 2006 at 1:39 pm3Mum

You read and loved this book even as a child. It was about the same time as you discovered the Narnia Books. Now it’s been published even Swiss German! It ’s a lovely, precious story.
on 02 Feb 2006 at 4:30 pm4christina

I love that book too. It’s been translated into so many different language and seems to be universally popular. Thanks for reminding me of it - I think I’d like to read it to my kids.
on 02 Feb 2006 at 5:47 pm5swissmiss

I just bought this is Swiss German for the Boy! Der Chly Prinz…
on 03 Feb 2006 at 2:09 am6Richard

Your mother reads your blog? How wonderful …
on 03 Feb 2006 at 4:25 am7lydia

Hello, lillian. thankyou for visiting my blog. the little prince; i don’t think i ever heard of it before i came to germany. enjoy anyway. i have put a link on my blog to you because i definately want to come back regularly.
on 04 Feb 2006 at 12:49 am8Jayred

“The Little Prince” is a classic; it is a must-read. Got to read this book in high school while I was still in Manila.

I heard that somebody in CH came up with a Swiss German version of this book last year. Now that is something I will not buy — well, unless I want to torture myself.
on 04 Feb 2006 at 3:29 am9Elemmaciltur

You know…I have that book in its original, i.e. French, for years and years now…and never got further than 30 pages….*sigh* Maybe I should restart again.

‘Dessine-moi un mouton!’