There is a core question that perhaps most readers of The Little Prince would ask, “What is the meaning of this book?” To answer this question, the readers must surf into the world of strange planets, stranger professions, roses, snakes, sheep, a fox, a seemingly endless dessert, a lost aviator with a broken fighter plane and elemental loneliness. This novella, to all appearances, is a children’s book from its packaging, treatment and the unmistaken tone of childlike innocence. However, from an existentialist perspective it is an adult book written for children with the hope that their impenetrable wisdom will conquer the world of adults as well. Interpretation of the book can be narrowed down to a singularity, stating, “Only the children know what they are looking for.” There is no doubt that the basic story of this book is made to look simple. But deep in the realm of adult understanding a reader could demand more meaning from the book.
I seldom read translated works. Even if I have to, I read the source text first in order to get a broader narrative understanding. But I broke my own “literary formula” in this case and read The Little Prince in Bangla first. The Bangla translation is done by Anandamayee Majumdar. To put the experience in a simple manner, I can say that reading the translated version of the text has been thoroughly rewarding as it works as a guiding force in reading the original. It feels happy to be wrong!
The protagonist of the book, the little prince, who is a small, blond boy from asteroid B-612 has a chance meeting with a distressed aviator, who’s also the story’s narrator, in the Arabian desert. Left with little food and hope, the man is desperately fixing his plane’s engine. The little prince requests him to draw a sheep; as the aviator obliged, they became friends. The boy reveals to him that he is from a small planet. On his planet he prevents two things from happening: stopping bad seeds from growing and cautiously controlling the baobab tree population. The thing he loved most on his planet was to enjoy sunsets over and over again. This sets a romantic and nostalgic tone to this tale. One day a strange seed from somewhere flies into his plane and grew into a rose plant. The prince submits his head and heart to the rose and is dazzled by her beauty. Then one day he catches the rose lying and all his fascination with her ends abruptly. Disenchanted with love, the little prince decides to leave his planet and goes on to find this world to find the meaning of this universe. Along his way, he visits a number of planets each populated with people having absurd professions. Then he lands on Earth, tells us the story through the narrator, stays for a year then leaves in the most bizarre way with the help of a yellow snake.
In simple prose, the author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry studies loneliness as one of the building blocks of this ever-expanding universe. This book makes us realize that human conflicts involve a lot more than just physical pain and tension as they are also about surviving in isolation, fear and uncertainty. This book is also about understanding modern psyche as echoed in the way Mr Fox expresses his disgust, “Men have no time to understand anything. They buy things all readymade in shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends anymore.” Not only Mr Fox feels these pangs of loneliness in the midst of people, the snake also echoes the same: “feel lonely among people too.” This book is about making humane decisions in the face of crises, just like the little prince cleans the dead volcanoes every day. The Little Prince seeks to show us that grown-ups make the world more complicated than it actually is. It is our human duty to look at and see things “clearly only with the heart”.
The translator has taken great care in translating the original into Bangla. The illustrations, which speak a thousand words, contribute to keeping it close to the original masterpiece. Translating a text and contextualizing it have always been a challenging job for a translator. Anandamayee Majumdar in this regard has done a tremendous job by demonstrating a mastery of prose and emotional engagement. The translator should also be praised for maintaining a concurrent approach between rationalization of literary universals as well as the emotional reach for our readers, especially for our kids. Altogether, reading The Little Prince delivers a fresh breeze of innocence in a world increasingly laden with violence. Kudos to that.
Asif Nawaz teaches English Language and Literature at Central Women’s University.
