"Hum! Hum!" replied the king; and before saying anything else he consulted a bulky almanac. "Hum! Hum! That will be about― about― that will be this evening about twenty minutes to eight. And you will see how well I am obeyed."The little prince yawned. He was regretting his lost sunset. And then, too, he was already beginning to be a little bored.
小王子内疚地摸索道:“我能够坐下吗?”
“统治这统统。”
The king made a gesture, which took in his planet, the other planets, and all the stars.
"Certainly they do," the king said. "They obey instantly. I do not permit insubordination."Such power was a thing for the little prince to marvel at. If he had been master of such complete authority, he would have been able to watch the sunset, not forty-four times in one day, but seventy-two, or even a hundred, or even two hundred times, with out ever having to move his chair. And because he felt a bit sad as he remembered his little planet which he had forsaken, he plucked up his courage to ask the king a favor:"I should like to see a sunset... do me that kindness... Order the sun to set...""If I ordered a general to fly from one flower to another like a butterfly, or to write a tragic drama, or to change himself into a sea bird, and if the general did not carry out the order that he had received, which one of us would be in the wrong" the king demanded. "The general, or myself""You," said the little prince firmly.