I had thus l earned a second fact of great importance:
this was that the planet the little prince came from was scarcely any larger than a house!
我還了解到另外一件重要的事，就是他老家所在的那個星球比一座房子大不了多少。
But that did not really surprise me much.
I knew very well that in addition to the great planets such as the Earth, Jupiter, Mars, Venus to which we have given names, there are also hundreds of others, some of which are so small that one has a hard time seeing them through the telescope.
這倒並沒有使我感到太奇怪。我知道除地球、木星、火星、金星這幾個有名稱的大行星以外，還有成百個別的星球，它們有的小得很，就是用望遠鏡也很難看見。
When an astronomer discovers one of these he does not give it a name, but only a number. He might call it, for example, "Asteroid 325."
當一個天文學者發現了其中一個星星，他就給它編上一個號碼，例如把它稱作「325小行星」。
I have serious reason to believe that the planet from which the little prince came is the asteroid known as B612.
This asteroid has only once been seen through the telescope. That was by a Turkish astronomer, in 1909.
我有重要的根據認為小王子所來自的那個星球上小行星B612。
這顆小行星僅在1909年被一個十耳其天文學家用望遠鏡看見過一次。
On making his discovery, the astronomer had presented it to the International Astronomical Congress, in a great demonstration.
But he was in Turkish costume, and so nobody would believe what he said.
Grownups are like that...
當時他曾經在一次國際天文學家代表大會上對李的發現作了重要的論證。
但由於他所穿衣服的緣故，那時沒有人相信他。那些大人們就是這樣。
Fortunately, however, for the reputation of Asteroid B612, a Turkish dictator made a law that his subjects, under pain of death, should change to European costume.
幸好，士耳其的一個獨裁者，為了小行星B612的聲譽，迫使他的人民都要穿歐式服裝，否則就處以死刑。
So in 1920 the astronomer gave his demonstration all over again, dressed with impressive style and elegance. And this time everybody accepted his report.
1920年，這位天文學家穿了一身非常漂亮的服裝，重新作了一次論證。這一次所有的人都同意他的看法。