(Komentar buku ini dibuat dengan campur aduk Bahasa Melayu-English, disebabkan ketidakseimbangan kemahiran penulis dalam menulis dengan membaca bahan bacaan bahasa penjajah)

((So the little prince, in spite of all the good will that was inseparable from his love, had soon come to doubt her. He had taken seriously words which were without importance, and it made him very unhappy.

“I ought not to have listened to her,” he confided to me one day.

“One never ought to listen to the flowers. One should simply look at them and breathe their fragrance. Mine perfumed all my planet. But I did not know how to take pleasure in all her grace. This tale of claws, which disturbed me so much, should only have filled my heart with tenderness and pity.” And he continued his confidences:

“The fact is that I did not know how to understand anything! I ought to have judged by deeds and not by words. She cast her fragrance and her radiance over me. I ought never to have run away from her… I ought to have guessed all the affection that lay behind her poor little strategems. Flowers are so inconsistent! But I was too young to know how to love her…”))

Karya masterpiece Antoine ini bukan semata-mata buku bedtime story untuk dibaca sebelum anak melelapkan mata.

Ia sebuah allegori.

Gerbang bagi kita memahami manusia, kemanusiaan dan kehidupan.

Ia mengisahkan pertemuan seorang lelaki dengan The Little Prince, seorang kanak-kanak yang ditemuinya berseorangan di sahara. Mereka berdialog. Rupa-rupanya, The Little Prince bukan berasal dari bumi, tetapi dari luar galaksi! Dari perkenalan ini, banyak perkara yang dikongsi dan diluahkan hati ke hati.

Antoine memainkan kreativiti yang mengagumkan ketika menggambarkan keunikan planet-planet yang dilawati The Little Prince. Kita tidak sekadar membayangkan bagaimanakah agaknya tinggal di planet yang kecil sekangkang kera, tetapi juga memikirkan apa agaknya yang berada di kotak fikiran penghuninya. Empati; ini yang dipaksai Antoine. Setelah bertaakul lebih dalam, yang sebenarnya bukan watak dalam cerita ini yang kita selami, malahan diri kita sendirilah yang cuba difahami. Suatu cerminan diri.

Suatu perspektif yang menarik, apabila kita memakai kaca mata kanak-kanak ketika melihat rutin hidup orang dewasa. Rutin kehidupan kita. Ketika berjumpa The King, The Conceited Man, The Drunkard dan The Bussinessman, dia sering tertanya-tanya tentang tingkahlaku orang dewasa. Begitu sibuk dengan angka-angka, si mabuk yang minum demi meluputkan malu kerana mabuk, raja yang gila kuasa, lelaki yang menagih penghormatan dan si gempal yang sibuk mengira tak sudah-sudah. Semua ini menimbulkan tanda tanya. Pada pendapat saya, sebenarnya yang Antoine mahu kita mempersoal semula perbuatan kita seharian. Barangkali kita adalah salah satu watak dalam scene ini.

Namun, interaksi The Little Prince bersama The Fox dan The Flower adalah yang paling mengesankan saya.

The Flower memakai watak feminine. Perempuan.

Pada pandang pertama, The Little Prince sudah tertarik kepada The Flower. Dia menjaga The Flower dengan bersungguh-sungguh. The Little Prince menyedari keadaan The Flower yang fragile. Dia menyiram air setiap pagi dan petang serta menyiapkan bekas kaca buat melindungi The Flower dari angin sejuk. Dia juga risaukan kalua-kalau ada bahaya dari haiwan liar, tetapi The Flower menafikan. The Little Prince sangat menyayangi The Flower. Ketika The Little Prince pergi memulakan pengembaraanya, perasaan sebak cuba disembunyikan oleh salah satu pihak.

((“Of course I love you,” the flower said to him. “It is my fault that you have not known it all the while. That is of no importance. But you– you have been just as foolish as I. Try to be happy… let the glass globe be. I don’t want it any more.”

“But the wind–“

“My cold is not so bad as all that… the cool night air will do me good. I am a flower.”

“But the animals–“

“Well, I must endure the presence of two or three caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies. It seems that they are very beautiful. And if not the butterflies– and the caterpillars– who will call upon me? You will be far away… as for the large animals– I am not at all afraid of any of them. I have my claws.”

And, naievly, she showed her four thorns.

Then she added: “Don’t linger like this. You have decided to go away. Now go!”

For she did not want him to see her crying. She was such a proud flower…))

Seperti lirik lagu dari Passenger, “Well you only need the light when it’s burning low, Only miss the sun when it starts to snow, Only know you love her when you let her go.” Rasa kesedihan benar-benar timbul bila berjauhan. Seperti juga kata Khalil Gibran; “that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.”

((“My flower is ephemeral,” the little prince said to himself, “and she has only four thorns to defend herself against the world. And I have left her on my planet, all alone!”
That was his first moment of regret.))

Watak The Fox juga menarik untuk dikaji. Ia suatu allegory tentang seni hubungan manusia.

((What does that mean– ‘tame’?”

“It is an act too often neglected,” said the fox. It means to establish ties.”

“‘To establish ties’?”

“Just that,” said the fox. “To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, shall be unique in all the world…”

“I am beginning to understand,” said the little prince. “There is a flower… I think that she has tamed me…”))

((“One only understands the things that one tames,” said the fox.))

((“What must I do, to tame you?” asked the little prince.

“You must be very patient,” replied the fox. “First you will sit down at a little distance from me– like that– in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But you will sit a little closer to me, every day…”

The next day the little prince came back.
“It would have been better to come back at the same hour,” said the fox.

“If, for example, you come at four o’clock in the afternoon, then at three o’clock I shall begin to be happy. I shall feel happier and happier as the hour advances. At four o’clock, I shall already be worrying and jumping about. I shall show you how happy I am! But if you come at just any time, I shall never know at what hour my heart is to be ready to greet you…))

((“Goodbye,” said the fox. “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”))

((One runs the risk of weeping
a little, if one lets himself be tamed…))

Khulasohnya, tidak rugi untuk menghabiskan seharian menggeluti karya The Little Prince, ditemani secangkir Latte. Kemudian seharian yang lain membaca semula dengan fikiran dan sisi pandang baru. Seharian yang lain lagi merenung semula kehidupan dan hubungan bersama yang tersayang.

Seperti yang ditenuni Antoine dalam karyanya ini,

‘Sepayah mana pun suatu perhubungan, suatu masa akan menjadi mudah.

Berbekalkan ketulusan hati dan kesabaran,
kita empati pada orang yang kita kasihkan.

Jika tak terdaya mengerti sepenuhnya juga,
jadilah seikhlas The Little Prince
yang menerima The Flower apa adanya.

‘Cinta sejati, selalu menemukan jalan’