To me you will be unique in all the world...

... To you I shall be unique in all the world.

an extract from,

Le Petit Prince

by French aviator Antoine de St-Exupéry

1900-1944

This piece is for Sarah, who recently missed out on a long awaited and well deserved holiday to France, and who has a beautiful blog called Hyacinths for the Soul. It has taken me months (since she won my contest back in January!) to finally come up with an artwork to portray her chosen quote and until today I couldn't figure out why every attempt I've made to date has gone promptly back onto the recycling pile. 

I have read Saint-Exupéry's book 'Le Petit Prince,' in both French and English, and for various reasons, it is special to me. Everytime I read a quote from that book, those very well known illustrations of the Little Prince and his lonely world, that are dotted throughout the story, come flooding back  into my mind. 

Yet the artwork for Sarah could be nothing like the original images. Over and above the obvious reasons of plagiarism if I could even draw that well of course, Sarah wanted blues of Lapis and Indigo (Yay! my favourites). Le Petit Prince comprises sketches of golden yellow and earth green, and one beautiful pink, pink rose. OK, I'll concede there is a little blue in the sky too here and there... but there was still something holidng me back. 

(Insert image of therapist's couch and me agonising over what obscure inner memory could possibly be blocking the successfull completion of Sarah's artwork)

Mystère...

EUREKA!

Break through!!

The light bulb appears!!!

Today I set myself up in the sun, determined not to be thwarted. I whipped out my brushes and dusted all thoughts of a little boy, a fox and a flower from of my mind. This is what I finally came up with.

La Marquise de Sévigné and a blue 'plume.'

Sacré bleu! Now I can breathe easier...

If you haven't ever read Le Petit Prince

It's a lovely story

Below are some of my favourite quotes from the book

in French and in English

Enjoy

xxx

On Friendship:

"Tu n'es pas encore pour moi qu'un petit garçon tout semblable à cent mille petits garçons. Et je n'ai pas besoin de toi. Et tu n'as pas besoin de moi non plus. Je ne suis pour toi qu'un renard semblable à cent mille renards. Mais, si tu m'apprivoises, nous aurons besoin l'un de l'autre. Tu seras pour moi unique au monde. Je serai pour toi unique au monde..."


“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, I shall be unique in all the world…”

“If you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life.”

“You have hair like the color of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat…”

On Grown Ups:

Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.  (Is this why my Messmonsters keep rolling their eyes at me in a very impatient manner?)

I have lived a great deal among grown-ups. I have seen them intimately, close at hand. And that hasn’t much improved my opinion of them.

Grown-ups love figures. When you tell them that you have made a new friend, they never ask you any questions about essentail matters. They never say to you, “What does his voice sound like? What games does he love best? Does he collect butterflies?” Instead, they demand: “How old is he? How many brothers has he? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father make?” Only from these figures do they think they have learned anything about him.

If you were to say to the grown-ups: “I saw a beautiful house made of rosy brick, with geraniums in the windows and doves on the roof,” they would not be able to get an idea of that house at all. You have have to say to them: “I saw a house that cost $20,000.” Then they would exclaim: “Oh, what a pretty house that is!”

On Wisdom:

"On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur; l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux"

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”