“Le Petit Prince” Returns

My husband and I recently moved to a smaller home in Arizona and this required lots of downsizing. As I rummaged through old boxes, sorting “keep” piles and “give away” piles, I stumbled across my copy of Le Petit Prince from my stay in France in 1980. My heart lurched as I picked up the well-used book, turned to the first page and discovered  an inscription — long forgotten — from my love interest in France. 

Here is the poetic translation: “We only truly see with our heart, what really matters cannot be seen with your eyes. My dear Linda, I am still the path that your heart is pointing at.”  With a sigh, I clasped the book to my chest, recalling the long evenings I spent at my desk translating this book. 

 
It was my professor at the Institut d’Études Françaises who recommended I purchase this beloved French book, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, to improve my writing skills. An ambitious project, it took three months to translate the story. Whenever I discovered a word I didn’t understand, I looked it up in my English-French dictionary and penciled the English translation on the page. I’ve included a sample from inside the book, so you can see the notes I made along the bottom of pages. 

To learn more about my memoir, French Illusions: From Tours to Paris, or my French Illusions Series, please visit my Amazon Author Page.