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A wreath thrown on
Mediterranean waters commemorated the day 60 years ago when Antoine de
Saint-Exupery, aviator and author of "The Little Prince," disappeared
without trace during a wartime flying mission.
The ceremony took place off the south French city of Marseille near the
island of Riou where Saint-Exupery's Lightning P38 military aircraft
crashed and sank on a reconnaissance mission on July 31,
1944.
For decades mystery surrounded what happened to Saint-Exupery, author
of the children's book "The Little Prince," which has captured the
imaginations of young and old since its publication in 1943.
Those present at the Saturday remembrance ceremony at sea included Luc
Vanrell, a local diver who last year discovered remains of the plane on
the seabed.
Also present were three French authors of a book called "Saint-Exupery,
the End of the Mystery" (Saint-Exupery, la fin du mystere).
Amateur historian Philippe Castellano, journalist Herve Vaudoit and
photographer Alexis Rosenfeld retraced the research that led to the seabed
remains being positively identified as those of Saint-Exupery's plane
after six decades of speculation on his fate.
Saint-Exupery, a veteran
pilot who helped establish Latin America's Aeropostale air delivery
service in the late 1920s, went missing shortly after flying out of his
base on Corsica in good weather.
A wreath-laying ceremony was also held at Bastia airfield on Corsica,
followed by a mass in the Corsican town of Borgo, from which Saint-Exupery
took off on the fateful last flight.
While serving with Free French Forces, he set out on the reconnaissance
mission over Nazi-occupied southern France in preparation for the landing
of Free French Forces in the south of France, shortly after the Allied
invasion in Normandy.
Few bookshelves are complete without a copy of "The Little Prince," the
tale of the little boy who leaves his home on a tiny asteriod and his beloved rose to
search for adventure among the other planets, along the way learning
valuable lessons about love and life.
(Agencies) |
60年前，《小王子》的作者、飛行員安托萬·圣艾修伯里在戰(zhàn)時執(zhí)行飛行任務時神秘失蹤。今天，人們把花環(huán)投入地中海的海水中來紀念60年前的那個日子。
紀念儀式在離里歐島不遠的法國南部城市馬賽附近舉行。1944年7月31日，圣艾修伯里在執(zhí)行偵察任務時駕駛的P38“閃電”飛機不幸在里歐島附近墜毀，沉入海底。
幾十年來，兒童書《小王子》的作者圣艾修伯里的失蹤一直籠罩著神秘的色彩，《小王子》一書自1943年出版以來，就抓住了大人和孩子們的想象空間。
周六出席海上紀念儀式的人包括當?shù)氐臐撍畣T路克·凡赫爾，去年，他在海底發(fā)現(xiàn)了圣艾修伯里駕駛的飛機殘骸。
出席儀式的還有三位法國作家，他們共同創(chuàng)作了一本名為《圣艾修伯里——神秘的盡頭》的書。
業(yè)余歷史學家菲利普·卡斯泰拉諾、新聞記者埃爾韋·沃都瓦和攝影師亞力克西·羅森菲爾德再次追蹤了有關海底殘骸的調查，該調查斷定海底的殘骸就是當年圣艾修伯里駕駛的飛機，結束了60年來（人們）對他命運的猜測。
圣艾修伯里是一位經(jīng)驗豐富的飛行員，20世紀20年代末期他曾協(xié)助創(chuàng)立拉美郵政航空公司的空運服務。他在天氣狀況良好的情況下飛離科西嘉島基地后不久，神秘失蹤。
在科西嘉島的巴斯蒂亞機場上也舉行了一次花環(huán)紀念儀式，參加儀式的很多人來自博戈的科西嘉鎮(zhèn)，圣艾修伯里最后一次死亡之旅就是從這里起飛的。
同盟國軍隊攻占諾曼底后不久，在“自由法國”軍團服役的他受命執(zhí)行一次飛往被納粹占領的法國南部的偵察任務，為“自由法國”軍團在法國南部登陸做準備。
沒有《小王子》的書架大多是不完整的，這本書講述了一個小男孩的故事：小王子離開自己在一顆很小的行星上的家園和他心愛的玫瑰，到其他行星去探索冒險，一路上學到了關于愛和生命的寶貴經(jīng)驗。
（中國日報網(wǎng)站譯）
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Updated: 2004-08-06 09:08
