The Smile
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
I was sure that I was to be killed. I became terribly nervous and distraught. I fumbled (摸索) in my pockets to see if there were any cigarettes which had escaped their search. I found one and because of my shaking, I could barely get it to my lips. But I had no matches; they had taken those.
I looked through the bars at the jailer. He did not make eye contact with me. After all, one does not make eye contact with a thing, a corpse. I called out to him “Have you got a light?” He looked at me, shrugged and came over to light my cigarette.
As he came close and lit the match, his eyes inadvertently locked with mine. At that moment, I smiled. I don't know why I did that. Perhaps it was nervousness; perhaps it was because, when you get very close to another person, it is very hard not to smile. In any case, I smiled. In that instant, it was as though a spark jumped across the gap between our two hearts, our two human souls. I know he didn't want to, but my smile leaped through the bars and generated a smile on his lips, too. He lit my cigarette but stayed near, looking at me directly in the eyes and continuing to smile.
I kept smiling at him, now aware of him as a person and not just a jailer. And his looking at me seemed to have a new dimension, too. “Do you have kids?” he asked.
“Yes, here, here.” I took out my wallet and nervously fumbled for the pictures of my family. He, too, took out the pictures of his family and began to talk about his plans and hopes for them. My eyes filled with tears. I said that I feared that I'd never see my family again, never have the chance to see them grow up. Tears came to his eyes, too.
Suddenly, without another word, he unlocked my cell and silently led me out. He let me out by back routes and out of the town. There, at the edge of town, he released me. And without another word, he turned back toward the town.
My life was saved by a smile.
Yes, the smile — the unaffected, unplanned, natural connection between people. I tell this story in my work because I'd like people to consider that underneath all the layers we construct to protect ourselves — our dignity, our titles, our degrees, our status and our need to be seen in certain ways — underneath all that, remains the authentic, essential self. I'm not afraid to call it the soul. I really believe that if that part of you and that part of me could recognize each other, we wouldn't be enemies. We couldn't have hate or envy or fear. I sadly conclude that all those other layers, which we so carefully construct through our lives, distance and insulate us from truly contacting others.
I've had just a few moments like that. Falling in love is one example. And looking at a baby. Why do we smile when we see a baby? Perhaps it's because we see someone without all the defensive layers, someone whose smile for us we know to be fully genuine and without guile. That baby-soul inside us smiles wistfully in recognition.
作者及文章背景介绍：
Antoine de Saint-Exupery was a fighter pilot who fought against the Nazis and was killed in action. Before World War II, he fought in the Spanish Civil War against the fascists. He wrote a fascinating story based on that experience entitled The Smile (Le Sourire).