Books: 'The Little Prince' now translated into 600 languages, a record

The Fondation Antoine de Saint-Exupéry announced that the French writer's timeless masterpiece, 'The Little Prince', published in 1943 in New York, has also been translated into a Panamanian dialect. As part of the project 'The Little Prince at the bedside of the world's languages', the 600th translation of Saint-Exupéry's tale into Dulegaya, the language of the indigenous Guna people of north-east Panama and Colombia, was presented at the National Library of Panama. About 1,500 copies of this Dulegaya edition, entitled 'Sagla Massi Bibbi', were printed in spring 2024 by the Panamanian publishing house El Hombre de la Mancha. Copies will be distributed to schools and libraries in the Guna Yala region from 2025.
"The 600th translation confirms the cultural and social impact of 'The Little Prince', which transcends borders and becomes a link between peoples. This tale is more than just a story. It is a celebration of cultural diversity,' emphasised the Fondation Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in a press release. The writer-aviator, who died in the Mediterranean Sea in 1944 during a reconnaissance flight, just over a year after the book was published, probably never imagined that it would be such a success.

Over the years, the most translated work in the world after the Bible has confirmed its universal dimension while helping to safeguard many endangered languages. In 2017, there were 300 translations of The Little Prince. "Thanks to the passion of the translators, this work has been translated into rare languages and endangered dialects, thus helping to preserve the world's linguistic heritage," explains Fondation Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.