a canary for one
the train passed very quickly along red
stone house with a garden
and four thick palm trees with tables
under them in the shade
on the other side was the sea then there
was a cutting through red stone and clay
and the sea was only occasionally and
far below against rocks
i bought him in palermo the american
lady said
we only had an hour ashore and it was
sunday morning the man wanted to be paid
in dollars and i gave him a dollar and a
half
he really sings very beautifully
it was very hot in the train and it was
very hot in the lid
salon compartment there was no breeze
came through the open window
the american lady pulled the window
blind down and there was no more sea
even occasionally on the other side
there was glass
then the corridor then an open window
and outside the window were dusty trees
and an oiled road and flat fields of
grapes
with greystone hills behind them there
was smoke from many tall chimneys
coming into marseille and the train
slowed down and followed one track
through many others into the station
the train stayed 25 minutes in the
station at marseille
and the american lady bought a copy of
the daily mail and a half bottle of
avion water
she walked a little way along the
station platform but she stayed near the
steps of the car because at khan
where it stopped for 12 minutes the
train had left with no signal of
departure
and she had gotten on only just in time
the american lady was a little deaf and
she was afraid that perhaps signals of
departure were given
and that she did not hear them the train
left the station in marseille
and there was not only the switch yards
and the factory smoke
but looking back the town of marseille
and the harbor with stone hills behind
it
and the last of the sun on the water
as it was getting dark the train passed
a farmhouse burning in a field
motorcars were stopped along the road
and bedding and things from inside the
farmhouse were spread in the field
many people were watching the house burn
after it was dark the train was in
avignon people got on and off
at the newsstand frenchman returning to
paris
bought that day's french papers on the
station platform were negro
soldiers they wore brown uniforms and
were tall
and their faces shone close under the
electric light
their faces were very black and they
were too tall to stare
the train left avignon station with the
negros standing there
a short white sergeant was with them
inside the lit salon compartment the
porter had pulled down the three beds
from inside the wall
and prepared them for sleeping in the
night
the american lady lay without sleeping
because the train was a repeat
and went very fast and she was afraid of
the speed in the night
the american lady's bed was the one next
to the window
the canary from palermo a cloth spread
over his cage
was out of the draft in the corridor
that went into the compartment washroom
there was a blue light outside the
compartment and all night the train went
very fast
and the american lady lay awake and
waited for a wreck
in the morning the train was near paris
and after the american lady had come out
from the washroom looking very wholesome
and middle-aged and
american in spite of not having slept
and had taken the cloth off the birdcage
and hung the cage in the sun
she went back to the restaurant car for
breakfast
when she came back to the lit salon
compartment again the beds had been
pushed back into the wall and made into
seats
the canary was shaking his feathers in
the sunlight that came through the open
window
and the train was much nearer paris
he loves the sun the american lady said
he'll sing now in a little while the
canary shook his feathers and pecked
into them
i've always loved birds the american
lady said
i'm taking him home to my little girl
there he's singing now
the canary chirped and the feathers on
his throat stood out
then he dropped his bill and pecked into
his feathers again
the train crossed a river and passed
through a very carefully tended forest
the train passed through many outside of
paris towns
there were tram cars in the towns and
big advertisements for the
belgian air and dubunnae and perno
on the walls toward the train all that
the train passed through looked as
though it were before breakfast
for several minutes i had not listened
to the american lady who was talking to
my wife
is your husband american too asked the
lady
yes said my wife we're both americans
i thought you were english oh no
perhaps that was because i wore braces i
said
i had started to say suspenders and
changed it to braces in the mouth
to keep my english character the
american lady did not hear
she was really quite deaf she read lips
and i had not looked toward her i had
looked out of the window
she went on talking to my wife i'm so
glad you're americans
american men make the best husbands the
american lady was saying
that was why we left the continent you
know my daughter fell in love with a man
in vive
she stopped they were simply madly in
love
she stopped again i took her away of
course
did she get over it ask my wife i don't
think so
said the american lady she wouldn't eat
anything and she wouldn't sleep at all
i've tried so very hard but she doesn't
seem to take an interest in anything
she doesn't care about things i couldn't
have her marrying a foreigner
she paused someone a very good friend
told me once
no foreigner can make an american girl a
good husband
no said my wife i suppose not
the american lady admired my wife's
traveling coat
and it turned out that the american lady
had bought her own clothes for 20 years
now
from the same meson de courtier in the
rue san honore
they had her measurements and evondus
who knew her
and her tastes picked the dresses out
for her and they were sent to america
they came to the post office near where
she lived uptown in new york
and the duty was never exorbitant
because they opened the dresses there in
the post office to appraise them
and they were always very simple looking
and
with no gold lace nor ornaments that
would make the dresses look expensive
before the present bondos named terez
there had been
another vandus named amelie
altogether there had only been these two
in the 20 years
it had always been the same kochiye
prices however had gone up
the exchange though equalized that they
had her daughter's measurements now too
she was grown up and there was not much
chance of their changing now
the train was now coming into paris the
fortifications were leveled but grass
had not
grown there were many cars standing on
tracks
brown wooden restaurant cars and brown
wooden
sleeping cars that would go to italy at
five o'clock that night
if the train still left at five the cars
were marked paris rome
and cars with seats on the roofs had
went back and forth to the suburbs with
at certain hours people in all the seats
and
on the roofs if that were the way it was
still done
and passing with the white walls and
many windows of houses
no one had eaten any breakfast
americans make the best husbands the
american lady said to my wife
i was getting down the bags american men
are the only men in the world to marry
how long ago did you leave vive ask my
way
two years ago this fall it's her you
know that i'm
taking the canary to was the man your
daughter was in love with a swiss
yes said the american lady he was from a
very good family in vive
he was going to be an engineer they met
there in the va
they used to go on long walks together
i know vive said my wife we were there
on our honeymoon
were you really that must have been
lovely
i had no idea of course that she'd fall
in love with him
it was a very lovely place said my wife
yes
said the american lady isn't it lovely
where did you stop there
we stayed at the toi coron said my wife
it's such a fine old hotel said the
american lady
yes said my wife we had a very fine room
and in the fall the country was lovely
were you there in the fall yes said my
wife
we were passing three cars that had been
in a wreck they were splittered open and
the roof sagged in
look i said it's been a wreck
the american lady looked and saw the
last car
i was afraid of just that all night she
said i have terrific presentments about
things sometimes
i'll never travel on a repeat again at
night there must be other comfortable
trains that don't go so fast
then the train was in the dark of the
guard de leon
and then stopped and porters came up to
the windows
i handed bags through the windows and we
were out in the dim
longness of the platform and the
american lady put herself in charge of
one of three men from cooks who said
just a moment madame and now look for
your name
the porter brought a truck and piled on
the baggage
and my wife said goodbye and i said
goodbye to the american lady
whose name had been found by the man
from cooks on a typewritten page
in a sheaf of typewritten pages which he
replaced in his pocket
we followed the porter with the truck
down the long cement platform beside the
train
at the end was a gate and a man took the
tickets
we were returning to paris to set up
separate
residences
{{
一只金丝雀
火车很快经过了红色的
石头房子，里面有一个花园
和四棵茂密的棕榈树，
树荫下有桌子
，另一边是大海，然后
有一条穿过红色石头和粘土的切口
，大海只有 偶尔，
我在巴勒莫给他买了很远的岩石，这位美国
女士说
我们只有一个小时在岸上，那是
星期天早上，那个男人想要
以美元支付，我给了他一美元
半，
他真的唱歌非常
好听 火车里
很热，有盖的
沙龙车厢里也很热 没有微风
从敞开的窗户吹进来
美国女士拉下百叶窗
甚至偶尔在另一边
也没有大海 有玻璃
然后走廊 然后是一扇开着的窗户
，窗外是尘土飞扬的树木
，一条油污的道路，平坦的葡萄田，
后面是灰色的石头山丘
，许多高大的烟囱冒着烟，
进入马赛和 火车
慢下来，沿着一条轨道
穿过许多其他轨道进入
车站火车在马赛车站停留了 25 分钟
，这位美国女士买了
一份每日邮报和
半瓶航空水
她沿着车站月台走了一小段路
但她待在车的台阶附近，
因为在汗站
停了 12 分钟，
火车没有发车信号就
离开了，
而且她只是及时上车，
这位美国女士有点耳聋，
她害怕可能有信号 火车
离开了马赛车站
，不仅有转辙场
和工厂的烟雾，
而且回望马赛镇
和海港，后面是石山
和最后一个 太阳在水面
上，天快黑了，火车经过
一座农舍，田野
里着火 天黑后，
许多人在田野里看着房子被烧毁
火车在
阿维尼翁 人们
在报亭上下车 回到
巴黎
的法国人 在车站月台上买了当天的法国报纸
是黑人
士兵 他们穿着棕色制服
，个子很高
他们的脸在电灯下闪闪
发光
他们的脸很黑，
他们太高了，无法
直视火车离开阿维尼翁车站，
黑人站在那里，
一个矮个子的白人中士和他们一起
在灯火通明的沙龙隔间里，
搬运工把三个人拉下来 把床
从墙里
拿出来，为晚上睡觉做准备
美国女士躺着不睡觉，
因为火车是重复的，
而且开得很快，她害怕
晚上的速度
美国女士的床
是靠窗的
来自巴勒莫的金丝雀 笼子上铺着一块布
穿过
进入隔间洗手间的走廊里
有一块蓝色的
车厢外亮着灯，整夜火车开
得很快
，美国女士醒着
等待失事
。早上火车在巴黎附近
，美国女士
从洗手间出来后看起来非常健康
，中年和
美国人尽管没有睡觉
，把鸟笼上的布取下来，
把鸟笼挂在阳光下，
她还是回到餐车
吃早饭，
当她再次回到点亮的沙龙
隔间时，床已经
被推回墙上了
坐在座位上 金丝雀在从敞开的窗户射进来的阳光下晃动着他的羽毛
火车离巴黎更近了
他喜欢阳光 美国女士说
他一会儿要唱歌
金丝雀晃着他的羽毛啄着
我一直很喜欢鸟 美国
女士说
我要带他回家给我的小
女孩 他正在唱歌
现在金丝雀在啁啾 他喉咙上的羽毛
突出
然后他掉了下来 轻拍他的钞票，又啄了
一下他的
羽毛 火车穿过一条河流，
穿过一片精心照料的
森林 火车穿过巴黎以外的许多
城镇
火车经过的墙壁 火车经过的所有东西
几分钟前我没听
过 和我妻子说话的美国女士
是你的丈夫 美国人也问
女士
是的 说我的妻子 我们是 两个美国人
我以为你是英国人 哦不
也许那是因为我戴
了牙套 嘴唇
，我没有看她，我看着
窗外 女士能说
这就是我们离开大陆的原因你
知道我的女儿爱上了一个
男人，
她停止了他们只是疯狂地
爱着
她再次停止了我把她带走了她
当然
能克服它问我妻子我不
这位美国女士说她不会吃
任何东西，她根本不会睡觉
没有让她嫁给一个外国人
她停顿了一个非常好的朋友
曾经告诉我
没有外国人可以让一个美国女孩成为一个
好丈夫
没有说我的妻子我想不是
那个美国女士欣赏我妻子的
旅行
外套结果那位美国女士
20 年来她自己的衣服都是
从 rue san Honore 的同一个 meson de courtier
那里买的
他们有她的尺寸和 evondus
认识她
和她的品味
为她挑选衣服 然后他们被送到美国
他们来到邮局 靠近
她的地方 住在纽约的住宅区
，责任从不高昂，
因为他们在邮局打开衣服
来评估它们
，它们总是看起来很简单
，没有金色蕾丝或装饰品，
在现在的邦多斯命名之前，这些衣服看起来很贵 特雷兹
有
另一个叫阿梅莉的凡杜斯
20 年来只有
这两个 一直是相同的 kochiye
价格但是已经上涨
了交易所虽然均衡他们
现在也有她女儿的尺寸
她已经长大了并且有
现在他们换车的机会不大
火车开进了巴黎
防御工事被夷为平地，但
没有长出草 铁轨上停着许多汽车
棕色木制餐车和棕色
木制
卧铺车 将在
五点钟开往意大利 晚上，
如果火车仍然在五点开出，那么
车厢会标有巴黎罗马
，而屋顶上有座位的车厢会
来回走动 郊区，
在某些时间，所有座位
上和屋顶上都有人，如果这
仍然是这样的
话 对我的妻子，
我正在放下包包美国
男人是世界上唯一结婚的男人
你多久前离开 vive 问我
两年前今年秋天是她你
知道我要
带金丝雀去的是那个男人 你的
女儿爱上了一个瑞士人
是的 说这位美国女士 他来自一个
非常好的家庭 在 vive
他将成为一名工程师 他们在弗吉尼亚
州相遇
他们曾经一起长途跋涉
我知道 vive 说我的妻子我们
我们度蜜月的时候在那儿
吗你真的很可爱吗
我当然不知道她会
爱上他
这是一个非常可爱的地方我的妻子说
是的
说美国女士不是很可爱
你在哪里 停在那里，
我们住在 toi cor 我的妻子
说这是一家很棒的老酒店 这位
美国女士
说 是的 我的妻子说我们有一个非常好的
房间 在秋天这个国家很
可爱 如果你在秋天在那里 是的 我的妻子说
我们正在经过三辆车
在一次残骸中，它们被裂开
，车顶
下陷 我说这是一场
残骸 美国女士看了看
最后一辆车，
我整晚都害怕她
说我对事情有很好的
看法有时
我永远不会旅行 晚上再重复一次，
肯定有其他舒适的
火车，速度不会那么快，
然后火车在德莱昂警卫的黑暗中
，然后停下来，搬运工
走到窗户前，
我从窗户递过行李，我们
在 在月台的昏暗
长长的平台上，
美国女士让自己
负责三个厨师中的一个人
我和
那个美国女士说再见了，她
的名字是从厨师那里找到的，他
在一捆打字页的打字页上找到了她的名字
，他
把它放在了口袋
里 尽头是一扇门，一个男人拿了
我们要回巴黎的票来建立
单独的
住所