Even the passers-by stopped at the gate to listen to that marvellous singing.
The woman describes what that small pet meant for her
and the communication that existed between them. We readers don’t know much
about the lady. We don’t know her name, or where she lives. We understand that
she has no relatives or friends living with her, no husband.
She has a house with a garden, to which she dedicates
some time every day.
It seems that three young men (maybe guests?) go every
evening for supper, the lady prepares it for them. They perhaps spend a while
reading in the dining-room, but never have a conversation with her. Moreover,
she was called “the Scarecrow”, but she didn’t mind.
The lady believed that every person should love
something in this live, it doesn’t matter a lot what it was. For instance, she
cared about the flowers in her garden. Or she loved the evening star, shining
to her in the back yard, after sunset.
Until one day, when a bird’s seller arrived to the
house and showed her that canary in a tiny cage, the bird gave a faint tweet,
and she clearly knew that one was her canary; she thought “there you are, my
darling”.
After the canary arrived to share the lady’s life, she
forgot flowers and the star. Every moment of the day, bird and woman
established a routine of communication and understanding. It was lovely company
what the bird signified, the small animal seemed to recognize his owner feelings,
and comforted her in case of trouble.
The lady knew that, for a person who never kept birds,
all that was difficult to accept. It’s normally considered that cats and dogs
can offer that sort of comprehension, not birds, but she could affirm those
ideas were untrue.
We readers can imagine the sad end of the story; naturally
the little bird died. And after the descriptions we have read, it is easy to
imagine the lady’s sadness. She would never ever have another pet, something
died in her, although she had a cheerful mode. A different, new sorrow, hid
deep inside, stayed there, hurting at any moment.
Perhaps the same kind of deep sorrow was the reason
for the canary singing? Has it had the same pain?
QUESTIONS
-What can be the meaning of the three dots at the beginning
of (almost) each paragraph?
-Do / did you have a bird pet? Tell us about it.
-Do you talk to your pets? How do you talk to them?
-What is the evening star? Can you identify stars and
planets in the sky? Do you believe that planets and stars determine or
influence our lives?
-A goldfinch is a kind of bird. What do you know about
the novel The Goldfinch?
-And what about plants? Do you like tending them? Do
you talk to them? Have you heard of “embracing trees”? Have you ever tried it?
Do you think plants have feelings?
-Who do you think is the woman in the story? And the
three men? What is the relation between them?
-Can you explain the last sentence: “But isn’t it
extraordinary that under his sweet, joyful little singing it was just this -sadness?-
Ah, what is it? -that I heard?”
VOCABULARY
verandah, goldfinches, gum tree, regular, chickweed, showing
off