The Bird Market (Chekhov)
Short summary
Moscow, early 20th century. Near the monastery of the Holy Birth was Trubnoy Square, where a bird market took place on Sundays. The square bustled with people selling and buying various birds in homemade cages: goldfinches, siskins, larks, blackbirds, thrushes, and bluetits. Prices varied widely, with some birds like the dignified blackbird considered particularly valuable.
Bird-fanciers in shabby clothing examined the birds with expert eyes, able to determine their quality from a distance. They valued birds that sang in solitude rather than those that performed only in company. Beyond birds, the market also offered hares, rabbits, hedgehogs, guinea pigs, and polecats. Vendors claimed animals could be trained through beatings, just like humans.
The fish section featured peasants with pails containing small aquatic ecosystems of carp, eels, frogs, and beetles. An old fancier in a fur cap wandered through the market, examining everything with childlike enthusiasm despite having no money to spend. A respected high school teacher, known as "Your Scholarship," searched for quality pigeons.
And Trubnoy Square, that little bit of Moscow where animals are so tenderly loved, and where they are so tortured, lives its little life, grows noisy and excited...
Detailed summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
The atmosphere of Trubnoy square and its bird market
Near the monastery of the Holy Birth was a small square called Trubnoy, where a market took place on Sundays. The square bustled with activity as hundreds of people in sheepskins, wadded coats, fur caps, and chimneypot hats crowded the area. Birds of all varieties filled the air with their songs, creating a lively atmosphere that evoked thoughts of spring.
If the sun is shining, and there are no clouds in the sky, the singing of the birds and the smell of hay make a more vivid impression, and this reminder of spring sets one thinking and carries one's fancy far, far away.
Birds for sale and interactions between sellers and customers
Along one side of the square stood wagons loaded with caged birds - goldfinches, siskins, larks, blackbirds, thrushes, bluetits, and bullfinches. These birds hopped about in rough, homemade cages, looking enviously at the free sparrows. The goldfinches cost five kopecks, siskins were more expensive, while other birds had indeterminate prices.
When asked about the price of a lark, the bird seller scratched his head and named whatever price came to mind - a rouble or three kopecks, depending on the customer. Among the more expensive birds was an old blackbird with most of its tail feathers plucked out. It sat dignified and motionless on a dirty perch, looking indifferently at the sky, resigned to its captivity. This bird was priced at no less than forty kopecks.
Schoolboys, workmen, fashionable young men, and bird enthusiasts in shabby attire crowded around the birds. While the young people and workmen were easily deceived, being sold hens for cocks or young birds for old ones, the experienced bird fanciers could not be fooled.
"No, my boy, shout, sing to me without company; sing in solitude, if you can... You give me that one yonder that sits and holds its tongue! Give me the quiet one! That one says nothing, so he thinks the more..."
Other animals sold at the market
Among the bird wagons were others filled with different creatures - hares, rabbits, hedgehogs, guinea pigs, and polecats. A hare sat sorrowfully nibbling straw, guinea pigs shivered from cold, and hedgehogs peered curiously at the public from under their prickles.
A post-office official in a faded overcoat stood admiring a hare and mentioned having read about a learned man who kept a cat, mouse, falcon, and sparrow that all ate from the same bowl. Another market-goer responded that such behavior was only possible through harsh training, claiming that animals, like humans, could be taught through beatings.
"An animal is like a man. A man's made wiser by beating, and it's the same with a beast."
Character vignettes and interactions
Men in long coats moved through the crowd carrying fowls - lean and hungry chickens, ducks, and cocks. Boys with pigeons tried to identify potential customers among the passersby. Heated exchanges occasionally erupted, such as when someone angrily insisted that his bird was not a mere pigeon but an eagle.
A tall, thin man with a shaven upper lip and side whiskers, resembling a sick and drunken footman, was selling a snow-white lapdog. He explained with contempt that his mistress had fallen into poverty and was forced to sell her beloved pets to buy food.
"She is bankrupt in her old age, has nothing to eat, and here now is selling her dogs and cats. She cries, and kisses them on their filthy snouts. And then she is so hard up that she sells them."
No one laughed at his story. A boy standing nearby looked at him with grave compassion, screwing up one eye.
The fish section and market enthusiasts
The most interesting part of the market was the fish section, where a dozen peasants sat in a row, each with a pail of water containing various aquatic creatures. These pails were teeming with small carp, eels, minnows, water-snails, frogs, and newts. Water beetles with broken legs scurried across the surface, climbing over carp and jumping over frogs in a chaotic microcosm.
There, in the thick, greenish water are swarms of little carp, eels, small fry, water-snails, frogs, and newts... The creatures have a strong hold on life. The frogs climb on the beetles, the newts on the frogs.
One fish seller enthusiastically promoted his carp, claiming they could live in a pail for a year. He had caught these fish in Pererva and walked all the way to the market on foot. The carp cost two kopecks each, eels three, and minnows ten kopecks a dozen.
Among the market regulars was an old fancier in a fur cap, iron-rimmed spectacles, and large goloshes. Despite having no money, he examined all the animals with enthusiasm, offered advice, and haggled with sellers. He was particularly knowledgeable about goldfinches, bullfinches, and thrushes, speaking about them with passion and wide gestures.
Another notable character was a tall, thin gentleman in dark spectacles and a cap with a cockade, resembling an old-fashioned scrivener. This high school teacher was well-respected by market regulars, who addressed him as "Your Scholarship" and eagerly showed him their birds. With great seriousness, he would examine pigeons, lifting them above his head with the concentration of a conspirator.
And so Trubnoy Square, this small corner of Moscow where animals were both tenderly loved and cruelly tortured, continued its bustling existence, while passersby on the boulevard wondered what brought together this diverse crowd of people and what they could possibly be buying and selling.