The Camargue (Bunin)
Division into chapters is editorial.
A mysterious Spanish gypsy woman boards the train
Between Marseilles and Arles, a Spanish gypsy woman boarded the train at a small station. She moved down the carriage with a distinctive wiggle of her body, found a single-seat bench by the window, and sat down. Acting as if she saw no one around her, she began eating roasted pistachios, occasionally reaching into the pocket of her white underskirt beneath her black outer garment.
She got on at a small station between Marseilles and Arles, passed down the carriage, wiggling the whole of her Spanish gypsy body, sat down by the window on a single-seat bench and, as if seeing no one, began shelling and gnawing roasted pistachios
The carriage was filled with common people. It lacked compartments and was divided only by benches. Many passengers sitting opposite the woman stared at her openly as she continued to shell and eat her pistachios with apparent indifference to their attention.
The womans striking appearance and mannerisms
The woman had a distinctive appearance that captivated the attention of those around her. Her lips were blue-grey as they moved over her white teeth, and the bluish down on her upper lip thickened at the corners of her mouth. Her delicate face was swarthily dark, illuminated by the brilliance of her teeth, and possessed an ancient, savage quality.
Her delicate, swarthily dark face, lit up by the brilliance of her teeth, was anciently savage. Her eyes, long, golden-brown and half-covered by swarthily brown lids, somehow gazed inside themselves – with a dull, primitive lassitude.
Her eyes were long and golden-brown, half-covered by swarthily brown lids that gave her gaze an inward-looking quality, filled with a dull, primitive weariness. From beneath her coarse, jet-black hair, which was parted in the center and fell in curling locks onto her low forehead, long silver earrings gleamed alongside her rounded neck. She wore a faded light-blue shawl draped over her sloping shoulders, prettily tied at her breast.
Her hands were wiry and Indian-like, with mummy-colored fingers and lighter nails that moved with remarkable simian quickness and dexterity as she continued to shell pistachios. When she finished eating, she swept the shells from her knees, closed her eyes, crossed her legs, and reclined against the back of the bench.
Her hands, wiry, Indian, with mummy-coloured fingers and lighter nails, kept on shelling more and more pistachios with simian quickness and dexterity. Finishing them, and sweeping the shells from her knees, she closed her eyes
The woman's black gathered skirt emphasized the feminine curve of her slender waist, while her buttocks stood out in firm, smoothly outlined mounds beneath the fabric. Her thin foot, without stockings, had delicate tanned skin that shone in the light. She wore a black cloth slipper laced with blue and red ribbons of different colors.
The womans departure and the Provençals comment
When the train reached Arles, the Spanish gypsy woman got off. The narrator's neighbor, a Provençal man as mighty as an ox with dark, ruddy skin covered in blood vessels, watched her leave with a strange sadness in his eyes.
"C'est une Camarguaise," said my neighbour – for some reason very sadly, and following her with his eyes – a Provençal as mighty as an ox, with dark, ruddy skin covered in blood vessels.
With those words, he identified her as a woman from the Camargue region. The story concludes with the date: May 23, 1944, marking when this brief but vivid encounter was recorded.