The old woman remembered a swan she had bought many years ago in Shanghai for a foolish sum. This bird, boasted the market vendor, was once a duck that stretched its neck in hopes of becoming a goose, and now look! — it is too beautiful to eat.
Then the woman and the swan sailed across an ocean many thousands of li wide, stretching their nacks toward America. On her journey she cooed to the swan: “In America I will have a daughter just like me. But over there nobody will say her worth is measured by the loudness of her husband’s belch. Over there nobody will look down on her, because I will make her speak only perfect American English. And over there she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow! She will know my meaning because I will give her this swan — a creature that became more than what was hoped for.”
But when she arrived in the new country, the immigration officials pulled her swan away from her, leaving the woman fluttering her arms and with only one swan feather for a memory. And then she had to fill out so many forms she forgot why she had come and what she had left behind.
Now the woman was old. And she had a daughter who grew up speaking only English and swallowing more Coca Cola than sorrow. For a long time now the woman had wanted to give her daughter the single feather and tell her, “This feather may look worthless, but it comes from afar and carries with it all my good intentions.” And she waited, year after year, for the day she could tell her daughter this in perfect American English.
老婦人想起多年前在上海以愚蠢的價格買下的一隻天鵝。小販向他吹噓，這隻鴨子天天伸長了脖子，期望變成一隻天鵝，你瞧瞧！牠成這麼美的樣子，捨不得吃啊！
女人和天鵝航過了幾千哩遠的海洋，向著美國伸長了脖子。旅程中她溫柔地對著天鵝訴說：「我會在美國生下一個長的像我的女兒，但在那沒有人會以丈夫飽嗝的響亮程度衡量她的價值，因爲我會讓她學習最標準的美式英文。而且在那，她會幸福滿足沒有任何憂傷，在我給她這隻天鵝時，她一定會明白我的意思——這隻天鵝帶來了比預期更多的收穫。」
就在她抵達新的國家的同時，移民官員將天鵝從她身上拉開，揮舞著手臂只抓到一根僅於留念的羽毛。煩雜的文件讓她幾乎忘了來到這裡的原因和留在身後的事物。
女人漸漸老去，擁有一個只會說英文的女兒，比起憂傷她吞下更多的可口可樂。隨著時間過去，婦人一直想將這根羽毛交給她並且告訴她：「這根羽毛也許毫不起眼，但它從遙遠的地方來，帶著我所有的好運。」她等了又等，年復一年，等著某天她能以完美的美式英文和女兒說這個故事。
