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Shevchenko’s Cossack epic in 1841 spelling
Haidamaky Гайдамаки
Taras Shevchenko, 1841
Taras Shevchenko’s historical poem Haidamaky, complete in Ukrainian and not an adaptation, in the Russian-based spelling of its first printing (Saint Petersburg, 1841). It is for advanced learners who want to read Ukraine’s national poet as his first readers did: about 10,400 words in 16 parts, the poem’s prologue, introduction, ten cantos and epilogue, followed by Shevchenko’s own notes, his prose preface and a note to his subscribers. Its subject is the Koliivshchyna, the uprising of 1768 in Right-Bank Ukraine, and the poem made the haidamaky a lasting theme of Ukrainian literature.
- C2
- 10 359 words
- 2-3 hours
Will this text hold?
C1
Earlier
At C1 the story is easy to follow, but the spelling stops you every line: ы where you expect и, и where you expect і, a silent ъ after most consonants, and words like свяченый that a modern dictionary lists as свячений.
C1C2
This text
At C2 the old letters turn into a habit within a canto or two, and you can enjoy what Shevchenko does with folk song: refrains, laments, a minstrel’s banter and a feast that turns into a massacre.
Check this passageC2 here means reading a historical stage of the language, as Shakespeare is for learners of English. The plain measures look like B2: 11 words per sentence and 9.1% long words, the same share as Kotsiubynsky’s B2 novella Na viru. In verse, though, sentence length says little, since lines, refrains and exclamations cut it up. The difficulty is the 1841 spelling, built on Russian letters: about 1,980 of the poem’s words, one in five, contain ы, which here stands for today’s и, while и stands for і (мыни for мені, свитъ for світ); 1,937 words end in a silent ъ; ё appears 70 times (ёго for його) and ѣ 12 times; particles are glued to the next word more than 200 times (Недасть, невчилы). On top of that come the 18th century’s words (свяченый, the consecrated knife; тытаръ, the churchwarden; бунчук, шеляг), Polish (Niepozwalam, Kawaleria Narodowa) and a touch of Church Slavonic (Начнемъ же уже начало книги сице). The hardest C1 books in the catalogue stay closer to today’s letters: The Witch of Konotop has 27 words per sentence but in the Zhelekhivka of 1911, and Kaidash’s Family keeps its 1879 spelling. A modern dictionary will often fail here, and tap translation may miss the old spellings. This is the catalogue’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 10 359
- words
- 11
- words in an average sentence
- 2-3
- hours of reading
- 1841
- Друкарня А. Сичова
Друкарня А. Сичова, 1841. Wikisource
What it is about, without the ending
The poem is set in 1768 in Right-Bank Ukraine, then part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Noblemen of the Bar Confederation roam the land, and Orthodox peasants and Cossacks rise in the revolt known as the Koliivshchyna, led by Maksym Zalizniak and Ivan Gonta; it brought massacres of Polish nobles, Jews and Uniate clergy, the worst of them at Uman. Shevchenko tells it the way an old blind minstrel might, through the eyes of the rebels, and does not hide the cruelty. In a prologue the poet sends his “sons”, the haidamaky, out into the world. Then the story: Yarema, an orphan who works as a farmhand for an innkeeper in Vilshana, loves Oksana, the daughter of the village churchwarden. On the night he says goodbye to her and sets off for Chyhyryn, Polish confederates break into her father’s house. In Chyhyryn the knives are blessed, Yarema takes the name Halaida, and the uprising spreads from village to village while he looks for Oksana. What happens next is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Гайдамаки
XI. Лебедин
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Choose an underlined word.
Read ы as и, и as і
The 1841 spelling uses ы where today’s Ukrainian writes и, and и where it writes і: Мисяць высоко is місяць високо, дывиця is дивиться. Particles are often glued on: Недывиця, неслухае means не дивиться, не слухає. Say the word aloud in modern Ukrainian before you tap it.
One voice, many quotation marks
Every line here opens with «: the 1841 printing repeats the mark to show that Oksana is still speaking, so the whole stretch is one monologue to the old nun. The б of the conditional is glued to the verb with a final ъ: вытырпилабъ is витерпіла б, “I would have endured”.
Chapters
Translation while you read
The book stays free on every plan. Reader, €1 a month, removes the daily limit on words and sentences.
Reader
€1 a month
The famous opening is where translating the whole sentence in Reader helps, since the old spelling hides familiar words: «Все йде, все минае и краю немае, / Кудыжъ воно дилось? видкиля взялось!» (“Everything passes, everything goes by, and there is no end to it. Where has it all gone? Where did it come from?”).
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Before you read
Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
It is the original, not a learner’s version: Taras Shevchenko’s complete poem with its dedication to Vasyl Hryhorovych, the prologue, introduction, ten cantos and epilogue, then his own notes (Приписи), his prose preface and a note to subscribers, in the order of the printed book. Haidamaky first appeared as a separate book in Saint Petersburg in 1841 (printed by A. Sychov); these same 1841 sheets were later reissued in the 1844 volume «Чигиринскій кобзарь и Гайдамаки», whose scan Wikisource transcribes. The spelling is that of the 1840s, based on Russian letters: ы for today’s и, и for і, a final ъ, ё and ѣ (свитъ, мыни, ёго for світ, мені, його). Rows of dots stand where lines were left out of the 1841 printing; they are kept as printed. The poem describes the killings of 1768 and uses period words for Jews and Poles that are offensive today; they are also left as printed.
Is there an audiobook?
There is no audiobook of Haidamaky on MovaReader: the poem is read on screen. Tap a word and its translation appears; because of the 1841 spelling it may not always be found, so it helps to know words like свяченый (a consecrated knife, свячений today) and шеляг (a small coin).
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes, with the Reader plan. It helps most where the old spelling hides a simple sentence, as in the prologue: «Сыны мои Гайдамаки! / Свитъ широкій, воля, / Идить сыны, погуляйте / Пошукайте доли» (“My sons, my haidamaky! The world is wide and free: go, my sons, roam it and look for your fortune”). Without the plan, single words are translated up to the daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
The whole book takes about 2-3 hours at the pace of someone reading with translation of new words. Its 16 parts run from about 130 words (the note to subscribers) and 170 (the introduction) to about 1,500 (VI. Свято в Чигирині, the feast in Chyhyryn); most cantos have 450-1,100 words and fit into one sitting.
Where does the text get easier?
The spelling is the same from the first line to the last, so no part is easier in that respect. The cantos average 7-14 words per sentence: IV. Конфедерати (about 7) and VIII. Червоний бенкет (about 9) move in short spoken lines, while the prologue (about 14) and the epilogue (about 18) are long reflective verse. The prose at the end is the densest: the preface averages about 23 words per sentence and the note to subscribers about 26.
Will my place in the book be saved?
Yes. Once you sign in, the reader keeps your last place and the words you opened, so you can return to the poem where you stopped. Any of the 16 parts also opens from the contents on this page, for example VI. Свято в Чигирині, where the rebels gather by night to bless their knives.