III. Лисячий погляд
— , , — .
— .
— , ? ?
— , — , — , .
, .
— ! — . — , , .
, , . , , . .
A village moneylender’s web, for A2
The Usurer, or the Spider Глитай, або ж Павук
Marko Kropyvnytskyi
This is MovaReader’s retelling of The Usurer, or the Spider (Глитай, або ж Павук) in simple standard Ukrainian prose, not the original play: Marko Kropyvnytskyi’s drama in four acts, written in 1882, about a rich village moneylender who plays the godly benefactor while his loans tighten round his neighbours. It is for A2 readers who know the basics and are ready for a serious story told in the past tense, with short exchanges of dialogue: about 4,700 words in 10 titled chapters. The complete play is in the catalogue at B2.
- A2
- 4 685 words
- 1 hour
Will this text hold?
A1
Earlier
At A1 it is a stretch: the whole story is in the past tense, many sentences join two clauses with бо, а or коли, and the long speeches of Stekha and Andrii need several taps.
A1A2
This text
At A2 it fits: everyday village words, past-tense narration and short dialogue; words of money and debt such as позика (a loan) or проценти (interest) translate with a tap.
Check this passageB1
With room to spare
At B1 it reads almost without translation: a quick way to know the story before the complete play at B2, with its stage directions, its old spelling and the stranger’s half-Russian speech.
Start readingSentences average 10 words, the narration is in the past tense, and the dialogue comes in short exchanges. About one word in 21 has 9 letters or more (4.8%), mostly past-tense verbs such as відштовхнула (she pushed away) and the words of money, like карбованців (roubles). That places it in the A2 band beside Karmeliuk, another play retold for A2 (10 words, 5.3%), and a little above Martyn Borulia (8 words, 5.0%); the B1 retellings run to 11 or 12 words a sentence. The chapters are even: chapter III, where Bychok plans how to get Andrii out of the village, has the longest sentences (11.4 words), chapter VII the shortest (9.2), and the rest stay between 9.6 and 10.9. Hence A2. This is the catalogue’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 4 685
- words
- 10
- words in an average sentence
- 1
- hour of reading
MovaReader. Wikisource
What it is about, without the ending
A large village in the Kherson region in the 1880s. Osyp Bychok is the richest man in it: he lends money “for God’s sake”, takes interest on every rouble, and behind his back people call him глитай, the one who swallows other people’s goods. The farmer Martyn drinks away his oxen one pair at a time. The poor widow Stekha, whose heifer the tax collectors have just listed, takes Bychok’s money and kisses his hands. Her daughter Olena, young and lovely, married the poor Andrii Kuhut for love, and Bychok cannot stop thinking about her. When a stranger offers Andrii a year’s work two hundred versts away, Bychok is only too glad to help the deal along. A year goes by without a single letter, and Olena cannot read. What happens next is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Глитай, або ж Павук
VI. Чорна книга
, , . . . , .
, .
— , , — , — .
, . ? , , , . , ? .
Choose an underlined word.
Comparisons with як
Як also means “like” or “as”: як ягня на вовка is “like a lamb at a wolf”. The noun after як takes the case it would have in the main clause: любить її, як рідну дочку (“loves her like his own daughter”) puts дочку in the accusative, just like її.
Again and again, or once
Watch the aspect of the past-tense verbs. Бичок їх рвав або палив (imperfective) means he tore or burned the letters each time one came; витяг (pulled out) and написав (wrote) are perfective: one action, done once and finished.
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
Reader translates whole sentences where two choices are weighed against each other, as in Stekha’s sigh Краще б, сказала вона, бачити тебе з нелюбом у багатстві, ніж із милим у злиднях, “Better, she said, to see you rich with a man you don’t love than poor with the one you do”.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
Ukrainian books A1 Earlier The Usurer, or the Spider Глитай, або ж Павук Another book by the same author B2
All books at this levelBefore you read
Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
An adaptation, not the original text. It is MovaReader’s own retelling, in simple standard Ukrainian prose, of The Usurer, or the Spider (Глитай, або ж Павук), Marko Kropyvnytskyi’s drama in four acts, written in 1882 and first printed that year in Kyiv, in the first volume of his collected works. We followed the 1923 Kharkiv edition of the publisher Рух on Wikisource, the same text as the complete play at B2 in our catalogue. What changed: a play of about 13,500 words became about 4,700 words of past-tense prose in modern standard Ukrainian (2019 spelling), in 10 titled chapters. The plot, the main characters and the order of the scenes are kept; the stage directions became narration, Khrystia’s long love story and the village songs are much shorter (two short song quotes remain), and the stranger’s mixture of Russian and Ukrainian is described rather than reproduced. The story deals soberly with drink, debt and violence.
Is there an audiobook?
No, there is no audio version on MovaReader: the text is read on screen. Tap a word you don’t know and its translation appears; here that will often be words of village money and farming such as глитай (a usurer, literally “one who gulps”) or полові (fawn-coloured, said of oxen).
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes: whole-sentence translation comes with the Reader plan. Sentences average 10 words, so you will want it mostly where two clauses pull against each other, as in Олена колись звеліла йому не ступати на їхній поріг, але він однаково прийшов (“Olena had once told him never to set foot on their doorstep, but he came all the same”), where однаково means “all the same”, not “equally”. Without the plan you can translate single words up to the daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
About an hour for the whole story at a learner’s pace, with new words translated as you go. The 10 chapters run from about 320 to 610 words each, so each takes a few minutes and the story fits into one or two evenings.
Where does the text get easier?
It is even from start to finish. Chapter III, “Лисячий погляд” (A fox’s look), has the longest sentences (11.4 words on average); chapter VII, the most dialogue-heavy, the shortest (9.2); the other eight stay between 9.6 and 10.9 words.
Will my place in the book be saved?
Yes. After you sign in, the reader remembers where you stopped and which words you opened. The contents on this page also open any of the 10 chapters directly, for example chapter VI, “Чорна книга” (The black book), where Stekha asks Bychok about the rumour of his book of magic.