II. Камінний хрест
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Peasant lives in 21 Galician stories
The Stone Cross and Other Stories Камінний хрест та інші новели
Vasyl Stefanyk, 1942
Twenty-one complete stories by Vasyl Stefanyk in the original Ukrainian, written between 1897 and 1922, not an adaptation. It is for learners at C1, or strong B2 readers ready for the Pokuttia dialect of western Ukraine, which Stefanyk uses in the narration as well as in the speech. About 27,200 words in 21 chapters, one story each, from under 200 words to about 4,000.
- C1
- 27 187 words
- 5-8 hours
Will this text hold?
B2
Earlier
At B2 the stories are short and the plots simple, but dialect forms such as шо, аді, коби, дивиси and дєдя stop you in almost every line of dialogue, and the narration uses them too.
B2C1
This text
At C1 it reads with word taps: the same dialect forms return in every story, so after Камінний хрест the -си verbs and the є spellings feel familiar; the war stories of 1922, Сини and Вона - земля, have the longest sentences.
Check this passageC2
With room to spare
At C2 only the rarest farm and dialect words (нашильник, шлия, the parts of a harness) still need a tap; the rest reads for Stefanyk’s compressed, almost spoken style.
Start readingOn the plain numbers this would look easy: sentences average 11 words and only 5.0% of the words have 9 letters or more, the lowest share among the originals in the catalogue, shared only with Stefanyk’s second collection (Тіні забутих предків has 7.4%, Fata Morgana 6.4%, both far from the 10% of Boa constrictor). What makes it C1 is the dialect of Pokuttia, Stefanyk’s home region, and here it is everywhere, not only in the dialogue. The text writes шо for що 271 times, коби (if only) 37 times, аді (look) 29, тото, тота and тоті (that) 26, ци (whether) 23 and відай (probably) 9. Reflexive verbs end in -си instead of -ся (дивиси, тішуси, напитиси: over 100 forms), and си stands alone 53 more times; about 200 words write є where standard Ukrainian has я (дєдя, тєжко, житє, весілє); the past tense takes a personal ending (гадав-сми for я гадав, би-м for я б). Like Тіні забутих предків (C1, Hutsul dialect), the words are short but many of them are in no standard dictionary. This is the catalogue’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 27 187
- words
- 11
- words in an average sentence
- 5-8
- hours of reading
- 1942
- Українське видавництво
Українське видавництво, 1942. Wikisource
What it is about, without the ending
Ivan Didukh has spent his whole life dragging manure up a barren hill on his back, beside his one horse, until the hill has bent him double. Now his wife and sons have decided to emigrate to Canada, so the old man sells everything, sets up a stone cross on his hill and calls the village to a farewell. Around this title story are twenty more from the villages of Galicia between 1897 and 1922: a widower so poor that he drowns his little daughter, a drunkard selling the last of his land, a mother hiding her daughters from soldiers, an old farmer who has lost both sons in the war, a refugee family from Bukovina at a stranger’s gate, a sick girl, a rich man who cannot sleep. What happens to them next is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Камінний хрест та інші новели
XV. Святий вечір
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Choose an underlined word.
Past tense with a personal ending
In Pokuttia speech the past tense carries the person as a short ending: гадав-сми is я гадав (I thought), був-сми is я був (I was), and -с marks ти. Also read шо as що, and пражит as пражить (scorches): the dialect drops the soft sign in the third person.
-си for -ся, є for я
Reflexive verbs end in -си: продавси is продався (sold himself), обтулюйтеси is standard обтуляйтеся (wrap yourself up). After a soft consonant the dialect writes є where standard Ukrainian has я: лахмітє is лахміття (rags), сарачєта is сарачата (poor little ones, from сарака, a poor soul). And би-м is я б (I would).
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
Ivan talks to his hill as to a person, and translating the whole sentence in Reader untangles the dialect of “Ото-с ні, небоже, зібгав у дугу! Але доки ні ноги носє, то мус родити хліб!” (“Look how you’ve bent me into a bow, my friend! But as long as my legs carry me, you must grow bread!”).
ReaderIf this book is not the one
Ukrainian books B2 Earlier The Stone Cross and Other Stories Камінний хрест та інші новели Another book by the same author A2
All books at this levelBefore you read
Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
Yes, every story is complete and in the original Ukrainian, but the selection of 21 stories and their order are MovaReader’s own: Stefanyk never published them together under this title. They were written between 1897 and 1922. Камінний хрест first appeared in 1899 in the journal “Літературно-науковий вісник” (Literary and Scientific Herald) and gave its name to his 1900 collection; the latest, Сини and Вона - земля, were printed in the same journal in 1922. The text comes from his Works (Твори, Українське видавництво, Lviv, 1942) on Wikisource and keeps that edition’s spelling, with the author’s dialect forms and older endings such as радости and пам’яти where today’s Ukrainian writes радості and пам’яті.
Is there an audiobook?
No, there is no audiobook on MovaReader: the stories are read on screen. Tap a word to see its translation; you will need it most for dialect words such as нендзі (from нендза, misery, poverty) or борзо (quickly).
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes, with the Reader plan. It helps most where the dialect bends the grammar, as in the first story: “Ніхто за нього не хотів піти заміж, бо коби то лишень діти, але то ще й біда і нестатки” (“Nobody wanted to marry him, for it was not only the children, but poverty and want as well”). Without the plan, single words are translated up to the daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
About 5-8 hours at the pace of someone reading with word translation, slower than a native speaker. The stories are very uneven: Палій runs to about 4,000 words and Камінний хрест to about 3,400, while seven stories are under 600 words and Лан has fewer than 200, so most of them fit into one sitting.
Where does the text get easier?
Each story stands alone, so the difficulty jumps rather than rises. The easiest by the numbers are the short ones: Лан averages about 6 words per sentence, Мамин синок, Виводили з села and Синя книжечка about 8, and Синя книжечка has only 2.5% long words. The hardest are the two war stories of 1922, Сини and Вона - земля, at 16-17 words per sentence, then Камінний хрест at 13. Starting with Мамин синок or Синя книжечка is a gentler way in than reading in order.
Will my place in the book be saved?
Yes. Once you sign in, the reader keeps your place and the words you opened. Any of the 21 stories opens from the contents on this page, for example II. Камінний хрест, the title story about emigration to Canada.