I. Камінний хрест: горб
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Five Stefanyk stories in an A2 adaptation
The Stone Cross and Other Stories Камінний хрест та інші новели
Vasyl Stefanyk
This is MovaReader’s retelling of five short stories by Vasyl Stefanyk in simple standard Ukrainian, not the original text: an adaptation for readers who know the basics and want real literature told in the past tense. In the catalogue it is A2: about 4,200 words in 6 titled chapters, one for each story and two for the title story, Камінний хрест (The Stone Cross). Stefanyk wrote in the dialect of Pokuttia, his corner of Galicia; here it becomes today’s standard Ukrainian, so шо is що again and дєдя (dad) is тато. These are sober stories for adults, about emigration, poverty, illness and old age. The complete stories, in a selection of 21 of about 27,200 words, are in the catalogue at C1.
- A2
- 4 241 words
- 1 hour
Will this text hold?
A1
Earlier
At A1 it is a stretch: everything is told in the past tense, sentences of about 9 words join clauses with бо, що or щоб, and the old people’s complaints bring farm words such as дишлом (with the cart pole) or призьбу (the earth bench along a cottage wall).
A1A2
This text
At A2 it fits: everyday words, past-tense narration and many short speeches; a word like скреготав (gnashed) or лахміття (rags) translates with a tap.
Check this passageB1
With room to spare
At B1 it reads almost without translation: a quick way into Stefanyk before the complete stories in his Pokuttia dialect, which are in the catalogue at C1.
Start readingThe average sentence has 9 words, the narration is in the past tense, and the villagers’ own speeches carry most of the stories. Only 4.0% of the words have 9 letters or more, fewer than in four of the six other A2 adaptations; typical ones are заспокоївся (calmed down) and працьовита (hard-working). The complete stories in the catalogue are C1 with 11 words per sentence and 5.0% long words: their difficulty is Stefanyk’s Pokuttia dialect, where шо stands for що 265 times, the particle си is written apart from its verb 53 times, and words like аді (look) or дєдя (dad) turn up on almost every page. This retelling uses only standard forms. Among the other A2 adaptations, Тіні забутих предків (Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors) has the same 9 words per sentence but more long words (5.4%), and Захар Беркут has longer sentences (10 words) with 4.9% long words. The difficulty is fairly even: the 6 chapters range from 7.5 words per sentence (Синя книжечка, a drunk man’s monologue) to 10.8 (the opening chapter about Ivan’s hill). Hence A2. This is the catalogue’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 4 241
- words
- 9
- words in an average sentence
- 1
- hour of reading
MovaReader. Wikisource
What it is about, without the ending
Galicia, around 1900, in the villages of Pokuttia. In Камінний хрест, old Ivan Didukh has spent his life carrying manure up the worst hill in the village, a hill that bent his back for good; now his sons have talked him into selling everything and leaving for Canada, and he invites the whole village to a farewell. In Синя книжечка (The Blue Book), Antin, a widower who has drunk away his land and his house, sits on the village green with the blue service book that lets him hire himself out. In Діти (Children), an old man resting at the edge of a field complains aloud about how his son and daughter-in-law treat him. In Катруся, a family that has spent its last money on a sick daughter takes her by cart to a doctor in town. In Новина (The News), a widowed labourer who can no longer feed his two little girls takes them out one moonlit night. How each story ends is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Камінний хрест та інші новели
III. Синя книжечка
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Choose an underlined word.
Superlatives with най-
Ukrainian makes the superlative by putting най- in front of the comparative: вищий (higher) becomes найвищий (the highest), гірший (worse) becomes найгірший (the worst). So найвищий і найгірший горб is “the highest and the worst hill”. Find the comparative inside the word and the meaning follows.
A past told in the present
Antin is telling what happened that morning, but he slips into the present: хочу встати (I want to get up), сиджу й плачу (I sit and cry), люди сходяться (people gather). Ukrainian speakers do this to make a past moment vivid, as English speakers do in “so I’m sitting there”. The time is still the past; only the verbs bring it closer.
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 the grammar is unusual rather than the words, as in Мені так жаль того горба, як дитині матері, “I grieve for that hill the way a child grieves for its mother”, where the feeling sits in the dative мені and дитині and there is no verb at all.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
Ukrainian books A1 Earlier The Stone Cross and Other Stories Камінний хрест та інші новели Another book by the same author C1
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 of five short stories by Vasyl Stefanyk, chosen and ordered by the catalogue. Камінний хрест (The Stone Cross) was first printed in 1899 in the journal Літературно-науковий вісник (Literary and Scientific Herald); Синя книжечка (The Blue Book), Катруся and Новина (The News) were collected in his first book, Синя книжечка (Chernivtsi, 1899); Діти (Children) first appeared in his collection Камінний хрест (Lviv, 1900). The source is his Works (Твори, Lviv, 1942) on Wikisource, the same text that is in this catalogue at C1. What changed: the Pokuttia dialect became modern standard Ukrainian (2019 spelling), the sentences average about 9 words, and the five stories, about 6,600 words in the original, became about 4,200, in 6 titled chapters. The scenes, the speeches and the order of events are kept, with some images simplified. The source’s period word for Jews, offensive today, is left out together with the lines that use it, and so is one insult in the farewell scene.
Is there an audiobook?
No, there is no audio version on MovaReader: the text is read on screen. Tap an unfamiliar word and its translation appears; at this level that will often be village words like толоці (on the common pasture) or війта (of the village head).
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes: whole-sentence translation comes with the Reader plan. Sentences here average 9 words, so you will need it mostly where one sentence holds two thoughts, as in Буває, що хвиля викине з річки на берег великий камінь (“It happens that a wave throws a big stone out of the river onto the bank”), the image Stefanyk uses for Ivan at his farewell. Without the plan you can translate single words up to the daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
About an hour for all five stories at a learner’s pace, with new words translated as you go. The 6 chapters run from about 410 to 1,110 words: the longest is chapter II, the farewell in Камінний хрест, and the shortest is chapter IV, Діти. Each story fits into one sitting.
Where does the text get easier?
The difficulty is fairly even. Chapters III and IV, Синя книжечка and Діти, are almost all monologue and have the shortest sentences (7.5 and 7.7 words); chapter I, which describes Ivan’s work on his hill, has the longest (10.8) but the fewest long words (2.9%). If the start feels heavy, Діти is a short story to begin with.
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 6 chapters directly, for example chapter V, “Катруся”, where a mother sits by her sick daughter and braids her hair.