I. Картина перша
( , ). , , … , … … ( ). , . ( ). , ?
(): .
— , , …
. , . : : , , ! , , , , . . , : „ “, , , …
A Podillia outlaw’s name day in the forest
Karmeliuk Кармелюк
Stepan Vasylchenko, 1927
Stepan Vasylchenko’s complete play in Ukrainian, first published in this three-act form in 1927, not an adaptation. It is for B2 learners who want a lively stage text about Ustym Karmaliuk, the folk hero of Podillia who took from the landlords and gave to the poor, with folk songs, Polish gentry and village crowds. About 11,000 words in three scenes (картини), 6 words per sentence on average.
- B2
- 10 987 words
- 2-3 hours
Will this text hold?
B1
Earlier
At B1 the short spoken lines carry you a long way, but the 1927 spelling (од for від, тільки-ж), the gentry’s Polish words and the long speeches of the third scene will slow you down. A retelling of the play as prose in simple modern Ukrainian is in the catalog at A2.
B1B2
This text
At B2 you can read it: almost every line is speech, and the stage directions in brackets are short and keep coming back (сміються, до гостей, пішов).
Check this passageC1
With room to spare
At C1 the play reads freely; only the vocabulary of serfdom and the gentry’s Polish make you stop.
Start readingThe average sentence has 6 words, among the shortest of the complete originals in the catalogue, because almost every line is spoken: 399 of the 682 paragraphs open with a speaker’s name. Short lines do not make a classic easy, though. 9.2% of words have 9 letters or more, about one in eleven: the same share as Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky’s Kharytia and Other Stories (9.2%) and close to Vasylchenko’s own Peasant Arithmetic and Other Stories (9.4%), against 7.4% in Natalka Poltavka, the other play in the catalogue. The 1927 Kharkiv edition keeps the spelling of its day: од appears 23 times and від never, инші and инших 15 times, and particles take a hyphen (тільки-ж, коли-б) about 90 times. The gentry pepper their Ukrainian with Polish (злотих, шпацирують), the mysterious guest is called by the Russian word Незнакомий 30 times, and an official’s speech in the third scene runs to about 520 words in one paragraph. Hence B2. This is the catalogue’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 10 987
- words
- 6
- words in an average sentence
- 2-3
- hours of reading
- 1927
- Державне видавництво України
Державне видавництво України, 1927. Wikisource
What it is about, without the ending
Podillia, early 19th century. Deep in the forest, under an old oak, the outlaw Karmeliuk celebrates his name day with peasant guests, his band and a family who have brought their little boy to see the famous “robber”. His men keep bringing in travellers from the road: the Jewish band leader Moshko and his musicians, who were on their way to a gentry ball and play the mazurka “Karmeliuk” for him instead; Father Shuliak, a priest who swears he carries no money; and the proud young lady Zosia, who is told she must dance at the outlaw’s feast. When the landlord’s steward leads a posse of armed serfs into the forest, Karmeliuk meets them with music and a cup for the poorest of them. The second scene moves to the manor of the landowner Liuba, where her son Stas, her niece Romtsia, old Pan Dushechka and the young liberal Olizar barricade themselves for the night in fear of Karmeliuk, and a polite stranger travelling with carts of wool asks for shelter. The third scene opens in a manor farmyard, where villagers and gentry gather because the captured Karmeliuk is to be led through. What happens next is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Кармелюк
II. Картина друга
. , , , , … — … : , , …
. — ?
. , , . ! — , .
. : , . . — , . , , , — .
. ? . ?
Choose an underlined word.
Moshko’s own voice
Moshko says тілант for талант, and he speaks of himself in the third person: Мошко теж у світі горя бачив (“Moshko has seen trouble in the world too”). When the lords order him about he becomes Мошку, the vocative, the form used to call someone. A line that starts with a dash belongs to an unnamed guest; the words in brackets are stage directions, not speech.
Read од as від
This edition writes од where modern Ukrainian has від: од того Кармелюка is від того Кармелюка (“because of that Karmeliuk”), and the play has 23 separate од and no від at all. Particles are joined with a hyphen: ви-ж, коли-б and вже-ж are today ви ж, коли б and вже ж. Не переливки is an idiom: “it’s no joke”.
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
When Karmeliuk thanks his guests, translating the whole sentence keeps its balance and feeling together: З вами я й заплачу, з вами я й звеселюся (“With you I will weep, and with you I will be merry”).
ReaderIf this book is not the one
Ukrainian books B1 Earlier Peasant Arithmetic and Other Stories Мужицька арихметика та інші оповідання Another book by the same author B2
All books at this level
Before you read
Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
It is the original, not an adaptation: Stepan Vasylchenko’s complete play in three scenes (картини), subtitled П’єса на 3 дії. A shorter one-act Karmeliuk came out in 1924; this three-act version first appeared in 1927. The text comes from Wikisource, which reproduces volume 3 of Vasylchenko’s Complete Works (Повна збірка творів), published by the State Publishing House of Ukraine in Kharkiv in 1927, and it keeps that edition’s spelling: од for від, инші for інші, тільки-ж and коли-б with a hyphen, сьогодня for сьогодні. Two transcription details were tidied: the brace grouping the two maids in the cast list is now one line, and a few words the scan leaves hard to read in one stage direction follow the Wikisource proofreader (схилив на стіл). The landowners speak of peasants and Jews with the contemptuous words of their class and time.
Is there an audiobook?
Karmeliuk has no audiobook on MovaReader: the play is read on screen, and a tap on a word shows its translation. You will need it for the words of serfdom and the outlaw band: панщина (“unpaid labour owed to the landlord”), облава (“a manhunt, a posse”), осаул (“the chief’s second-in-command”) and хурщик (“a carter”).
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes, with the Reader plan. It helps most in the long speeches, such as the official’s in the third scene: Ходять такі безглуздані чутки поміж людей, ніби розбійник Кармелюк має якусь особливу, чарівну силу (“Such absurd rumours go around among the people, that the robber Karmeliuk has some special, magic power”). Without the plan, single words are translated up to the daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
About 2-3 hours, at the pace of someone reading with translation of new words, slower than a native speaker. The play has three scenes: the first about 3,600 words (with the cast list), the second about 4,800 and the third about 2,600, so one scene makes an evening.
Where does the text get easier?
The difficulty is even. The first two scenes are quick exchanges, at 5.2 and 5.3 words per sentence; the third is the densest, at 6.7, because of an official’s speech of about 520 words in a single paragraph. Long words stay between 9.0% and 9.3% in all three scenes.
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 come back where you left off. Each of the three scenes also opens from the contents on this page, for example II. Картина друга, the night in the barricaded manor.