II. Похід
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Shevchenko’s poem retold in prose for A2
Kateryna Катерина
Taras Shevchenko
This is MovaReader’s prose retelling of Taras Shevchenko’s narrative poem in simple standard Ukrainian, not the original verse: an adaptation for readers who know the basics and are learning to follow a story told in the past tense. In the catalogue it is A2: about 3,400 words in 10 short titled chapters. Shevchenko is Ukraine’s national poet, and Kobzar (Кобзар, 1840), the small book in which this poem first appeared, is the foundational book of modern Ukrainian literature; the original poem is not in the catalogue. The story is sad and told for adults: a village girl, a soldier’s promise and what it costs her.
- A2
- 3 432 words
- 1 hour
Will this text hold?
A1
Earlier
At A1 it is a stretch: the whole story is told in the past tense, and many sentences join two clauses with бо, але, коли or щоб.
A1A2
This text
At A2 it fits: everyday words, past-tense narration and a lot of short dialogue; the old words of the poem are explained where they first appear, and words like латана (patched) or наймичкою (as a servant) translate with a tap.
Check this passageB1
With room to spare
At B1 it reads almost without translation: a quick way into the story of one of the best-known poems in Ukrainian before you try Shevchenko’s verse itself.
Start readingThe average sentence has 10 words, and the narration is in the past tense, with many short lines of dialogue. Only about one word in 27 has 9 letters or more (3.7%), for example чорнобривими (dark-browed girls) or відцурався (disowned). The language of the poem, with its folk-song forms and lines in Russian, is replaced by modern standard Ukrainian, and the few old words that stay are explained in the text the first time they appear: москаль (a soldier of the Russian army), Московщина (an old name for Russia), покритка (an unmarried mother), чумаки (salt carters), личаки (bast shoes), кобзар (a blind singer). Among the A2 adaptations in the catalogue it has the same sentence length as Лис Микита (10 words) and fewer long words than Тіні забутих предків (5.4%). The difficulty is fairly even: the 10 chapters range from 8.1 to 12.1 words per sentence. Hence A2. This is the catalogue’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 3 432
- words
- 10
- words in an average sentence
- 1
- hour of reading
MovaReader. Wikisource
What it is about, without the ending
In a Ukrainian village in the time of the tsars, Kateryna, a girl with brown eyes and black brows, falls in love with Ivan, a young officer of the Russian army quartered in the village, although her father and mother warn her against him. When the soldiers march off to war with Turkey, Ivan swears that he will come back and marry her. He does not come back, Kateryna gives birth to his son, and the village turns against her family. Her parents send her away to look for Ivan, and she sets out on foot with the baby, carrying a pinch of earth from the cherry orchard, on the long road to Moscow. The road is long, and winter catches her on it. What happens next is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Катерина
VI. Шлях на Москву
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Choose an underlined word.
Covered head, covered girl
Покривати means “to cover”. A married woman covered her hair with a kerchief, so to “cover” a girl meant to mark her as an unmarried mother, and покритка is the word for her. Here it is in the instrumental case after називати: її називали покриткою, “they called her a покритка”.
Віл, вола, на волах
Возили сіль на волах: “they carried salt on oxen”. На волах is the locative plural of віл (ox), with the change of і to о that many nouns have once an ending is added: віл, вола, на волах. The same happens in кінь, коня (horse), which you will meet later in the story.
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 meaning lies in a comparison, as in Мати вміла дати дочці карі очі й чорні брови, але не вміла дати їй щастя, “her mother knew how to give her daughter brown eyes and black brows, but not how to give her happiness”.
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Before you read
Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
An adaptation, not the original text. It is MovaReader’s own prose retelling in simple standard Ukrainian of Taras Shevchenko’s narrative poem Катерина, written in 1838-1839 and first printed in Kobzar (Кобзар) in 1840. The source is the poem on Wikisource, read in the Prague edition of Kobzar (1876, volume I). What changed: over 700 lines of verse became prose in modern standard Ukrainian (2019 spelling), with past-tense narration and sentences of about 10 words, and the five parts of the poem became 10 titled chapters. The plot, the characters and the order of the scenes are kept, and so are some of the poet’s own words to the reader, now in plain prose; the lines the soldiers say in Russian are told in Ukrainian, and old words such as москаль, покритка and чумаки are explained in the text. The opening lines of the poem are quoted as Shevchenko wrote them.
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 words like личаки (bast shoes, also explained in the text) or відцурався (disowned).
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes: whole-sentence translation comes with the Reader plan. Sentences here average 10 words, so you will need it mostly where a sentence strings several clauses together, as in Солдати давно вернулися з війни, тільки іншими дорогами, і повз Катеринине село вони не пройшли (“the soldiers had long since come back from the war, only by other roads, and they did not pass through Kateryna’s village”). 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. There are 10 chapters of about 240 to 450 words each, so a chapter takes a few minutes and the story fits into one evening.
Where does the text get easier?
The difficulty is fairly even: the 10 chapters average between 8.1 and 12.1 words per sentence. The first chapter has the longest sentences (12.1), because it introduces the people and the setting; the scenes by the forest, chapters VIII and IX, are mostly dialogue and have the shortest (8.1 and 8.5).
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 IV, “Батькова хата” (The father’s house), where Kateryna’s parents send her away.