III. Мавка лісова
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A Ukrainian forest drama retold for B1
The Forest Song Лісова пісня
Lesya Ukrainka
This is a prose retelling of Lesya Ukrainka’s verse drama in simple modern Ukrainian, not the original text: a MovaReader adaptation for readers who already handle everyday Ukrainian and want a complete story with real literary weight. In the catalogue it is B1: about 5,000 words in 10 chapters, with 11 words per sentence on average and about a third of the text in dialogue. In an ancient forest in Volhynia, the forest nymph Mavka wakes up in spring to the sound of a young villager’s pipe, and the world of the forest spirits meets the world of people.
- B1
- 4 964 words
- 1 hour
Will this text hold?
A2
Earlier
At A2 you will be stopped often: the story is told in the past tense, sentences join two or three clauses, and words of the forest and the field, such as латаття, верховіття or серп, need a tap.
A2B1
This text
You can read it at B1 if you know the past tense and the vocabulary of nature: most sentences carry one clear action, and the same words (верба, береза, сопілка, озеро) come back until you no longer need to translate them.
Check this passageB2
With room to spare
At B2 it reads almost without translation, a good way to know the story before the complete Ukrainian classics in the catalogue, such as Kotsiubynsky’s Intermezzo.
Start readingThe average sentence has 11 words, the same as in the catalogue’s other B1 adaptation, Kaidash’s Family (11), but most sentences carry one clear action joined with і, а or бо. A word of 9 letters or more appears about once in 19 words (5.3%), against 5.8% in Kaidash’s Family and 6.3% in Kotsiubynsky’s complete Intermezzo; most of them are ordinary speech verbs such as відповіла, засміявся or прошепотіла. The original is a play in verse, with archaic forms (се for це) and Volhynian words; here everything is plain prose in standard modern Ukrainian, while a few famous lines stay, such as Я в серці маю те, що не вмирає. About 34% of the words are spoken lines. The difficulty is even: the 10 chapters range from 10.2 to 11.8 words per sentence. Hence B1. This is the catalogue’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 4 964
- words
- 11
- words in an average sentence
- 1
- hour of reading
MovaReader. Wikisource
What it is about, without the ending
In early spring, in an ancient forest in Volhynia, old Uncle Lev and his young nephew Lukash come to a forest lake where they plan to build a house. Lukash plays his pipe, and the music wakes Mavka, a forest nymph who has slept all winter in an old willow. Lisovyk, the old spirit of the forest, warns her that human paths take away freedom, but Mavka and Lukash fall in love. By late summer a house stands in the clearing, Lukash’s mother wants a hard-working daughter-in-law rather than a girl from the forest, and a lively young widow named Kylyna starts to visit. Around them live the spirits of Ukrainian folklore: the mocking Rusalka of the lake, the fiery Perelesnyk and the dark He Who Sits in the Rock. What happens next is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Лісова пісня
V. Хата на галяві
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Choose an underlined word.
Saying “don’t” with an imperative
Не руш, не ріж, не вбивай! are three negative imperatives in a row: не plus the imperfective imperative of рушити (to touch), різати (to cut) and вбивати (to kill). For a prohibition Ukrainian normally uses the imperfective verb, so the perfective вбий becomes не вбивай.
A line from the play
Сестрице, пошануй, краси моєї не руйнуй! keeps the rhyme of Lesya Ukrainka’s verse. Сестрице is the vocative of сестриця (little sister), the form used to call someone. After the negated verb the object goes into the genitive (краси, not красу), and моєї follows its noun, an inversion typical of poetry and folk songs.
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
With the Reader plan, MovaReader translates the whole sentence where simple words carry a poetic image, as in Там не ходить воля, там журба носить свій тягар, “freedom does not walk there, there sorrow carries its burden”.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
Ukrainian books A2 Earlier Trouble Teaches and Other Tales Біда навчить та інші казки Another book by the same author A1
All books at this level
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 modern Ukrainian, of Lesya Ukrainka’s verse drama Лісова пісня, written in 1911 and first published in 1912; the plot follows the text of the play on Wikisource. The form has changed: the original is a play in verse, with a prologue, three acts, stage directions and songs; here it is a story in prose with 11 words per sentence on average, so the 10 chapters, about 5,000 words, come to less than a third of the play’s length. The characters and the main scenes stay in their order, and some short lines are kept as dialogue, such as Ох, як я довго спала! and Я в серці маю те, що не вмирає. Some minor spirits and long songs are shortened or left out. The original play is not in the catalogue.
Is there an audiobook?
No, there is no audio version of this book on MovaReader; the text is read on screen. Tap an unfamiliar word and its translation appears: here that will mostly be words of the forest and of village work, such as латаття (water-lily leaves floating on a lake) or серп (a sickle).
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes: whole-sentence translation comes with the Reader plan. Sentences here are short enough to read word by word, so you will need it mostly for poetic lines kept from the play, such as Німого в лісі в нас нема нічого, “there is nothing mute here in our forest”, or Зірка в серце впала, “a star fell into my heart”. Without the plan you can translate single words until the daily limit runs out.
How many hours does it take?
About an hour for the whole book, at a learner’s pace with translation of new words, not a native speaker’s. The 10 chapters run from about 350 words (chapter I) to about 570 (chapters V and VII), so each one fits into a short sitting.
Where does the text get easier?
The difficulty is even from start to finish: every chapter averages 10-12 words per sentence. Chapters IV and III, with the night scene and the first meeting full of short replies, are the lightest at about 10; chapters V and VIII, with more narration, run slightly longer at about 11.7.
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 III, “Мавка лісова” (Mavka of the Forest).