II. Лебідь і гуси
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Hrebinka’s 1830s verse fables for C2
Little Russian Fables Малороссійскія приказки
Yevhen Hrebinka, 1836
Yevhen Hrebinka’s complete collection of verse fables in Ukrainian, not an adaptation, as printed in the second edition of 1836 with its old Russian-based spelling. «Малороссійскія» is the Russian adjective for “Little Russian”, the imperial name for Ukraine and its language in Hrebinka’s day, and «приказки» are sayings or fables. The book is for advanced learners who want to read Ukrainian as it was written before the modern standard: about 4,100 words in 26 short fables, one chapter each. Hrebinka (1812-1848), a poet and fabulist of the 1830s, wrote the poem that became the romance «Очи черные» (Dark Eyes) and was a friend of Taras Shevchenko, whose Kobzar he helped publish in 1840.
- C2
- 4 113 words
- 1 hour
Will this text hold?
C1
Earlier
At C1 you read the stories of the 1830s in a spelling close to today’s; here almost every line must be decoded first (винъ for він, іо̂го for його), so the sense of each fable comes slowly. Hlibov’s fables in our A1 retelling show the genre in plain modern Ukrainian.
C1C2
This text
At C2 the fables are short enough to reread: once ы, и and the silent ъ stop looking foreign, the jokes and the jabs at judges and scribes come through, and the 1830s village speaks for itself.
Check this passageC2 here means reading a historical stage of the language, as Shakespeare is for learners of English or Cervantes for learners of Spanish. Hrebinka followed the spelling of the poet Petro Hulak-Artemovsky, which writes Ukrainian sounds with Russian letters: ы where today’s Ukrainian has и (мыръ, сылы), и where it has і (винъ, ричь for він, річ), іо for йо (іо̂го for його), and a silent ъ after a final consonant. About 1,900 of the 4,100 words (46%) carry ъ, ы, ѣ, ѳ or a capped о̂, and 1,056 end in ъ (якъ alone 56 times). On top of the spelling comes the vocabulary of the 1830s village and its chancery: Russian loans such as время and теперь, the court’s понеже and четвертовать, and household words like кобенякъ (a hooded cloak) or ятеръ (a fish trap). The usual numbers mislead here: long words are only 6.2%, far below Pidmohylny’s The City (13.8%), and the average of 15 words per sentence means little in verse, where one sentence can run over a dozen rhymed lines. Compare Leonid Hlibov’s fables in our A1 retelling: 5 words per sentence, 1.7% long words, today’s letters. Even the hardest C1 books, The Witch of Konotop (27 words per sentence) or Kaidash’s Family in its 1879 spelling, are much closer to modern writing; here a modern dictionary, and the tap translation too, will often fail to recognise a word until you rewrite it in today’s letters. This is the catalogue’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 4 113
- words
- 15
- words in an average sentence
- 1
- hour of reading
- 1836
- Друкарня Н. Греча
Друкарня Н. Греча, 1836. Wikisource
What it is about, without the ending
Twenty-six short verse fables from the villages along the Sula in the 1830s, told by a sly narrator who keeps turning to “Паны!” (gentlemen) or to a neighbour by name. A billy goat envies the lady’s lapdog its little bell; a swan glides past grey geese who resent his white feathers; a vixen files a written complaint with a court where the bear is judge and the wolves are his assessors, accusing an ox of eating hay. A rumour runs across the steppe that a burial mound is about to give birth, and a whole fair gathers to watch: Chumak salt carters, tar sellers, schoolboys stealing bagels, beggar-singers with a kobza. The wind and the sun bet on which of them can strip a Cossack of his cloak; a miller prays for his little stream to grow as mighty as the Desna; a fisherman sets off to take the river Sula to court; a boastful nephew walks into the wood sure he will know the nightingale at first sight. Many fables close with a short moral aimed at village scribes, district judges and the gentry. How each fable turns out is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Малороссійскія приказки
XIII. Могилині родини
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Choose an underlined word.
Read ы as и, и as і
In this spelling ы stands for today’s и and и for today’s і: пышно is пишно, плывъ is плив, винъ is він. The final ъ is silent, and іо̂го is його. Every line of the gander’s speech opens with «, the way books of the 1830s marked a long quotation.
і before a vowel is a soft sign or й
Where today’s Ukrainian writes ьо or йо, this edition writes іо, often with a mark over the о: діо̀гтемъ is дьогтем (with tar), сластіо̀ны is сластьони (fritter sellers). Ромни is the town of Romny, whose fair on St Elijah’s day (объ Ильи) was among the largest in Ukraine.
Chapters
- IЦап
- IIЛебідь і гуси
- IIIЯчмінь
- IVЗозуля та снігур
- VВедмежий суд
- VIПшениця
- VIIСонце да хмари
- VIIIГоробці да вишня
- IXБудяк да коноплиночка
- XВерша та болото
- XIМаківка
- XIIРожа да хміль
- XIIIМогилині родини
- XIVЧовен
- XVШколяр Денис
- XVIСонце да вітер
- XVIIГай да сокири
- XVIIIВіл
- XIXГрішник
- XXВорона і ягня
- XXIЗлий кінь
- XXIIМірошник
- XXIIIВовк і огонь
- XXIVУтята да степ
- XXVРибалка
- XXVIСоловей
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
Whole-sentence translation in Reader helps where the old spelling and the cuckoo’s boasting meet, as in «Замисто горобця я зъимъ жукивъ десятокъ» (“Instead of a sparrow I’ll eat a dozen beetles”), where зъимъ is today’s з’їм.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
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Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
It is the original, not a learner’s version: all 26 fables of Yevhen Hrebinka’s «Малороссійскія приказки», first published in 1834. The text comes from Wikisource, which reproduces the second edition (Saint Petersburg, printed by N. Grech, 1836), and keeps that edition’s spelling, which Hrebinka took from Petro Hulak-Artemovsky: ы for today’s и, и for і, іо for йо and a final ъ, as in винъ, іо̂го, ричь (він, його, річ). Left out are the title page, the censor’s permit, a dedication in Russian to his countrymen and lovers of the Little Russian word, and a short preface in Russian in which Hrebinka says that some plots come from the fables of Ivan Krylov and other writers of the genre and names the spelling he followed. A few lines use the oaths and ethnic labels of the period; they are kept as printed.
Is there an audiobook?
There is no audiobook of Little Russian Fables on MovaReader: the fables are read on screen. Tap a word and its translation appears, though with this spelling it will not always find one, so it helps to rewrite a word in today’s letters. You will need it for words like пендючыть (shows off, puffs up) or кобенякъ (a hooded woollen cloak).
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes, with the Reader plan. It helps most in the narrator’s scolding and in the morals, as in «Ты зъ благородіемъ сыдышъ за панибрата» (“You sit with the gentry as if you were one of them”) in XII. Рожа да хміль. Without the plan, single words are translated up to the daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
The whole collection takes about an hour at the pace of someone reading with translation of new words, longer if you stop to decode the spelling. The 26 fables run from about 60 words (VI. Пшениця) to about 350 (XXII. Мірошник), so each one fits into a few minutes.
Where does the text get easier?
The difficulty changes from fable to fable, not from beginning to end, and the spelling is the same throughout. The two fables told as dialogues, a son and his father in III. Ячмінь and an uncle and his nephew in XXVI. Соловей, have the shortest sentences (about 7 and 9 words). The longest, about 20-22 words, come in V. Ведмежий суд, XVII. Гай да сокири, XVIII. Віл and XXI. Злий кінь, where one sentence runs over many lines of verse.
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 return to the collection where you stopped. Any of the 26 fables also opens from the contents on this page, for example XXII. Мірошник, where a miller prays for his little stream to grow as big as the Desna.