II. Папінька і мамінька
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A farmer who wants to be a nobleman, for A2
Martyn Borulia Мартин Боруля
Ivan Karpenko-Karyi
This is MovaReader’s retelling of Martyn Borulia in simple standard Ukrainian prose, not the original play: Ivan Karpenko-Karyi’s comedy in five acts, written in 1886, about a well-off village farmer who spends his money and his peace of mind on proving that he is a nobleman. It is for A2 readers who know the basics and want a real story told in the past tense, with plenty of short dialogue: about 4,700 words in 11 short titled chapters. The complete play is in the catalogue at B2.
- A2
- 4 725 words
- 1 hour
Will this text hold?
A1
Earlier
At A1 it is a stretch: the whole story is in the past tense, many sentences join two clauses with що, бо or щоб, and Martyn’s angry speeches need several taps.
A1A2
This text
At A2 it fits: everyday village words, past-tense narration and lots of short dialogue; words like наймит (a hired farmhand) or панич (a young master) translate with a tap.
Check this passageB1
With room to spare
At B1 it reads almost without translation: a quick way to know the story before the complete play at B2, with its stage directions, its gentry’s Polish phrases and its Russian-language court papers.
Start readingSentences average 8 words, the narration is in the past tense, and short lines of dialogue carry much of the comedy. About one word in 20 has 9 letters or more (5.0%); typical ones are дворянство (nobility), which comes back again and again, and past-tense verbs such as посварилися (they quarrelled). Among the other plays retold for A2, Natalka Poltavka has slightly longer sentences (9 words, 5.1%) and Karmeliuk longer still (10 words, 5.3%), so this is one of the lighter A2 books; the A1 retellings stay at about 5 words a sentence, in the present tense. The first chapter, which sets out the background, has the longest sentences (10.1 words); chapter VII, almost all quick dialogue, the shortest (6.8); the other nine stay between 7.8 and 9.0. Hence A2. This is the catalogue’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 4 725
- words
- 8
- words in an average sentence
- 1
- hour of reading
MovaReader. Wikisource
What it is about, without the ending
A Ukrainian village in the 1880s. Martyn Borulia has land, horses, cattle and money, but he wants something more: a paper from the Senate in the capital saying that he is a nobleman. He takes his rich neighbour Krasovskyi to court and pays the lawyer Trandalev to win, not knowing that Trandalev is paid by the other side too. He sends his son Stepan to copy papers in a town office and tells his daughter Marysia to say папінька, “papa”, instead of the peasant тату. When his old friend Hervasii comes to ask for Marysia’s hand for his son Mykola, whom she loves, Martyn refuses: a farmer’s son is no match for a nobleman’s daughter. He has a better groom in mind, Natsiievskyi, a town clerk with a guitar and a red waistcoat. Meanwhile his oxen are seized, his horses are stolen in town, and an order comes to leave the land he lives on. Marysia has her own plan for the groom. What happens next is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Мартин Боруля
VIII. Червона жилетка
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Choose an underlined word.
Calling people by name
When you speak to someone, Ukrainian puts the name in the vocative case: Марися becomes Марисю, Степан becomes Степане, and тато and мама become тату and мамо. That is exactly what annoys Martyn here: тату and мамо are the ordinary village words, while папінька and мамінька are borrowed from Russian-speaking gentry.
“When ... then” with як and то
The groom’s promises use як ... то: Як вийдете за мене, то не будете жати means “When you marry me, you won’t have to reap”. Як here is “when” or “if”, not “how”, and the verbs after it are perfective futures (вийдете, поберемося): one finished event that comes first.
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 a thought hangs on що, as in Тоді Мартин подумав, що бійка з жінкою буде не по-панськи, і почав говорити лагідніше, “Then Martyn thought that a fight with his wife would not be gentlemanly, and he began to speak more gently”.
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Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
An adaptation, not the original text. It is MovaReader’s own retelling, in simple standard Ukrainian prose, of Martyn Borulia (Мартин Боруля), Ivan Karpenko-Karyi’s comedy in five acts, written in 1886 and first published in 1891 in the Lviv magazine Зоря. We followed the 1921 Lviv edition of the Shevchenko Scientific Society on Wikisource, the same text as the complete play at B2 in our catalogue. What changed: a play of about 13,600 words became about 4,700 words of past-tense prose in modern standard Ukrainian (2019 spelling), in 11 titled chapters, with a short note on the background added to the first chapter. The plot, the main characters and the order of the scenes are kept; the stage directions became narration, some side scenes and old Protasii’s endless stories are shorter, and the Russian-language court papers and the Russian romance the groom sings are given as short Ukrainian summaries. The original’s contemptuous word for Jews was left out.
Is there an audiobook?
No, there is no audio version on MovaReader: the text is read on screen. Tap a word you don’t know and its translation appears; here that will often be words of village life such as постоли (soft leather peasant shoes) or п’яльця (an embroidery frame), or words of rank like панич (a young master).
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes: whole-sentence translation comes with the Reader plan. Sentences here average 8 words, so you will need it mostly where one clause is weighed against another, as in Він кричав, що скоріше вижене дочку з дому, ніж віддасть її за мужика (“He shouted that he would sooner throw his daughter out of the house than marry her to a peasant”), where скоріше ... ніж means “sooner ... than”. 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 11 chapters of about 280 to 510 words each and a longer last chapter of about 600, so each takes a few minutes and the story fits into one or two evenings.
Where does the text get easier?
It is fairly even. The first chapter, which explains the background and introduces the lawyer, has the longest sentences (10.1 words on average); chapter VII, “Жених приїхав” (The groom arrives), almost all quick dialogue, has the shortest (6.8); the others stay between 7.8 and 9.0 words.
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 11 chapters directly, for example chapter V, “Біда за бідою” (Trouble after trouble), where the farmhand Omelko comes home from town barefoot.