I. Олеся
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A village girl, two boys and a melon field
Olesia and Other Stories Олеся та інші оповідання
Borys Hrinchenko
This is MovaReader’s retelling in simple standard Ukrainian of three stories Borys Hrinchenko wrote for children, not the original texts. In Олеся (Olesia), an orphan girl meets a band of Tatar raiders at the edge of the forest; in Грицько (Hrytsko), two neighbour boys quarrel over cherries by a river; in Кавуни (Watermelons), two friends crawl into an old watchman’s melon field. It is for learners who know the basics and can follow a story told in the past tense. In the catalogue it is A2: about 4,400 words in 3 chapters, one per story. Hrinchenko’s school stories in the original are in the catalogue at B2 as The Exam and Other Stories.
- A2
- 4 399 words
- 1 hour
Will this text hold?
A1
Earlier
At A1 it is hard going: all three stories are in the past tense, and many sentences join two clauses with бо, коли or що.
A1A2
This text
At A2 it fits: everyday words, past-tense narration and quick dialogue; village words like тин (a wattle fence), баштан (a melon field) or бублик (a ring-shaped bread roll) translate with a tap.
Check this passageB1
With room to spare
At B1 it reads quickly, almost without translation: a gentle way into Hrinchenko before his complete school stories in The Exam and Other Stories, which is in the catalogue at B2.
Start readingThe average sentence has 10 words, the narration is in the past tense, and every story moves on short exchanges of dialogue. About one word in 24 has 9 letters or more (4.2%), words like наздогнали (caught up with) or знепритомнів (fainted). Hrinchenko’s complete stories in The Exam and Other Stories, at B2, have 9.1% long words and the full range of 19th-century village speech. Among the A2 adaptations, Kotsiubynsky’s Хо has slightly shorter sentences (9 words) but more long words (5.2%), and Тіні минулого, Polishchuk’s legends, has the same sentence length with 5.1%. The three stories differ a little: Грицько has the longest sentences (12.0 words) and the fewest long words (3.7%), Кавуни the shortest sentences (8.9 words). Hence A2. This is the catalogue’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 4 399
- words
- 10
- words in an average sentence
- 1
- hour of reading
MovaReader. Wikisource
What it is about, without the ending
Three stories from Hrinchenko’s years as a village teacher. In the first, set in Volhynia in the age of Tatar slave raids, old Danylo, a former Cossack who survived years as a galley slave, raises two orphans, sixteen-year-old Olesia and little Mykhailyk. One Sunday the children go berry picking far beyond the forest and see horsemen in tall pointed hats searching for their hidden village. Olesia sends her brother home through the woods and walks out to meet the riders, who want a guide. In the second, ten-year-old Hrytsko catches Semen, the son of a poor widow next door, picking his family’s cherries, and the quarrel follows him to the steep riverbank where he sits down with his bublyk. In the third, hungry Sanko talks his timid friend Stetsko into stealing watermelons from old Kuchma, a retired soldier who guards the field. What happens next is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Олеся та інші оповідання
II. Грицько
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Choose an underlined word.
Looking and seeing: two aspects
Олеся подивилася і побачила uses two perfective verbs: one completed glance, one completed discovery. A few lines later Олеся дивилася з-за кущів uses the imperfective дивитися, because she keeps watching while the riders turn about. Pairs like дивитися / подивитися and бачити / побачити run through the whole book.
Wanting in the dative, a piece in the genitive
Йому дуже захотілося бублика means “he badly wanted the bublyk”: the verb is impersonal (neuter -ло), the one who wants is in the dative (йому), and what he wants is in the genitive (бублика). The genitive also follows відкусив, “bit off”: відкусив бублика, a piece of it, not the whole roll.
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 long thought follows a comma, as in old Danylo’s words Кожна людина повинна боронити свою землю від ворога, навіть якщо треба віддати за неї життя, “Every person must defend their land from the enemy, even if they have to give their life for it”.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
Ukrainian books A1 Earlier The Exam and Other Stories Екзамен 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?
An adaptation, not the original texts. It is MovaReader’s own retelling in simple standard Ukrainian of three stories by Borys Hrinchenko: Олеся (1890, printed that year), Грицько (1890) and Кавуни (1891), dated as in volume I of his Works (Kyiv, 1928). The sources are the Wikisource texts of Олеся (Minden, 1948) and of the Knyhospilka editions of Грицько (Kharkiv, 1928) and Кавуни (Kharkiv, 1927). The selection is the catalogue’s, and none of the stories repeats The Exam and Other Stories. What changed: the spelling is modern (2019 rules), the narration keeps to the past tense with sentences of about 10 words, and some descriptions are shortened. The plot, the characters and the order of events are kept. The scan of Грицько lacks its first page, so the opening line, where Hrytsko takes his bublyk into the orchard, is a short bridge. The hostile names the original uses for the Tatar raiders are left out: here they are simply татари or вороги (enemies). Olesia’s death and the beating in Кавуни are told briefly, without detail.
Is there an audiobook?
No, there is no audio version on MovaReader: you read the text on screen. Tap an unfamiliar word to see its translation; here that will often be village words like баштан (a melon field) or кібець (a small falcon whose whistle frightens the boys in Кавуни).
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes: whole-sentence translation comes with the Reader plan. With 10 words per sentence you will want it mostly where a sentence chains two reasons, as in Стецько бачив, що вони ось-ось його схоплять, бо руки Кучми вже були біля його спини (“Stetsko saw that they were about to grab him, because Kuchma’s hands were already at his back”). Single words can be translated without the plan, within a daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
Plan on roughly one hour for the whole book at a learner’s pace, looking up new words along the way. Each story is one chapter: Олеся has 1,669 words, Грицько 1,274 and Кавуни 1,456, so each makes a single sitting.
Where does the text get easier?
The three stories are close in difficulty, so you can read them in any order. Кавуни has the shortest sentences (8.9 words on average) because so much of it is quick dialogue between the two boys and the watchman. Грицько has the longest sentences (12.0 words) but the fewest long words (3.7%), and Олеся sits between them (10.8 words, 4.5% long words).
Will my place in the book be saved?
Yes. Once you sign in, the reader keeps your place and the words you looked up. The contents on this page open any of the 3 chapters directly, for example chapter II, “Грицько”, where Hrytsko sits down above the river with his cherries and his bublyk.