II. Лицар і панянка
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Volhynian legends of ghosts and treasure
Shadows of the Past Тіні минулого
Klym Polishchuk
This is MovaReader’s retelling in simple standard Ukrainian of seven legends from Klym Polishchuk’s Тіні минулого (Shadows of the Past, 1919), not the original text. Polishchuk heard them in Volhynia, in north-western Ukraine, from boatmen, bell-ringers, carters and church watchmen, and each legend keeps its storyteller: a rock that became a Cossack colonel’s head, a hill raised by village girls, bells ringing under the earth, a treasure guarded by a Black Lady, a White Lady in a Christmas church. It is for learners who know the basics and can follow a story told in the past tense, and it is not to be confused with Kotsiubynsky’s Тіні забутих предків (Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors), also at A2. In the catalogue it is A2: about 4,600 words in 13 short titled chapters. The complete book of fourteen legends, about 22,800 words, is in the catalogue at C1.
- A2
- 4 624 words
- 1 hour
Will this text hold?
A1
Earlier
At A1 it is hard going: every legend is told in the past tense, and many sentences add a clause with бо, коли or який.
A1A2
This text
At A2 it fits: everyday words, past-tense narration and short dialogues; words of the period like ксьондз (a Catholic priest) or карбованець (a rouble) translate with a tap.
Check this passageB1
With room to spare
At B1 it reads quickly, almost without translation: a good way into Polishchuk’s complete book of fourteen legends, which is in the catalogue at C1.
Start readingThe average sentence has 10 words, the narration is in the past tense, and short dialogues run through almost every chapter. About one word in 20 has 9 letters or more (5.1%), words like повернулися (came back) or відступають (are retreating). Polishchuk’s complete book, at C1, runs to about 22,800 words with 17 words per sentence, long descriptive paragraphs and the spelling of the 1919 edition (се for це, кождий for кожний). Among the A2 adaptations, Kotsiubynsky’s Хо has slightly shorter sentences (9 words) and a similar share of long words (5.2%), while Karmeliuk has the same 10 words per sentence and 5.3%. The legends are even: chapters average between 9.4 and 11.3 words per sentence, and the densest in vocabulary is chapter VII, the Battle of Berestechko, with 7.6% long words, against 2.9% in chapter II. Hence A2. This is the catalogue’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 4 624
- words
- 10
- words in an average sentence
- 1
- hour of reading
MovaReader. Wikisource
What it is about, without the ending
An old boatman on the Teteriv points to a rock shaped like a man’s head and tells how Colonel Chatsky and a handful of Cossacks stood against a Crimean khan at Zhytomyr. Parkhom, a village church watchman, explains why a mound with a white cross is called Дівич-Гора, the Maidens’ Hill: a knight loved by the common people fell in love with a young lady from the other side. Semen, an old bell-ringer, slips away on Easter night to a field where a whole town is said to have sunk into the earth. On the Berestechko battlefield an old herdsman speaks of lights that wander over the marsh. A poor man sells his last cow and meets a naked old man at a forest spring. In Kremenets a young blacksmith shows the narrator a bottomless castle well and the rules for winning the Black Lady’s treasure. And at Christmas, in a village where Ukrainians and Poles sing carols together, an old organist has written a new carol. What happens next is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Тіні минулого
IX. Дід-Голод
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Choose an underlined word.
Comparisons with як
Як means “like” or “as” here: сильний, як лев (strong as a lion), хитрий, як лис, сміливий, як орел. Folk tales love such sets of three. The noun after як stays in the nominative, so you can read these comparisons without working out any case.
Light, lighter, heavy
Легкий (light) becomes легший (lighter): the three sheaves go light, lighter and heavy as a stone. Comparatives in -ший and -іший (легший, страшніша) are frequent in tales built on threes, and later the old man calls the third sheaf найважчий, the heaviest.
Chapters
Translation while you read
The book stays free on every plan. Reader, €1 a month, removes the daily limit on words and sentences.
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Reader translates whole sentences where the grammar turns around, as in Colonel Chatsky’s words Хто любить рідний край так, як я, той нехай іде за мною!, “Whoever loves his native land as I do, let him follow me!”, built on the pair хто ... той.
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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 of seven of the fourteen legends in Klym Polishchuk’s Тіні минулого. Волинські легенди, first published in 1919 by Сяйво; the source is the book’s text on Wikisource. The choice of legends is the catalogue’s: the opening legend about Голова Чацького, Дівич-Гора, Великодні дзвони, Там, де козаки сплять, Дід-Голод, Зачаровані скарби and Біла панна. What changed: the spelling is modern (2019 rules, so це instead of се and кожний instead of кождий), the narration is in the past tense with sentences of about 10 words, and the author’s long descriptions and political asides are cut. About 22,800 words became about 4,600 in 13 titled chapters, one or two per legend; the plots, storytellers and places are kept. Left out: the insulting period words for Jews, Poles and Russians, the scenes of torture and killing, and the poems used as epigraphs. In Дівич-Гора the Jesuit priests who hand over the poison in the source are simply the knight’s enemies here.
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 words of village life like призьба (the earth bench along a cottage wall) or свитка (a peasant’s homespun coat), or church words like ксьондз (a Catholic priest).
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 rule or a prophecy is packed into one line, as in Коли заспіває третій півень, чорна пані повернеться, усі двері зачиняться навіки, і людина вже ніколи не вийде (“When the third cock crows, the Black Lady will come back, all the doors will close for ever, and the person will never come out”). 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. The chapters run from 275 words (XII) to 518 (I), and each legend is complete in one or two chapters, so one legend makes a good sitting.
Where does the text get easier?
It is even. Chapters average between 9.4 words per sentence (V, where Semen tells his story at the Easter festivities) and 11.3 (XI, the Black Lady). The vocabulary varies a little more: chapter VII, the Battle of Berestechko, has 7.6% long words (запорожців, відступають), and the last chapter 8.4%, partly because the name Станіслав has nine letters, while chapter II, the knight and the young lady, has only 2.9%.
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 13 chapters directly, for example chapter X, “Колодязь на горі Боні” (The well on Bona Hill), where a young blacksmith shows the narrator the bottomless well of Kremenets castle.