I. Розділ 1
— .
— ! ! !
— ?
— , . .
— , .
— ! .
— . .
— . ! ! , !
— , , , .
— . . ! — .
Franko’s village novella for B2
The Great Noise Великий шум
Ivan Franko, 1960
The complete original in Ukrainian, not an adaptation: Ivan Franko’s 1907 novella about a Galician village in 1850, two years after serfdom was abolished, when peasants and the manor still face each other across the tavern table. It is for upper-intermediate learners ready for a full-length book: about 37,900 words in 13 chapters, from about 1,100 to 6,000 words each.
- B2
- 37 871 words
- 6-11 hours
Will this text hold?
B1
Earlier
At B1 the tavern scenes are within reach, since they are mostly short shouted lines, but the long narrative chapters in the middle, Galician forms like се, най and тілько and the Polish and German of the officials make most pages slow going.
B1B2
This text
At B2 start with chapters I-V, where dialogue carries you and the words of serfdom and village politics soon repeat; leave more time for the longer sentences of chapters VI-XI.
Check this passageC1
With room to spare
At C1 the novella reads freely; only the Galician forms and the passages in Polish, German and Latin will stop you now and then.
Start readingThe average sentence has 13 words, and almost one word in ten (9.8%) has 9 letters or more. That puts the novella beside Franko’s Малий Мирон та інші оповідання (12.9 words, 9.6%, B2) and below Boa constrictor (14.9 words, 10.0%, C1); Борислав сміється has the same share of long words but longer sentences (14.4 words) and is C1. Dialogue carries the first half: in chapters I-V, 522 of 661 paragraphs are spoken lines and sentences average 11.8 words, while chapters VI-XI are mostly narration, with 16.6 words a sentence and 10.7% long words. The language is the Galician Ukrainian of the 1960 edition: се for це (about 160 times), най for нехай (30), тілько for тільки (28), кождий for кожний (30), and the vocabulary of serfdom and village self-government (панщина 58 times, війт 60, коршма 50). About 300 words are in Polish, German, Latin or Italian, two thirds of them in one Polish document in chapter IV that you can skim. There is no dialect as dense as the Hutsul speech that puts Тіні забутих предків at C1, so the book is B2, at the top of the level. This is the catalogue’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 37 871
- words
- 13
- words in an average sentence
- 6-11
- hours of reading
- 1960
- Книгоспілка
Книгоспілка, 1960. Wikisource
What it is about, without the ending
Spring 1850 in Hrushatychi, a large village in the foothills of the Carpathians. Serfdom was abolished two years ago, a gale has been blowing since Christmas, and the village is in uproar too: in the tavern the assembly refuses to plough the lord’s field even for wages, shouts down its reeve and opens the chest of village papers, only to find that nobody can read them. The landowner, Pan Subota, threatens to send for the dragoons. That evening, in the back room of the inn, Kost Dumiak, a young peasant just back from the army, talks the farmers into a temperance brotherhood, tells the startled landowner that the war between peasants and lords is only beginning, and then, in front of everyone, asks him for the hand of his daughter Halia. The quarrel soon draws in the parish priest, Father Kvintilian, the landowner’s family and the whole village, while the years after 1848 bring new disputes over forests and pastures. What happens next is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Великий шум
VII. Розділ 7
, « ». 1848—49 . « , »,— , 1848 , , 50- , , . . «, », — . , , , .
Choose an underlined word.
Най is нехай
In Galician Ukrainian най is the everyday word for нехай (let): Най їдуть is “let them come”, Най оре зубами “let him plough with his teeth”. Franko uses it 30 times in the novel, and the standard нехай stands beside it in this very scene: Нехай давиться ними!
Се is це
Franko writes се for це (this, it): се була пора надзвичайних урожаїв, “it was a time of extraordinary harvests”. Се appears about 160 times in the novel. In the same passage лекше is the older spelling of легше (easier), and по 1848 році means після 1848 року (after 1848).
Where the text gets harder
I-Vmore dialogue
VI-XIlonger sentences
XII-XIIIshorter sentences again
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
When Dumiak tells the farmers that the emperor’s decision cannot be reversed, he quotes a proverb, “Затягнено пером, не витягнеш волом” (what the pen has drawn in, an ox will not pull out): whole-sentence translation in Reader shows that it means what is written into law stays there.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
All books at this levelBefore you read
Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
Yes, the novella is complete and unabridged, all 13 chapters. Franko first published Великий шум in 1907 in the journal Літературно-науковий вістник, and the same year it came out as a book in Kyiv. The text here comes from volume XI of his Works in 20 volumes (Knyhospilka, New York, 1960) via Wikisource. The spelling is that edition’s, so forms like се, най or тілько stay as printed, as do the few words the editors added in square brackets, such as [час]. The editors’ footnotes translating foreign phrases are not included.
Is there an audiobook?
There is no audiobook on MovaReader: the novella is read on screen, and tapping a word shows its translation. You will want it for words such as ландсдрагони (the mounted dragoons the landowner threatens to call) in I. Розділ 1 and ванькир (the back room of the inn) in II. Розділ 2.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes, with the Reader plan. It helps most with Dumiak’s speeches, for example “Війна між селянством і панством не скінчилася, але тілько починається” (the war between the peasants and the gentry is not over, it is only beginning) in II. Розділ 2, where тілько is the Galician тільки. Without the plan, single words are translated up to the daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
The whole novella takes about 6-11 hours at the pace of someone reading with translation of new words. The chapters run from about 1,100 words (XI and XIII) to about 6,000 (II); most have 2,300 to 4,200 words, an evening each.
Where does the text get easier?
The first five chapters are the easiest: tavern quarrels and village talk, with 11.8 words per sentence and 522 of 661 paragraphs in dialogue. Chapters VI-XI are mostly narration, with 16.6 words per sentence and 10.7% long words; XI. Розділ 11 has the longest sentences (22.7 words) and VII. Розділ 7 the most long words (13.7%). The last two chapters are lighter again, with 12.8 words per sentence.
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 come back chapter by chapter. Each of the 13 chapters also opens from the contents on this page, for example VII. Розділ 7, where the years pass and the village’s quarrels move from the tavern to the church.