a tale of the opryshky told by Ivan Ostashuk of Zelenytsia, from Volodymyr Hnatiuk, Narodni opovidannia pro opryshkiv (1910)
The opryshky were the outlaws of the Carpathian highlands, and Oleksa Dovbush, killed in 1745, was the greatest of them. Ivan Ostashuk told this short tale at Zelenytsia, a hamlet of Zelena in the Nadvirna district, and Antin Onyshchuk wrote it down in 1907. Dovbush and his young men are counting their money in a forest meadow when pursuers show far off; at his cry of “Sow the wheat!” they fling the coins across the meadow and scatter, to come together again under Ploska.
Translation
Once Oleksa was going along with his young men, and they were carrying a great deal of money. In a forest meadow Dovbush told them to bring all their cloths together, spread them out on the grass, and pour all the money out there in a heap; and they began to count.
But Oleksa looks, and there are some pursuers coming... still far off, so you can only just make them out.
“Lads!” says Oleksa. “Sow the wheat!”
And each of them just snatches up his cloth, and swish! and the money just went flying all over the meadow...
And then Oleksa gave the command: “Lads! Under Ploska, to the meadow!”
And each one just darts off to the side: this one this way, that one that way, and not a single one to be seen.
Afterwards they came together under Ploska.
Colophon
Translated from Volodymyr Hnatiuk (ed.), Narodni opovidannia pro opryshkiv (Etnohrafichnyi zbirnyk 26; Lviv: Naukove tovarystvo im. Shevchenka, 1910), no. 69, pp. 99–100. Hnatiuk gives it as recorded (zap.) in 1907 at Zelenytsia, a hamlet of Zelena, Nadvirna district, from Ivan Ostashuk, by Antin Onyshchuk (the record line prints Ant. Onyshchuk; Hnatiuk's preface, p. V, gives his name in full and calls him a teacher). The text was transcribed from the page images of the Internet Archive scan. Hnatiuk's glossary at the back of the volume settles two words: a prylúka (printed here preluka) is “a small meadow; a field in the forest, a clearing”, rendered “a forest meadow” and “the meadow”; and krunuty si is “to throw oneself aside”, so kozhdyi krune si is “each one darts off to the side”. The petek (plural peteky) is read from the context as a cloth or sheet: the peteky are brought together and spread out on the grass, the money is poured out there in a heap, and at Oleksa's word each man seizes his own and the coins fly across the meadow. Neither the glossary nor the page defines the word; from knowledge of Romanian, it agrees with petec, “a patch, a piece of cloth”, from which it may be borrowed. Sip! is read from the context as the teller's sound for the sudden fling of the cloth, rendered “swish!”; it may instead be the bare stem of sipnuty, “to jerk”, which would give “yank!”. Pshenychka, the wheat Oleksa tells them to sow, is a diminutive, “the dear little wheat”, said of the money. Sowing money is Dovbush's figure in other Zelena tellings of the volume too: in no. 68 he sows money along the road, and in no. 70 the pursuers stop to gather up the money he scatters while the opryshky get away. Zakomendyruvav is “gave the command”. Ploska is kept as a place-name, as the teller gives it (pid Plosku, pid Ploskov, “under Ploska”); Hnatiuk gives no note on it. The lehini (printed leginiemy) are Dovbush's young men, the khloptsi his “lads”.
No English translation of this narrative is known to us.
© 2026 Tianmu Anglican Church. This English translation is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: you may share and adapt it for non-commercial use with credit to the Good Works Library, tianmu.org. The source text keeps its own terms. For other uses, see Rights and Reuse.
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Source Text: Хлопцї! сїйте пшеничку!
The Hutsul text as printed by Hnatiuk (1910), no. 69, transcribed from the page images.
Раз ішов Олекса з леґінєми тай несли великі гроші. На прелуцї казав Довбуш позносити усї петеки, розстелити на траві, та вісипати там на купу усї гроші; — і зачєли лїчити.
Але дивить сї Олекса, а то якась погоня іде... далеко ще, шо йно троха видно.
Хлопцї! — каже Олекса, — сїйте пшеничку!
А то кождий лиш похопить за петек, та сїп! а гроші лиш — розлетїли сї по прелуцї...
А тогди закомендирував Олекса: Хлопцї! під Плоску, на прелуку!
А то лиш кождий круне сї: той сюди, той туди — і одного не видно.
Відтак зійшли сї під Плосков.
Source Colophon
Volodymyr Hnatiuk (ed.), Narodni opovidannia pro opryshkiv (Etnohrafichnyi zbirnyk 26; Lviv: Naukove tovarystvo im. Shevchenka, 1910), no. 69, pp. 99–100. Public domain. Transcribed from the page images of the Internet Archive scan (identifier etnohr_26). Hnatiuk's phonetic spelling of the Hutsul is kept as printed, with its є, ї, ґ and dialect forms; the line-end hyphen in розлетїли is joined. Hnatiuk's footnotes are not reproduced; he gives none for this narrative. His record line reads: Зап. 1907 р. в Зеленици (присїл. Зеленої), Надвірн. пов., від Івана Осташука, Ант. Онищук.
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