a tale of the opryshky told by Petro Popovych of Zelenytsia, from Volodymyr Hnatiuk, Narodni opovidannia pro opryshkiv (1910)

Oleksa Dovbush, killed at Kosmach in 1745, is the greatest of the opryshky, the outlaws of the Carpathian mountains, and the Hutsuls have long told how he came to his death through Shtefan Dzvinka and Dzvinka's wife. Petro Popovych told this account at Zelenytsia, a hamlet of Zelena in the Nadvirna district, and Antin Onyshchuk wrote it down in 1908. Dovbush gives away the secret of his death in his sleep, a comrade's dream becomes the second warning he has had, and still he goes back to Kosmach.

Translation

One time Oleksa said to the lads: "Don't go off anywhere," he says, "because I," he says, "am going to Shtefan Dzvinka's." He says: "Shtefan's wife told me I must come today without fail, because Shtefan has driven off to the fair in Kolomyia."

But they say: "Go on," they say, "go, only don't stay too long, because we're still to go to Kolomyia; the Jews," he says, "will be driving from the fair, and we'll have," he says, "something to take."

And Oleksa answered them: "I," he says, "won't be lingering! At such-and-such an hour I'll be back, and if not, then you'll come on slowly after me," he says; and off he went!

He came there to Shtefan's, on purpose, with Shtefan not at home... He lingered there while he thought it over, and then he says to Shtefan's wife: "Here, now, search my head!"

She took his head and searched it, searched and searched, and searched him so that he dozed off on her knees; with that he'd fall asleep all the sooner!

He says in his sleep: "What do you think," he says, "there's nothing a man could kill me with, except that wheat that twelve Easter services have been said over; if someone," he says, "took twelve grains of that wheat and wrapped them up together in paper, and sealed it up, and dosed it with poison, and shot at me with that, then that's my death."

He spoke those words through his sleep, and then he started awake and asks her: "Didn't I say something to you?"

She says to him: "No!" She didn't want to tell.

And then Dovbush got up and went. He comes to the lads, and they're all asleep; waiting there for Dovbush, they had grown drowsy and fallen asleep right where they were.

Oleksa came and roused them. They all started up, and look: Ivan Sandohorskyi says: "Well," he says, "what a dream I dreamed about you, Oleksa, I'm afraid to tell it. I dreamed," he says, "that 'that one there' (the snake) bit you so badly, Oleksa, that you were dying of it," he says.

"Ivan," says Oleksa, "you'd have done better not to tell me this dream than to tell it; this is the second dream now that's drying my head; this year I must perish by a hard death."

So then, in a couple of days or however it was, they went again to Kosmach. The lads stayed back some way off, and Oleksa went on all alone to Dzvinka's. But she had already told her husband everything, how Oleksa could be done away with; and he got himself ready up in the loft and shot him right in the heart.

Colophon

Translated from the Hutsul of Volodymyr Hnatiuk (ed.), Narodni opovidannia pro opryshkiv (Etnohrafichnyi zbirnyk 26, Lviv 1910), no. 107, pp. 126–127, told by Petro Popovych and recorded in 1908 by Antin Onyshchuk at Zelenytsia, a hamlet of Zelena in the Nadvirna district. The text was transcribed from the page images of the Internet Archive scan. Hnatiuk's own glossary to the volume settled ісповісти, "to tell" (не хотїла ісповісти, she didn't want to tell), and спрахтити, "to destroy, to kill". The snake is called отота, "that one there", the name that keeps from saying the creature's own, and Hnatiuk prints his gloss гадина, "snake", beside it; the English keeps both. Дзерно is зерно, a grain, with the дз for з that Hnatiuk describes in his preface. Залютровав, "sealed it up", is read from лютувати, to solder; трілом натроїв, "dosed it with poison", from трійло, poison. Штефанисї is the dative of Штефаниха, Shtefan's wife; под (here на подї) is the loft under the roof. Read from context: пинєти ("I won't be lingering"), taken as the dialect's пиняти, to stop or hold back; the teller's aside за тим май борше усне, "with that he'd fall asleep all the sooner", where за тим may be "thereupon" or "by that means" (that is, she was lulling him on purpose), and the English keeps both; and голов сушит, "is drying my head", an idiom for a trouble that will not leave the mind, which the English keeps as it stands. The lads' first word is printed Ілїть, where the sense is plainly Ідїть, "go".

No English translation of this narrative is known to us.

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Source Text: Зловіщі сни

The Hutsul text as printed by Hnatiuk (1910), no. 107, transcribed from the page images.

Одного разу сказав Олекса хлопцїм: Не розходіть сї, каже, нїкуди, бо я, каже, іду до Штефана Дзвінки. Каже: Казала менї Штефанова жінка, аби я конечно нинї прийшов, бо Штефан поїхав у ярмарок до Коломиї.

Але они кажуть: Ілїть, кажуть, ідїть — лиш абисти сї много не забавили, бо ше будїм іти до Коломиї; будуть, каже, їхати Жиди з ярмарку, будїм, каже, мали шо брати.

А Олекса обізвав сї до них: Я, каже, пинєти не буду! На ту і на ту годину буду, а як нї, то будете, каже, поволи іти за мнов; тай пішов!

Прийшов він там до Штефана, умисне, Штефана нема дома... Забавив сї він, доки міркував, а так каже Штефанисї: На-ко, пообіськай!

Узєла она єму голову, обиськує-обиськує і так приобиськовала, шо він задрімав ї на колїнах; за тим май борше усне!

Каже він у снї: Шо ти, каже, думаєш собі, мене би нїчим не убив, хиба тов пшеницев, шо 12 службів великодних сї на нї правило; аби, каже, узєв 12 дзернів тої пшеницї і то аби звив до купи папером, аби залютровав і трілом натроїв і тим у мене стрілив, то менї смерть.

Промовив він ті слова кріз сон і тогди прохопив сї, питає ї: Ци не казав я шо тобі?

Каже она єму: Нї! Не хотїла ісповісти.

І тогди встав Довбуш тай пішов. Приходить він ід хлопцїм, а они усї спє; як ждали на Довбуші, так їм здрімало сї і поснули на місци.

Прийшов Олекса і зганєє їх. Попрохапували сї усї тай ади, Іван Сандогорський, каже: Но, каже, який ми сї снив сон на вас, Олексо, аж ми лєчно казати. Снило менї сї, каже, шо вас Олексо, „отота“ (гадина) так покусала, шо сти, каже, завмирали від неї.

Іване, каже Олекса, волїв єс ми не казати сей сон, нїж казати; уже другий сон ми голов сушит; у сїм року мушу я тєжков смертев погинути.

Так они ци за пару день, ци би як, пішли знов у Космач. Хлопцї лишили сї подалеки, а Олекса пішов самоодин до Дзвінки. Але она уже усьо росповіла свому чоловікови, чим би Олексу спрахтити тай він залагодив сї на подї і стрілив до него у само серце.

Source Colophon

Volodymyr Hnatiuk (ed.), Narodni opovidannia pro opryshkiv (Etnohrafichnyi zbirnyk 26; Lviv: Naukove tovarystvo im. Shevchenka, 1910), no. 107, pp. 126–127. 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 ї, є, ґ and dialect forms; line-end hyphens are joined. Hnatiuk's footnotes are not reproduced; he gives none for this narrative. His record line reads: Зап. 1908 р. в Зеленици (прис. Зеленої), Надвірн. пов., від Петра Поповича Он., Ант. Онищук.

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