On Sunday Morning She Gathered Herbs

On Sunday Morning She Gathered Herbs / Olha Kobylianska
trans. from the Ukrainian by Mary Skrypnyk
TO: CIUS Press, 2001, c1909.
179 p.

This book is an older Ukrainian classic that I've been meaning to read for a while now. I first read some of Kobylianska's work in a collection of women's writing by Language Lanterns Press, But the Lord is Silent. 

She has a specific style that reflects her period; a bit flowery, a bit mannered. In this book, she takes a folksong and fleshes out its bare lyrics into a full novel. The folksong is about a young man who loves two women; out of jealously one poisons him. But out of a couple of verses, she creates a dense novel with a dark sense of inevitability to it. 

As it is based on this kind of source material, the story does get a bit melodramatic at times; perhaps that's also the influence of the German romanticism of the late 1800s/early 1900s that she knew so well. She grew up in the far west of current Ukraine, and was schooled in German, writing many of her early works in German, until she became part of the women's movement in Ukraine and consciously switched over to writing in Ukrainian. (short bio here if you're interested) I feel like some of the literary trends of the era reveal themselves in this book. 

The book tackles social conventions and sexual mores, mostly as they affect women. The story opens as a woman is cast out of her gypsy community for giving birth to a 'white' child. The violence of the opening sets the tone of toxic masculinity that reverberates through the book, with other men also beating or threatening women or expecting them to take whatever the man wants to do. 

It also brings up issues of personal desires as opposed to community responsibilities. Mavra, the woman from the opening, had an infant son who was taken from her and adopted by a rich landowner who didn't know his background. This boy, Hryts, grows up to form the love triangle foretold in the folksong, having a sweet girl from his village that he intends to marry until he comes across the dark Tetiana, daughter of the woman who took Mavra in all those years ago. Drama!! 

I didn't think much of his wooing - on first spying Tetiana in a mountain meadow he threatens to hit her or force his attentions on her if she doesn't talk to him. Oh boy, what a catch. But Tetiana falls for him, hiding their meetings from her mother, and eventually loses her grasp on reality when she realizes that Hryts is marrying another woman and has just been toying with her. 

I did find this a quick read, even if it's a bit dense. The drama keeps it moving. And the content about Carpathian customs, households, and landscapes was really interesting. There is a description of young girls and the romantic traditions for Kupala Night, which are fascinating.

There are a few flaws, in a book that is from 1909 you have to expect some bits that are unpalatable to today's reader. The biggest invention that Kobylianska added to the folksong to make a novel is the gypsy background for Hryts, and it is a bit over the top. But definitely of its time. 

Still, I actually really liked this and found it had a lot of psychological insight and a focus on women's lives in a constrained society. And the writing was poetic, a bit elaborate at times, but enjoyable nonetheless. Great read for a classic!