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Що то за голова, що лиш зуби і борода?10 What kind of head is this, with only teeth and a beard? Answer: Onion, garlic or horseradish. In 1967, the modest onion inspired Ivan Drach (1936- ) to compose “The Ballad of the Golden Onion.” He portrays it as a woman who emerges from the underworld to reach the height of such famous women as Joan of Arc or Petrarch’s Laura! She is the golden goddess for sale on the markets She is the nymph who befriended the wilted braids, She is the little cupola of underground churches — She is the beauty queen of the village markets at dawn. The innocent golden fairy who calms the hungriest of Appetites She is the very own sister of dark rye Bread. And the twin-sister of Garlic-in-its-White-overcoat She is the golden high explosive shell in the food of a hungry student The strong rival of a pot of cooked Potatoes The faithful friend of modest kitchen Salt The little Joan of Arc fighting the Anglo-Saxon germs, She is the loving Laura of some snub nosed Peter Petrarch. The ballad also presents a drama; Ivan Drach invites us to partake in the “danse macabre” of the Golden Onion. It is in fact a sort of moving “strip-tease” that symbolizes much more than the life of an onion “frightened before death”; it also suggests how desperate people were to put all their hopes of survival in a simple “golden onion”! The golden agony of strip-tease before death begins: She takes off her thick golden fur coat She takes off her large shiny golden sweater She takes off her modest golden dress She takes off her golden night gown. And all naked, all white, she cries about her violated chastity. She is the Golden Onion form my mother’s garden She is the golden vestal of the Temple of the Mysteries of Life All crumpled together in a golden fist of fright... (1967) If the onion and the garlic can be eaten raw with a piece of rye bread, there are also other types of garden food that can be eaten right off the vine. Among them we count sweet peas. We are six little brothers well rounded And we all look green; We are all together in one room That is narrow and modest With no doors or windows To glance at the sun. But the house — is all green A little rounded and long. We are all in it like in penance Tied up to the wall...11 Cucumbers also grow on a vine. In my father’s garden they had props like the bean, so that they would never touch the ground and would remain clean from any dirt. As children, we used to help ourselves to the youngest ones. Fedchuk offers the following riddle: A long string comes out of the ground Tied to the string are little Brothers — What a wonder — They are all tied up by the tail So that they can increase and grow. Whether full grown or not They will all end up on the table.12 No one can imagine a Ukrainian garden without sunflowers. It seems that through these gigantic flowers, the gardener captures the sun itself. A riddle from Fedchuk’s collection captures the image: Round flat field, yellow borders, and blackened in the middle, Their future is ripening In individual one-room little houses.13 There are two vegetables that have somewhat lost some of their long lasting values as food in the Ukrainian diet in the United States. The first is the turnip (ріпа), and the second is the pumpkin (гарбуз). Yet Ukrainian folklore has supplied folk tales centered around these two plants. The Turnip is an ancient folk tale which can be compared to the American folk song of “The Farmer in the Dell” with this distinction that in the Ukrainian version the farmer calls his wife to pull a turnip out of the ground. She in turn calls their son and daughter
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