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Paris exhibit of new inventions, it would be worth a label of recognition for the years 1932-1933. The police come and confiscate the machine along with the corn and the corn flour. The owner must pay a fine for hiding food. People murmur that devils are ruling the land. In death, people have swollen bel lies. Returning home Myron finds that his son, My kola, is dying. He constructs another coffin and bur ies his son next to his mother under the cherry tree. Daria had very little to take with her: a couple of rubles for the train tickets, some warm rags, a bag with cooked potatoes, remains of the bread with molasses . She and her two remaining children are going to the city to find food. Myron, left alone, is summoned to see Otrokhodine who accuses him of hiding the chalice. When he denies this, he is beaten. To make him talk, Otrokhodine (like the Devil who tempted Jesus on the Mountain) offers Myron some wheat, some flour, but Myron remains silent. He is released and as he drags himself home, he meets a woman who begs to be killed. From the neighbors, Myron learns that she has poisoned her husband with herbs because the crazy man has killed their child and roasted the body. In this second part of Vasyl Barka’s novel, death has grown stronger, destroying the natural cycle of life. With the grandmother’s death, the past is buried. With Mykola’s death, the future is denied. Death has become hideously unnatural—a father kills his own flesh and blood; hunger has turned humans into cannibals. Men are tortured and gunned down. Like an octopus spreading its arms, death reaches into every home and every family. Part III On the horizonу the sun had gone down and the peasants were slowly coming out of Klenototcha — too many in Myron’s mind. Ukraine’s countryside is under the snow. Myron joins the other villagers, who decided to return to the mill; above the mill, guarded by the militia, flies a red flag. The men at the front are gunned down. The militiamen then shoot at the next wave of humans and Myron is wounded. At dusk, people bury their dead. On the vast, snow-covered steppe, a priest celebrates Mass for the dead. Dawn. Unable to stand on their feet and walk, peo ple are dragging themselves in the snow; a few are already lying motionless. On a train, Daria and her children listen as a passenger warn other travelers about the danger around the city bakeries. “People are rounded up and taken away in trucks to the bar ren steppe and left there to die.” In the city, Daria waits in line for bread. She overhears a conversation between two women, one wearing a scarf and the other wearing a beret. People have lost their iden tities and hunger has turned humans to ghosts that distinguish themselves through their headgear. The Scarf and the Beret recall how two years ago they were searched at the collective farm and punished for wearing crosses: “the opium of the people.” They also recall how the “kulaks” were divided into two groups: those for “exportation” and old folks that were to stay home. Daria must run away with her children to avoid a roundup. She spends the night in a warehouse. She has spent the whole day waiting in line for bread in vain and thinks of returning home. At the train station she overhears that children are being stolen and slaughtered. After the unfortunate attack at the mill, Katrannyk is wounded and cannot go to dig out the potatoes before the storm. Myron is exhausted but still alive. As he walks from the field to the cottage, he sees Otrokhodine’s sleigh. Myron hides, waiting until Otrokhodine leaves, and enters his home. With his whole being, he yearns for bread! His wife returns home empty handed and Myron decides to return to the mill. There, people are like ants; a man arrives wrapped up in chains and singing a song: “Zarazar- zarazar.” More people are gunned down. Myron escapes and on his way home finds a bone protrud ing from the snow-covered ground: it is a dead horse. He returns with an ax to hack the animal’s carcass and brings some of the frozen meat home. All winter long, the family survives by eating horse- meat; the rest of the village slowly dies. The winter came to an end. The chapter opens with a description of the people who have survived the winter. Their upper limbs are like dried up tree branches. Their bellies are swollen. They rest in the fetal position with their faces buried in their pillows. Their legs are swollen. As the snow melts, the ca davers are unveiled. No one is strong enough to bury the dead. Myron and Andrijko collect herbs and the remaining frozen vegetables. They decide to catch birds. The purple sun was setting on the horizon behind a blanket of clouds when father and son went to “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ГРУДЕНЬ 2005 13
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