22.

Core of the poem (page 22): This is a short, playful Ukrainian folk song (писня) about seduction and the loss of a young girl’s innocence. A man tempts a girl with sweet mead (мід) and strong horilka (горівка), promising to “lead her out of her mind” (з розума зводити). He then takes her under a white birch and a white fir tree, where he “makes foam” of her — a clear erotic euphemism for sexual climax or passionate intoxication — turning her from a girl into a “young woman” (молодицю). The song shifts from future tense (“I will lead you…”) to past tense (“He led her… He made…”), telling the story as something that has already happened. It ends on a wry note: the girl didn’t even drink the horilka, implying she didn’t need alcohol to be seduced.

Main themes:

• Temptation and loss of reason/virginity — the repeated idea of “leading out of one’s mind” and the alcohol as a pretext for desire.
• Erotic encounter in nature — the birch and fir trees are classic symbols in Ukrainian folklore for a romantic/sexual setting (pure yet wild).
• Male boastfulness vs. female agency — the singer brags about the conquest, yet the final line subtly suggests the girl was a willing participant (she skipped the drink but went anyway).
• Playful irony and folk humor — typical of East Slavic drinking-and-love songs, where seduction is both celebrated and gently mocked.

Overall, it’s a light-hearted, slightly bawdy folk lyric about youthful passion, common in early 20th-century Ukrainian song collections like the one in this notebook. The tone is teasing rather than moralistic — more celebration of desire than warning.