Ivan Dolgorukov

Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Dolgorukov (1764–1823) was a courtier, poet and memoirist. Bowring includes his poem “The Legacy” in the second part of the Specimens.

The versions here are by John Bowring, from his Specimens of the Russian Poets (Part the First, 1821; Part the Second, 1823), one of the first English anthologies of Russian verse. They are free, rhymed versions, and should be read as period translations rather than as literal renderings.