Vasily Kapnist

Vasily Vasilyevich Kapnist (1758–1823), of Greek-Ukrainian family, wrote odes, songs and the satirical comedy Chicane (1798). Bowring notes that he wrote “on a variety of subjects”.

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.