Ivan Khemnitser

Ivan Ivanovich Khemnitser (1745–1784), of German descent, was a mining engineer and later a Russian consul in Smyrna, where he died. He is remembered for his fables, first published in 1779, whose plain, humorous style set an example for Krylov.

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.