Vasily Petrov

Vasily Petrovich Petrov (1736–1799), born in Moscow, was a court poet under Catherine II. He wrote ceremonial odes on Russian victories and translated Virgil’s Aeneid into Russian verse.

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.