Percy's Nancy and Zhukovsky's Nina: A Translation Identified (1) (Vasily Zhukovsky, "K Nine" ) (Bishop Thomas Percy, "O Nancy" ‪)‬

In April 1808 the Moscow bi-monthly literary journal Vestnik Yevropy (no. 8, p. 272) contained a poem entitled "K Nine" (To Nina), with the notation "From the English," signed "V. Zh."--Vasily Zhukovsky (1783-1852). The English original of Zhukovsky's "K Nine" has until now remained unidentified, perhaps because of the conventionalized nature of the poem and because of Zhukovsky's repeated use of the stock name "Nina" in his poetry. We have now determined that Zhukovsky's original was "A Song" ("O Nancy, wilt thou go with me") by Thomas Percy (1729-1811). It will be our purpose here to consider Percy's "O Nancy" in its context, to juxtapose Zhukovsky's two versions of "K Nine"--his earlier, uncompleted version as well as the Vestnik Yevropy translation--with Percy's original, and briefly to compare the three. Bishop Thomas Percy today is known primarily as one of the great figures of English pre-Romanticism. His greatest contribution to literature was his ballad collection, first published in 1765, entitled Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. As editor of this collection he performed "his greatest work, the enhancing of popular regard for early English ballads," even though in the three volumes of the Reliques he did not hesitate to mix the old ballads with contemporary ballads and political songs. (2)