The Translator Translated: Zukovskij's "Svetlana" and Bowring's "Catherine" (1) (Vasilij Andreevic Zukovskij‪)‬

One of the finest of the many European translations, imitations, or adaptations of Gottfried August Bfirger's ballad "Lenore" (1773) (2) is "Svetlana" (1808-12), by Vasilij Andreevic Zukovskij (1783-1852), who has been described as "the most original translator in world literature." (3) In "Svetlana," the second of his three versions of Burger's ballad, Zukovskij's "efforts to give poetic form to a national Russian theme met with their greatest Success." (4) In 1823 Zukovskij's "Svetlana" was expertly translated into English as "Catherine" by (Sir) John Bowring (1792-1872), who changed the name, as he explained to his English readers, because the word "Svaetlana does not easily accommodate itself to our organs of sense." (5) Bowring, all but ignored today, perhaps came as close as any nineteenth-century Englishman to being a complete Renaissance man. At various times he translated works from Russian, Gennan, Spanish, Serbian, Hungarian, Polish, Czech, and other languages, wrote a number of hymns including the enduring "In the cross of Christ I glory," edited the Westminster Review, was Jeremy Bentham's intimate friend and executor, contributed to various leading journals, was in demand as a lecturer, acted as "secretary to the commission for inspecting the accounts of the United Kingdom," served as a Member of Parliament, was Britain's "plenipotentiary to China, and governor, commander-in-chief, and vice-admiral of Hong Kong and its dependencies, as well as chief superintendent of trade in China." (6) Bowring notes in his autobiography that in his translations of Russian poetry he gave "the first specimens ever presented in English to the public." (7) With pardonable pride he presented to the Tsar the second of his two volumes of Specimens of the Russian Poets, and Alexander in appreciation sent Bowring "a large amethyst ring surrounded with diamonds." (8)