Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Russia: Vol. XX. 1876–79.

Don, the River

The River Don

By From the Russian

FATHER of ours! famous, quiet Don!

Don Ivanovich, our nourisher!

Great praise of thee is spoken,

Great praise and words of honor,

That thou didst swiftly run in olden days,

Swiftly but all clearly didst thou run.

But now, our nourisher, all troubled dost thou flow,

Troubled unto thy depths art thou, O Don.

Then glorious, quiet Don thus made reply,—

“How otherwise than troubled can I be?

I have sent forth my falcons bright,

My falcons bright, the Don-Kazáks.

Deprived of them my steep banks crumble down,

Deprived of them my shoals are thick with sand.”