This is an archival publication with an introductory article. The text published is a 1953 manuscirpt variant of Georgij Šengeli's translation of Byron's Don Juan, comprising the Dedication and First Canto (p. 366–445). The article (p. 342–365) contextualizes Georgij Šengeli's attempt to produce a pentameter translation of the work in 1953, having published  a translation in iambic hexameter in 1947. The controversies over Šengeli´s first translation are discussed againts the background of biographical archival material and samples from both translations as well as from the translation made by Tat´jana Gnedič, which was published in 1959 and became canonical. The manuscript is published togehter with the English original, Šengeli's 1947 text and Gnedič´s 1959 version.