序一
Preface One

By Gerard Carruthers
杰勒德·卡拉瑟斯

Professor Gerard Carruthers

Francis Hutcheson Professor of Scottish Literature, University of Glasgow;

General Editor of the new Oxford University Press Edition of the Works of Robert Burns

杰勒德·卡拉瑟斯教授

格拉斯哥大学苏格兰文学“法兰西斯·哈奇森”教授，牛津大学出版社新版彭斯作品总主编

It is a huge pleasure to see this most modern and scholarly Chinese edition of selected works by Robert Burns. The translator, Professor Zhengshuan Li, has been an assiduous scholar not only of Burns the poet and the song-writer, but also of previous Chinese translators of the Scottish “bard”. In a lecture to a rapt audience at the University of Glasgow in the spring of 2015, Professor Li provided a masterclass of the high-points (and a few low ones) in the previous Chinese rendering and reception of Burns. This forensic knowledge of the field makes him the ideal Burns translator into Chinese for the twenty-first century.

The generously ample selection compiled by Professor Li, over a hundred poems and songs or around a sixth of Burns' output, makes it a commendably wide introduction to a writer of world stature. The thematic divisions of this edition run the range of Burns' emotional gamut from great tenderness towards the human and natural world, to biting satire in the face of folly and political and cultural oppression. It captures Burns as a great teller of tales and also as a writer of fine philosophic sensibility.

The best new translations set up fresh encounters between writers and their readers. The best translators enable this process. Professor Li has set the stage for a thrilling new chapter in Robert Burns' relationship to China. This edition is a treat in store for the fine people of that great nation.

见到彭斯作品选集的最现代、最学术的中文版本，是一种无限的乐趣。这本选集的译者李正栓教授不仅一直是研究诗人和歌曲作者彭斯的勤奋学者，还对以前翻译过苏格兰民族诗人彭斯作品的翻译家们进行了潜心的研究。2015年春天，李教授在格拉斯哥大学给一些入迷的听众做了一场讲座，就中国以前对彭斯的译本和接受过程中的优秀翻译和一般性翻译做了大师级评论。李教授在本领域拥有如此的博学与明鉴，这使他成为21世纪理想的彭斯诗歌翻译家。

李教授选本丰厚，有100首之多，是彭斯诗歌总量的六分之一，这使本书成为广泛介绍一位世界伟人之作。本书按主题划分，涵盖了彭斯的所有情感范围，有对人类和自然界的无限柔情，有对愚蠢的人和事以及政治和文化压迫的辛辣讽刺。本书所呈现的彭斯是一个故事大师，也是上乘的贤明情感作家。

最好的新译往往会在作家和读者之间产生新的碰撞。最好的译者能促成这个过程。李教授已经搭建了一个舞台，开辟了彭斯与中国关系的一个令人激动的新篇章。本书为中国这个伟大民族的优秀人民储备了一场盛宴。