什麼是柏恩斯

Burns, Robert

蘇格蘭民族詩人。窮苦農民的兒子，幼時即熟悉口頭流傳的蘇格蘭民歌和民間故事。父親經營農場失敗，他自己開的農場很快也瀕於破產。柏恩斯英俊開朗，桃花不斷，有些女人還跟他生了幾個私生兒女，他在詩歌裡讚美他的情人。詩集《主要用蘇格蘭方言寫的詩集》（1786）雖博得好評，但未帶來經濟上的保障，最後謀得一項稅務官的工作。後來他開始替約翰遜的《蘇格蘭音樂總彙》（1787～1803）和湯姆森的《原始的蘇格蘭歌曲選集》（1793～1818）收集並編輯了數百首傳統歌曲；實際上這些歌曲裡的許多首是他寫作的，但他並不要求所有權，也不向他們索取報酬。最著名的歌曲有〈很久以前〉、〈芳草萋萋〉、〈約翰.安德生，我的心肝〉、〈一朵紅紅的玫瑰〉和〈美麗的山河畔〉。他自由地宣揚自己的激進觀點、對普通百姓的同情，以及反叛正統的宗教和道義。三十七歲時死於心內膜炎。

1759～1796年

Burns, Robert

National poet of Scotland. Son of a poor farmer, he became familiar early with orally transmitted folk song and tales. His father's farm failed, and a farm he started himself quickly went bankrupt. Handsome and high-spirited, he engaged in a series of love affairs, some of which produced illegitimate children, and celebrated his lovers in his poems. His Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (1786) brought acclaim but no financial security, and he eventually took a job as an exciseman. He later began collecting and editing hundreds of traditional airs for James Johnson's Scots Musical Museum (1787-1803) and George Thomson's Select Collection of Original Scotish Airs (1793-1818); he substantially wrote many of these songs, though he did not claim them or receive payment for them. Among his best-known songs are “Auld Lang Syne,” “Green Grow the Rashes, O,” “John Anderson My Jo,” “A Red, Red Rose,” and “Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon.” He freely proclaimed his radical opinions, his sympathies with the common people, and his rebellion against orthodox religion and morality. His death at 37 resulted from endocarditis.