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

格拉斯哥大學蘇格蘭文學“法蘭西斯·哈奇森”教授，牛津大學出版社新版彭斯作品總主編

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.

見到彭斯作品選集的最現(xiàn)代、最學術的中文版本，是一種無限的樂趣。這本選集的譯者李正栓教授不僅一直是研究詩人和歌曲作者彭斯的勤奮學者，還對以前翻譯過蘇格蘭民族詩人彭斯作品的翻譯家們進行了潛心的研究。2015年春天，李教授在格拉斯哥大學給一些入迷的聽眾做了一場講座，就中國以前對彭斯的譯本和接受過程中的優(yōu)秀翻譯和一般性翻譯做了大師級評論。李教授在本領域擁有如此的博學與明鑒，這使他成為21世紀理想的彭斯詩歌翻譯家。

李教授選本豐厚，有100首之多，是彭斯詩歌總量的六分之一，這使本書成為廣泛介紹一位世界偉人之作。本書按主題劃分，涵蓋了彭斯的所有情感范圍，有對人類和自然界的無限柔情，有對愚蠢的人和事以及政治和文化壓迫的辛辣諷刺。本書所呈現(xiàn)的彭斯是一個故事大師，也是上乘的賢明情感作家。

最好的新譯往往會在作家和讀者之間產(chǎn)生新的碰撞。最好的譯者能促成這個過程。李教授已經(jīng)搭建了一個舞臺，開辟了彭斯與中國關系的一個令人激動的新篇章。本書為中國這個偉大民族的優(yōu)秀人民儲備了一場盛宴。