A prominent, memorable personality and national poet of Scotland was the famous folklorist Robert Burns. The biography of this eminent cultural figure is rather complicated. But this circumstance in no way affected his work. Burns wrote his works in English and Scottish. He is the author of numerous poems and poems.
I would like to note that even during his lifetime, Robert Burns received the title of national poet of Scotland.
Biography. Childhood
The future famous writer was born in 1957 in a large family. Robert had six brothers and sisters. The future poet studied reading and writing, studying with the teacher John Murdoch. He was hired by local farmers to conduct classes with their children. It was Murdoch who noticed the boy’s special abilities and advised him to pay more attention to literature. Already in 1783, the first Burns works appeared, written in the Ayrshire dialect.
Youth
When the young poet was twenty-two years old, he left his father's house and went to the city of Irwin to learn the profession of flax handler there. However, after the workshop in which Robert was supposed to engage in craft burned down in a fire, he returns to his homeland. In 1784, the father dies. The elder sons take on all the chores associated with farming on the farm. However, things are going very poorly.
Soon, the family decides to leave the farm and move to Mossgil. The initiators of such a serious and responsible act were the older brothers - Gilbert and Robert Burns. The poet's biography is full of unexpected twists and conflicting situations. After moving to a new city, the young man meets his future wife - Jane Arthur. However, her father, not approving the choice of her daughter, does not give consent to marriage. Desperate, Robert decides to go to another country. Just at that time, he received a job offer as an accountant in Jamaica. However, the plans were not destined to come true.
First success
At the same time, the first volume of his works published in June 1786 in Kilmarnock was published. The book was a huge success. 20 pounds - this is the reward that Robert Burns received for his work. The biography of this poet is truly extremely unpredictable. In the same year, a young folklorist goes to Edinburgh. It was there that he received the first, quite impressive amount for the copyrights to his debut poetry collection. The poems of Robert Burns were praised by writers, and the writer himself was called the poetic hope of Scotland.
Creative life
After this unexpected and stunning success, the famous folklorist makes several rather lengthy trips around his native country. He collects folk songs, composes poems and poems. Having received absolutely no payment for his work, Burns simply considers his happiness to be able to record and preserve ancient folklore. Over the years of wandering, the family farm has declined.
After the publication of the third volume of poems, Burns goes to Elliszhevd. There he rents a new farm. By this time, he still married his lover Jane, and they had several children. From this moment, the writer works as a tax collector and receives a small salary, about 50 pounds per year. In 1791, he was invited to publish another collection, which included about a hundred works.
Last years
Robert Burns, whose photo is presented on this page, did a pretty good job of his job. However, more and more he is seen while intoxicated. Subsequently, he was expelled from the literary society for supporting revolutionary ideas. Since that time, Burns increasingly spends time in the company of reveling. The poet died in 1796 from a rheumatic attack. Burns' best poem, according to literary critics, is The Merry Beggars. It depicts the life of a rejected cuticle society.
Burns Poems in Russia
The first prosaic translation of the works of this famous Scottish poet appeared four years after his death, in 1800 Robert Burns became popular in the USSR thanks to highly artistic translations of S.
Marshak. For the first time Samuel Yakovlevich turned to the work of the Scottish folklorist in 1924. From the mid-thirties he began to engage in systematic translations of Burns' works. The first collection of Russian-language poems and poems was published in 1947. In total, Samuel Yakovlevich translated about 215 works, which is ¼ part of the poet’s entire heritage. Marshak’s interpretations are far from the literal text, but they are distinguished by the simplicity and ease of the language, as well as a special emotional mood similar to Burns’s compositions. In periodicals, articles continually appear on the work of this talented folklorist. Burns was studied in depth by the eminent Russian cultural figure V. Belinsky. It should be noted that in his youth the translation of the quatrains of the Scottish poet was made by Mikhail Lermontov. By the centenary of the poet’s death in Russia, the publishing house of A. Suvorin published collections of poems and poems by Robert Burns.
Songs
It should be noted that many of the works of this popular poet were a recycling of folk songs.
His poems are characterized by melody and rhythm. It is not surprising that the author of the texes of many well-known musical compositions in Russia is Robert Burns. Songs on his poems were written by such famous Soviet composers as G. Sviridov and D. Shostakovich. The repertoire of
Alexander Gradsky has a cycle of vocal works on poems by Burns. His texts formed the basis of many compositions created by Mulyavin for the Pesnyary VIA. The Moldavian band Zdob Si Zdub also performed a song to Burns’s text “You Left Me”. The folklore group “Mill” wrote music for his ballad “Lord Gregory” and the poem “Highlander”. Very often, songs on verses of this famous foreign poet were used in television films. I especially want to highlight the romance from the film "Hello, I am your aunt," called "Love and Poverty." This composition was performed by the talented actor
Alexander Kalyagin. In the film “Office Romance” another song was sounded, the author of the text is R. Burns - “There is no peace in my soul”.