今天是罗伯特伯恩斯的生日。伟大的苏格兰诗人。

My Heart's In The Highlands 　
1789
Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North,
The birth-place of Valour, the country of Worth;
Wherever I wander, wherever I rove,
The hills of the Highlands for ever I love.
My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here,
My heart's in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer;
Chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe,
My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go.
Farewell to the mountains, high-cover'd with snow,
Farewell to the straths and green vallies below;
Farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods,
Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods.
My heart's in the Highlands, &c.

没有单纯美好的心灵，可能要写出他笔下的那些诗句非常地不可能。

一直只追寻美好事物的轨迹，恐怕也是不容易发生。

生活的种种考验，金钱的诱惑，善良被人滥用和欺骗，遇到在不是其祖国和家乡的地方大肆以欺骗和利用达成自己的手段不管牺牲任何认识和不认识的人，为了金钱和地位，学历和移民身份等等，自己欠缺能力，就利用完全无耻的手段达成目的的人，其实并不少见。

回到那些美好的境界吧。

想想那些从来没有什么欺骗的朋友们，想想那些给自己带来笑容和愉快心情的朋友们，想想那些美好的事情吧。

那年在初次到格拉斯哥的一个清晨，找不到方向，那个匆匆路过的女士，停下自己的脚步跑出大约上百米，专门带着走过几个街口。。

那年在Ｏｍａｈａ，　Ｎｅｂｒａｓｃａ，本来素不相识的夏教授带着亲切的笑容问我们这些到处走惯了的‘惯犯’，‘需不需要帮忙’？　

想想那时巴黎的一个乞丐，在五月阳光灿烂的下午走到面前，可能看我坐在路边地上半天了又带着流浪者一样的行李包，他站到面前，在衣服口袋里摸出几个欧元放到我的包上面，我想起他其实才是真的需要钱。。解释了一番，当然没有收，他泰然离开，留下我满心的感激一直到现在。

想起那个满身都是泥巴和刷墙灰的意大利小伙子，在佛罗伦萨附近哪个小镇的一个偏僻的火车站费劲地用意大利语给我们几个日本，特涅尼达和多巴哥，菲律宾还有其他几个地方来的人说去威尼斯的方向。。。笑容特别憨厚可爱。

回到那些美好的轨道吧。

再读一读伯恩斯吧，关于友谊，关于苏格兰，关于爱和被爱，关于那些美好和力量的。。。

多一些从容，多一些力量，多一些笑容，多一些感恩。

My Bonie Bell
1791
The smiling Spring comes in rejoicing,
And surly Winter grimly flies;
Now crystal clear are the falling waters,
And bonie blue are the sunny skies.
Fresh o'er the mountains breaks forth the morning,
The ev'ning gilds the ocean's swell;
All creatures joy in the sun's returning,
And I rejoice in my bonie Bell. 2. The flowery Spring leads sunny Summer,
The yellow Autumn presses near;
Then in his turn comes gloomy Winter,
Till smiling Spring again appear:
Thus seasons dancing, life advancing,
Old Time and Nature their changes tell;
But never ranging, still unchanging,
I adore my bonie Bell.

A Red, Red Rose

1794
O, my Luve's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June.
O, my Luve's like a melodie
That's sweetly play'd in tune.
As fair as thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will love thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.
Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun:
I will love thess till, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run:
And fare thee well, my only luve!
And fare thee weel, a while!
And I will come again, my luve,
Tho' it ware ten thousand mile

Also (ZT):

Robert Burns, a poor man, an educated man, and a ladies’ man, is representative of Scotland, much like whisky, haggis, bagpipes, and kilts. He lived a life shortened by rheumatic heart disease, 1759-1796, but his life journey through poverty, informal education, disappointed love, nationalism, and literary and financial success can be identified by all Scots and common men the world over. He has become almost a national symbol of all things Scottish. His life is like a love story with a happy ending.

The Poet, Robert Burns

Robert Burns’s family raised seven children on sparse, rented farmland on the west coast of Scotland. The family cottage still stands as a proud tourist attraction. The family farm was not successful and the family moved from farm to farm. Life on the farm in western Scotland was harsh and Robert worked long hours with his father.

Burn’s father recognized the value of education and he managed to hire a local teacher to tutor Robert. He was an extremely bright student, mastering Shakespeare, current poets, French, Latin, philosophy, politics, geography, theology, and mathematics. His father read the Bible during the evenings around the cottage fireplace and Robert became an expert on the Bible and a devout Church member.

Robert Burns wrote his first poem at age 15. The poem was called “Handsome Nell” and was about his first love for a girl named Nellie Blair. Throughout his life, Burns was a charming and witty man, attracting the attention of numerous women. A dozen or more women can be identified as the inspiration for various poems. Burns wrote many famous love poems, including “A Red, Red Rose” and “One Fond Kiss.”

Here’s an excerpt from “Handsome Nell.”

“O once I loved a bonnie lass,
Aye, and I love her still;
And whilst that virtue warms my breast,
I’ll love my handsome Nell.”

Burns, in a later comment on this poem, stated that he had “never had the least thought or inclination of turning poet till I got once heartily in love, and then rhyme and song were, in a manner, the spontaneous language of my heart.”

The Turning Point

In 1786, at age 27, Robert Burns went through a major turning point in his life. He suffered a disappointing love affair with Jean Armour, who was pregnant with his twin sons. The local community and Armour’s father were outraged by the affair and her father rejected Burns’s offer of marriage.

Dejected and depressed, Burns made plans to leave Scotland and sail to Jamaica in the West Indies. To finance the trip, Burns submitted a volume of his poetry for publication.

The publication of 612 copies in a simple, unbound volume was called “Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect,” also sometimes known as “The Kilmarnock Edition.” The poems were well received in Edinburgh by socialites who were enchanted by the poems and amazed that a poor farmer could write so well.

So, instead of planning his escape to a new world, Burns planned a trip to Edinburgh. His confident manner, ingratiating style, and his obvious wit and intelligence brought Burns popularity and admiration. Soon, a second publication of his work was executed in Edinburgh.

The Growing Popularity

During his stay in Edinburgh, Robert Burns met printer James Johnson, who planned a project to print all of the folk songs in Scotland. This project enthralled Burns and embarked upon a journey throughout Scotland to collect as many folk songs as possible. Burns collected over 300 songs and wrote a few himself, including “A Red, Red Rose.”

One of the results of his travels throughout Scotland was that Robert Burns ingratiated himself to everyone he met and he rose to national prominence and popularity.

The collected songs were published by Johnson in six volumes and by George Thomson in a five volume set.

Another happy outcome of this turning point in Robert Burns’s life is that he was able to return home and marry his beloved Jean Armour, now with the blessing of her family.

Robert Burns continued to collect and write songs for The Scots Musical Museum, an anthology of traditional Scottish lyrical poems, until his untimely death from rheumatic heart disease in 1796.

Within a few years of his death groups of Robert Burns’s friends and fans gathered to promote his memory and to celebrate his life. By 1801, five years after his death, groups met on the anniversary of his death, but later they began to meet on the anniversary of his birth, January 25. Now there are many Burns clubs and societies who celebrate his memory with dinners, including haggis, and readings of his works.

“A Red, Red Rose” is written as a ballad with four stanzas of four lines each. Each stanza has alternating lines of four beats, or iambs, and three beats. The first and third lines have four iambs, consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, as in da-dah, da-dah, da-dah, da-dah. The second and fourth lines consist of three iambs. This form of verse is well adapted for singing or recitation and originated in the days when poetry existed in verbal rather than written form.