Even the most fervent admirer of Burns will admit that it is sometimes difficult to fathom the Scots dialect he uses in his work and many have avoided reading his poems because of this. As the author says in his preface, it is to remedy this that this ‘translation’ is offered, to try and make Burns more accessible to the contemporary reader.
William Curran has covered a great deal of Burns’s poetry in this volume, and includes a lot of lesser known works such as To Dauton Me and The Carle of Kellyburn Braes as well as the best known such as Holy Willie’s Prayer and Tam O’Shanter.