Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns,

the National Bard, Bard of Ayrshire and the Ploughman Poet and various other names and epithets, was a

Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated
worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his
writing is in English and a light Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in
standard English, and in these writings his political or civil commentary is often at its bluntest.

The analysis demonstrates various techniques employed by the Ukrainian

translator to show the culturally marked elements of Burns’s poetry. The greater part of them
(omission/addition/substitution/generalization) testify to

the general strategy of domestication resulting in foregrounding the cultural

details of the receiving culture. There is a phenomenon of blending Ukrainian and

Scottish contexts, whereby two cultures converge and co-exist within the limits

of the same texts.

Such an approach can be clarified by the translator’s poetic motivation to show where the two cultures
meet and introduce the elements

of Ukrainian poetics wherever it seems relevant to draw such parallels.

Thus, conceptually and stylistically Lukash’s translations of Burns

are folklore-oriented and folklore inspired. In this way, the translator successfully recreated the dominant
features of Burns’s poetics by emphasizing its folk

spirit.

On the other hand, Ukrainian folklore poetics utilized in Lukash’s

translations proved to be a convenient tool to manipulate the text governed by

translator’s ideology. Through the prism of folklore style Lukash figured out how to

convey implied political messages to fuel resistance and defiance, which suggests

a form of translator’s activism.

The general picture of Burns as projected by Lukash’s translations is the one of a

truly folk poet with a strong sense of patriotism and national identity.

The poetical oeuvre by Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland, represents a great challenge to
translators since it is deeply rooted in folklore

and expresses the spirit of the nation. The writer captures and reflects fine nuances

of national culture and character. Local colour in his verse is so vibrant that

the translation of his works are bound to generate controversy. How to strike a

balance between loyalty to the source text and imaginative freedoms? Controversy

in translating Burns’s poetry arises when translators neutralize or elide culturаlly mаrked elements, thus
obscuring the locаl colour. A more extreme case is

observed when culturаl substitution is made, resulting in blending the Scottish

and Ukrainian contexts in translation.

The paper examines the translations by Mykola Lukash (1919–88), the

prominent Ukrainian translator, who translated more than 60 poems by Robert

Burns. These translations have enjoyed enduring popularity, with huge numbers of them

being set to music. Such a reception of the Scottish poet by Ukrainian readers

was undoubtedly impacted by the image projected of Burns in the translation.

The way Lukash challenges the traditional stereotype of the Scottish bard created

by his predecessors is to be investigated and exhibited in detail.

Mykola Lukash is undoubtedly the most outstanding translator who stands out in

the Ukrainian artistic landscape. Lukash’s masterful translations of more than

one hundred authors representing at least 18 literatures introduce us to the best

pieces of world epos, lyrics, and drama, and mark a totally new period in the

development of the Ukrainian literary translation. His translation legacy is absolutely unparalleled, both in
terms of the quality of his writings of the world

literature in the Ukrainian language, and the scope and magnitude of his work.

Lukash’s commitment includes translations from English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Latin ,etc.

Mykola Lukash got acquainted with Burns’s poetry before the World

War II at the age of about twenty and took a liking to it at once. His first attempts

to translate Burns’ poetry trace back to this period, however tragically , the early

translations were lost during the years of war .After the war, Lukash continued his work at Burns’ poetry. In
1959, the year

of Burns’s 200th anniversary, a book of his selected poetries in Ukrainian

translations by Mykola Lukash and Vassyl Mysyk appeared(Berns 1959).

It included 56 Lukash’s translations, generally comprised of songs and ballads, the most

favourite genres of the translator. Mysyk, on the other hand, loved long

poems, political satire, and epitaphs.