“John Cornseed” is a collection by the Scottish poet and folklorist Robert Burns (1759–1796). It brings together the author’s poetic works, including “The Poor Man’s Song,” “First and foremost,” and the famous ballad “John Cornseed,” which is based on folk beliefs about cheerful spirits. This rebellious, good-natured energy of Scottish folklore in the first Russian translation was replaced with the Russian bylinа “Ivan Erofeyich Khlibnoe-zernyshko.” The Scottish peasant turned into a Russian peasant, and kings became “tsars”—and not just any, but “infidel,” foreign ones. These and other changes gave the ballad a different national color. Burns wrote poems as well as works such as “The Merry Beggars,” “Tam O’Shanter,” and others.