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    Editor's Note

                           The rhythm of children’s songs is light and quick, their style free, their
                       vocabulary simple, their mood pure, and their rhymes lively. Childish
                       laughter, the imaginative world of children, as well as their spiritual
                       perceptions are all sources from which the material for the composition of
                       children’s songs have been drawn. Among present day scholars, one who
                       has done the most research on children’s songs is Professor Chu Chief-fan,
                       who says, ¨Every song contains the impressions of countless children and
                       the expressions of their hearts, whether laughter or crying.©
                           Most of the children’s songs which have been collected in The Overseas
                       Chinese Library have already been recorded in Professor Chu’s Chinese
                       Children’s Songs. Some of these songs may have had a history of several
                       hundred years. From generation to generation they have been passed down
                       orally from fathers and mothers to their children and sung spontaneously
                       among them. Normally the lyrics are not fixed; one song may have many
                       different versions. Most of the authors of these lyrics have left no traces
                       behind for verification-the songs are the common creations of millions of
                       parents and their children throughout history.
                           In the first volume of our Children’s Songs, we have included one
                       translation from Western children’s songs, ¨Twinkle Twinkle little Star.©
                       Although it is not Chinese, the translation has its own beauty and has been
                       sung in our country for many years. It has already become a part of modern
                       Chinese children’s songs.
                           Since children’s songs are rhymed, translating them is very difficult.
                       The initial translation of these songs was done by American students at
                       the Stanford Center in Taipei. Their drafts were then corrected or rewritten
                       by Professor Yang Wan-Yun and revised by Professor Wang Ch’iu-Kuei.
                       Although we dare not say that they are written perfectly, these songs and
                       their translations were indeed edited with the utmost care before being
                       offered here for your perusal.

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