厦门丨Ash为女儿做的时空绘本太神奇了

如果您有一颗孩童的心，欢迎一起来~ 听完Ash的分享也许你也可以为宝贝或自己设计绘本哦~

亲爱的未来，过去和现在的读者，

《一首光速摇篮曲》 是一本绘本，自称为：“初学者的时空旅行”。由韵律诗和粉笔绘画构成。不论年龄大小，我们不都是时空旅行的初学者吗?

这本书适合任何年龄层阅读，或取决于您对自己的感觉年龄。如果您6岁，那书中讲述的很多对您来说可能鲜有耳闻。如果您60岁，那么您可以再次享受6岁的时光!

让我们从头开始讲述这本书的由来。

Dear Future, Past and Present Reader,

A Lullaby At Light Speed bills itself as Space-Time Travel For Beginners. It is written in rhyming verse with big pictures - because, younger or older, aren't we all absolute beginners in space-time travel?

This is a book for any age depending on what age you're feeling. So if you're 6, much of what it says might be news to you. And if you're 60, you can enjoy being 6 again!

But let's start at the beginning.

《一首光速摇篮曲》 的绘画过程

几年前，我为我7岁的女儿小仙写了一首诗。这首诗自己设定了一个目标（诚然有些野心勃勃），它想要以孩童的心智解释整个宇宙。

当时，她对此兴趣不大。当然，是对诗，而不是宇宙。

The Making of A Lullaby At Light Speed

Quite a few years ago, I wrote a poem for my then-7-year-old daughter, XiaoXian. The poem set itself the (admittedly somewhat ambitious) aim of explaining the entire Universe to a young mind.

At the time, she wasn't very interested in it. The poem, that is, not the Universe!

过了一些时日，我重拾这首诗，并意识到如果诗歌配上插图将会更有意义。如果它不是按部就班的叙事，而是像一个被给予无限的自由的孩子一样去探索它的背景，那将有趣多了。她将会自发主动地去探索在她面前发现一个又一个的新奇事物。这个范围很大，覆盖所有时空。从这个意义上说，ALALS更像是一系列“思想实验”，而不是一个典型的故事。

Some time later, I rediscovered the poem and realised how much more involving it would be if, of course, it was illustrated. And also how much more interesting it might be if it did not have a traditional narrative but rather explored its setting as a child might if she was given unlimited freedom to do so. Spontaneously. Unplanned. Moving from one thing to the next, discovering what was in front of her nose. Except this playground encompassed all of Space and Time. In this sense, ALALS is more a series of 'thought-experiments' as opposed to a typical story.

于是，我开始随手涂鸦。涂鸦渐渐成形，并逐渐成为连贯的图像。与此同时，这首诗也被编辑、重写、简化，并与图像保持协调一致。但我仍然不知道如何用正确的感觉来形容它。在纸上，我一一尝试了墨水、水彩、油彩、彩色铅笔去描绘，但感觉都不对。似乎都太轻，太重，太普通或太慢…

So, I started doodling. The doodlings began to take form and become cohesive images. At the same time the poem was edited, re-written, simplified and co-ordinated with the drawings. But I still did not know how to illustrate it with the right feeling. Ink on paper, watercolour, oilpaint, coloured pencils - I tried them all. None felt quite right. Too light, too heavy, too normal, too slow ..

冥冥注定之中，其实答案一直就在我的面前。曾经我们用黑板漆粉刷了工作室的一面墙，平时我们用这面墙来和女儿一起学习语言、歌曲，或者简单地描绘一些画作。任何东西都可以直观明了的表达出来。这似乎是创作一本书的好方法。所以我们把更多的墙面涂成了黑板，直到这个房间变成了一个洞穴，一个探索宇宙的洞穴。

As it happened, the answer was right in front of me all along. We had already painted one wall of our apartment with blackboard paint and we would use the wall to learn language, songs or simply to depict something - anything! - to be expressed quickly. This seemed a good way to make a book. So we painted more walls to become blackboards until this one room became a cave. A cave in which to explore the Universe.

随后我开始认真的工作。大约用了一年半的时间来画这些画作，邀请我的朋友张羽帮助拍摄，它是一位很好的专业摄影师。在每一幅充满富色彩的灰扑扑和戏剧性的画作完成并记录下来之后，，我都会把它擦干净，如果必要的话，用黑板漆再重新刷一遍，以保持干净、纯洁的墙面。

Then the work began in earnest. It took about a year and half to do all the drawings, photographing them along the way with the help of my friend ZhangYu, a professional photographer. After each one of these colourful, dust-and-drama drawings was completed and documented, it was wiped clean and, if necessary, the wall re-painted with blackboard chalk to maintain the clean, pure surface.

最初，这是一个相当可悲的过程--有些画花了一周甚至更多的时间才完成。但是，只要绘画工作连贯起来，就会期待有下一步进展，绘画就变成了一种自我释放的过程并且充满了新鲜感。那种感觉轻盈而厚重，快速而从容，粉笔和矿物颜料的质感令人赏心悦目!在如此短暂的事物上投入如此多的时间，不知何故也是一种“净化”——有点像佛教僧侣的“沙曼陀罗”绘画(在这种绘画中，复杂的图像是用带有彩色沙子的细小管道绘制出来的，作品完成之后，僧侣们会用某种仪式清零)。我越来越痴迷这种创作方式。

Initially, this was quite a sad process - some of the drawings took a week or more to make. But once the flow of work made itself insistent, demanded progress, became hungry for the next, it became a liberating process and kept the work imbued with a freshness. Light and heavy, fast and deliberate, the qualities of chalk and mineral pigment are a joy! It was also somehow 'cleansing' to devote so much time to something so impermanent - a little bit like the 'sand mandala' drawings of Buddhist monks (whereby complex image-patterns are created in great detail using pipetted, coloured sands which, on completion, are ritually swept away).

没有什么是永恒的，只有当下

Nothing lasts, everything exists.

这本书现在已经开始印刷了。采用超大尺寸，精装，英文印刷，并附有中文翻译手册（手册是可移动的，以便在阅读时享受全尺寸的艺术品）。

The book is now printed. Printed over-sized, hardback, in English with an inserted pamphlet of Chinese translation (This pamphlet is removeable so that the full-size artwork can be enjoyed as you read).

这本书结合了空间与非空间、时间与非时间、神奇科学与现实梦幻、启蒙与困惑的本质概念。正如前面提到的，所有内容都是从孩子的角度出发的。我由此受到启发：孩子们应该知道“一切”，我们应该提醒自己，在追求我们传统的成人思维时，不要忽視、減弱他们的童真智慧!

Uniting concepts of the nature of Space and Non-Space, Time and Non-Time, magical science and practical dreaming, enlightenment and bewilderment.

All, as mentioned earlier, is presented from a child's viewpoint. I take heart in the thought that children know 'everything' and that we ought to remind ourselves not to take away from, not to diminish, their great wisdom in pursuit of our conventional, adult thinking!

我必须谦卑地承认至少两位“思想实验”者给予的灵感。一位是:公元前4世纪晚期的道家思想家庄子所著的《庄子 齐物论》中的庄周梦蝶之典故；另一位是：爱因斯坦16岁时构思的“追逐一束光”(1895)。

I must humbly acknowledge a great debt of inspiration to two 'thought -experiments'. These are: the late 4th century BC "Dream of the Butterfly" by the Daoist thinker we know as ZhuangZi. Along with, "Chasing a Light Beam" (1895) conceived by Einstein when he was a 16-year old schoolboy.

他们之间相隔千余年，来自不同的国家、文化和教育背景，虽然他们都没有提供一个经验性的证据或可验证的结论。但是他们两人都乐衷于思考探索那些尚未被完全理解的真理的可能性空间和异想天开的想法。

已知在等待未知。

这就是《光速摇篮曲》的创作过程。我衷心希望这本绘本值得读者品读。

Seperated by millenia, geography, culture and education, neither of them offers an empirical proof or verifiable conclusion. Both of them offer pleasure in the consideration of outlandish ideas as possible truths yet to be fully understood.

All that is known awaits what is yet to be known.

This then, is something of the process of making a " A Lullaby At Light Speed ".

I sincerely hope the finished book is worthy of the reader.

关于作者

About the Author

Ash，出生于伦敦。诗人，艺术家，五楼农场独立出版创办人。曾在伦敦、纽约、香港、悉尼居住过。2007年搬迁于上海。与妻子黄小扣女儿小仙一家三口工作与生活在朱家角（坐落在上海西部的古镇）其作品曾在英国、美国、澳大利亚、中国展览。他的工作室与家合并，他说这样可以在做家务中冥想并产生灵感。他坚称，艺术创作只不过是另一种形式的家务劳动。

Ash is a poet/artist. Born in London. Founder of independent publisher - Fifth Floor Farm. The family moved to Shanghai in 2006. He and his wife Huang Xiaokou and his daughter Xiaoxian are currently working and living in Zhujiajiao (an ancient town in the west of Shanghai). His works have been exhibited in Britain, the United States, Australia, and China.His studio was merged with home, therefore merging daily life with artistic creation. Thus, housework becomes both meditative and constructive. And making artworks he considers is just another form of domestic work.

读者评论 : What People Have Said

科幻道教和童话科学的奇妙结合”

" Strange combination of sci-fi Daoism and fairy-tale Sciencism!"

" 穿越整个时空的心灵之旅。”

" A journey through the mind via the whole of Space and Time."

" 这里捕捉到一种奇怪的智慧——完美，温和又奇思妙想。"

" There's a curious kind of wisdom captured here - perfectly, gently and whimsically."

" 以科学为依据，以魔法为燃料，以爱为向导。”

" Informed by science, spiced up by magic, guided by love."

“看似简单，实则深奥”

" Deceptively simple, hidden depths "

这是一本独立出版的绘本，由五楼农场（Fifth Floor Farm ) 工作室独立出版。于2017年成立，专为我们一家三口绘本项目而设计。

ALALS作为限量发行的第一版，印刷数量为1000本。这本书是英文的，在书的前面有一个附带的中文翻译小册子。（可移动，以便您在阅读本书时可以欣赏图片）。

This is an independently published book, brought to you by Fifth Floor Farm, a modest, independent publisher and platform founded in 2017 for the various projects of our family.

ALALS is printed as a limited, first edition of 1000. The book is in English and includes an accompanying Chinese translation pamphlet at the front of the book (removeable so that you can enjoy the pictures as you read the book).

非常感谢...

首先，最重要的是感谢我的妻子小扣的耐心、忠告、支持和更多的付出。感谢我的女儿小仙的独特方式。感谢我的朋友张羽，是他用了18个月的时间拍摄了所有的画作。他是一位很棒专业摄影师！还有感谢我们的朋友哩噜的中文校对，她是一位美丽的诗人和儿童绘本作家。要感谢的朋友太多了，无法单独提及，毫无疑问，是他们的共同努力让我有动力去尝试做这么有趣的事。当然，我还要感谢中国文化和中国人民的慷慨大方～是这些影响一个外国人以不同的方式思考，更勤奋地行动，更热情地去爱!

Firstly, most importantly, my wife XiaoKou ~ for her patience, counsel, support and yet more patience. My daughter XiaoXian, for being inimitable. My friend Zhang Yu for photographing all the drawings over the 18 months they took to make and, without whom, this book would not exist. My friends, too numerous to mention individually, but whom collectively do surely provide the reason to try to do something interesting to share in the first place. And, yes, to the culture of China and the generosity of Chinese people ~ for educating a foreign mind to think differently, act more dilligently and love more heartily!