「台英童集」出版的序 李 秀
平常小散文，童毋捌想欲。一个和的昏，音家友棣教授，看著我个小乖乖，文化中心的草埕喜走相逐，而且嘴哼唱一寡外的童，伊沉重按呢：「你些文字工作者，下一代些童，不要老叫他毫的接受外西。出！我意他曲。」者，者在心。自按呢，我完全投入毋是、嘛是童心的境界。
「童心是人心的故。」真密出我作童的心路程。文作抒理念情，尤其作童文，愈一个人的童心勾出，像共失落足久的物揣身仝款。因此，一片一片的彩、一蕊一蕊的花草、一一的雨滴…化作囡仔幼柔的目所看著的世界。尤其我厝彼个琴的後生、查某囝，予我真作的感。
童是人生展中一个重要的段。的幻想、好奇、同情、想像… 差不多生活家己的天地面。事上，童本身就是一部真好的文。譬如，小低年的同，若看著的、摸著的，真好玄、有趣味，是一真的直接反，伊袂考其他方面的影。像矣，伊袂想著的害，因伊毋免上、爸母毋免上班，再的面新奇，引起伊足大的刺激感。
世界在看，人物是一家。伊看幼星袂振，嘛使是一群的囡仔，予月娘老天面；雷公大概予雷兄弟惹受才赫大的脾；小雨四界跳舞蹉跎，有的厝耍刀、有的跳落河游泳、有的淋土跤花蕊姐仔…款天地物合一的情，真正是人生上美妙的段。
高年的同，身心有足大的展，求知增加，理智咧育，立的性慢慢形成。求知欲、正感、冒，常生活中展出。像「今仔日」、「空」、「阮咧琴」…等等，就是的影。察童心化，是作童上大的快！本童集起初是用作，其中十二首，友棣教授已成曲，予「童唱歌得著快」是伊上大的向望。
版有得著高雄市文，嘛捌高雄文化中心予小朋友表演。所的「些著作跳出前童作家的表手法，具有特的意。」在十冬的月，我它翻成英文。
落，予胡松的「踏入文，世界愈」念影。起先我有翻英文比翻文的感，真歹! 我是正港的人矣，呔使有款想法。宋嘛按呢「家已的母，消除思的痛苦」。哥每一个寒冷的暗暝，我投入文的童世界，用文真正是肉黏骨。用母童，是世人作程中上界美好的感，伊深深挖掘家己生命中存的意，像子他遇著久年失散的人。
然後我以「台英童」系列刊登於北美一个文 “Writer’s Digest Community”，受著英世界者作家烈的反。有一个小的美作家Timothy,伊我的童，予伊想著19世一个真出名的人William Blake的；有另外一个人，捌咱台台北美校教，伊遮的台英童是一本予囡仔想欲英文的好教材…款的呵，我真正是一外的鼓。
另外我特感兄，因伊的所在袂著合的字典, 所以叫松兄高雄寄字典哥予我，我矣，等我去才，松「作家的作品相比，要啦！」即我已看著五彩的春光矣，毋文的代，有友情的感。
本台英童集有28首，向望予小朋友、大朋友一寡奇，一寡共，知影宇宙物之，有值得逐家啖的趣味。
Foreword--- by Louise Lee Hsiu
I used to only write essays and novels for adults. I never thought about writing children’s poetry. However, that changed when Yu-Di Huang, who is a famous musician, composer and writer from Hong Kong, came to Taiwan to offer his time and expertise to help musical groups. At that time he always encouraged me in both my literary and musical interests as I diligently presided over my telephone company’s choir. One warm evening, he discouraged me from singing foreign nursery rhymes with my two children at the Kaohsiung Cultural Center. He said to me, “You are a writer. You have a responsibility to write children’s poems for our children to sing in our native language. Don’t force them to learn only foreign songs. Write the poems! I will be glad to compose music for them.”
I listened to my honored teacher and made a sincere attempt to write children’s poetry. Then I became not only involved with the creation of children’s poems, but I also discovered my long lost child self and really enjoyed experiencing my innocent side again. When I write that childhood is the remote hometown of the inner human being, I am referring to the process of my children’s poetry writing. Even though adult literature expresses the writer’s ideas and emotions, writing for children can lead the writer back to childlike innocence and treasured memories of childhood. Thus, elements of nature such as clouds, flowers and raindrops are the embodiment of a child’s vision; furthermore, observing my two children learning to play the piano and the violin also gave me a lot of inspiration to write children’s poetry.
A child’s development in the first stage of life is rich in fantasy, curiosity, sympathy and imagination. Children often live in their own world. In fact, every child is a literary masterpiece. For example, there is a strong curiosity about what they can see or touch during early childhood. This kind of attitude is why they do not regard things like typhoons as disasters. When the typhoon is coming, they are just excited that they don’t need to go to school; Father and Mother don’t have to go to work as well. Moreover, experiencing the wild effects of the typhoon stimulates their interest in such a positive way that they dance with joy.
To children, all things under the sun are one. A child looks at the still stars in the sky and has an image of the stars being punished by being forced to stand still by Moon Teacher because they are a group of disobedient children. Children hear the sound of thunder and the thunder is personified as Thunder Father; maybe Thunder Brothers have provoked their father to anger. Looking at small raindrops, children may say that some raindrops play a warrior’s game on the roof as they whip each other with their crystal bead bodies, and some raindrops jump into the river to go swimming, but as they all swim together, they are unable to know who is who. These kinds of naive images arise from this most wonderful period of life.
When children reach adolescence (between the ages of 11 and 13), they experience big changes in their physicality and spirituality, such as an increase in intellectual curiosity, more independence, a sense of justice, etc. The poems, “Today”, “Air”, “Learning the Music of Us” and so on are expressions of these new interests. Observing childhood changes and writing them down is a fantastic experience.
I wrote these children’s poems in Chinese over a decade ago. Among these Chinese poems there are twelve that have music composed for them by Dr. Yu-Di Huang. Getting children to sing merrily is his greatest desire. Actually these melodies were performed by a children’s choir when I was awarded a Children’s Poetry Prize for this book at the Kaohsiung Cultural Center.
On the other hand, even though I am a Taiwanese writer, I never thought about translating the poems into Taiwanese. I always had this idea that translating into English is easier than translating into Taiwanese. Shame on me! I am really a Taiwanese writer. How dare I get this idea!
Recently, I was in touch with Tiong-Siong Oo, a Taiwanese novelist whose articles are written in Taiwanese. He said that if I go to the world of Taiwanese language, I will find a remarkable vision. Of course, I appreciate this wonderful statement and want to be in my mother language world. Additionally, another famous Taiwanese writer, Tik-Lai Song, said to me, “Writing in your mother language is a good way to solve homesickness in a foreign country.” It is true that both writers’ encouragement has brought me back to the marvelous world of Taiwanese language. Now that I have translated these children’s poems from Chinese into Taiwanese, I feel like a joyful breeze is playing upon my heart the musical ripples of my mother tongue.
Translating my poems into English was also a great challenge. However, I finished my English translation of my children’s poems, I posted them on the website of the North American “Writer’s Digest Community”, and I received a lot of positive responses to the poems.
Now I have translated my poems into both Taiwanese and English so that more children can enjoy them. It is my great hope that my poetry in some way reflects the nature of childhood.
