materiality

15

在靜浦練習織布，快要兩年前了，有很多的記憶和很多的遺忘，可是回憶是不斷延伸的，伊麥蹦蹦跳跳跑去跟嬸嬸拿家裡很老的織布工作背心；sawmah 學完織布阿公幫她做的織布機，一起畫零件，上山找木材，然後手工模出來的織具；dopoh 找到的老家苧麻織布，眼睛閃閃發亮的說自己的家族故事。 記憶混雜著遺忘的編織性，是一個深刻而且美麗的事情，每次的回憶都是重新編織出來的，遺忘以前的人事物也許帶點哀傷，可是當我們意識到遺忘不會讓事情消失，而是模糊的共存，讓人生一直有好多若隱若現的背景，好像也是很好的事情。

It has been almost two years since we practiced weaving in Cewi'. There were many memories and much forgetting, yet memory continues to unfold. Each act of remembering is itself a reweaving. What is forgotten does not vanish, but lingers in blurred coexistence—forming the shifting background of life, quiet yet present.

10

以前時常寫，跟著自然，隨著時間慢慢變老，是最美的事情。後來才發現，老去這個事情，橫跨了多少的生離死別，是這樣的悲樂交織。 每年反覆染製的草木染，不是為了美，而是要把每一個時節，每一個年的記憶，堆疊凝結起來，讓回憶可以停格，也讓生命的痕跡可以持續存在，碰觸，流轉啊。

I used to write that following nature, growing old slowly with time, was the most beautiful thing. Later I came to see that aging carries so many losses and separations, a weave of sorrow and joy. Each year’s repetition of natural dyeing is not for beauty, but to gather and layer the memory of every season, every year—so that recollection can find a stillness, and the traces of life may continue to exist.

09

你看，窗台的小豆樹開花了，在烈日下仔細觀賞那朵小花，然後想起「植物性的存在」，擬態，順應，但從根部自己默默長出自己的樣子，也許人們長大的過程也是植物性的擬態，也許工藝也是植物性的根向，也許時間也是植物性的，平淡簡單，但是一層一層包覆著複雜的當下與過去。

Look, the little bean tree on the windowsill has blossomed. Watching its small flower closely under the harsh sun, I thought of a “plant-like existence”—mimicking, yielding, quietly growing its own way from the root. Perhaps growing up, too, is a kind of plant-like mimicry; perhaps craft has its own plant-like rooting; perhaps time itself is plant-like—simple and steady, layered with the complexities of both present and past.