林葆靈 LIN Bao Ling: 延燒：火與我的創作 | Still Burning: Fire and My Practice

原文刊載於1993/10/3，《自由時報》

Originally published on October 3, 1993, Liberty Times

烤火

By the Fire

文◎林葆靈

By LIN Bao Ling

寒冷的晚上，在院子裡的土窯裡生起一堆火，再搬張椅子或是搬個板凳坐在火前，靜靜地看著火焰的變化，是我很喜歡的一件事。

On cold evenings, I would light a fire in the earthen kiln in our yard, then move a chair or a small stool to sit in front of it. Quietly watching the changing flames was something I loved very much.

生火少不了木材，但我們不用像古人那樣「上山砍材」，只要到附近的木材行取其廢木料即可。

Firewood is essential for making a fire, but we didn’t have to “go up the mountains to chop wood” like people in the old days. We could simply collect discarded wood from a nearby lumber shop.

大部分的小朋友，大概都喜歡玩火，但是有些住在都市的小孩都無處可玩很是無奈。想我以前也是個不折不扣的台北小孩，最喜歡停電了，因為只有那時，爸媽才會點蠟燭，，我才有小小的火苗可觀賞。幸好後來遷居鄉下，爸爸買了一棟古老的土角厝、房子前面，還有六、七十坪的院子，使我能在院子裡縱情的烤火、看火、玩火。

Most children probably enjoy playing with fire, but some kids who grow up in the city have no place to do so, which can be frustrating. I used to be a true Taipei kid myself. My favorite moments were power outages, because only then would my parents light candles, giving me a small flame to watch. Fortunately, we later moved to the countryside. My father bought an old earthen house with a spacious yard in front, which allowed me to freely make fires, watch them, and play with them.

據說，看火可以紓解壓力，如果沒有地方可以生火的話，掛張火的圖片或照片，也一樣有用，不過我是沒有什麼壓力啦，我烤火純粹好玩而已。

It is said that watching fire can relieve stress. If there’s no place to make a fire, even hanging a picture or photograph of fire can have a similar effect. As for me, I didn’t really have much stress—I simply enjoyed making fires for fun.

如果晚上有客人來訪，爸爸大都招呼他們到院子的土窯旁，生上一堆火，大家圍坐在火邊，談天說地。也可以順便烤地瓜，或烤甘蔗，或把大鐵鍋架在土窯上，煮些東西，大家一邊吃邊聊，氣氛相當不錯。

When guests visited in the evening, my father would usually invite them to gather around the earthen kiln in the yard. We would light a fire, sit around it, and chat. Sometimes we would roast sweet potatoes or sugarcane, or place a large iron pot over the kiln to cook something. Eating and talking by the fire created a wonderful atmosphere.

家中最愛烤火的就是我和爸爸了，可是愛烤火卻不會起火怎麼行呢？所以我就開始觀摩自封起火大王的爸爸起火，自己再去試驗，不久我就知道了其中的一些技巧，此後，只要是我起火一定是熊熊烈火，火焰升天。

In our family, my father and I loved making fires the most. But how could you love making fires without knowing how to start one? So I began observing my father—who considered himself a master fire-maker—and then tried it myself. Before long, I learned some of the techniques. From then on, whenever I made a fire, it would blaze vigorously, flames rising high into the air.

火在我們家扮演著不凡的角色，他幫我們燒洗澡水、幫爸爸待客、幫媽媽弄食物、幫我們清理甘蔗皮，還讓我們烤火用，所以「火」我們家佔有重要的位置。

Fire played an important role in our home. It heated bathwater, helped my father entertain guests, helped my mother prepare food, helped us deal with sugarcane peels, and of course gave us warmth. Fire held a significant place in our family.

我覺得玩火並不是壞事，但是要注意安全，謹記「星星之火，足以燎原」。

I don’t think playing with fire is necessarily a bad thing, but safety is important. One must always remember: “A single spark can start a prairie fire.”

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看到老媽幫我剪貼保存的這篇十二歲時寫的作文，勾起了許多回憶。

Seeing this essay I wrote at the age of twelve—carefully clipped and preserved by my mother—brings back many memories.

喜歡火，真的是從兒時就開始了。

My fascination with fire truly began in childhood.

我還記得，那時可能是看了很多熱血少年漫畫，受到了些影響，某天準備生火時不巧下起了雨，但我還是與雨抗衡，在雨中奮力地把火生了起來，覺得自己很熱血。還有一次，老媽準備用土窯煮晚餐，我生好了火，她才發覺食材有缺，於是騎機車出去補買。她出外期間，我把土窯中的火控制在小火，這樣等她回來加入些較大的木材便能迅速轉為大火，提高烹煮效率。她回來後誇讚我: 「很能幹，這樣以後長大，萬一老婆跑了你生活也沒問題。」

I remember being heavily into hot-blooded shonen manga at the time, and I think that had something to do with it. One day, just as I was about to start a fire, rain began to fall. I refused to give in — I fought the rain and got the fire going anyway, feeling thoroughly heroic about the whole thing. Another time, my mother was planning to cook dinner in the clay kiln, and I had already built the fire when she realized she was missing some ingredients and rode off on her scooter to buy them. While she was out, I kept the fire at a low burn, so that when she returned, adding a few larger pieces of wood would quickly bring it roaring back up — more efficient for cooking. When she got back, she praised me: “Very capable — when you grow up, even if your wife runs off, you’ll manage just fine on your own.”

隨著年紀漸長，不論是對於火的作用或是其象徵意義有了更多一點點的認識，像是印尼有「燒芭」（Slash-and-burn)，藉由放火燒植被來清理農地，灰燼則成為土地的肥料；但也導致嚴重的霾害。而自然（自燃）的森林大火，可以視為是森林的新陳代謝。而象徵意義上，火常常被視為慾望與熱情。芥川龍之介的小說《地獄變》中對於那美麗又殘酷的火的描寫讓我印象深刻，感觸良多。

As I got older, I came to understand a little more about both the practical uses and symbolic meanings of fire. In Indonesia, for instance, slash-and-burn agriculture involves setting fire to vegetation to clear farmland, with the ash returning nutrients to the soil — though it also causes severe haze. Wildfires that occur naturally, on the other hand, can be seen as a kind of metabolism for the forest. Symbolically, fire has long been associated with desire and passion. The depiction of fire in Ryūnosuke Akutagawa’s novella Hell Screen — simultaneously beautiful and brutal — left a deep impression on me.

就讀師大美研所期間，加入了登山社，野營生火的任務常由我負責，有些隊友喜歡戲稱我為「火神」。嚮導訓練時，也曾向社員分享生火技巧；也試過在濕氣頗重的環境下，用潮濕的木材生火。對於火，有了更多的回憶與更深的感受。天寒地凍的時節，漆黑的深山野嶺中的一堆火，不僅有讓人凝視不厭的美，也溫暖身體，撫慰心靈，驅趕恐懼，予人希望。

In freezing seasons, a single fire in the pitch-dark wilderness of the mountains is not only mesmerizing to watch, but also warms the body, soothes the mind, dispels fear, and offers a sense of hope.

我對火的喜愛與感受，也自然地流露在作品之中。2006 - 2007年在新加坡創作的一系列城市夜景畫，胡耀光老師（Ian Woo）在文章〈The Heroic of Painting - The illuminated Paintings of Lin Bao Ling〉中，多次以「燃燒」與「火焰」來形容那批作品：「林葆靈筆下的城市如同馬可波羅的心像，由火焰、發光寶石、亮石與破碎夢境所構成，懸浮在近似被火焚燒的狀態。有些建築看似正在燃燒，城市的粒子彷彿在火焰中殉道——如同成千上萬的聖女貞德。」

林葆靈 LIN Bao Ling
《夜曲 02072》Nocturne 02072
壓克力與亮粉於畫布 /Oil and acrylic on canvas
100 x 100 cm
2007

This love of fire, and everything I feel about it, has naturally found its way into my work. A series of urban nocturnes painted in Singapore in 2006 - 2007 prompted Ian Woo, in his essay “The Heroic of Painting - The illuminated Paintings of Lin Bao Ling,” to reach repeatedly for the language of burning and flame when describing them: “Bao Ling’s painted cities, like Polo’s mental inventions, seems to be made up of fire, glaring garnets, illuminated stones and shattered dreams, culminating a city of suspended states like that of one being burnt alive. Some of the buildings look like they are on fire and there is a fluctuating state where its particles of the city seem to be in a mist of being martyred in fire, like a thousand Joan of Arcs’.”

林葆靈 LIN Bao Ling

《夜曲 20710_》Nocturne 20710

壓克力與亮粉於畫布 /Oil and acrylic on canvas

1130 x 97 cm

2007

後來我也持續創作了一些與火相關、或在視覺上帶有燃燒感的畫作，乃至立體作品。我常想，把真正喜歡的元素與真實的情感與想法都放進作品，應該自然而然就會形成所謂的個人風格吧。

Since then, I have continued making works that involve fire directly, or carry that quality of burning in their visual energy — paintings and sculptural pieces alike. I’ve often thought: if you put the things you truly love, along with genuine feeling and thoughts, into your work, a personal voice will simply emerge on its own.