(Japanese) 木の時間

千年を生きた木の時間をそのまま詰め込んだ絵本で、同じ場所にとどまっているかのような欅の木の躍動感のある成長を描いている。地面と水と山と風と炸裂する太陽とほのかな月明かりの下で、黙々と毎日を生きる木。その過程で変化する季節を感じ、その横で生まれては死ぬありとあらゆる生命との心の通じ合いを描いている。詩的な文章やぼんやりと眺めさせる絵で読者にしばらく木になれる夢をプレゼントしている。

(English) The Time of a Tree

A young tree that never attracted the attention of anyone finally settled in the yard of a remote house deep in the mountains.

The small young tree was not startled by the barking of a strange dog in the pitch-dark night and firmly took root while its branches shivered in the cold wind.

Even in the spring when the brilliant yellowish-green leaves sprouted, the summer when the typhoon tore at the entire mountain, the fall when the cluster of stars flowed like a river, and the winter when the mountain howled, the tree grew in its place bracing against the wind. After countless days with the moon waxing and waning, the tree soon grew to become the biggest tree in the yard.

“Where is the end of this road? What lies beyond that mountain? Who am I?”

The more the tree wondered, the further it reached out its branches and the deeper it took root.

The seasons came and passed dozens of times. The trunk grew thick, and the tree grew so much that the bark cracked, but the fruit on the branch tips was insignificant. One day, the tree hears something amazing from the wind.

“You are a tree that lives a thousand years.”

The Time of a Tree is a picture book that fully portrays the time of a tree that lives a thousand years. It shows the dynamic growth of a zelkova tree, which seems to be frozen in one spot. The tree quietly lives every day under the scorching sun and the soft moonlight with the earth, water, mountain, and wind. In the process, the tree feels the changing seasons, and bonds with all kinds of life that is born and that lives and dies next to the tree.

천년을 살아가는 나무의 시간을 온전히 담은 그림책으로, 한자리에서 멈춰 있는 듯한 느티나무의 역동적인 성장을 그리고 있다. 땅과 물과 산과 바람과 작렬하는 태양과 은은한 달빛 아래에서 묵묵히 하루하루를 살아가는 나무, 그 과정에서 변화하는 계절을 느끼고, 그 옆에서 나고 살고 죽는 온갖 생명들과의 교감을 담아냈다. 시적인 텍스트와 물끄러미 들여다보게 하는 그림들로 독자들에게 잠시 나무가 되는 꿈을 선사하고 있다. 

사람들의 이야기를 세심한 관찰력으로 깊이 있고 따뜻하게 그려 내는 작가 이혜란의 작품 세계는 도시에서 산골로 이주한 뒤 자연과 생명까지 품는 넉넉한 세계로 확장되었다. 마당에 있는 느티나무 한 그루를 날마다 관찰하며, ‘나무의 시간’을 온전히 느끼고 깊이 있게 바라보았다.