今天分享一本关于母爱的绘本，即是这本经典的Love you forever.
据网络搜索的资料显示，绘本从1986年出版以来，全球销售逾一千六百万册。这是一本温暖而温情的治愈绘本，为人父母和为人子女看了，都无法不动容和潸然。
记得我第一次读，读到最后时整个人也跟着文字泪流满面，心里疯狂地思念妈妈，内心平静后打了个电话给她，虽然没有说太多的事，听她念叨着一些生活的琐事，心里也觉得很满足和幸福。
整个故事是用一首充满爱意的温馨歌谣串起来的，故事“从一个年轻母亲抚养婴儿说起，经过令人抓狂的二岁、调皮捣蛋的9岁、变得古里古怪的青少年、直到长大、离家去工作。母亲一天天老去，但不论日子过得如何，夜里，母亲总是看着孩子，轻抚着他的脸，轻轻的唱着“我永远爱你，我永远疼你，在妈妈的心里，你是我永远的宝贝”，直到妈妈老了，老得已经生病走不动了，呼唤儿子回去看望她，她仍然想给儿子吟唱那首歌，但却唱不动了，于是儿子抱起了已经瘦骨嶙峋进入弥留之际的妈妈，给她唱了那首歌。儿子回去的那个晚上，在楼梯上站了很久很久，回去后他也将自己的女儿抱在怀里，开始轻轻地吟唱这首动听的歌。
接下来，搬好小板凳，带好纸巾，开始读一读这个故事。
A mother held her new baby
and very slowly rocked him back and forth,
back and forth, back and forth.
And while she held him, she sang:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.
The baby grew.
He grew and he grew and he grew.
He grew until he was two years old,
and he ran all around the house.
He pulled all the books off the shelves.
He pulled all the food out of the refrigerator
and he took his mother'swatch and flushed it down the toilet.
Sometimes his mother would say,
"This kid is driving me CRAZY!"
But at night time, when that two-year-old was quiet,
the mother opened the door to his room,
crawled across the floor and looked up over the side of the bed;
and if he was really asleep she picked him up
and rocked him back and forth,
back and forth, back and forth.
While she rocked him she sang:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.
The little boy grew.
He grew and he grew and he grew.
He grew until he was nine years old.
And he never wanted to come in for dinner,
he never wanted to take a bath,
and when grandma visited he always said bad words.
Sometimes his mother wanted to sell him to the zoo!
But at night time, when he was asleep,
the mother quietly opened the door to his room,
crawled across the floor, looked up over the side of his bed;
and if he was really asleep she picked him up
and rocked him back and forth,back
and forth, back and forth.
While she rocked him she sang:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.
The boy grew.
He grew and he grew and he grew.
He grew until he was a teenager.
He had strange friends and he wore strange clothes
and he listened to strange music.
Sometimes the mother felt like she was in a zoo!
But at night time, when he was asleep,
the mother quietly opened the door to his room,
crawled across the floor, looked up over the side of his bed;
and if he was really asleep she picked him up
and rocked him back and forth,back
and forth, back and forth.
While she rocked him she sang:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.
That teenager grew. He grew and he grew and he grew.
He grew until he was a grown-up man.
He left home and got a house across town.
But sometimes on dark nights
the mother got into her car and drove across town.
If all the lights in her son's house were out,
she opened his bedroom window, crawled across the floor,
and looked up over the side of his bed.
If that great big man was really asleep
she picked him up
and rocked him back and forth, back and forth.
And while she rocked him she sang:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.
Well, that mother, she got older.
She got older and older and older.
One day she callup up her son and said ,
"You'd better come to see me because I'm very old and sick."
So her son came to see her.
When he came in the door she tried to sing the song.
She sang :
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always...
But she couldn't finish because she was too old and sick.
The son went to his mother.
He picked her up and rocked her back and forth,
back and forth, back and forth.
And he sang this song:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my Mommy you'll be.
When the son came home that night,
he stood fora long time at the top of the stairs.
Then he went into the room where his very new baby daughter was sleeping.
He picked her up in his arms
and very slowly rocked her back and forth,
back and forth, back and forth.
And while he rocked her he sang:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.
关于母爱的绘本有很多，这一本尤其让人印象深刻。绘本曾经荣获凯迪克大奖，作者是Robert N. Munsch，加拿大的一位作家，读了资料才知道，他创作这个作品是为了纪念他那两个死去的婴儿，了解这一点，心里对这本书多了一份肃然。作者Robert N. Munsch的个人网站中，他把这本绘本的创作初衷和过程都介绍了，这确实是因为一首歌而起的绘本，他的脑海中始终有一首歌是送给他那两个死去的婴儿，但是他却无法唱出来，每次他想唱总是忍不住哭出来，直到有一天他去一个大学讲故事，他突然萌发了灵感他可以围绕这首歌来创作一个故事，这本人们争相传阅、购买和送人的绘本就这样诞生了。以下节选自作者的个人网站：https://robertmunsch.com/book/love-you-forever#
“Love You Forever started as a song.
“I’ll love you forever,
I’ll like you for always,
as long as I’m living
my baby you’ll be.”
I made that up after my wife and I had two babies born dead. The song was my song to my dead babies. For a long time I had it in my head and I couldn’t even sing it because every time I tried to sing it I cried. It was very strange having a song in my head that I couldn’t sing.
For a long time it was just a song but one day, while telling stories at a big theatre at the University of Guelph, it occurred to me that I might be able to make a story around the song.
Out popped Love You Forever, pretty much the way it is in the book.”
在网上还搜到一则评论很有感触，Maria Shriver wrote in O, The Oprah Magazine: "I have yet to read this book through without crying. It says so much about the circle of life, youth, parenting, and our responsibility for our parents as we grow older. The message is so simple yet so profound. Love You Forever is a great gift for anyone with a child, or even for your own parents."
生命和爱皆是一个轮回，父母的爱滋养着我们成长，而我们也会将这份爱传递给下一代，下一代，再下一代。
