MA YONGBO

 

 

News Of The Snow

 

In my hometown, snowfall

is a frequent occurrence,

those I asked about the news of snow

have vanished deep within the hometown,

just like snow vanishing into the sky.

 

And then, cold seeps from a single word,

like frost emanating from within a stone.

Some people returned, exhaling air,

nameless yet oddly familiar.

 

Because snowfall, in my hometown,

is a frequent occurrence,

as if riding in a car, the road seems to be rushing towards you,

rough landscapes are illuminated,

only to be engulfed by endless darkness moments later.

 

Night Stay By Gongchen Bridge

 

Two dark red painted boats bring dusk from upstream,

moored for a long time, emitting smoke, like two dowries

waiting to be opened, barges carrying sand and stone

pass under the bridge arch, almost soundlessly,

under the bow light, a few white plastic boxes

nurturing flowers, someone in love, unmoved by the flowing water.

 

Fine rain wets the lanterns, no one rides a donkey in the drizzle,

passing through doors and gates, no one ties a lean horse under the willow tree,

unfolds poetry scrolls and dark swords from yellow parcels,

how many old things along the riverbank are hidden by the willow colours?

They only emit faint light and sighs when there is no one in the deep night.

 

But there will still be someone waking up against the wall,

what he supports just waits for him to fall,

like a dead end filled with miniature landscapes,

at the southern end of the canal, those irregular heads

shine like lights, instinctively pure.

 

I can't have a life as long as a river,

the skeletons of moths revolve around my silent brain.

Don't regret, just turn off the lights,

this is your night, this is the world's way,

autumn rain is still falling in the darkness,

still disappearing into the waters of the Grand Canal.

 

MA YONGBO

 

MA YONGBO was born in 1964, Ph.D., representative of Chinese avant-garde poetry, and a leading scholar in Anglo-American poetry. He has published over eighty original works and translations since 1986 included 7 poetry collections. He focused on translating and teaching Anglo-American poetry and prose including the work of Dickinson, Whitman, Stevens, Pound, Williams and Ashbery. He recently published a complete translation of Moby Dick, which has sold over half a million copies. He teaches at Nanjing University of Science and Technology. The Collected Poems of Ma Yongbo (four volumes, Eastern Publishing Centre, 2024) comprising 1178 poems, celebrate 40 years of writing poetry.