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night without emptiness
不空之夜

the reaching light has tethered us,
in the knowing space weathering darkness.
A square screen blinking like a white oyster,
turning on the sea bed in her silver flecks.
Darkness has openings, the black and then visible sequence.
The phone has a timed orbit, your gaze is recorded,
in small font, time gathers her senses, opens our eyes
and sleepy heads to the large and once dark expanses of mystery,
if you are reading this then you exist
and for just a second we have reached

不空之夜
night without emptiness

延展的光将我们拴在一起，
在洞悉一切的空间，抵御着黑暗。
一方屏幕闪烁如白色的牡蛎，
在海床上翻转，带着银亮的斑点。
黑暗也有开口，先是漆黑，然后是可见。
手机有定时的轨迹，你的目光被记录在册，
时光以细小的字体，凝聚起她的感知，
打开我们的双眼和昏沉的思绪，
朝向那广大而曾经漆黑的神秘之境，
如若你正读着这些文字，便证明你存在
而就在这一刻，我们已然抵达

Poetry by Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨, written on waking in deep night after surgery, and re-reading messages on WhatsApp from Yongbo

Translated by Ma Yongbo 马永波

~~

We Have Reached Many Distant Places——To Helen Who Is Ill
我们已经抵达过很多个远方——给病中的海伦

We have reached many distant places
a full eighteen months, clearly one more than the four seasons
a season not merely belonging to humans—spring water from glaciers
noisy brooks, tranquil lakes, and dark seas
but that fifth season uniquely ours—the boundless sky
Our clattering horse hooves have never stopped for a moment
in the folds of the horizon, there are always unfinished silhouettes
our armour is either covered with frost or condensed with night dew
we once stood on the peak of Mount Helicon
gazing at the vistas illuminated by lightning in an instant
Now, in a village so quiet that it appears to not be humanly created
We temporarily pull back the reins and remove all our equipment
dark spears, shields, greaves and pauldrons, and, of course, our heavy helmets
You can finally let your golden long hair flow freely
let our patient companions graze on yellow flowers, going to the darker forest
and we, overlooking the scattered lights in the valley, think of nothing
for we ourselves are both the messengers and the message
and one night, along with countless nights, will gradually become transparent

我们已经抵达过很多个远方——给病中的海伦
We Have Reached Many Distant Places——To Helen Who Is Ill

我们已经抵达过很多个远方
整整十八个月，比四季还分明多出了一个
不仅仅属于人的季节——源自冰川的泉水，
喧闹的小溪，宁静的湖泊和黑暗的大海
而是那独独属于我们的第五季——无垠的天空
我们得得的马蹄从未曾有片刻的停歇
地平线的褶皱里永远藏着未完成的剪影
我们的铠甲不是结着冰霜，便是凝结着夜露
我们曾在赫利孔山巅眺望过闪电瞬间照亮的远景
如今，在一座安静得似乎非人工所建造的村庄
我们暂时勒住缰绳，卸下所有的装备
黝黑的长矛，盾牌，胫甲和肩甲，当然还有沉重的头盔
你终于可以披散开金色的长发
任我们耐心的伙伴啃食着黄花，去到更暗的林中
而我们，俯瞰着山谷下零星的灯火，一无所思
因为我们自己既是信使，也是信息
而一个夜晚，和无数个夜晚，将逐渐透明

Poetry and translation by Ma Yongbo 马永波

First published and republished by International Times

~~

Paying Homage to Zhuangzi’s Tomb 谒庄子墓

You are both here and not here
this place belongs to you, yet you belong not to it.
You are part of the earth
but not part of the scenery
scenery changes, fades, but the earth remains
In Qinglian Temple Village, where houses are few, wheat is ripening
villagers dry new garlic on the square before your gate,
exuding a pungent despair between life and death.
Every villager resembles you
busy in the fields, or standing by the clear stream with hands behind back, lost in thought.
I circle your enormous mound
inside, a pointer spins with me
while the center is a void, empty house begets light
you understand this principle better than I.
As I leave, behind me
only a white radiance steams, enveloping all things,
this sole reality that is what it is
the essence of our existence, vast and weightless

谒庄子墓 Paying Homage to Zhuangzi’s Tomb

你既在这里，又不在这里
这里属于你，你却不属于这里
你是大地的一部分
却不属于风景的一部分
风景会变化，消失，大地却不会
人家不多的青莲寺村，麦子正在成熟
村民在你门前的广场上晾晒新蒜
散发出生死之间绝望的辛辣气息
每一个村民都像是你本人
在田间忙碌，或是背着手站在清流边发呆
我绕着你巨大的圆丘走了一圈
里面有一根指针在跟着我旋转
而圆心是一片虚无，虚室生白
你比我更明白这个原理
当我离开，我的身后
只有一片白光在蒸腾，笼罩万物
这唯一是其所是的事物
我们存在的本质，巨大而轻盈

Poetry and translation by Ma Yongbo 马永波

~~

the gentle earth in her rare slumber—for Yongbo on visiting Zhuangzi’s burial mound
沉睡中的温柔大地——致永波访庄子墓冢

we maybe fool ourselves to think she ever sleeps,
that sleeping with her will be an ending.
Hers is the gentle soil, gentle grey clouds still cover all,
but light is still moving in the rising green bough
the new trees have his green now.
In each leaf is our small light, green and sufficient,
turning soft green faces towards sun,
so in light, we may re-enter time,
and clocks will not contain the seasons,
or the way clouds acknowledge every day

沉睡中的温柔大地——致永波访庄子墓冢
the gentle earth in her rare slumber—for Yongbo on visiting Zhuangzi’s burial mound

我们或许自欺地以为她曾入眠，
以为与她同眠便是终结。
她是温柔的土壤，轻柔的灰色云朵仍在笼罩万物，
但光线在萌发的绿枝间流转
新树已拥有自己的青翠。

每片叶子都盛着我们的微芒，翠绿而盈满，
向着太阳扬起柔绿的脸庞
于是在光芒中，我们重入时光之流，
时钟无法容纳四季，
或是云朵每日表达致意的方式

Poetry by Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨
Translation by Ma Yongbo 马永波

First published and republished by International Times

~~

The moon is the white place in the sea of poetry 月亮是诗海中的白色之地 海伦·普莱茨

(For Yongbo, after a sleepless night finishing revising his Chinese translation of Amy Lowell’s 650-line poem by the morning of the Mid-Autumn Festival)

Happy is the Full Moon,
the shiny white face at your window.
She will love your company,
the smart poet, gazes up at the moon,
the moon is very happy about that.
Her light can make us drop a stitch in the quilt of night
Her curiousness beaming through glass.
If we live at all it is her shaking us on the water
She pulls the levers and spins us beautifully.
We never have to reckon with darkness, silver-she,
Navigating the universe for us,
spins until our sleepy heads nod,
laden with her silverlight.
The industrious poet’s midnight oil burning brightly,
like a very bright lighthouse over the seven seas.

月亮是诗海中的白色之地 海伦·普莱茨 The moon is the white place in the sea of poetry 马永波 译

（献给永波，一夜无眠，中秋清晨修订完成艾米·洛威尔650行长诗的中文翻译）

幸福是满月，
在你窗前闪耀的洁白面庞。
她会喜爱你的陪伴，
睿智的诗人，凝望着月亮，
月亮对此感到非常高兴。
她的光芒能使我们在夜的被子上漏织一针。
她的好奇照透了玻璃。
若我们还能存活，那是她在水面上摇晃我们。
她操控着杠杆，优美地把我们旋转。
我们从不必顾虑黑暗，银色的她，
为我们把宇宙导航，
旋转，直到我们睡思昏沉，头颅低垂，
充满她的银光。
勤勉的诗人，午夜的油灯熊熊燃烧，
如同七海之上一座耀眼的灯塔。

Poetry by Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨
Translation by Ma Yongbo 马永波

~~

Our Own Moon — For Helen Pletts 我们的月亮——赠海伦·普莱茨

Our moon shines on the sea and on the ditches,
Shining on good people and poets alike.
Our moon is not insomnia,
Not a companion who doesn’t understand drinking,
Not the frost that never melts on the window,
Nor the jade disc of other people’s homeland.
The moon shines into the pine forest,
The moon surges from the Tianshan Mountain,
The moon stands alone before the empty golden goblet,
The moon seems small above towering mountains,
The moon illuminates the worn green collar of a returning traveler,
The moon ties to the tips of willow branches,
The moon curls up the pearl curtain like a hook,
The moon startles magpies into flight, the moon shifting shadows on walls,
Even the moon serves as a searchlight of the universe,
The moon gleams like a blade—none of these are our moon.
Our moon is a small seashell,
Walking step by step across the seven seas from the dark ocean floor.
As it walks, it sips on the sounds flowing through the light cables.
By the time it arrives at Cambridge,
A village floating over the river of flower fragrance,
And lands on the blue-painted wooden windowsill of the poetess,
It has already become a word cleansed of metaphor,
Smooth and transparent, like an ear,
Blushing in the morning light.

我们的月亮——赠海伦·普莱茨 Our Own Moon — For Helen Pletts 马永波

我们的月亮照大海，也照沟渠
照好人，也照诗人
我们的月亮不是失眠
不是不解饮的伙伴
不是窗前永不融化的霜
也不是他人故乡的白玉盘
照进松林的月，涌出天山的月
独对空空的金樽的月
山高月小的月，照亮归人磨损的青青衣领的月
系在柳梢头的月，卷起珠帘如钩的月
惊飞乌鹊的月，花影移墙的月
甚至作为宇宙探照灯的月
刀光闪闪的月，都不是我们的月亮
我们的月亮是一只小小的贝壳
从漆黑的海底一步一步走过七海
一边走，一边吸吮着光缆里的声音
等它来到剑桥，一座漂浮在花香之上的村庄
来到女诗人蓝油漆的木头窗台上
它已经成了一个洗净了隐喻的词语
光洁而透亮，像一只耳朵
在晨光中泛出红晕

Poetry and translation by Ma Yongbo 马永波

First published in Cambridge Poetry, Episode 1, Volume 1
https://www.cambridgepoetry.com/ and

“Our Own Moon—for Helen Pletts” by Ma Yongbo in International Times

~~

Catamaran—A Birthday Poem for Helen Pletts 双体船——给海伦·普莱茨的⽣ ⽇诗

A year has passed, and your birthday falls in the cold of early spring，
on this day, we meet in the darkness of the Seven Seas
two small boats light their undying lanterns for one another.
We converse across an abyss, yet almost without any distance.
Our words are lotuses blooming in the night,
drifting back and forth between us, in their hearts
sleeps a baby named Peace.
Often we need to say nothing at all,
we pause our paddles, listening to the flow of water,
listening to the call that comes from a shared source—
“To restore an ancient language, an art on the brink of extinction!”
So you raise a white sail, like a dove’s wing,
so I spread a black sail, like a swift’s wing.
Our keels endure the capricious changes above the Seven Seas.
And thus, like the shifting of day and night,
Our twin-hull boat of poetry withstands the storm and exile,
Finally arriving at that eternal shore, the homeland of rainbows.

双体船——给海伦·普莱茨的⽣⽇诗 Catamaran—A Birthday Poem for Helen
Pletts ⻢永波

⼀年过去了，你的⽣⽇在寒冷的早春，这⼀天
我们相遇在七海之上的茫茫⿊暗之中
两条⼩船为彼此亮起了不灭的灯盏
我们隔着深渊交谈，却⼜⼏乎没有任何间隔
我们的话语是⿊夜中绽放的莲花
在我们之间来回漂移，花⼼⾥
睡着⼀个叫做和平的婴⼉
时常我们不需要说什么，我们
停下⼿中的桨，倾听⽔的流逝
倾听从⼀个共同的源头传来的召唤——
“要恢复⼀⻔古⽼的语⾔，⼀⻔接近失传的艺术！”
于是，你撑起⼀⾯⽩帆，像鸽⼦的翅膀
⽽我张开⼀⾯⿊帆，像⾬燕的翅膀
我们的⻰⻣经受住了七海之上的变幻⽆常
就这样，两个翅膀如同昼夜交替
我们诗的双体船，抗住了⻛暴与流亡
终于抵达了那永恒的边岸，彩虹的故乡

Poetry and translation by Ma Yongbo 马永波

~~

when the sea is calmer than the stilled thoughts of two—with permitted dashes—Helen’s birthday poem thank you for Yongbo

when the sea is calmer than the stilled thoughts of two,
we take up our paddles and point them towards the harbour.
The rainbows flicker like colours in black oil on the water;
a black you as a still swift’s call, calling to white me as a wavy dove’s sail,
and the sail is also a curved white ear that hears you calling.
And breeze carries the song gently in her cupped hands
around our softness and feathers — smoothing the sea for the little boat;
rainbow colours racing their iridescence towards land before us

当海洋⽐两⼈静⽌的思绪更为平静时 ⻢永波 译
——允许使⽤破折号——海伦的⽣⽇诗，向永波致谢

当海洋⽐两⼈平静的思绪更为平静时，
我们拿起⾃⼰的浆，把它们指向港⼝。
彩虹像⿊油中的⾊彩在⽔⾯上闪烁；
⼀⽚⿊⾊如⾬燕，呼唤⽩⾊的我，如波动的鸽帆，
那帆也是⼀只弯弯的⽩⾊⽿朵，聆听着你的呼唤。
微⻛轻轻地将歌声捧在她的双⼿中
围绕着我们的柔软和⽻翼——为⼩船抚平海洋；
彩虹以绚烂的⾊彩竞相奔向我

Poetry by Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨
Translation by Ma Yongbo 马永波

First published by International Times