Photograph: Greywood and Golden Pear radiance, by Helen Pletts, near Cambridge
golden holding in abundance—for Yongbo 丰饶的金黄——致永波
we do not spiral into this mythic circle, we enter gold
as equals, avoiding lions’ mouths. We will be able to stand
among them and find a pair worth eating.
Over hundreds of years the seeds awaiting us have seen
full symmetry, as golden kernels, leaping from the ground
their branches holding stars. The gold becomes before it lands
1st November 2025
Response Poetry By Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨
Response Poetry Translated by Ma Yongbo 马永波
丰饶的金黄——致永波 golden holding in abundance—for Yongbo
我们不会卷入这神秘的循环，我们以平等之姿
进入金黄国度，避开狮口。我们将能够
置身其中，找到值得享用的一对。
数百年来，等候我们的种子早已见证
完美的对称，如同金色的种子，自土壤中跃出
它们的枝丫托举着星辰
2025年11月1日
海伦·普莱茨
Photograph: Greywood and Golden Pears, by Helen Pletts, near Cambridge
Under the Autumnal Pear Tree — To Helen 坐在秋天的梨树下——致海伦
Under the autumnal pear tree, you listen as the wind grows stronger
the wind comes from the other side of the sky
it carries the fresh breath of another vast stretch of water
You can sit there, thinking of nothing at all
forget when the wind first began to blow
you can’t always decipher the messages in its sound
The pear tree stands shyly, upon the yellow hem it has shed
as if about to bathe in thin mist
perhaps a few remaining fruits, when night falls
light up as little bulbs on the bare branches
the shadows and light scattered across the ground
are the mimeographed poems from a 1950s basement
And you, have long wandered deep into this forest belt
flickering in and out of sight—a deer, equally shy, lost in thought
November 3, 2025
Response Poetry by Ma Yongbo 马永波
Response Poetry Translated by Ma Yongbo 马永波
坐在秋天的梨树下——致海伦 Under the Autumnal Pear Tree — To Helen
坐在秋天的梨树下，听风声大了起来
凤来自天空的另一面
凤带来另一片水面开阔的气息
你可以什么都不想，只是坐着
忘记风是什么时候吹来的
你并不能总是知道风声中的讯息
这棵梨树羞怯地站在自己褪下的黄色裙裾之上
仿佛要在薄雾中入浴
或许还有几只残存的果实，入夜
在光秃的树枝上点亮灯泡
满地光影是1950年代地下室的油印诗篇
而你，早已深入这片林带
时隐时现，一只同样羞怯的鹿，若有所思
2025年11月3日
马永波
Photograph: Helen Pletts 31st May 2024, Cambridge, UK
Photograph: Ma Yongbo 25th June 2025, Nanjing, China
Photograph: Greywood and Golden Pears in Blue Sky, by Helen Pletts, near Cambridge
“this amazing centuries-old pear tree with its abundance of hundreds of golden pears reminded me of the abundant pastoral image ‘The Magic Apple Tree’ by Samuel Palmer. I took many images and sent them to Yongbo. I went back over several days to photograph it in different light because brighter sunlight made the pears even more magical and golden’ Helen Pletts, Cambridge, 5th November 2025
‘Palmer was visited at Shoreham by several fellow artists, including Edward Calvert and George Richmond, who as a group called themselves ‘The Ancients’. These visionary young men were united in their admiration for the poet and artist William Blake (1757–1827), and the works of the great Renaissance masters Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) and Michelangelo (1475–1564). Their paintings and prints were often religious in subject-matter, or redolent of a pastoral Golden Age. Their watchwords were ‘poetry and sentiment’. Palmer’s Magic Apple Tree, with its intense colours, religious overtones, and almost mystical evocation of nature, is in many ways typical of the Ancients’ work.’ The Fitzwilliam Museum – The Magic Apple Tree
Photograph of Helen Pletts’ desk with two golden pairs from the old pear tree, white stone and seashell from Southwold, oyster and crab shells, half a hatched white wild pigeon’s egg with bite marks from Sox Pletts, a pinecone, a copy image of an enlarged section of the painting ‘Two Horses’ by Hai Weng 海翁—a treasured gift from Ma Yongbo on the 15th April 2025, a copy of a photograph of Ma Yongbo with warrior hair taken 25th June 2025 in Harbin, China
YouTube footage of Ma Yongbo, summer 2025, reading ‘When you are old’ by W.B.Yeats a joint favourite poem of Ma Yongbo and Helen Pletts
https://youtube.com/shorts/355unIS4Eok?feature=share
When you are old by William Butler Yeats
When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
《当你老了》
袁可嘉译
当你老了，头白了，睡意昏沉，
炉火旁打盹，请取下这部诗歌，
慢慢读，回想你过去眼神的柔和，
回想它们昔日浓重的阴影；
多少人爱你青春欢畅的时辰，
爱慕你的美丽，假意或真心，
只有一个人爱你那朝圣者的灵魂，
爱你衰老了的脸上痛苦的皱纹；
垂下头来，在红光闪耀的炉子旁，
凄然地轻轻诉说那爱情的消逝，
在头顶的山上它缓缓踱着步子，
在一群星星中间隐藏着脸庞
Chinese Translation by Yuan Kejia
Specific photographic images/graphic art under individual copyright © to either Ma Yongbo 马永波 or Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨
.