Ma Yongping 马永平 and Ma Yongbo 马永波 , close poet brothers, together in Nanjing
in 2008, at the top of the Pagoda Tower.
Chinese winter landscape with frozen lake, likely Song Dynasty, artist unknown
LINK1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_dynasty
That One Pickaxe Cut
One winter morning,
I get up early, carrying a dual-use axe,
a pickaxe on one end and an axe on the other.
I cross the courtyard with its wall made of short split firewood logs
to the snow-lined sewage pond in front of the gate,
to break the ice.
Third brother, carrying a small shovel for scooping ash from the stove,
insists on coming with me. I break off the ice that has formed over the sewage,
and he uses the small shovel to scoop it out of the pond,
piling it up. I continue breaking,
suddenly, third brother stretches out the small shovel and his head into the pond.
I watch helplessly, as the pickaxe falls, landing on third brother’s head.
A burst of red flashes and I’m terrified
shouting, “Mother, come quick! I’ve hit him!”
Third brother doesn’t cry; he just stands there staring at me.
My mother leads him back into the house and applies Yunnan Baiyao.
He’s still staring at me with his big eyes.
He finds it quite amusing. Later, he tells me,
it didn’t hurt at all, just a cold breeze blew from the wound.
That one pickaxe cut unearthed
a PhD in literature, and a poet.
Many years have passed,
and the thought of it still sends chills down my spine.
January 5, 2009, evening
By Ma Yongping 马永平
Translated by Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨 and Ma Yongbo 马永波, 16th December 2025
Yunnan Baiyao is traditional Chinese medicine
‘Once my brother (Ma Yongping马永平) entered the depths of poetry, he also understood how I had stumbled my way through the past few decades. He wholeheartedly supported every poetry-related endeavour I led, always encouraging me to persevere.’ Ma Yongbo 马永波
Full coverage of Ma Yongping’s 马永平 life and times https://internationaltimes.it/ma-yongbo-poetry-road-trip-summer-tour-2025-volume-20/
这一镐刨下
有一年冬天，
清晨起来，我拎着一把
一头是镐一头是斧的
两用斧子，穿过庭院和
木柈子摞成的院墙
到门前用雪围成一圈的
污水池去刨冰
三弟拿一个掏炉灰的小铲子，
非要跟着我去，我把污水
形成的冰刨下来
他用小铲撮到池子外面，
弄成一堆。我继续刨着，
突然三弟将小铲子和他的头
伸了进来，我眼睁睁地看着
镐落下去，落在了三弟的头上
一股红光喷出，我吓坏了，
高声喊母亲快来，我刨着他啦！
三弟没哭，站那瞅着我
母亲把他领回屋，给他上云南白药
他还瞪着一双大眼睛看着我
感觉很好玩，后来他告诉我
一点不疼，就是伤口冒凉风，
就是这一镐刨出来一个
文学博士，一个诗人
许多年过去，
现在想起仍心惊肉跳
2009.1.5晚
马永平
HORSE ICE SCULPTURE, Harbin, China, 31st December 2025.
2026 is the Year of the Horse in the Chinese Zodiac and occurs every 12 years, symbolising freedom, energy, strength, and ambition. This year is the Fire Horse which lasts from 17th February 2026 to the 5th February 2027.
In winter Northern China experiences extreme weather conditions, that sweep across from Siberia. Cities like Harbin, where Yongbo lives, face extreme temperatures (below zero) for at least six months of the year. While Harbin is famously cold, its official record is around -37.7°C (-35.86°F), but the coldest nearby area, Mohe (China’s northernmost city), hit a record-breaking -53.0°C (-63.4°F) in January 2023, highlighting the extreme cold in Heilongjiang province where Harbin is located. Harbin experiences severe winters, often seeing temperatures drop to -30°C (-22°F) or lower, with averages around -30°C in winter.
Ma Yongbo 马永波, 31st December 2025, Harbin, China, Planet Earth, The Universe
the poet’s head on receiving the winter axe—for Yongbo 诗人的头颅迎向冬日的斧刃
Yichuan ice as strong as iron glass
splits under the teenage axe,
next the poet’s childhood head
receives the cold metal
the point needle-threading skull,
the opening remaining softer and cratered
into adulthood. The ice remaining
year on year and ever-thickening.
But the poet’s skull is thinner than his birth
at the opening, in the undulated landscape
of his reconstructed head,
where knowledge now pours
from a thin bone spout
10th December 2025
“Yongping永平 joked that with one swing of his pickaxe,
he’d “knocked sense into me” — a playful way of saying
he’d chiseled a hole in my head, giving the wisdom inside
a way to escape.” WhatsApp, Ma Yongbo 马永波
10th December 2025
Response Poetry By Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨
Response Poetry Translated by Ma Yongbo 马永波
Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨 14th January 2026, Cambridge, UK, Planet Earth,The Universe
诗人的头颅迎向冬日的斧刃 the poet’s head on receiving the winter axe—for Yongbo
伊春的冰坚硬得像铁琉璃
在十几岁少年的镐下碎裂，
接着，诗人童年的头颅
迎向冰冷的金属
镐尖穿颅而过，如引线穿针，
那道创口始终柔软，陷成洼坑，
伴他步入成年。年复一年
冰层依旧，越积越厚。
而诗人的颅骨，创口处
比降生时更薄，在他重塑的颅顶
那起伏的风景中，
如今，从细骨的豁口
智慧汩汩涌流。
2025年12月10日，致永波
“永平笑称，他这一镐下去，就让我开了窍——这是种戏谑的说法，说他在我头上凿了个洞，让里头的智慧有了逃逸的出口。” WhatsApp，马永波，2025年12月10日
‘The lifelong closeness of the two brothers Ma Yongping 马永平and Ma Yongbo 马永波 was ever present, in spite of the pickaxe accident. Here we celebrate with more poetry written with Yongbo 永波 in mind, by Yongping永平, who is still greatly missed.” Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨, 30th December 2025
Ginkgo Leaves
Before the Yin-Yang Gate stand two tall trees,
The autumn wind, like a pair of divine hands, caresses them,
instantly turning the leaves golden,
like thin gold flakes,
drifting freely in the air with the wind.
Perhaps tiring, they jump gently down,
as if afraid of hitting passersby on the head.
They sit nestled together on the ground,
sunlight slanting down, casting a golden glow.
I bend down and rake them into piles of varying sizes,
like a child building his own golden tower.
I crouch in the golden light,
and gather them. One by one, I put them into bags,
take them home, to make a pillow for my youngest brother.
December 4, 2008, 7:20 PM
By Ma Yongping 马永平
Translation by Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨 and Ma Yongbo 马永波 2025
银杏叶
阴阳门前有两棵很高大的树,
秋天的风像一双神的手抚摸着
一瞬间就把叶子变成金黄
犹如薄薄的金片
跟随着风在空中自由走动
或许是走累了，轻轻地跳下来
仿佛怕砸到过往行人的头
它们相互依偎着坐在地上
阳光斜照下来，映出一片金黄的光
我弯下腰将它们耧成大小不一的堆
像一个孩子要建造一座属于自己的金塔
我蹲在金色的光芒里
把它们一个个收入袋子
带回家，给最小的弟弟做一个枕头
2008.12.4晚7：20
马永平
The book that was thrown out like snowflakes
One autumn, my mother was sewing cotton-padded clothes
for us to wear through the winter.
Third brother was reading on the kang,
sometimes lying down, sometimes sprawled out,
occasionally letting out a loud, giggling laugh,
simultaneously scraping and make a slapping sound with both feet across the kang
flinging cotton up into the air
so it fell like snowflakes.
Our mother sees him and says, “Go outside and play,
you little rascal!”
He went quiet for a while, but soon after,
when he got to an exciting part
his feet started scrambling across the kang again,
sending the cotton flying and falling once more.
Mother got angry,
snatched the book from his hands,
tore it up, throwing it out of the window
like flakes of snow.
Third brother was stunned and stared at our mother
for a long time.
Suddenly, he jumped up from the kang, rushed out of the house,
and picked up the book.
Back inside, he tried to piece it back together,
silently shedding tears,
tears as large,
as his own eyes.
By Ma Yongping 马永平
Translated by Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨 and Ma Yongbo 马永波 2025
A Kang is a Northern Chinese bed made out of clay bricks
扔出去的书像一片片雪
一年秋天
母亲在缝制我们过冬的棉衣
三弟在炕上看书
一会儿躺着一会儿趴着
不时发出吃吃的大笑
同时用双脚啪啪地刨着炕
棉花被他刨得飞起
然后雪花一样落下
母亲看着他说
去外边玩去，真捣乱
他安静了一会儿
但没多久，看到精彩处
双脚又开始刨炕
棉花再一次飞起落下
母亲生气了
一把将他手中的书夺下来
撕了，从窗口扔了出去
像扔出去一片片雪
三弟惊呆了
看了母亲半天
突然从炕上一骨碌爬起来
下地，冲出屋外，捡起书
回到屋里，一边往一起粘
一边无声地流泪
那眼泪一颗颗很大
像他的眼睛
2009.1.9
马永平
Dialogue
On a mountain path,
we walk slowly side by side towards the summit.
You say you want to build your own objective poetics in your lifetime,
and continue writing poetry
until your fingers can no longer type on the computer keyboard.
I say I haven’t thought that far ahead.
Right now, I write poetry simply to record my feelings about life,
as a way to comfort myself.
April 9, 2010
By Ma Yongping 马永平
Translated by Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨 and Ma Yongbo 马永波 2025
对话
在山间的小路上,
我们并肩慢慢地向山顶走着
你说，要在有生之年,
构建自己的客观化诗学
而且要继续写诗,
直到手指敲不动电脑键盘为止
我说，我到没想那么多那么远,
现在我写诗只是想记录对生活的感受
只是想用这种方式哄自己高兴
2010年4月9日
马永平
Cover of Volume of ‘Selected Contemporary Chinese Poems of the 21st
Century’ (5 Volume set) in which Ma Yongping 马永平 and Ma Yongbo’s 马永波 poetry appears together, the two poet brothers are together once more.
The five-volume ‘Selected Contemporary Chinese Poems of the 21st Century’, edited by the renowned poet Liu Jiemin, was recently published by Shanghai Oriental Publishing Center. It includes six poems by Ma Yongbo 马永波, and even more gratifyingly, it also includes a poem by his elder brother, Ma Yongping 马永平, titled “A Spring Morning at Xuanwu Lake I Sing with the Birds”.
A Spring Morning at Xuanwu Lake I Sing with the Birds
In the morning, the birds sing through the mist
stirring the lake awake from its dream
the sun peeks out, its face glowing red
two white butterflies
dance along the path framed by green bamboos
chasing each other. Nearby, clusters of purple florets
bloom quietly. In the distance, rows of trees
send forth tender green shoots, peeking through the fog
a couple, hand in hand
strolls slowly along the lakeshore
the birds’ chirping grows louder—then
I fly up to the parasol tree and sing with them
this is my fifty-first spring
I have not lived my life in vain
Written in Nanjing
April 12, 2009
Ma Yongping 马永平 (1958–2020), a Chinese poet, native of Suihua, Heilongjiang Province, started writing poetry in 2008. He left behind more than 2,000 poems totalling over 20,000 lines. His posthumous collection ‘Wandering Above the Stars and Moon’, compiled by his younger brother Ma Yongbo 马永波, was published by Changjiang Literature and Art Publishing House in 2020.
玄武湖一个春天的早晨我和鸟儿一起鸣叫
早晨，鸟儿雾中的鸣叫
把湖从睡梦中唤醒
太阳露出红红的脸
两只白蝴蝶
在翠竹环绕的小径上飞舞
追逐，近处一片紫色小花
静静的绽放。远处一树树嫩绿
在雾中探出身影。一对恋人
手牵手，沿着湖岸慢慢的行走
鸟儿的鸣叫声更大了，于是
我飞上梧桐和它们一起鸣叫
这是我的第五十一个春天
我没有虚度此生
2009年4月12日于南京
马永平
CHINESE LINK2 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/gJtqn8CaRuILXyb_WQepiA
IMAGE7: Ma Yongping’s 马永平 poem ‘A Spring Morning at Xuanwu Lake I Sing with the Birds’; a page from the ‘Selected Contemporary Chinese Poems of the 21st Century’, published by Shanghai Oriental Publishing Center.
All images under individual copyright © to either Ma Yongbo 马永波 or Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨
.