Xuanwu Lake (玄武湖), wearing grey and silver, by Ma Yongbo, 12th April 2026, Nanjing,
China, Planet Earth, The Universe
poet walking in a goose Spring—for Yongbo
致永波：散步于鹅春的诗人
we can say goose because goose is softer in english
but your waterside companion, who is a tender visitor,
calmly drinks the water as any spring duck might, drinking
on a grey and silver surface near Meiling Palace;
his body creates the small silhouette of a tiny dark boat.
Light is absolute in water, and grey gives way
to sycamores who must lean towards you
and tilt the day onto its back,
you rest, and let the lake stare upwards. The small white face
continues to drink; his dragon eyes are not yet painted.
12th April 2026, Yongbo sends me WhatsApp footage of a golden duck drinking at the edge of Xuanwu Lake (玄武湖). There is a Chinese idiom “Painting the Dragon and Dotting the Eyes” (画龙点睛). Once the eyes are painted the dragon appears to fly away.
The artist from the legend is Zhang Sengyou (张僧繇), a renowned painter who lived during the Liang Dynasty (c. 490–540 AD)
Response Poetry by Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨
Response Poetry Translated by Ma Yongbo 马永波
https://youtube.com/shorts/MAcfI4yFGbI?feature=share
WhatsApp footage taken by Ma Yongbo 马永波 of Ruddy shelducks at Xuanwu Lake 玄武湖, they are often referred to as “golden ducks” due to their plumage, marking the start of spring.
Ruddy shelducks are part of the vast, diverse migratory bird populations—including Baikal Teals and tens of thousands of others—that winter in Nanjing’s restored wetlands.
Xuanwu Lake 玄武湖 is one of the three most famous lakes in Jiangnan (the region south of the Yangtze River) and functions as a massive, free public park in the heart of the city.
致永波：散步于鹅春的诗人
poet walking in a goose Spring—for Yongbo
我们可以称其为“鹅”，因为
在英语里，这个词更柔缓。
你那水畔的同游者，是一位温柔的过客，
他静饮湖水，如同任何得春鸭一般，
在美玲宫旁，啜饮银灰的波光。
他的身形，是一抹细小的剪影，
宛如一叶深色的轻舟。
水波之中，光明纯粹，
灰色渐次让位于悬铃木的影子
它们必是俯身向你，
将这白昼翻转，仰面向天。
你稍作休憩，任湖面向上凝望。
那张洁白的小脸，仍在畅饮；
他的龙睛，尚未点染。
2026年4月12日, 海伦·普莱茨, 永波发来 WhatsApp 视频
一只金羽水禽在湖畔饮水。
古语云“画龙点睛”。
笔锋所至，龙眼初成，神龙便似破壁而去。
传说中的画师，名为张僧繇，
他是南朝梁代（约公元490—540年）的一代宗师。
Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨, 8th January 2026, Cambridge, Planet Earth, The Universe
Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨
(www.helenpletts.com) is the English co-translator of Chinese poet Ma Yongbo, her official Chinese translator. She is a committee member of CB1 Poetry, the established monthly poetry reading event in central Cambridge UK, which has organised poetry readings for many years. Her work has been translated into Chinese, Bangla, Greek, Vietnamese, Serbian, Korean, Arabic, Italian, Albanian, Romanian and Spanish.
Helen and Ma Yongbo are co-creators of the ongoing series of Response Poetry Volumes of the transnational dialogue featured in the ‘Ma Yongbo Poetry Roadtrip – Summer Tour 2025’ published by International Times since 10th May 2025.
Helen has five shortlistings for the Bridport Poetry Prize (2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024), two longlistings for The Rialto Nature & Place Prize (2018, 2022), a longlisting for the Ginkgo Prize (2019), a longlisting for the National Poetry Competition (2022), 2nd Prize in the Plaza Prose Poetry Competition (2022-23), and a shortlisting for the Plaza Prose Poetry Competition (2023-24).
Her three collections include the illustrated your eye protects the soft-toed snow drop, with Romit Berger (2022, ISBN 978-9-657-68177-0, Gama Poetry) and two early collections Bottle bank (2008 ISBN 978-1-84923-119-0), and For the chiding dove (2009, ISBN 978-1-84923-485-6) published by YWO/Legend Press with Arts Council support.
Her prizewinning prose poetry features in The Plaza Prizes anthologies and The Mackinaw. Her eco-poetry appears in anthologies from Worple Press, Open Shutter Press, and Fly on the Wall Press.
Her work is widely published in international journals such as International Times, Vox Populi, Ink Sweat and Tears, Aesthetica, Orbis, The Mackinaw, The Ekphrastic Review, Cambridge Poetry, The Fenland Reed, Poetry on the Lake, Sindh Courier, European Poetry, Verse Virtual, Magique Publishing, Primelore, DeshUSA, Verseum Literary, Stigmalogou, Area Felix, Cnpnews (South Korea), MasticadoresUSA, The Journal of Transnational Literature, The Wordsmith Literary E-Magazine, Alessandra Today Magazine, Nacional, The Daily Global Nation, Oceano News, Saturno Magazine. In Chinese translation by Ma Yongbo – New World Poetry , Literary World, Prose Poetry, Silver, Poetry Reference, Beidou International Poetry Forum, Wordy Seon, Poetry Appreciation.
海伦·普莱茨
海伦·普莱茨是中国诗人马永波诗歌的英文合作译者，CB1诗歌协会的委员会成员，这是英国剑桥市中心一项历史悠久的每月诗歌朗诵活动。海伦的作品已被译为汉语、孟加拉语、希腊语、越南语、塞尔维亚语、韩语、阿拉伯语、意大利语、阿尔巴尼亚语和罗马尼亚语。海伦与马永波共同创作了正在进行的“马永波诗歌公路之旅 – 2025 年夏”系列档案，2025年5月10日起由《国际时报》发表。
普莱茨五度入选布里德波特诗歌奖短名单（2018、2019、2022、2023、2024），两度入选《里亚尔托》自然与地方诗歌奖长名单（2018、2022），一次入选银杏生态诗歌奖长名单（2019）、一次入选国家诗歌大赛长名单（2022），获广场散文诗大赛亚军（2022-23）并再度入选该奖项短名单（2023-24)。
她出版的三部诗集包括与罗米特·伯杰合作的插图诗集《你的眼睛守护着软趾雪花莲》（2022年，ISBN 978-9-657-68177-0，伽马诗歌），以及由青年作家组织/传奇出版社在艺术委员会资助下出版的两部早期诗集《瓶子银行》（2008年，ISBN
978-1-84923-119-0）与《致训诫之鸽》（2009年，ISBN 978-1-84923-485-6）。其获奖散文诗收录于《广场奖选集》和《麦基诺》杂志，生态诗歌见于“沃普尔”出版社、“打开快门”出版社与“墙头蝇”出版社的选集。作品广泛发表于《国际时报》《民众之声》《墨汗泪》《美学》《奥比斯》《麦基诺》
《述画评论》《剑桥诗刊》《沼地芦苇》《湖上诗刊》《信德信使》《欧洲诗歌》《诗虚拟》《魔幻出版》《原始传说》《德胡萨》《诗界》《理念的圣痕》《菲利克斯领域》《韩国联合新闻网》《美国咀嚼者》《跨国文学》《文字匠》《今日亚历山德拉》《全球国家日报》等国际期刊。中文译本由马永波发表在《新大陆诗刊》《文学天地》《散文诗》《白银》《诗参考》《北斗国际诗坛》《文字禅》《诗歌风赏》等期刊。
“The Finishing Touch” One of the painted decorations on the Long Corridor of the Summer Palace. The Long Corridor is a covered walkway in the Summer Palace in Beijing, China. First erected in the middle of the 18th century, it is famous for its 728 m (2,388 ft) length in conjunction with its rich painted decoration (more than 14,000 paintings).
The legend of Zhang Sengyou 张僧繇,
Zhang Sengyou 张僧繇 (active early 6th century) was a renowned painter of the Liang Dynasty whose original works have generally not survived, but are known through later copies, attributions, and legends.
Zhang Sengyou 张僧繇 is also associated with a famous story. It is said that one day, having painted four dragons on the walls of Anle temple in what is now Nanjing, he did not draw the eyes. He believed they were so realistic that if he dotted the eyes, they would come alive and fly away. People thought this was absurd, and Zhang painted in the eyes of two dragons, causing the dragons to immediately flee to heaven riding on clouds with crashing thunder. This story is summarised in the chengyu “to draw a dragon and dot in the eyes” and is often used in Chinese to describe a work that is one step from perfection, or to put on the finishing touches.
Goose Pond — In Reply to Helen
鹅池——答海伦
Surely this small lake has wandered here
from some unknown far place, bringing its own morning and weather,
it turns every bird that drinks into a goose
it will stay here a season, bearing the name we give it,
not even the endless spring rain and darkness can raise its water.
And so we walk together through the same spring,
by the mountain, like two horses putting forth greenness
a little awkward, a little joyful,
finally free of the heavy grey of a long winter,
yet our voices still seem separated by a layer of cotton.
No denying it: the birds sipping silver light
will migrate with this lake, along with the sand beneath its waves,
undisturbed by the rust of any anchor,
their throaty calls will be round, soft vowels,
they know all lakes under heaven are secretly connected.
And at night, two horses come up from the lake to graze on the shore,
heading deep into the mountains, heads bowed, silent all the way,
their eyes are not yet touched by light,
they walk toward a temple, where a man stands
holding a lamp, staring at a dragon wall, lost in long, quiet thought.
April 16, 2025
Response Poetry by Ma Yongbo 马永波
Response Poetry Translated by Ma Yongbo 马永波
鹅池——答海伦
Goose Pond — In Reply to Helen
无疑，这座小湖是从不知名的远方
漫游而来的，带着自己的早晨和天气
她把所有饮水的鸟都变成了鹅
它会以我们的命名，在这里停留上一个季节
甚至连绵的春雨和黑暗也不能抬高它的水面
于是，我们便一同散步在同一个春天
在山边，像两匹马发出枝叶
有些笨拙，有些欣喜
终于摆脱了一个冬天的滞重的灰色
我们交谈的声音却依然是隔着一层棉絮
不可否认，那啜饮银光的鸟儿
将随着这小湖一同迁徙，连同水底的沙子
没有铁锚的锈来惊扰它们
他漱喉的声音将是圆润柔缓的元音
它知道天下所有的湖都暗中相通
而在夜晚，有两匹马从湖里来到岸上吃草
一路进山去，不抬头，也无声息
它们的眼睛尚未点染
它们向一座寺庙而去，那里有一个人
正举着灯，照着一面龙壁，久久地发着呆
2025年4月16日,马永波
The Five Planets and Twenty-eight Constellations (detail) by unidentified Artist, traditionally attributed to Zhang Sengyou 张僧繇 This is the most famous work often associated with him. It is a long handscroll, with a version held by the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art attributed to a Tang-Song dynasty copy of Zhang Sengyou’s 张僧繇 style.
Amy Lowell 艾米·洛厄尔, Translated by Ma Yongbo 马永波译
‘Today the Editor of People’s Literature Publishing House told me that my translation of Amy Lowell has been reprinted for the second time and that about 7,000 copies have been sold so far.’ Ma Yongbo 马永波, 25th April 2026
Amy Lawrence Lowell (February 9, 1874 – May 12, 1925) was an American poet of the imagist school. She posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926, for What’s O’Clock.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Lowell
Ma Yongbo 马永波 (b1964)
LINK4: https://mayongbopoetry.wordpress.com/ has 10 published poetry collections. He is representative of Chinese avant-garde poetry, the founder of polyphonic writing and objectified poetics. He is the main poet-translator of Western postmodern poetry on the mainland, including Dickinson, Whitman, Stevens, Pound, Williams, Ashbery. Collected Poems of Ma Yongbo (four volumes, Eastern Publishing Centre, 2024) comprising 1600 poems, celebrate 40 years of writing poetry.
马永波（1964年生），个人网站：https://mayongbopoetry.wordpress.com/，已出版9部诗集。他是中国先锋诗歌的代表人物，也是复调写作与客观化诗学的创立者。作为中国内地西方后现代诗歌的主要诗人译者，他翻译了狄金森、惠特曼、史蒂文斯、庞德、威廉斯及阿什贝利等诗人的作品。《马永波诗集》（四卷本，东方出版中心，2024年）收录1600首诗作，以此纪念其40年诗歌创作生涯。
Ma Yongbo 马永波, 2024, Nanjing, China, Planet Earth, The Universe
In a Garden 在花园里
Gushing from the mouths of stone men
To spread at ease under the sky
In granite-lipped basins,
Where iris dabble their feet
And rustle to a passing wind,
The water fills the garden with its rushing,
In the midst of the quiet of close-clipped lawns.
Damp smell the ferns in tunnels of stone,
Where trickle and plash the fountains,
Marble fountains, yellowed with much water.
Splashing down moss-tarnished steps
It falls, the water;
And the air is throbbing with it.
With its gurgling and running.
With its leaping, and deep, cool murmur.
And I wished for night and you.
I wanted to see you in the swimming-pool,
White and shining in the silver-flecked water.
While the moon rode over the garden,
High in the arch of night,
And the scent of the lilacs was heavy with stillness.
Night, and the water, and you in your whiteness, bathing!
by Amy Lowell 艾米·洛厄尔
Chinese translation by Ma Yongbo 马永波译
在花园里 In a Garden
水从石人们的嘴中涌出
在天空下随意蔓延
在花岗岩嘴唇的水盆中，
那里，鸢尾花的纤足在戏水
在吹过的风中瑟瑟做声，
迅疾的水流溢满了花园，
在剪得很短的宁静的草坪。
石头隧道中蕨类潮湿的气味，
喷泉在那里滴流和喷溅，
大理石的喷泉，因太多的水而发黄。
从因苔藓而暗淡的台阶上
泉水泼溅而下；
空气随之而颤抖。
汩汩的水流，
跳跃着，发出深沉的、冷冷的低语。
我渴望着夜晚和你。
我想在游泳池里看到你，
在银斑点点的水中，白皙闪亮。
当月亮凌驾于花园之上，
高踞于夜的拱门，
紫丁香的气息因静止而浓烈。
夜晚和水，还有白皙的你，正在沐浴！
马永波译
Zhang Sengyao, Snowy mountains, red trees. Ming copy, National Palace Museum, Taipei. While bearing his signature, it is considered a late Ming Dynasty copy.
Ma Yongbo 马永波 stacks all his own published books that he has in his library in Nanjing, to see if they are the same height as he is, he is 188cm tall. Not all copies of his published books are here ! 27th April 2026, Nanjing, China, Planet Earth, The Universe
Ma Yongbo’s 马永波 ‘sweet stall’ in Harbin, in 2024, as named by Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨, he has published over 80 books and he has just translated more, including works of John Muir, which are to be published shortly. He has had more book translations requested this year by Chinese editors.
All photographic images and poetic content under individual copyright © to either Ma Yongbo 马永波 or Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨
.